Storm Release Sixty-Three: Thunder Roar Cannon (Seeking Monthly Votes)

Ever since Kazama Kaguya revealed his Storm Release, today's ninjutsu instruction had taken a sharp turn.

Kisame Hoshigaki stopped teaching Water Release and began helping him develop Storm Release instead.

"Storm Release has an extremely high ceiling and a very high floor. Not only is it powerful offensively, but it also has homing capabilities. It can also greatly reduce the need for hand seals, though that part can be ignored in your case."

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Kisame Hoshigaki was redesigning his training regimen.

"Since you have Storm Release now, you can put single-target Water Release ninjutsu on hold. From now on, you'll mainly learn large-scale offensive, support, and defensive Water Release techniques, such as Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave, Water Dragon Bullet Technique, Water Prison Technique, and Water Wall."

After saying that, he paused before continuing, "The Fourth Generation was an extremely powerful ninja. The Water Mirror Technique he developed has already surpassed A-rank ninjutsu and touched upon the realm of S-rank secret techniques. If you ever return to Kirigakure, don't miss the chance to seek his guidance."

"Water Release: Water Mirror Technique?" Kazama Kaguya recalled that unusual ninjutsu.

When Karatachi Yagura used it, he summoned a water mirror that could create a duplicate of his opponent and have them attack each other.

The duplicate could not only use ninjutsu, but also fight Killer B evenly. It was indeed formidable.

"That's right. Although he was controlled, there's no denying his mastery of Water Release."

A flicker of complicated emotion appeared in Kisame Hoshigaki's eyes, but it quickly vanished.

He began carefully guiding the development of the ninjutsu.

Before long, Kazama Kaguya developed his first bloodline-limit technique.

"Storm Release: Light Cannon."

It was a very simple C-rank ninjutsu. It merely fired out concentrated lasers, forming a laser beam as thick as a water bucket to bombard the target.

After practicing several times, since there was no need for hand seals, Kazama Kaguya could now raise his palm and cast it instantly. He had mastered it proficiently.

However, the subsequent development ran into some problems.

Kisame Hoshigaki demanded that he develop a more violent Storm Release ninjutsu with greater offensive power.

He spent ages at it, blasting the surrounding mountains until they were riddled with craters using Light Cannon, yet he still failed to grasp the key.

Kisame Hoshigaki gradually became irritable. His shark-like teeth opened and closed as he began spraying saliva everywhere.

"Are you an idiot? Storm Release is a fusion of Water and Lightning attributes. It's both electrified water and soft lightning. Whether you need greater explosive force or perfect control is entirely up to you."

"Fine control, fine control—I'll say it again, fine control! Don't act like an idiot who only knows how to fire Light Cannons."

"Add more Lightning attribute, and you'll get stronger attack power. Add more Water attribute, and you can control the lasers to create more variations. Find that balance point—maybe six-four, maybe seven-three."

"In short, meet my requirements. With your level of Chakra control, you still can't manage such a trivial matter after half a day? I'm really starting to wonder whether that Ninja 2 rating of yours is an accurate reflection."

Beside the waterfall, Kisame Hoshigaki loudly berated Kazama Kaguya.

Kazama Kaguya did not dare talk back and said sheepishly, "Got it. I'll add more Lightning attribute this time."

Following Kisame Hoshigaki's instructions, he began mobilizing his Chakra.

A seven-three ratio of Lightning and Water attributes made the Storm Release flash with unstable light, even carrying dense arcs of lightning.

"High burst, high attack power."

Muttering Kisame Hoshigaki's requirements, Kazama Kaguya did not further alter the ratio. Instead, he condensed a three-meter energy-gathering ring around his palm to help regulate stability and facilitate the release of the ninjutsu.

As large amounts of Chakra gathered, the three-meter energy ring emitted a blinding radiance.

Countless lasers and arcs of electricity flickered, ionizing the air and filling it with the smell of ozone, yet all of them were firmly restrained within the energy ring.

This was the advanced form of "Storm Release: Light Cannon."

Kazama Kaguya had come up with not only the name, but even the chant for its windup.

"Scattered beast bones, spires, crimson crystals, steel wheels. Motion is wind, stillness is sky. The sound of spears striking, the empty city overflows."

"Storm Release Sixty-Three: Thunder Roar Cannon."

As his words fell, an enormous laser beam three meters thick, wrapped in crackling lightning, tore through the air and blasted a distant hill with lightning speed.

Rumble...

A blinding flash instantly eclipsed the sun. A terrifying explosion rang out as rocks and dust shot into the sky, its power more than a hundred times greater than Light Cannon's.

"Not bad. Both its attack power and explosive force have reached an excellent B-rank standard."

Kisame Hoshigaki looked at the hill in the distance, now blown open with a massive gap, and commented:

"For a first use, this is fairly good. But the windup before you released that ninjutsu was too long. With your ability, you can strengthen its power enormously."

"For example, keep increasing the proportion of Lightning attribute and compress its pre-release volume with all your strength. If you can compress it to the size of a fist before releasing it in an instant, its attack power could even surpass some A-rank ninjutsu."

"Then wouldn't my Thunder Roar Cannon become an A-rank ninjutsu?" Kazama Kaguya's eyes lit up.

"A-rank? What the hell are you dreaming about?"

Kisame Hoshigaki's face was full of disdain as he said coldly, "Your fundamentals are truly awful. The rank of a ninjutsu only depends on how difficult it is to learn; attack power is not part of the evaluation. But techniques difficult enough to reach A-rank will never have weak attack power, or else they'll have some special function. Yours? Even after improvement, it still won't qualify."

"Is A-rank really that difficult?"

Kazama Kaguya found it hard to believe.

Over the past few days of ninjutsu instruction, he had already learned all of Kisame Hoshigaki's C-rank Water Release techniques and had begun studying B-rank Water Release.

With the Otsutsuki's passive ability to perfectly control Chakra, once he learned something, he could cast it without hand seals after practicing it a few times.

Instantly casting C-rank and B-rank techniques with a raised hand had already become routine for Kazama Kaguya.

Over the past two days, Kisame Hoshigaki had nearly had his mentality explode from Kazama Kaguya's seal-less casting.

Now that he heard him questioning the difficulty of A-rank techniques, he immediately sneered. "Why don't you develop one yourself and find out whether it's difficult?"

"Besides power, A-rank ninjutsu requires extreme shape transformation, multi-stage and sustained striking capability, or some special effect. Which of those standards does your Thunder Roar Cannon meet?"

"Extreme shape transformation? Sustained striking capability? Special effects?"

Kazama Kaguya pondered it, then nodded. "I understand. So that's the difficulty of learning A-rank techniques? Still, I'll keep developing it. I believe it won't be long before Teacher Kisame gets to personally experience my A-rank Storm Release."

As an Otsutsuki, even an infant one, he certainly had that much confidence.

He looked at Kisame and continued asking, "Then what about S-rank ultimate ninjutsu?"

"S-rank... those are ultimate ninjutsu that represent the culmination of one's art, embodying one's ninja way and convictions. Their learning difficulty is at the very highest level. They may not necessarily possess immense offensive power, but they will definitely have special abilities."

"In the entire Ninja World, Konoha possesses the most ultimate ninjutsu. Next is Sunagakure, then Kirigakure..."

At that point, Kisame Hoshigaki suddenly fell silent.

His expression turned exceedingly ugly, and even the sight of Kazama Kaguya began to irritate him.

"You brat, why are you asking so many questions? Are you planning to develop S-rank ninjutsu right away? You haven't even improved your B-rank technique yet, but you're already thinking about S-rank. Looks like I haven't been thorough enough in your training."

"Now, I'll give you three days to improve your ninjutsu, then develop one A-rank technique and three B-rank techniques. If you can't do it..."

He looked down at Kazama Kaguya, cold light flickering in his eyes. "You won't want to know the consequences."

Kazama Kaguya: ???

Kirigakure was so weak that it didn't even have a single S-rank technique. Whose fault was that?

Mine???