Flying Thunder God's First Appearance

Li Yu approached rapidly, his senses confirming the presence of two jonin, one elite jonin, and four elite chunin.

"This enemy squad is quite strong."

"Minato, you use the Flying Thunder God to lead the attack, and I'll follow up with wide-range ninjutsu to scatter them."

"We should pick off the weak ones first and save those three jonin for last."

By now, the two had arrived in the vicinity of the enemy.

Li Yu quickly formed hand seals.

"Wood Release: Wood Clone."

Two identical clones of Li Yu split off to the sides, quickly putting some distance between them.

Namikaze Minato's attention was entirely on Kushina in the crowd; gentle as he was, he couldn't help but urge Li Yu on.

"Well? Are you confident?"

Especially upon seeing a ninja draw a blade and head toward Kushina, he gripped his special kunai even tighter.

Seeing that the enemy's focus was entirely on Kushina, Li Yu thought to himself, A perfect opportunity.

The three Li Yus, hidden by their masks, activated their Sharingan and began forming seals.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough."

"Earth Release: Rock Plate Coffin."

"Water Release: Water Travel Wave."

A violent gust of wind slammed into the crowd, forcing everyone to squint against the gale.

At the same time, a semi-circular earthen wall rose on both sides of Kushina, quickly encasing her to shield her from the wind and the incoming water attack.

Next, a massive torrent of water surged from the other side, crashing toward the seven ninjas with immense force.

The hurricane had already robbed them of their footing, leaving them no time to use ninjutsu to defend themselves; the weaker ones were blown away, and when the massive wave arrived, they were forced to scatter.

Taking a C-rank Wind Release and a B-rank Water Release head-on was no easy feat; one of the weaker elite chunin was knocked unconscious instantly.

Namikaze Minato shouted, "Good!"

He charged directly at the remaining three elite chunin, throwing his special kunai at them.

Li Yu's clones moved to engage the two remaining jonin, while he himself went straight for the elite jonin.

"Kid, those three ninjutsu were quite impressive. You managed to break our formation."

"You must be running low on chakra by now, right?"

The Cloud Village elite jonin said, drawing the ninja blade from his back and waving it through the air, where it crackled with electricity.

Li Yu thought, He's planning to use his village's specialty—taijutsu—to finish me off quickly.

Li Yu pulled out three special kunai and threw them in three different directions, pinning them into nearby trees with dull thuds.

He formed a Rasengan in his left hand and gripped Namikaze Minato's special kunai in his right, charging at the enemy.

The jonin swung his blade down at the incoming Rasengan, intending to cleave Li Yu in two.

Mid-air, Li Yu threw the kunai in his hand toward the enemy's flank, a wicked smile on his lips as his body suddenly flickered and vanished.

A flash of golden light appeared at the enemy's side; Namikaze Minato, having already dispatched the three elite chunin, appeared, throwing a kunai with one hand and striking the enemy's armpit with a Rasengan in the other.

Just as the enemy tilted his head to dodge the kunai, Li Yu reappeared from the other side, landing another Rasengan squarely in his back.

The elite jonin took both Rasengans, slamming into the ground like a cannonball.

Just as Li Yu's main body activated the Flying Thunder God, his two clones did the same, appearing on two trees and forming seals in unison, taking a deep breath.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere."

"Wind Release: Vacuum Wave."

The elite jonin, who had just crashed into the ground, was severely wounded and had no time to react.

"Boom! Boom!" The sounds were incessant, followed by several loud explosions. The ground was left in ruins, and the body of the Cloud Village elite jonin was torn into pieces, a bloody mess.

Wind-style countered Lightning-style, shattering his lightning-infused chakra defense. The tactical coordination, combined with two B-rank ninjutsu, had allowed them to seize the moment and focus their fire.

He hadn't even had time to react before the elite jonin was finished off.

Li Yu's two clones, their chakra exhausted, transformed back into wood.

At that moment, Namikaze Minato, having finished off the three elite chunin, arrived and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him.

The two shared a tacit look and a smile, exchanged their special kunai, and charged toward the two remaining jonin.

As they split up, Li Yu had a sudden thought and called out, "Let's see who finishes their enemy faster!"

Charging toward the jonin, Li Yu suddenly realized his vision and observational abilities had sharpened significantly. Within his blood-red eyes, three tomoe were slowly spinning.

Only through battle could one improve their strength faster. He had originally wanted to test the power of Sage Art on that elite jonin, but unfortunately, he had been taken out in one go.

I can only test this out on that Cloud Village jonin.

At this moment, inside a forest, Li Yu's shadow clone transformed into a piece of wood.

Instantly, a green dot appeared in the center of Li Yu's forehead, with circular green markings swirling around it. Combined with the green eyeshadow at the corners of his eyes and a pair of three-tomoe blood-red eyes, he looked indescribably bizarre.

To prevent the enemy from seeing his current appearance, he took the initiative to weave hand seals.

"Genjutsu: Bringer of Darkness."

This was an A-rank genjutsu once used by the First Hokage, capable of stripping an enemy of all light. With his enhanced three-tomoe Sharingan, the genjutsu he unleashed was powerful enough to briefly blind even a Mangekyo user.

He wove seals again, interlacing his fingers tightly, and shouted, "Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence."

By using Sage Mode to trigger Deep Forest Emergence, the range, growth speed, durability of the trees, and the rate at which they absorbed the enemy's chakra were all increased several times over.

Just like that, the defenseless jonin was bound into a knot in an instant. Feeling as if his body had been hollowed out, the ninja closed his eyes and passed out.

Li Yu deactivated his Sharingan and dispersed the natural energy from his body; the markings on his face vanished instantly.

The kunai on his body grew warm, space shifted, and Namikaze Minato appeared beside him. He glanced at the ninja, who was tied up like a pretzel with only his head exposed.

"Nawaki, that was fast."

"Let's go back and find Kushina."

Li Yu removed his mask and replied, "I won't be going."

"I'll dispel the Earth Release from a distance. I'll leave the cleanup to you—as for the rest, it's up to you to woo the girl." He gave him a knowing look.

For someone like Namikaze Minato, whose talent for wooing women was maxed out, he should understand.

After saying this, Li Yu urged him to leave and dispelled the Earth Release jutsu from afar.

Just like in the original story, Namikaze Minato swept Kushina up in a bridal carry and dashed through the trees.

Minato woos under the moonlight, his son woos under the moonlight.

Watching their retreating backs, Li Yu shook his head. "Woo the spiciest girl, raise the fiercest cub."

At this point, Li Yu gathered the corpses together—one had been knocked out by the water, and the other was still bound.

He fired an Anbu signal flare into the sky, then sat down on his own, leaned against a large tree, and began to hum a little tune.

"If only I had something to eat right now. Carrying things is so inconvenient. I'm starving; I'll definitely make Minato treat me when I get back."

Yue Ying arrived with a dozen Anbu members.

She addressed him respectfully, "Lord Zi Yu."

Seeing that Li Yu was unharmed, Yue Ying breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "How did the battle go?"

"Perfectly executed. Two ninja captured."

Li Yu directed the Anbu to take the corpses back, while the two living captives were to be sent to the Torture and Interrogation Force.

Li Yu returned to the village to report the results of the mission to the Third Hokage.

"Zi Yu, very good. You brought back the village's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and crushed the Cloud Village's conspiracy."

"You have some time off now. I want you to consider whether you'd be willing to lead a graduating class at the Ninja Academy."

"Leading a graduating class? I think that's fine, Lord Hokage."

"You should think it over carefully. After all, there is still some time before this class graduates."

Li Yu left the Hokage Office Building with questions in his mind, wondering what Sarutobi Hiruzen was up to.

During his time off, Li Yu went to find Namikaze Minato again, this time finding him and Kushina together, being all sweet and lovey-dovey.

"Nawaki, it's you."

"I haven't had a chance to thank you for what happened last time."

This was Li Yu's first time meeting Kushina since becoming a ninja; although they had been in the same class at the Ninja Academy, they had never spoken.

Kushina greeted him quite warmly.

"Nawaki, Minato already told me about what happened last time."

"Thank you so much."

Li Yu smiled in return. "It's what I should have done as a Konoha ninja and a friend of Minato's."

"I came to see Minato this time to discuss the Flying Raijin Jutsu and sealing techniques."

Over the next period, he frequently visited Namikaze Minato to study the Flying Raijin, hoping to leverage the Uzumaki Clan's sealing techniques to develop the Flying Raijin: Level 2 and Flying Raijin: Guiding Thunder.

Flying Raijin: Guiding Thunder was a technique capable of teleporting the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb outside the village, though its drawback was the massive consumption of chakra.

Knowing that Li Yu wanted to learn sealing techniques, Kushina gave him the scrolls for the Four Symbols Seal and the Eight Trigrams Seal as a token of her gratitude.

The Senju Clan were distant relatives of the Uzumaki Clan, and their family archives contained many Uzumaki-style ninjutsu. This time, Li Yu managed to resolve many of his questions regarding sealing techniques thanks to Kushina.