Lightning Release Talent

Kaede took the ninjutsu scroll and slowly unrolled it, excitement bubbling inside him.

This was his first time encountering something as amazing as ninjutsu, and its mysterious power deeply captivated his eager, curious mind. He was sure no fan who had watched Naruto could resist such a temptation.

Ninjutsu was divided into five ranks, A, B, C, D, and E, according to how difficult it was to learn. The easiest techniques, like the Clone Technique, Substitution Technique, and Transformation Technique, were classified as E-rank.

D-rank ninjutsu generally consisted of ordinary offensive Taijutsu, like Might Guy's Dynamic Entry, or weapon techniques involving tools like Shuriken, such as Sasuke's Shuriken Manipulation Technique.

Most offensive elemental techniques were at least C-rank. Their power aside, they were certainly more difficult to learn than E- and D-rank techniques.

They also carried a certain degree of danger during training.

The technique his father had given him was the C-rank Lightning Release: Ground Run.

When he unrolled the scroll, the name of the technique was at the very beginning, followed by precautions for learning Ground Run. There were quite a few hurried notes, written in several different hands, which proved that the scroll had been used by many people.

After that came the Hand Seals for Ground Run—Boar, Ram, Snake—followed by a diagram showing the flow of Chakra.

"Looks like the important part of a ninjutsu scroll is the precautions at the beginning. There are so many notes here. They must be people's insights from when they were learning it."

Thinking this, he turned to the beginning and carefully read through the precautions. At first, they were perfectly normal, explaining what to do while learning Ground Run. Until—

"Garbage technique. Wasted my youth."

"Piece of trash. Learning it makes me furious, and when I use it, I can't hit anyone."

Line after line was nothing but complaints.

"????"

Confused, Kaede rubbed his eyes and looked again, unsure he'd read it right.

"Th-this... Is this really something a proud Uchiha would do?"

Several people had indeed written their insights at the end of the precautions, but what Kaede read left him a little stunned.

"Ha... hahaha... I'd better look at the Chakra flow diagram."

He spotted his father Mingye's handwriting among the complaints. Maybe it wasn't that the proud Uchiha were unreliable; maybe it was just their branch of the Uchiha who were unreliable.

He silently studied the Chakra flow diagram at the end. After a long while, he began to see a pattern. The diagram showed a mass of Chakra sealed inside it, constantly moving along a certain route through the body's pressure points.

This was probably the pattern of Chakra circulation inside a ninja's body when using Lightning Release: Ground Run.

He drew on the initial Chakra accumulated in the area of his lower abdomen, then guided it upward through his body's meridians before splitting it into the meridians in both hands. At this point, he needed to transform the initial Chakra into Lightning Release Chakra.

Then, as he guided it into his hands and released the Lightning Release Chakra from his body, he had to transform it into lightning in that instant. That would allow him to successfully perform Lightning Release: Ground Run.

"I'll give it a try."

Reading about it wasn't as useful as trying it himself. Until he actually did it, he'd never know whether he truly understood it or was just pretending to.

He formed the Boar Seal and drew on his Chakra.

He formed the Ram Seal and transformed the initial Chakra into Lightning Release Chakra.

He formed the Snake Seal and turned the Lightning Release Chakra into lightning.

"Whoa..."

A flash of lightning ran across his body, and he felt a tingling jolt, like he'd been shocked.

...Heh.

That actually felt pretty good.

"I got distracted just now and transformed it into lightning too early, releasing the technique inside my own body. Good thing I don't seem to be afraid of getting shocked."

Incorrect Hand Seals couldn't draw on the Chakra inside the body, which meant the technique couldn't be successfully released. But being interrupted just as the technique was about to be released was still dangerous; he could be injured by his own technique.

This wasn't a game. There was no rule that your own techniques couldn't hurt you. Once released, a technique became a real natural element. If it hit you, you'd get hurt just the same.

Lightning Release Chakra in particular wasn't very pliable. Changing its form was harder than with other elemental techniques.

It was also difficult to control, and often ended up injuring the user.

The Shinobi World's version of the Seven Injury Fist.

That was why, unless they had great talent for ninjutsu and specialized in Lightning Release, few Konoha ninja ever used powerful Lightning Release techniques.

Kakashi and Sasuke were among the strongest Lightning Release ninja of the future.

"But it doesn't seem dangerous for me."

Just now, when he used the technique to release lightning, the Thunder Rune that had been dim inside his mind lit up. He'd discovered that he could control the lightning between his fingers as easily as moving a limb.

It was only because he'd lost focus for that split second that the lightning struck him. The sensation was tingly, but he wasn't hurt at all.

"So the Rune only works when it lights up?"

He looked at the Divine Body Rune and Divine Soul Rune glowing inside him, as well as the Thunder Rune he'd just activated.

The Thunder Rune had given him an affinity for lightning. The Divine Body Rune and Divine Soul Rune brought about gradual changes to his body.

Because of that, Kaede felt sure that he had plenty of Chakra.

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. He threw himself back into practicing Ground Run, wanting to measure how much Chakra he had.

From morning until dusk, the courtyard echoed with someone's strange groans.

"Ah... ah... I'm numb..."

"Heh... hey... numb, numb..."

Even with an exceptionally strong affinity for lightning, controlling Chakra was a technical skill. Learning ninjutsu involved many small details, and every one of them could determine success or failure.

"Boar—Ram—Snake, Lightning Release: Ground Run!"

He released lightning from both hands, sending it crackling across the surface of the pond. Sparks flashed over the little pool in the courtyard, and the fish flipped belly-up after he shocked them.

"Hahaha... I did it... I did it..."

He touched his hands, which had been blackened a little by the stray lightning. He wasn't injured, just a bit tired. But all of that was swept away by the excitement of having worked hard and successfully learned a technique.

He didn't notice his father Mingye standing silently in the doorway, rubbing his eyes as he watched him again and again.

"He... actually did it?"

When he gave Kaede the C-rank technique Lightning Release: Ground Run, he'd planned to have her practice it until she started school. Of the five elemental types of ninjutsu, Lightning Release was generally one of the most difficult. One C-rank technique should have kept Kaede occupied for a whole year.

He'd also planned to teach her the Three Basic Techniques and Chakra control, then show her how to throw ninja tools so she wouldn't embarrass herself outside like she had yesterday.

He thought that was more than enough for Kaede to learn.

But Kaede had learned the C-rank technique Lightning Release: Ground Run in a single day. She couldn't yet use it in a ninja battle, but that was already an incredible talent.

"What a Little Monster! But... she's my daughter! Ha... ha... ha..."

Mingye burst into hearty laughter.

"Father, what are you so happy about? Are you proud of your clever son's monstrous talent?"

He'd learned a C-rank technique in one day. He could proudly say that he was a talented ninja with a gift for ninjutsu. Given time, he'd surely become one of the Uchiha's twin stars alongside Uchiha Shisui, who excelled at the Body Flicker Technique.

"Hmph! It took you a whole day just to learn one C-rank technique. You're only a tiny bit better than your father was at your age. What's there to be proud of?

A ninja must never let the victories right in front of them cloud their judgment. A ninja isn't someone who excels at fighting head-on. Devious assassination and stealth attacks that catch people off guard are what define a ninja."

To keep Kaede from getting too carried away, Mingye furrowed his brow and scolded her.

For a Kaede barely over four years old to display such powerful talent for ninjutsu wasn't a good thing in Konoha.

After all, they were Uchiha.