Chapter 45

Speaking of which, the kid's innate Chakra natures had originally only been wind, fire, and lightning. Later, thanks to the Soul Refinement Art he had created himself, his spiritual power soared all the way up, and his Yin nature awakened on its own.

After that, the Innate Art and the Uzumaki Sage Body worked together, and his Yang nature awakened smoothly as well.

Now that he had acquired the earth nature too, he only lacked water before all five of his innate natures would be complete.

"Water Release..." He rubbed his chin and muttered, "There aren't many water-style techniques in the family's collection, and not a single one is particularly powerful."

"But the Second Hokage was an expert at Water Release. It shouldn't be hard to get some from Sister Tsunade."

The only thing troubling him was that Tsunade had already gone to the Bellflower City front lines, where she was fighting Sunagakure fiercely. She would not be back anytime soon.

"Forget it. There's no rush." Uchiha Yan shook his head and temporarily set the thought aside.

Even if he gathered all his innate natures now, it would not dramatically improve his actual strength—at most, his Water Release would be more powerful and easier to learn in the future.

With his current mastery of the other release styles, he was still far from creating something on the level of a Kekkei Mōra.

"I should keep training."

Two days later.

[You learned Lightning Release: Earth Walk and easily mastered the technique. Your Lightning Release's shape transformation and nature transformation improved slightly, and you also developed several new ninjutsu, including Lightning Release: Great Electricity Generation, Thunder Strike, Earth Walk, Lightning Ball, and Spear of Lightning.]

Another two days passed.

[You learned Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere and immediately attained enlightenment. You trained the technique to perfection and further derived a series of Wind Release techniques, including the Wind Body Flicker Technique, Wind Blade Storm, and Wind-Walking Technique.]

"Wind-Walking Technique!"

Uchiha Yan immediately tested the technique.

Wind-nature Chakra instantly wrapped around his entire body. His feet left the ground, and he rose into the air, flying straight up into the sky.

"Ha ha ha! I finally have a decent flying technique!"

He laughed heartily.

To be honest, he had previously figured out an aerial maneuvering technique similar to Moon Step, but his physical strength had not been enough to practice it at all.

There were truly very few ninjutsu in the Ninja World that allowed one to fly.

Mastering a flight technique was absolutely necessary.

While flying through the air, he would have the initiative in most situations.

It would also be convenient for escaping danger. Its mobility was simply incomparable to running on the ground.

He experimented as he flew, gaining an increasingly deeper understanding of the Wind-Walking Technique and becoming more adept at controlling it.

At first, he flew crookedly and unsteadily, and his speed was not worth mentioning.

But before long, he could pull off all sorts of tricks in midair—somersaults, sharp turns, spinning in place. He could move however he wanted.

Every so often, he would suddenly accelerate, pushing his flight speed to its limit in one burst.

"Hm?"

When Uchiha Hao returned home, he happened to see Uchiha Yan flying around the courtyard. He froze for a moment, then rushed over with excitement written all over his face. Tilting his head up at his younger brother in the air, he shouted, "Yan! Did you create another new technique? You can fly? That's incredible! Can you teach me?"

Hearing the commotion, Uchiha Yan immediately dived down from the sky, charging straight at him.

"Holy crap!"

Uchiha Hao cried out and hurriedly dodged to the side.

Yet Uchiha Yan abruptly stopped thirty centimeters above the ground and hovered steadily in the air. Crossing his arms, he looked at him smugly. "Big brother, aren't you a little too timid?"

He circled Uchiha Hao in the air, showing off without restraint.

Uchiha Hao rolled his eyes and could not be bothered to waste words on him. "Cut the nonsense. Are you teaching me or not?"

"I can teach you."

Uchiha Yan stopped teasing him and asked seriously, "But this is a Wind Release ninjutsu. You need to have a wind nature first."

Of course, mastering the technique also required sufficient Chakra and precise control. But for Uchiha Hao, who had cultivated the Soul Refinement Art, Basic Body-Tempering Technique, and Uzumaki Sage Body method, those were not problems.

"Of course I do!"

Uchiha Hao grinned. "I happen to have both wind and fire natures. This Wind Release flying technique is perfect for me! Hurry up and teach me!"

"Alright."

Uchiha Yan nodded, flew over, and tapped Uchiha Hao between the brows. Through spiritual transmission, he directly imparted the cultivation method to him.

That day, Uchiha Yan was training at home as usual.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, he sensed that the Flying Thunder God marker he had left on Kushina was rapidly moving out of the village.

He frowned. Just as he was about to activate the Flying Thunder God and rush over, he instinctively used Mind's Eye of the Kagura. With a sweep of his senses, he discovered more than a dozen Root ninja hiding outside the Uchiha Compound, staring intently into the compound.

Their attention was clearly focused on his home.

"Oh?"

Uchiha Yan raised an eyebrow. "So Danzo really is behind this."

"And his target is actually me? Heh, interesting."

He sneered, pondered briefly, and created a Shadow Clone.

"I'm going."

The Shadow Clone nodded, then locked onto a marker his Divine Clone had left five kilometers away from Kushina's direction of travel and vanished instantly.

Uchiha Yan's figure flickered as he activated the Flying Raijin Technique, disappearing from where he stood.

His true body, meanwhile, rushed out of the house and quickly pursued Kushina in the direction she had gone.

Before long, he left the Uchiha Compound and accelerated as he continued the chase.

"Hm?"

The Root ninja lying in ambush outside were all stunned when they saw this.

Jie, the leader, raised an eyebrow. "We were still wondering how to lure him out to chase after her. Who would've thought he'd run out himself?"

"Looking at how anxious he is, he really did leave some kind of backup measure on Kushina Uzumaki."

Otherwise, Uchiha Yan could not possibly have reacted like this.

"Lord Danzo was right. The Uchiha clan brat really does have designs on the Jinchuriki."

"Maybe he even worked with Hidden Cloud to orchestrate this incident."

"Follow him. Don't get too close. We'll make our move once he meets up with the Hidden Cloud ninja."

After Jie spoke, he led two squads of Root members after him in secret, maintaining a distance of roughly three hundred meters as they followed Uchiha Yan.

Elsewhere.

Minato was planning to go to Training Ground Five to train when he suddenly spotted a small tuft of red hair on the ground.

He had once been deeply captivated by that color, and he recognized it at a glance.

He immediately rushed over, picked up the tuft of red hair, and brought it to his nose. His expression instantly darkened. "This is definitely Kushina's hair, but why would her hair be here?"

"And the cut is uneven. It definitely didn't fall out naturally."

"Oh no!"

Minato's face changed at once. "Something happened to Kushina."

He immediately expanded his sensory perception to its fullest, scanning the surroundings for more traces of red hair.

"Over there!"

A few seconds later, he found another tuft of red hair.

He rushed over and picked it up to confirm it, pinpointing the general direction before chasing after it at top speed.

Along the way, he found more red hair, making him even more certain of his judgment and increasingly anxious.

"Kushina, wait for me! I'm coming to save you!"

Minato Namikaze cried out anxiously in his heart.

At the same time, he felt somewhat dissatisfied with Uchiha Yan. "Since Kushina chose you, how could you fail to protect her and let her fall into such danger?"

The thought of competing with Uchiha Yan for Kushina even surfaced in his mind once more.

If I can save Kushina this time and explain everything that happened before, as well as all the misunderstandings, maybe she'll accept me?

Such a thought even flashed through Minato Namikaze's mind.

It was not as though he had never considered clearing up those misunderstandings with Kushina.

But every time, Kushina simply never gave him a chance to speak.

Instead, the more he tried to explain, the messier things became, and the misunderstandings only deepened.

Minato secretly swore to himself that since heaven had given him another chance, he would never let go again.