Flying Raijin: First Stage

Naruto sorted, compared, and integrated all this information in his mind.

More than forty Shadow Clones had each broken through different aspects of Flying Raijin. Some sensed spatial fluctuations first, some completed the chakra inscription first, while others found shortcuts in the spatial calculation process.

Under the integration of Absolute Control, these scattered breakthroughs quickly formed a complete logical network.

The two most crucial steps—the chakra formula inscription and the spatial perception of the inscribed formula—had changed in Naruto's understanding from mere principles into tangible instinct.

Naruto opened his eyes and took a blank kunai from his ninja tool pouch.

Holding the kunai in his right palm, he gathered chakra at his fingertips and began engraving it stroke by stroke according to the inscription sequence of Flying Raijin.

Flying Raijin's formula inscription had no fixed pattern. Every user created a unique mark based on their own chakra characteristics.

Tobirama Senju's Flying Raijin mark was a special rune simplified to the extreme, while Minato Namikaze's mark was the four characters: Ninja Love Sword.

It commemorated some promise between him and Kushina, and also symbolized the will to protect Konoha.

Naruto did not intend to imitate them. After thinking for a moment, an image flashed through his mind.

Against a red background was one large five-pointed star, surrounded by four smaller five-pointed stars.

This pattern was an anchor to his past life, and it could also constantly remind him where he had come from.

This mark was unique in the ninja world. There was no chance it could be mistaken for anything else.

The chakra at his fingertips made its first stroke on the flat metal surface of the kunai's handle.

Naruto moved slowly, not because he was unskilled, but because engraving a Flying Raijin formula required extraordinarily precise control over chakra density and penetration depth.

If the chakra was too shallow, the inscription would not last. If it went too deep, the metal itself would be unable to withstand it and would shatter.

Absolute Control made Naruto's perception of the force at his fingertips precise down to the milligram. The depth of every stroke remained at the optimal point of the metal's tolerance.

When the final stroke fell, Naruto lifted his finger from the kunai.

A five-pointed star was clearly imprinted on the metal surface. Its points were sharp and orderly, while four slightly smaller five-pointed stars surrounded the larger one in a perfectly aligned arrangement, forming a miniature flag.

The mark flickered in and out of sight in the metal's reflection, as though it had been embedded deep within the texture of the metal.

Naruto looked at the pattern and rubbed his fingers over the edge of the star, the corner of his mouth curling upward.

"Someday, I'll make this pattern cover the entire ninja world."

With that,

Naruto gripped the kunai engraved with the Flying Raijin mark, weighed it in his hand to confirm the feel, then casually threw it ahead.

The kunai traced a silver arc through the air and embedded itself in a crack in a rock roughly fifty meters away, across the waterfall pool.

Naruto closed his eyes and focused on the unique sensory frequency of the Flying Raijin formula.

The next moment, Naruto clearly sensed the existence of the five-pointed-star mark on the kunai.

It was not something he saw with his eyes, nor was it ordinary chakra perception. It was a form of location that fundamentally transcended physical distance.

In his senses, the mark was like a star in the night. Its distance, direction, and even the state of the mark itself were perfectly clear.

Naruto activated his chakra according to the activation sequence of Flying Raijin.

Unlike the ordinary Body Flicker Technique, which required hand seals, Flying Raijin's activation relied entirely on the connection of a spatial passage between the formula and its user.

The instant chakra activated the formula, the opened spatial passage pulled the user directly to the coordinate point.

The dizzying sensation lasted less than a tenth of a second.

Once his vision stabilized, Naruto looked down and saw that he was standing beside the rock on the far side of the pool. His right foot was directly beneath the crack where the kunai was embedded, while his left foot rested on a moss-covered pebble.

He pulled out the kunai and spun it once between his fingers.

"It worked."

Naruto was delighted.

His voice was drowned out by the roar of the waterfall, but the smile at the corner of his mouth could not be hidden.

The first stage of Flying Raijin—successful teleportation.

No matter how fast a ninja was, their movements could be tracked. The Body Flicker Technique had the windup of hand seals, taijutsu flickering had footwork trajectories, and even the high-speed movement of Golden Body Mode was merely speed taken to its extreme, still following a route.

But space was formless.

Before the emergence of time-based techniques, space reigned supreme.

With Flying Raijin, Naruto possessed a trump card in this high-attack, low-defense world of ninjas that the vast majority of enemies had no way to counter.

Naruto put the kunai away, then engraved five more kunai with Flying Raijin marks while reviewing the next stages of his Flying Raijin training route in his mind.

The first stage was the foundation: a single fixed-point teleportation. He had already mastered it.

Next, he needed repeated practice to improve activation speed and teleportation accuracy, then he could advance to the second stage of Flying Raijin.

The second stage of Flying Raijin would allow him to teleport continuously during high-speed combat, integrating Flying Raijin into the rhythm of real combat offense and defense.

He also needed a batch of ninja tools bearing Flying Raijin marks.

Ordinary kunai were easily damaged, but kunai forged from chakra-conductive metal would not only greatly improve the clarity of spatial perception, they would also be harder to damage.

However, chakra-conductive metal was quite expensive. With his current mission pay and the occasional reward from C-rank missions, he could save up enough to buy a few.

But where to buy them seemed to be a problem too!

Naruto thought for a moment, and eventually one person came to mind.

Tenten.

One of the Twelve Rookie Ninja who threw weapons around as though they were free.

Her family ran a ninja tool shop, so they definitely had them.

But he and Tenten did not know each other yet. Looks like I'll have to get acquainted with her during the Chūnin Exams.

Naruto thought to himself. Then, he found a corner inside the cave and firmly hammered a kunai engraved with a five-pointed-star mark deep into the most inconspicuous crack in the rock wall.

He smoothed over the surface of the crack with his palm. From the outside, there was no trace of it at all.

This would be a fixed teleportation point. Whether he was in Konoha or out on a mission, as long as he activated Flying Raijin and locked onto this kunai's coordinates, he could instantly return to this cave.

After securing the coordinate point, Naruto checked the Perception Isolation Barriers inside and outside the cave once more. Once he confirmed that both layers were functioning normally, he walked out of the entrance.

Standing beside the waterfall pool, facing the clearest first light of dawn, he released Golden Body Mode.

The golden chakra cloak slowly faded away. His hair fell back over his forehead, and his vertical beast pupils returned to round blue eyes.

Naruto raised a hand and loosened his shoulders and wrists, feeling the abundant yet restrained chakra within him as he began reviewing the results of last night's training.

Add Bookmark

Return to Contents

Report Chapter Error

Share with Friends: