As mentioned earlier, string theory could prove that all things were formed by the two vibrational frequencies of strings opening and closing. The world was constantly changing between these two states, and Buddhism called this change "birth and death"!
More than 900 cycles of birth and death occurred in a single instant. In other words, the strings opened and closed once every nine-hundredth of an instant.
When a string opened, the world existed in the state of "birth." When it closed, the world entered the void state of "death." But this cycle happened too fast for ordinary people to notice. It was like a film flashing through countless images in rapid succession: to ordinary people, everything seemed continuous, but that wasn't the truth.
Because his soul had crossed over along with the Seed of the Divine Tree, Nawaki's soul possessed space-time attributes. This made him far more adapted than ordinary people to traveling through space. He could dart between reality and the gaps in space at incredible speed without any discomfort. His flickering frequency reached one-thousandth of an instant, surpassing the speed of the world's cycles of birth and death!
That meant he could easily adjust his flickering frequency to synchronize perfectly with the world's cycles. He could enter the gaps in space when the world was in the state of "birth," then reappear in reality when it was in the void state of "death"!
In this way, he would remain forever between the gaps in space and the void, immune to all harm! From the outside, it looked just like Obito's intangibility!
Nawaki named this state "Void," meaning a state between nothingness and empty space.
Unfortunately, the Void state wasn't perfect. It had three major drawbacks.
First, it consumed far too much chakra! He used Flying Thunder God 900 times in a single instant. An instant was 0.018 seconds, which meant 450,000 uses of Flying Thunder God per second. Each jump covered zero distance, so the chakra cost was negligible, but the sheer number of uses was enormous. With his current chakra reserves, he could maintain it for only one minute before running dry.
Second, he couldn't attack anyone while in the Void state. The moment he attacked, he would expose an opening and become vulnerable to an enemy's counterattack.
Third, he had to be in direct contact with a space-time marker. That was easy enough to solve; he only needed to place a marker on himself. But the marker had to be unique to him. Otherwise, someone else who had also mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique could exploit this fatal weakness!
So he could only use the technique after creating his own marker and encrypting it. This would be easy enough for him. Flying Thunder God's markers had to match the spatial frequency of one's soul, and his soul had space-time attributes, with its spatial frequency already at the absolute limit. No one could surpass or reach it, so no one else could use his marker to travel through space-time. On the other hand, he could lower his own frequency and use other people's markers.
The marker he was using now, for example, belonged to the Second Hokage. With enough practice, he could use this marker to perform the second stage of Flying Thunder God. But because the frequency couldn't match perfectly, he would never be able to use the third stage with it. That was why, in the original story, Namiashi Raidō and the other members of the Fourth Hokage's Shadow Guard had to work together in a group of three to use the Flying Thunder God Technique. They couldn't synchronize with the Fourth Hokage's markers. They were proof of this.
In other words, if Nawaki completely mastered Flying Thunder God, he could counter anyone else who used it! He could use their markers to teleport and launch surprise attacks. In the end, it would come down to a contest of chakra reserves, and he was confident that, one day, he wouldn't lose to anyone.
Unfortunately, all of this was only Nawaki's theory. He hadn't even created a unique marker of his own yet.
He had tried asking the system whether it could exchange one for him directly. It said that, since there was a training method to use as a template, Wish Power could be spent to obtain one. But because it involved the rules of space, it would cost five million points. Even if his fame reached a thousand points, it would still take him more than a decade to accumulate that much! He might as well research it himself. The system also told him that if he encountered an insurmountable bottleneck during his research, he could spend Wish Power to run a simulation, which would greatly speed up his learning.
But all of that depended on having Wish Power to spend. If he had enough, Nawaki definitely wouldn't waste time and effort on research. He only wanted to become an outstanding Flying Thunder God user, not a ninjutsu researcher! A sniper didn't need to design his own rifle, and a pilot didn't need to research how to build an aircraft!
Even the Second Hokage, who had developed the Flying Thunder God Technique, had been far inferior to the Fourth Hokage in using it. Applying a technique and developing one were two different things, at least when it came to Flying Thunder God.
Once he understood this, Nawaki decided not to pin all his hopes on his own research. While training in Flying Thunder God, he would find ways to gain more Wish Power and speed up his progress!
The next day, after making up his mind, Nawaki put on the dark green Jōnin vest he had modified into a weighted vest. He contacted his squad members, and together they returned to the Hokage's hall.
Along the way, every Genin who saw him greeted him respectfully, addressing him as "Jōnin Nawaki."
Seeing Nawaki's squad back in the Hokage's hall only a day later, the other Genin teams were curious about what this newly promoted Special Jōnin was planning. They didn't hurry off to complete their missions; instead, they stayed in the hall to watch.
"Nawaki, what brings you to see me again today?" The Third Hokage looked at him with some concern. For the past two days, he had been considering how to keep this restless young prodigy safe, but he couldn't think of a good solution. Do I really have to do as Danzo suggested and have him join Anbu? No, absolutely not—not yet. I'll reconsider once he's older and his temperament is more settled. Besides, with Torifu protecting him, he should be fine.
What he didn't know was that Nawaki would never join Anbu, no matter what. Right now, all he cared about was gaining plenty of Wish Power and fame to strengthen himself. How could he go into hiding and become a low-profile, mysterious Anbu operative? Just as Sarutobi had said before, he was born to live in the sun, not to be hidden away. Even if he joined Anbu, he would find some way to reveal his identity and become a famous "star" of the organization for the sake of Wish Power and fame.
Hearing the Third Hokage's distinctly wary question, Nawaki didn't take it to heart. Everything he was doing was aboveboard and within the rules; even the Hokage couldn't stop him. "Lord Hokage, our squad is here to take a mission."
The Third Hokage frowned. "Didn't I tell you? None of the village's merchant caravans have returned, and there aren't any other C-rank missions available right now. D-rank missions aren't suitable for you anymore, so I hope your squad will take a break for a while."
Before you continue