Beyond S-Rank

Early the next morning, Tsunade brought Minato to a small lake in a remote corner of the village.

The two stood on the shore, gazing at the lake's deep blue waters. Tsunade nodded in satisfaction. "Let's do it here."

Minato's Light Release was too powerful, and its attacks came with high-temperature explosions. The commotion would be too great, making it unsuitable for training somewhere crowded.

Normally, when village ninja trained in jutsu that caused a lot of noise, they went to open areas outside the village.

But in Tsunade's eyes, leaving the village still carried some risk for Minato, even if the chances were infinitesimally small.

If safety wasn't absolute, then it wasn't safe at all!

With the talent Minato had displayed, she couldn't be too careful.

So Tsunade chose this training ground in a corner of the village.

The training ground was vast, with a forested landscape and a small lake in the center. It was an ideal place to practice Water Release and Fire Release Ninjutsu.

"I said I'd train you, but I don't know the first thing about your Light Release."

Tsunade leaned forward slightly, hands behind her back, and regarded Minato with a curious look.

"Would you mind telling your teacher about it?"

"I don't mind."

Feeling how much Tsunade respected his privacy, Minato felt a warmth in his heart. "Light Release is a little different. It's activated directly through physical stamina."

"The physical energy that ninja talk about can be directly refined into chakra, and it consists of both physical and spiritual energy. But the physical energy used by Light Release is purely physical and has nothing to do with spiritual energy."

"So strictly speaking, it doesn't really belong to the ninja system."

"I see..."

Tsunade stroked her chin. "That really is convenient."

For a ninja to extract chakra, both physical and spiritual energy were essential.

If they had exhausted too much spiritual energy, they couldn't extract chakra even if their physical energy was plentiful.

Light Release had no such restriction.

"So how do you plan to train?"

"Two directions!"

Minato held up two fingers. "The first is to develop its power further. The second is to integrate it with the chakra system. I plan to start with the first."

Although the purpose of this training session wasn't really to train, now that they were here, Minato wasn't going to half-ass it.

"From what you've shown me so far, this ability seems to boost your speed and let you launch energy attacks directly."

Tsunade considered it. "It already seems pretty versatile. Can you develop it in other directions, too?"

"I can, Sensei. I can."

Minato chuckled. "Didn't I tell you? This ability's essence is light. It isn't limited to the sunlight, firelight, or lamplight that we can see with our eyes. It's the concept of light itself!"

"For example, lasers, auroras, and some kinds of light invisible to the naked eye all count!"

"..."

Tsunade looked surprised. "In that case, this ability's value seems no less than Wood Release."

"That's right. What's more, Light Release is already incredibly powerful in direct combat. There isn't much room left to develop it as a combat ability."

Minato looked a little helpless. "So I plan to develop its utility."

"Aren't you getting ahead of yourself?"

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you show me what it can do first? Give me a full demonstration of its strength, speed, power, and range."

"Sure."

Minato nodded. Tsunade might not know about Devil Fruits, but she was still a jōnin. She might be able to offer advice from a different perspective.

"I won't demonstrate its strength. Light Release doesn't enhance strength, so I can only increase the force of my attacks through speed. As for speed, would you like to race me, Sensei?"

"Oh?"

Tsunade perked up. "How?"

Minato pointed to a tree on the far side of the lake, several hundred meters away. "Let's use the lake as our track. We'll see who gets to the other side first."

"Sounds fun!"

Tsunade readily agreed. She picked up a pebble and tossed it lightly in her hand. "We'll use this as the starting signal. The race begins the moment it touches the water."

Minato nodded. "All right."

With his agreement, Tsunade crouched into a starting position. "Then let's begin!"

As she spoke, she casually tossed the pebble toward the lake.

The two watched as it traced an arc through the air and plopped into the water.

The instant it touched the surface, the shore suddenly exploded with a roar!

Chunks of earth and stone tumbled into the lake as Tsunade launched herself forward, crushing the entire bank beneath her foot.

At the same time, she shot toward the far shore like a cannonball, two great sprays of water surging behind her.

There was a saying that speed was power.

But Tsunade thought there was no reason it couldn't work the other way around!

With her tremendous strength and precise chakra control, every step she took across the lake felt as if she were stepping onto solid ground.

Using the rebound from her immense strength, she pushed her speed to its limit.

In the blink of an eye, she reached the far shore!

Then she stepped onto the grass.

Before she could even cheer, a little blond appeared beside her.

"This..."

Tsunade's mouth twitched. She turned to look back at where they had started. The shore where they'd stood was now completely caved in, and the lake's surface was a mess of ripples, as if a hurricane had battered it.

"Light Release gives me quite a speed boost..."

Minato scratched his head and grinned.

Tsunade was speechless.

She wasn't especially fast, but with her strength behind her, she was no slower than jōnin who specialized in speed.

Seeing that Minato wasn't even flushed or out of breath, Tsunade chuckled to herself.

This kid knew how to spare her feelings.

"Not bad. At this speed, at least I don't have to worry about you being unable to escape in time if you run into danger."

Tsunade nodded in satisfaction. "Now let's see how powerful your Light Release is. What you showed me before probably wasn't your limit, was it?"

Minato nodded. He was curious, too, to see how much power he could produce by exerting himself to the fullest with his current stamina.

With that thought, he raised a palm toward the center of the lake. Brilliant light shone from his hand.

There was no dramatic buildup, but the energy steadily gathering still gave Tsunade a bone-deep sense of danger.

Suddenly, a ball of light shot from Minato's hand and plunged into the lake.

Boom—

The next instant, water shot skyward!

The terrifying explosion sent a wave nearly a hundred meters high crashing upward, like a red hemisphere clamped over the lake. The blast radius covered almost the entire lake!

The commotion was so great that it could be clearly seen from several kilometers away.

Too shocked to think, Tsunade scooped Minato up and ran for the distance almost as soon as the wave began to rise, excitement surging uncontrollably through her.

That attack had to be beyond S-rank, right?