It's All Brotherhood! It's All Bonds!

"Take a ten-minute break." Shisui took a canteen from his ninja tool pouch and handed it to him. "You're progressing quickly, much faster than I anticipated."

Qingyu took the canteen, hesitating for a moment—isn't this the one you drank from?

Forget it, brotherhood! Bonds!

"Senior Shisui, this training method... will others in the clan learn it too? Like Senior Itachi, or Sasuke?"

"Itachi will." Shisui took a sip of water.

"And he learns faster than I do. As for Sasuke..." He smiled.

"He's still young. The Clan Head said to wait until he awakens his Sharingan before teaching him. After all, this training method requires a high level of mental concentration, and it's easy for children to go astray."

"Then..." Qingyu asked cautiously, "why would the Clan Head have you teach me? I'm just an ordinary Genin..."

Shisui set the canteen down and looked at Qingyu, something complex flashing through his eyes.

"Because the Clan Head feels that you have 'possibility'."

"Among the younger generation of the Uchiha, most people are too 'alike'."

"The same training methods, the same patterns of thought, the same future plans."

"But you aren't. You can use Fire Release, you can use Water Release, you can use Ancient Style Shuriken, and you even dare to modify them yourself."

"You possess 'uncertainty', and the Clan Head... perhaps wants to see what that uncertainty might bring."

Qingyu's heart tightened.

Naruto: Feeling like my own uncertainty is living in someone else's shadow...

As expected, Clan Head Fugaku's attention toward him wasn't just because of his good performance in the exams.

"Don't be nervous." Shisui regained his smile.

"This isn't a bad thing. In this era, having a little more 'difference' can sometimes be an advantage."

He stood up and brushed the dust off his pants: "Alright, break's over. Next, let's try combining Heart-Intent Style with your water-fire ninjutsu."

"Combine them?" Qingyu was stunned.

"That's right," Shisui said as if it were obvious.

"That Steam Explosion jutsu of yours is essentially a change in the form and nature of chakra. If you can incorporate 'Heart-Intent' control while throwing, you might be able to pull off some even more interesting tricks."

Qingyu suddenly felt that having Shisui as a teacher might be both a lucky and dangerous choice.

The lucky part was that this senior was truly strong, and his teaching philosophy was extremely open-minded.

The dangerous part was... he seemed even more daring and experimental than Qingyu himself.

Qingyu: Senior Shisui, if we act this foolish, will the plot really let us learn it?

Shisui: We will win!

Over the next three days, Qingyu lived a fulfilling life of "special training by Shisui during the day, and review by the Dual Souls at night."

Shisui's training was indeed "unorthodox."

On the second day, he made Qingyu throw shuriken while blindfolded, saying that "vision interferes with intuition."

Qingyu threw thirty, hitting three... and those were just grazing the target.

"Not bad," Shisui actually praised him.

"At least you didn't miss completely. When I first practiced blindfolded, all thirty stuck into the tree, and the clan brother accompanying my training laughed at me for a whole week."

On the third day, Shisui began teaching "Double Heart-Intent Lock."

This meant locking onto two targets simultaneously, allowing the shuriken to change direction in mid-air while maintaining the precision to hit the second target.

Qingyu practiced until his head was spinning, feeling like his brain's CPU was about to burn out.

But the results were also significant.

No way, the bullet actually curves!

By the end of the third day, Qingyu could stably complete a "Single Heart-Intent Lock" throw under normal conditions, maintaining an accuracy rate of about 70%.

He could even manage a 30% hit rate while blindfolded... though most of that was just blind luck.

What surprised Qingyu even more was that the combination of Water-Fire Rotation and shuriken had actually made progress.

Inspired by Shisui, Qingyu no longer forced the water and fire chakra to fuse into a single sphere, but instead attempted "layered attachment."

The surface of the shuriken was covered with an extremely thin film of water-attribute chakra, while the core was infused with fire-attribute chakra.

Qingyu tried throwing one.

After the release, at the moment before impact, he used "Heart-Intent" to detonate the internal fire attribute, evaporating the external water film to create a small-scale Steam Explosion.

The steam burst open at the moment of impact, the localized shockwave shattering the training stake, sending wood fragments flying, and filling the air with the scorched scent of high-temperature water vapor.

"It worked!" Qingyu's eyes lit up.

The power, stealth, speed, and surprise factor had all been improved!

Whoa, there's even an elemental reaction; this has to be at least 1.5 times the damage!

Although the power is much smaller than throwing a direct fireball or water ball, the stealth, speed, and element of surprise are vastly improved.

Shisui calls it "Steam-Kill Shuriken," and says with a straight face, "This name is pretty cool."

Qingyu: "..." Senior, your taste in naming really needs some improvement.

Minato: I have a great name! Opposing-Elements Reincarnation: Extreme-Temperature Flash Explosion Formation Shuriken!

On the afternoon of the fourth day of special training, Shisui did not let Qingyu continue practicing shuriken.

"We're switching to something else today." He led Qingyu to the woods at the edge of the training ground. "Footwork practice."

"Footwork?" Qingyu was a bit surprised.

"Correct," Shisui said.

"I've reviewed your exam records regarding your tactics. You have reconnaissance, traps, and ninjutsu exchanges, but you are missing the most critical link: the 'art of movement'."

He walked up to a large tree and leaped lightly. His entire body seemed weightless, landing silently on a branch five meters above the ground without even causing a leaf to sway.

"The three basic skills of a ninja: ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu." Shisui stood on the branch, looking down at Qingyu.

"Above these three, there is something even more fundamental: 'how to move'."

"How to run faster, how to jump higher, how to land more lightly, and how to move across complex terrain as if it were flat ground."

Qingyu tilted his head back, suddenly recalling the Uchiha Style footwork Izuna had taught him, and the Senju Style chakra-control footwork taught by Tobirama.

"What school of footwork is Senior Shisui going to teach?" he asked.

"No school." Shisui jumped down from the tree, landing like a feather.

"Or rather, it's a school I fumbled through on my own. I call it 'Body Flicker Basics'."

Qingyu's eyes lit up. Body Flicker! This was Shisui's signature move!

"Don't get ahead of yourself." Shisui saw right through his thoughts.

"I'm not teaching you the full Body Flicker technique. That thing requires too much chakra control and mental focus; you can't learn it yet."

"What I'm teaching is the 'basics of the basics': how to achieve maximum movement efficiency with minimal chakra consumption."

Tch.

But since it was Shisui himself teaching, he would reluctantly make do with it.

He began today's lesson.

Just like the "Heart-Intent Style" for shuriken, Shisui's footwork teaching was also very "abstract."

"Feel the ground beneath your feet."

"Don't use your feet; use your chakra to 'listen'—the hardness of the soil, the slope, whether there are loose stones, whether there is moss..."

"Every detail will affect how you exert your force."

"Imagine your body is a spring. Every time you land, it's not a 'stop,' but a way to 'store power for the next jump'."

"When moving, don't look at your feet; look at the 'direction' you want to go. Your body will find the most suitable landing point on its own."

Science Theater.

Scenario Simulation (When Minato sees this technique):

Minato (eyes shining): "Oh! Exquisite control of fire and water chakra with opposing natures!"

"At the moment of collision, they don't cancel each other out, but transform into a high-temperature, high-pressure steam explosion. It combines visual obscuration, area-of-effect impact, and high-temperature scalding effects..."

"This has already surpassed ordinary combination ninjutsu! It should be called—'Opposing-Elements Reincarnation: Extreme-Temperature Flash Explosion Formation Shuriken'! How about it? Very fitting, right?"

Kakashi (deadpan eyes) on the side: "...Teacher, wouldn't 'Steam Shuriken' work?"

Minato (bright smile): "Kakashi, the name of a ninjutsu is its soul! It must reflect its principles, aesthetics, and the creator's intent!"

Izuna inside Qingyu's mind: "...How is this blond guy even more flamboyant at naming things than Tobirama?"

Tobirama (adjusting his glasses): "...But from the perspective of accurately describing the technique's principles, it is indeed more rigorous than 'Steam-Kill'."