Flash Step and the Beginnings of a System

Bai Ye discovered that time flowed completely differently on the training ground than it did in the classroom. Bai Ye on the training ground and Bai Ye in the classroom were two different people.

Spring, Year 34 of Konoha. More than half a year had passed.

Over the past half year, Bai Ye had followed Hatake Sakumo's analysis and focused on swordsmanship and the Body Flicker Technique. The rest of his time went toward strengthening his body and refining chakra to increase his reserves. But during his recent sparring sessions with Minato, he had gained some new insights from Minato's Body Flicker Technique.

Lightning-nature chakra surged from the soles of his feet.

Pop!

A crisp crack rang out as a small crater exploded in the ground, dirt and gravel scattering in every direction. Bai Ye looked down at the pit and frowned. His Body Flicker Technique was not as fast as Minato's, so he had been thinking about whether he could use an external force to accelerate further. But the thrust he had imagined still fell somewhat short.

After several attempts, Bai Ye changed his approach. Rather than trying to unleash a large amount of chakra at once, he compressed lightning-nature chakra beneath his feet like a tightly wound spring. During the compression, he could feel the chakra in the meridians of his feet being squeezed into an incredibly tiny point, like compressing a ball of cotton into a pebble.

Then he released it.

His body shot forward a short distance, as though someone had shoved him from behind, sending him flying with a powerful push.

After steadying himself, Bai Ye looked down at where he had been standing, then at where he stood now.

About half a meter.

The chakra dispersed too widely upon release, and the directional control was unstable. He had intended to move forward just now, but his body had veered more than ten centimeters to the right.

He gathered chakra again.

Release.

His body surged forward one meter.

Still too slow, but better than before. Bai Ye straightened up and stared at the widening distance between the two marks. A thought surfaced in his mind: What if the compression time could be shortened to an instant? What if the chakra didn't scatter upon release, but pointed in one clear direction like a blade...?

He thought of Minato.

Minato's speed was a talent. His body was naturally suited for rapid movement. The explosive power of his muscles, the flexibility of his joints, the speed of his neural reactions—every part of him was like a meticulously calibrated machine component. That kind of speed could not be learned.

But what if he used Lightning Release? What if he relied on chakra, concentrated the explosive power of lightning-nature chakra beneath his feet, and used chakra in place of muscular strength to propel his acceleration?

Bai Ye tried again.

This time, he did not rush to move. He first compressed the lightning-nature chakra beneath his feet, feeling the power being restrained, like lightning locked inside a cage. It struggled, swelled, and wanted to burst free. Then he slightly adjusted the angle of his feet. Instead of planting them flat against the ground, he landed on the balls of his feet, tilting the direction of the released force forward.

Release.

His body shot more than two meters away.

Bai Ye nearly lost his footing when he landed. His right foot stepped on a piece of gravel, and he staggered forward two steps before regaining his balance. But he did not care. He estimated the distance.

"What are you doing?"

Bai Ye spun around.

Minato had appeared at some point, standing at the edge of the training ground with a puzzled yet curious expression.

"What was that just now? The Body Flicker Technique?"

"No."

"But you moved two meters in an instant."

"It wasn't the Body Flicker Technique," Bai Ye repeated. "I used Lightning Release chakra to erupt beneath my feet and push myself forward."

Minato hurried over, crouched down, and carefully examined the marks Bai Ye had left on the ground. He even measured the distance with his fingers before looking up, his eyes shining like two lamps.

"What's the principle?"

Bai Ye considered it, then gestured with his hand. "The characteristic of lightning nature is explosive force. Concentrate it at one point and release it instantly. The tighter the compression, the greater the thrust upon release. But I'm compressing it too slowly right now. It takes more than a second to compress fully. A true Body Flicker Technique should complete the compression and release instantly."

For five consecutive days, Bai Ye studied Flash Step. Minato and Fugaku constantly offered their own suggestions as well. Flash Step progressed from half a meter at first to a stable distance of more than twelve meters. The compression time was reduced to under 0.2 seconds, and he could even use it eight times in rapid succession for repeated changes of direction during high-speed charges. After eight uses, his chakra would be depleted, but within seven uses, he could maintain uninterrupted high-speed movement. His directional changes had gone from requiring him to land and adjust to allowing him to use the momentum of his previous movement to make slight adjustments in midair.

Oh, right. The original name of this technique had been: Lightning Release: Instant Light Sky-Rending Eight-Forked Flash Dance. Yes, Minato had named it. Later, under Bai Ye's insistence, it was renamed Flash Step, and Minato was stripped of all future naming rights.

When the sunset dyed the stream orange-red, Fugaku pulled out a long cloth bundle from his ninja tool pouch.

"For you."

Bai Ye took it. The bundle was heavy, heavier than he had expected. He untied the cord around it and found a sword inside.

The blade was slightly longer than his wooden sword, a little over two feet long. A faint metallic sheen lay across its edge—not the bright white reflection of ordinary steel, but a deeper glow, like light had been swallowed by the metal and was now seeping out from within. The hilt was dark, wrapped in an anti-slip cord. The wrapping was tightly pressed, clearly not newly done, but replaced after long use.

There was no inscription on the blade.

Bai Ye gripped the hilt. This sword could absorb chakra.

He poured Lightning Release chakra into the blade. Chakra flowed from his palm into the hilt, traveled forward along the metal channels within it, and finally gathered at the edge. The entire sword let out a faint hum, and the metallic sheen on its blade grew brighter, as though something within the sword had awakened.

Then he gripped the hilt and slashed horizontally.

The blade cut through the air with a crisp, piercing sound. An extremely thin layer of Lightning Release chakra wrapped around its surface, leaving a pale blue afterimage in the air. The arc of the slash was straighter and steadier than with his wooden sword.

"Chakra-conductive metal," Fugaku said.

"It was stored in the Uchiha Clan treasury. Something from a long time ago. No one used it." Fugaku's tone was calm. "It would just sit there otherwise."

Bai Ye tightened his grip on the hilt.

"Does it have a name?"

"No. Name it yourself."

Bai Ye lowered his head and looked at the sword in his hand. The gleam of the blade carried a faint orange-red hue beneath the setting sun. It was longer and heavier than his father's wooden sword, and it carried a steadiness that the wooden sword did not possess.

"I haven't thought of one yet," he said.

"No rush." Fugaku stood and brushed grass clippings from his pants. "A sword's name follows its wielder. Once you use it in your first real battle, its name will come on its own."

Bai Ye returned the sword to its sheath and hung it at his waist beside the wooden sword. The wooden sword hung on the left, the new sword on the right. One was light, the other heavy. One was old, the other new. One was the only relic his father had left him, while the other was the first weapon he would carry into the future.

"Thank you."

Fugaku did not respond. His gaze lingered for a moment on the two swords at Bai Ye's waist before he turned and walked toward the stream.

"Let's train," he said.

Minato's smile faded as he lowered his stance slightly.

Bai Ye's right hand settled on the hilt.

The chakra-conductive sword gave off an almost imperceptible hum.

Minato moved first.

His toe touched the water's surface. As he leaned forward, his whole body shot out like a stone fired from a slingshot. His blond hair stretched into a blurry streak beneath the setting sun. Bai Ye had predicted it the instant Minato's toe moved. Minato's right shoulder dipped less than half an inch before he launched himself. It was the preparatory motion before he exerted force—his shoulder moved first, then his body. It was a habit even Minato himself did not know he had.

Bai Ye turned sideways.

Minato's fingertips brushed past his collar. Wind Release chakra wrapped around his hand, forming a wind blade that sliced the air with a sharp screech. At the same time, Bai Ye's sword left its sheath, the back of the blade sweeping diagonally upward toward Minato's wrist.

The blade was fast, but Minato was faster. He forcibly pulled back his right hand in midair, twisted his body, and swept his left leg toward Bai Ye's lower body. Bai Ye retreated one step. The chakra beneath his feet compressed in an instant, and a ring of white mist burst across the water's surface. The high temperature from the Lightning Release chakra erupting beneath his feet vaporized a tiny amount of water, and the air cushion propelled him toward the left front. Minato's sweeping kick missed, his toe striking the water and kicking up a spray.

The moment Bai Ye steadied himself at the point where he landed after moving left, his second Flash Step activated. He changed direction toward the right front, his body tracing a path across the water. The two trails of white mist joined into a V-shape.

Minato's eyes lit up.

He charged toward Bai Ye's landing point, faster than before. But when Minato pounced on that spot, Bai Ye was already gone. The white mist lingering on the water still carried the scent of Lightning Release chakra.

"Behind you!" Fugaku called.

Minato spun around sharply. Bai Ye was indeed three meters behind him, his blade already raised to shoulder height.

Too late to dodge.

Minato crossed both arms in front of himself. Wind Release chakra formed a layer of air over the surface of his arms. The instant the blade struck, it sliced a gap through the wind barrier. But before it could cut his skin, Minato had already used the impact of the blade to launch himself backward. He slid three meters over the water before coming to a stop, leaving a faint white mark on his arm but no blood.

"That was close."

"Bai Ye." Fugaku's voice sounded again.

Bai Ye turned his head.

Three shuriken flew toward him in a triangular formation, their trajectories forming broad arcs as they curved around toward his back.

Fugaku stood nearby, already holding three hand seals.

Bai Ye turned sideways to evade the shuriken on the left, knocked aside the one in the middle with his blade, and lowered his body at the same time. The shuriken on the right passed over his head, taking several strands of hair with it. But Fugaku had already finished his hand seals.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Fire Technique."

Small fireballs shot from Fugaku's mouth, scattering through the air before closing in on Bai Ye in a fan-shaped spread. Bai Ye had no time to think.

His fourth Flash Step sent him backward just as a fireball grazed beneath his feet. The second fireball struck where he had been standing, blasting a bowl-sized crater into the water and throwing spray half a meter high. The third and fourth fireballs sealed off his left and right sides. The angles had been calculated precisely. Fugaku had already accounted for Bai Ye's evasive path when he threw the shuriken.

Bai Ye landed and activated Flash Step for the fifth time, heading straight forward. He slipped through the gap between two fireballs.

The fireballs exploded behind him. Water spray and steam mixed together, forming a white wall of mist. Bai Ye charged out of it, his blade pointed directly at Fugaku. The Lightning Release chakra shining along the sword blazed beneath the sunset like a lengthened bolt of lightning.

Fugaku did not retreat.

His hands formed seals twice as fast as before.

Snake—Ram—Monkey—Boar—Horse—Tiger.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique."

A fireball erupted from Fugaku's mouth.

Nearly two meters in diameter, its core was incandescent white, while orange-red flames churned around its edges. The intense heat warped the air around it, and a massive cloud of mist rose from the stream where the fireball passed.

Bai Ye could not take it head-on.

His sixth Flash Step sent him diagonally upward. His body leaped into the air and flipped over the fireball, his blade drawing an arc through the air as it descended toward Fugaku's head.

Fugaku looked up. He did not form any hand seals. Instead, he flicked out a kunai with his right hand and held it horizontally above his head.

Blade and kunai collided.

Sparks flew.

Bai Ye's strength was blocked.

Fugaku's arm did not move an inch.

When night fell, the three of them sat on rocks by the stream. Their clothes hung from branches to dry, and their shoes were lined up with crumpled fallen leaves stuffed inside to absorb the water. It was a habit they had developed over the past half year. Whenever they trained until they were soaked through, they sat like this, waiting for their clothes to dry and for the stars to appear.

"The clan held another meeting today," Fugaku said.

Minato's smile faded slightly. "Still about the border?"

"Yes. There have already been several small-scale clashes between Konoha and Hidden Rain Village in the Land of Rain. Hidden Stone Village is gathering troops in the northern Land of Rain, while Hidden Sand Village is pressing in from the west. The Land of Wind delegation came to negotiate last time, but nothing was settled."

Bai Ye said nothing, but the hand gripping his sword tightened unconsciously.

"Lord Jiraiya, Lady Tsunade, and Lord Orochimaru have already gone to the front lines. They say Hanzo, the leader of Hidden Rain Village, is extremely strong—strong enough to hold an entire battlefield by himself." Fugaku's voice was low. "Hatake-sensei too. When he left last time, he was headed toward the Land of Rain as well."

Minato lost the ever-present smile on his face. "Will it turn into a war?"

"It's already being fought," Fugaku said. "They just haven't called it 'war' yet."

All three fell silent.

The wind swept over the stream, sending ripples spreading outward. Moonlight fell across the water, dyeing those ripples silver-white.

Bai Ye looked down at the two swords at his waist.

"Then we train until we can fight."

Minato and Fugaku looked at him at the same time.

"When it's our turn to go to the battlefield," Bai Ye said, gripping the hilt tightly, "we can't just come back alive."

He raised his head, moonlight reflected in his black eyes.

"We have to win."