"Hmph, the original body wants it too? Golden Body Mode, right? Chakra fusion, right?!"
"I'm going back right now to add another batch of training memories as a protest!"
No sooner said than done.
Poof...
The clone closest to Naruto's original body sprang up from the ground, formed a release seal with both hands, and vanished into a puff of white smoke.
"Us too..."
Poof, poof, poof...
The remaining Shadow Clone Techniques spoke in unison, then burst into white smoke one after another.
Before the last Shadow Clone Technique vanished, it did not forget to shout at Naruto, "Original body, remember to use Golden Body Mode the next time you make Shadow Clone Techniques..."
Naruto stood there speechlessly. The next moment, thirty sets of memories from training the Flying Raijin Technique flooded into his mind at once. Naruto used Absolute Control to sort through and organize them all.
Once he finished sorting them out, Naruto's mouth twitched involuntarily before he smiled.
The thirty Shadow Clone Techniques had sent back over thirty sets of insights. After Absolute Control organized and integrated the vast amount of sensory detail, the most crucial aspect of practicing Flying Raijin—spatial perception—faintly revealed a tangible direction for a breakthrough.
Strike while the iron was hot.
Naruto formed a cross-shaped hand seal, and the Chakra within him surged out in an unprecedentedly abundant state.
Golden Chakra blazed within the barrier, as though someone had lit a tiny sun beside the pool.
"Shadow Clone Technique!"
When the smoke dispersed, forty glittering golden Narutos stood neatly in the open space beside the pool.
All of them were shrouded in the same golden Chakra cloak. Their hair jutted upward like horns, magatama markings showed at their collars, and their pupils had become vertical.
The sight of forty Golden Body Mode Narutos appearing at once was as spectacular as a small army.
The Golden Body Clones looked at the identical, gleaming companions beside them, then at the original body.
"Everyone, get to work. We have to complete the first stage of Flying Raijin tonight."
Naruto stood before the cave, golden Chakra flowing around him.
"Understood, original body!"
The forty Golden Body Mode Narutos answered in unison, then quickly scattered, each finding a spot to sit cross-legged and train.
They closed their eyes and immersed themselves in comprehending the Flying Raijin Technique. Golden Chakra shone through the mist, casting rippling halos of light across the pool.
Naruto stood at the cave entrance and lowered his head to look at the golden Chakra cloak flowing over his body.
He had mastered Golden Body Mode, but that was only the first step.
Absolute Control allowed him to suppress the suddenly surging Chakra for a short time and use it at a basic level, but more advanced techniques still required dedicated practice.
It was like suddenly being given arms with the strength to lift a thousand pounds. Throwing a punch was no problem, but using that strength to thread a needle was another matter entirely.
The most practical aspect of Golden Body Mode was condensing extendable giant Chakra hands around his body.
In the future, Naruto had used this technique with flawless mastery. He could use giant Chakra hands to seize distant enemies, protect companions, and even directly form Rasengans for long-range attacks.
But right now, he had never even condensed a single giant Chakra hand. He had to start from the beginning.
"Let's start with the simplest thing."
Naruto raised his right hand and focused his mind on the outer side of his shoulder.
Golden Chakra surged from his right shoulder. At first, it was like a shapeless cloud of mist, but under the guidance of his will, it began to stretch and take form.
Absolute Control played an enormous role at this moment. He could precisely sense the flow direction and density distribution of every strand of Chakra during the shaping process. His fingers curled loosely as though kneading invisible clay, arranging the Chakra strand by strand like fibers.
A giant golden Chakra hand slowly extended from his right shoulder.
First came a thick wrist, then a broad palm, and finally five fingers.
Every knuckle was sharply defined, and the patterns at the joints were clearly visible.
The Chakra hand was larger than Naruto himself. With its fingers spread, it measured over five meters long. It floated beside his right shoulder, radiating a warm Golden Radiance beneath the moonlight.
"It worked."
Naruto let out a breath, then frowned slightly. "No, the control precision can be improved further. The Chakra density at the fingertips is too low. The ends will disperse first when grabbing something."
He readjusted the distribution of Chakra, increasing the density at the fingertips by roughly twenty percent.
Then he condensed a second giant Chakra hand. This one extended from his left shoulder and took shape even faster than the one on the right, requiring less than ten seconds.
Two enormous golden palms floated on either side of his body, their fingers slightly spread and ready to perform all kinds of complex movements.
Adaptation training required a real object to work with.
Naruto looked around, and his gaze settled on the cave behind him.
This naturally formed, semi-open stone cave was too small. It was only large enough for one person to sit cross-legged inside, and even turning around was difficult.
Besides, if he was going to use this as a long-term secret training ground, a stone cave less than two meters in diameter was obviously not enough. He needed more space to move freely.
"Then I'll use you for practice."
Naruto rolled his shoulders, and the two giant Chakra hands made identical movements.
Their fingers spread, then curled, as though grasping something in the empty air.
He chose to start with the stone wall deepest inside the cave.
The five fingers of the giant Chakra hand sank into it as easily as plunging into tofu. The stone wall made almost no sound, leaving only dense cracks where the golden fingers entered.
He controlled the depth and angle of the insertion, distributing the force evenly across the entire palm, then exerted a slight pull.
A massive boulder roughly ten meters square was steadily pulled from the mountain by the giant Chakra hand.
The edges of the cut were flat and smooth, as though they had been sliced open by an enormous heated blade.
"I used too much force. The resistance when inserting was much lower than expected."
Naruto muttered as he noted the feel of the operation. At the same time, he controlled the giant Chakra hand to slowly lower the boulder to the ground, cushioning it with his palm so it made no sound upon landing.
When he dug out the second boulder, he was noticeably faster. The giant Chakra hand inserted, grabbed, and lowered it in one fluid motion, taking no more than ten seconds from start to finish.
He used one hand for the third block, switched to his left hand for the fourth, and began alternating both hands continuously with the fifth.
His right hand dug out one block and sent it away, while his left hand was already digging out the next.
The rhythm grew smoother and smoother.
Naruto was not simply gouging out a hole by brute force. He was expanding it without damaging the mountain's overall structure. Every time he removed a block, he glanced at the surrounding rock strata to ensure the supporting structure remained intact.
Before long, two giant Chakra hands were no longer enough for Naruto.
He expanded the Chakra condensation points from his shoulders to other areas of his back, forming seven or eight giant Chakra hands at once to work simultaneously.
Chisel, grab, move, carry, set down—forming a continuous assembly line.
The cave's area rapidly expanded in complete silence.
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