Chapter 45

Originally, this kid's innate chakra affinities had only been Wind, Fire, and Lightning. Later, thanks to his self-created Soul Refinement Art, his spiritual power had soared all the way up, and his Yin affinity had emerged on its own.

After that, with the Innate Art and the Uzumaki Sage Body working together, his Yang affinity had awakened smoothly as well.

Now that he had obtained the Earth affinity too, he only lacked Water before his innate affinities would be complete.

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

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

The only problem was that Tsunade had already gone to the Bellflower City front lines, where she was fighting fiercely against the Sand Village. She would not be back anytime soon.

"Forget it. It can wait." Uchiha Yan shook his head and temporarily put the thought aside.

Even if he gathered every innate affinity now, the practical improvement would not be all that dramatic—at most, his Water Release would be more powerful and easier to learn in the future.

With his current mastery of the other releases, he was still far from being able to create something on the level of a Bloodline Snare.

"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 have both improved slightly. You also developed several new ninjutsu in passing: 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 this technique to perfection and developed 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 it.

Wind chakra instantly wrapped around his entire body. His feet left the ground, and he rose straight into the air.

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

He laughed freely.

Honestly, he had previously come up with an aerial movement technique like the Six Powers' Moon Step, but his body was not strong enough to practice it at all.

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

Mastering a flying technique was absolutely necessary.

When flying through the sky, one could seize the initiative in most situations.

It also made escaping danger much easier. Its mobility was simply incomparable to running on the ground.

He flew while experimenting, and his understanding of the Wind-Walking Technique deepened as his control grew more skillful.

At first, he flew crookedly, and his speed was nothing worth mentioning.

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

Every now and then, he would suddenly accelerate, pushing his flight speed to the 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 excitedly and shouted up at his younger brother in the air, "Xuan! Did you come up with this new technique yourself? You can fly? That's incredible! Can you teach me?"

Hearing him, Uchiha Yan immediately dove down from the sky and charged straight at him.

"Damn!"

Uchiha Hao cried out and hurriedly dodged to the side.

Yet Uchiha Yan abruptly stopped thirty centimeters above the ground, hovering steadily in midair with his arms folded as he looked at him smugly. "Brother, aren't you a little too timid?"

He flew a circle around Uchiha Hao, clearly showing off.

Uchiha Hao rolled his eyes, too lazy to waste words with him. "Enough 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 affinity first."

Of course, mastering the technique also required sufficient chakra reserves and precise control. But for Uchiha Hao, who had cultivated the Soul Refinement Art, the basic body-forging technique, and the Uzumaki Sage Body method, none of that was a problem.

"Of course I do!"

Uchiha Hao grinned. "I happen to have both Wind and Fire affinities. I'm perfectly suited to learn this Wind Release flying technique! Hurry up and teach me!"

"Fine."

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 the Flying Raijin marker he had left on Kushina moving rapidly toward the outskirts of the village.

He frowned. Just as he was about to use the Flying Raijin Technique to rush over, he instinctively used Kagura's Mind's Eye. With a sweep, he discovered more than a dozen Root ninja hidden outside the Uchiha compound, staring intently inside.

Their attention was clearly focused on his home.

"Oh?"

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

"And I'm his target? Heh, interesting."

He sneered. After thinking briefly, he created a Shadow Clone.

"I'm going."

The Shadow Clone nodded, then locked onto a marker left by his supernatural clone five kilometers away in the direction Kushina was moving and vanished instantly.

Uchiha Yan's body flickered as the Flying Raijin Technique activated, and he disappeared from the spot.

His true body then rushed out from the house and quickly pursued Kushina's direction.

Before long, he had left the Uchiha compound and accelerated in pursuit.

"Hm?"

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

The leader, Jie, raised an eyebrow. "We were still wondering how to lure him out to chase after her, but he ran out on his own."

"Judging by how anxious he looks, he really did leave some kind of backup on Kushina Uzumaki."

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

"Lord Danzo was right. That Uchiha brat really does have designs on the jinchuriki."

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

"Follow him. Don't get too close. Wait until he meets up with the Cloud ninja before we make our move."

After Jie spoke, he led the Root members from two squads after him quietly, maintaining a distance of around three hundred meters as they followed Uchiha Yan.

Meanwhile.

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 utterly captivated by that color, and he recognized it at a glance.

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

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

"Oh no!"

Minato's face changed abruptly. "Something happened to Kushina."

He immediately expanded his senses to their limit, scanning the area 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, then determined the general direction and chased after it at top speed.

Along the way, he found quite a few more tufts of red hair. That only confirmed his suspicions, and his anxiety grew stronger.

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

Minato Namikaze cried out anxiously in his heart.

At the same time, he felt some resentment toward Uchiha Yan. Since Kushina chose you, how could you fail to protect her and let her fall into such danger?

He even found himself once again entertaining the thought of competing with Uchiha Yan for Kushina.

If I can save Kushina this time and explain everything that happened before, along with 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 before.

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

Instead, the more he explained, the worse things became, and the misunderstandings only piled higher.

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