Rasengan

Naruto noticed Minato twitch slightly when he heard those words, and he continued:

"The villagers of Konoha were only afraid of the Nine-Tails' power."

"I can understand that fear."

"So I'll use the Nine-Tails' power to protect Konoha, letting those who once feared me feel at ease because of my strength, rather than relieved because I disappear."

This was the Hokage Declaration he had made for himself.

Every word was true, but only he understood the deeper meaning behind them.

The Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's "protection" had been tossing him into an orphanage and ignoring him, leaving an infant to survive on expired milk and instant noodles. Naturally, he would "protect" the Third Hokage in return.

During the Chunin Ninja Exams, he would quietly stand to the side and watch Orochimaru and his two teachers send the Third Hokage off together.

And Danzo, the two advisors, and all those who had once laid hands on him.

He would not miss a single one.

It was not revenge.

Not a single word he had said to Minato was about revenge.

He simply believed that some people ought to pay the price for their decisions.

The Third Hokage's greatest mistake had never been making Naruto suffer. It had been indulging Root and Danzo, and wasting more than ten years that could have turned the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki into a true fighting force.

Such strategic incompetence would invite heaven's judgment through history itself, even if Naruto did nothing.

Minato did not know what Naruto was thinking.

He only knew that his son stood before him with the exact same look in his eyes that Minato had worn when he stood atop Kage Rock all those years ago, telling him word by word:

I want to become Hokage.

I want to protect Konoha.

"Naruto..."

The Fourth Hokage's eyes reddened.

He remembered the night he had sealed the Nine-Tails inside Naruto. He remembered telling the Third Hokage before his death, "Please tell Naruto that his father was a hero who protected Konoha." He remembered all the worries he had carried for more than a decade.

Would his son, the child abandoned by the entire village, grow up to hate him? Would he hate Konoha?

And now, his son was telling him: I'll use the Nine-Tails' power to put them at ease.

"Naruto actually... has such a great love in his heart..."

Minato's voice trembled slightly. Tears slid from the corners of his eyes, refracting faint rainbows in the golden light.

Naruto wore a smile as he silently put another charge on his conscience.

Sorry, Dad.

I really did make you cry.

But your tears were tears of emotion, while the entries in my ledger might need just a tiny adjustment in wording.

Good acting.

Naruto gave himself a mental thumbs-up.

Kushina's eyes had reddened too, but she did not cry again.

A mother's intuition told her that her Naruto was far more complicated than her husband imagined.

But she did not intend to press him, because no matter what Naruto was planning in his heart, she believed the words he had spoken.

Naruto was her child, and she would support whatever Naruto chose to do!

Those two things were enough.

"Alright."

Minato wiped the corners of his eyes with his sleeve and regained his crisp composure. "No more nonsense. Every extra second of Chakra we consume means one less thing we can teach you."

"Let's begin right away."

The first thing Minato taught him was the Rasengan, Genesis's signature Ninjutsu.

"Naruto..."

Minato raised his right hand, palm facing upward. "There are countless advanced Ninjutsu in the Shinobi World, but in the end, they come down to two fundamental abilities: Shape Transformation and Nature Transformation."

"Shape Transformation is controlling Chakra's form, density, and movement."

"Nature Transformation is giving Chakra elemental properties such as wind, fire, water, lightning, and earth."

"The Rasengan is the pinnacle of Shape Transformation."

"It requires no Nature Transformation at all. Through Chakra shape control alone, it can create the destructive power of an A-rank Ninjutsu in the palm of one's hand."

Naruto nodded.

Of course he knew. In his previous life, when he watched the Rasengan's three-stage training, he had practically wanted to memorize every frame.

But he did not interrupt Minato, allowing him to finish the full theory.

Learning Ninjutsu was not something one could master just by watching. When actually doing it, the slightest deviation in any detail could lead to total failure.

"Learning the Rasengan is divided into three steps."

"First, rotation."

Minato raised one finger. "Guide Chakra into your palm and make it spin."

"It does not need to be fast, but it must be stable."

"The direction must be clockwise. That is the most natural direction for a right-handed person, and your Chakra also circulates most stably clockwise."

"Second, irregular rotation."

Minato raised a second finger. "On the basis of rotation, continuously increase the Chakra's density while making its rotational speed irregular."

"It is easy to get greedy and push for speed in this step, but once the rotation exceeds the limit of your current control, the Chakra sphere will explode in your palm."

"Remember that when you practice with your real body."

"An injured palm is no laughing matter."

"Third, maintain and compress."

Minato raised a third finger, his tone growing more serious. "Compress the high-density Chakra sphere undergoing irregular rotation into a stable form."

After hearing the theory behind the three steps, Naruto immediately raised his right hand.

He did not ask, "Is this right?" "Is the force enough?" or "What range should the speed be controlled within?" Before Absolute Control, such questions were all meaningless.

His awareness was precise enough to see every strand of Chakra traveling through his meridians to his palm, precise enough to determine exactly how much Chakra pressure his hand could safely bear.

Palm facing up.

Chakra rose, flowing through the meridians in his right hand and gathering in his palm.

First step.

Naruto drove his Chakra into a spiral rotation, each thread gathering into a slow, stable vortex in his palm.

Second step.

Naruto controlled the Chakra as it began accelerating in irregular rotations. Its density rose smoothly, and he could feel a faint vibration beneath his skin, yet there was not the slightest sign of disorder.

Third step.

Naruto began compressing the rapidly spinning Chakra sphere.

Pressure gathered inward from the edges of his palm, tightening the sphere's surface like a drumhead until it finally stabilized into a ball slightly larger than an adult man's fist.

"Bzzzz!"

In an instant, a full blue Rasengan spun rapidly in Naruto's palm, giving off a deep, steady hum.

The faint currents stirred up by the Chakra's rotation at the sphere's edge blew through the golden light on the ground. There was not a trace of disorder; it was as steady as a meticulously polished crystal glass bead.

Minato Namikaze's pupils contracted, and his mouth fell slightly open.

"When I developed the Rasengan, it took me a full three years."

"The first year, I figured out the theory of Shape Transformation. The second year, I achieved the balance between rotation and power. Only in the third year did I finally manage to maintain it stably."

Minato paused. He stared at the Rasengan in Naruto's palm, pulsing as naturally as breathing, and fell silent for a long time before revealing a proud yet slightly dazed smile:

"Naruto, you broke my record."

"This level of one-step formation..."

Minato softly added half a sentence to himself. He did not say the rest aloud: This doesn't feel like someone who just learned it. It feels more like a familiar movement you've performed countless times.