Training, Hokage's Office

The second area was the stability and concealment of the technique formula.

Flying Thunder God had an incredibly overpowered trait: its marks could remain permanently, and when inactive, they were completely hidden. The marked person could barely detect them.

After the treacherous Obito was marked by Minato, the mark remained on him for a full sixteen years.

This was not merely a matter of chakra control precision. It also involved the sealing concealment mechanism after the technique formula had been inscribed.

Naruto's current Flying Thunder God marks had yet to reach Minato Namikaze's level, so he still needed to put in more work.

The third area was integrating Flying Thunder God into his own combat style.

Everyone's fighting style was different. Minato Namikaze specialized in extreme-speed assaults, and in his hands, Flying Thunder God was the core of decapitation tactics.

The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, was a tactical type. Flying Thunder God was merely one component in his vast tactical arsenal.

Naruto needed to find a method that suited him. His advantages were his chakra reserves and the extreme mobility of Golden Body Mode. What kind of chemical reaction would result from combining Flying Thunder God with that system needed to be tested continuously through combat simulations.

The fourth area, and the most important one, was advancing Flying Thunder God to its second stage.

The first stage of Flying Thunder God was a single fixed-point teleportation. The second stage, meanwhile, allowed consecutive teleportations—switching coordinates multiple times in midair, changing attack directions, evasion routes, and pursuit paths out of thin air.

This required the user's speed of spatial-coordinate calculations and chakra activation frequency to reach an extremely high level.

Very soon,

Forty Shadow Clones entered a state of intense focus, while Naruto walked to the other side of the cave and began practical adaptation training for Golden Body Mode.

He drew upon the Nine-Tails' chakra within him. In an instant, golden chakra began to spread. His hair rose upward, forming the shape of two horns. Six black magatama appeared around his collar, and his pupils turned into vertical beastly slits.

The instant Golden Body Mode covered his entire body, Naruto could clearly feel that his speed, strength, reactions, and perception had all been pulled to an entirely different level.

Naruto stood firmly in the center of the cave. Rather than immediately attempting difficult movements, he began with the basics.

Straight punches, roundhouse kicks, side steps, sudden stops after forward dashes, high-speed turns and changes of direction.

He performed every movement slowly, not in pursuit of speed, but to calibrate his muscle memory,

so that his body could form stable neural pathways for every exertion of force while in Golden Body Mode.

Once he had finished calibrating his basic footwork, Naruto began summoning chakra in different directions around his body.

First, two giant golden hands extended from either side of his shoulders, then from his back, and then from his waist.

Seven or eight massive chakra hands unfolded throughout the cave at once, creating a spectacular sight.

This was not the first time Naruto had experienced the power of Golden Body Mode's giant chakra hands, but being able to control them freely in actual combat was another matter entirely.

Naruto controlled the chakra hands to grab stone fragments of varying sizes from the ground. Some clenched into fists, some spread all five fingers, and some tapped lightly with a single finger, their force controlled precisely enough to avoid crushing the rocks into powder.

He then tried to make those hands coordinate with his taijutsu movements while in motion, linking every punch and kick more smoothly and naturally.

Time slowly passed amid this high-intensity training.

Meanwhile, in an office within the Hokage Building, the dark red glow of a pipe ember flickered in the dim light.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sat behind a broad desk piled with documents. A pipe hung from his mouth as he held a brush in his hand, writing annotations on a scroll.

An ANBU member wearing a cat-faced mask appeared soundlessly before the desk, dropped to one knee, and presented a scroll with both hands.

"Lord Hokage, this is today's itinerary report on the jinchūriki. This morning, he visited the Ninja Commercial District and stopped in front of four ninja tool shops, but did not enter any of them."

"In the afternoon, he stayed in his apartment, and in the evening, he spent some time discussing ninjutsu theory with his Shadow Clones."

Before the cat-masked ANBU could finish, the Third Hokage raised a hand and gave a light wave, signaling that there was no need to continue.

"You've worked hard. Leave the scroll there."

Upon hearing this, the cat-masked ANBU did not linger. He placed the scroll on a designated stand at the edge of the desk, then vanished soundlessly with a Body Flicker.

The Third Hokage did not immediately reach for the scroll.

He turned his head and lightly swept his aged fingers across the desk. A live image of Naruto's apartment appeared in the crystal ball on the tabletop.

At that moment, Naruto was snoring soundly beneath his blanket. His golden hair was a mess, the blanket only covered half his body, and one leg still hung over the edge of the bed. Every now and then, he rolled over and smacked his lips.

His breathing was even, and his sleeping posture completely defenseless—the exact look a worn-out twelve-year-old boy should have.

"The Ninja Commercial District, huh..."

The Third Hokage removed the pipe from his mouth and tapped it against the ashtray. A faint smile appeared at the corner of his aged lips. "The Chūnin Exams are almost here. Little Naruto must be feeling the pressure."

"He knows to check out equipment at ninja tool shops before an exam. Compared to that rash little brat from before, he really has gained a bit of the mindset needed for the battlefield."

Hiruzen Sarutobi took another puff, shut off the image in the crystal ball, and reached for the scroll.

Just as his fingers were about to touch it, there came a knock at the office door.

"Come in."

Hiruzen Sarutobi set the scroll aside for the moment, leaned back in his chair, and put the pipe back into his mouth.

The heavy wooden door was pushed open, and three figures filed in from the hallway outside.

At the front was a young female ninja with a short ponytail and a beige trench coat—Anko Mitarashi, the examiner for the second exam.

Behind Anko Mitarashi was a pale, thin young man. The dark circles beneath his eyes were so heavy that he looked as though he had not slept for days, and he coughed lightly every few steps—Hayate Gekko, chief examiner for the third exam preliminaries.

Last came a broad, powerfully built man whose face was covered in scars. That face was renowned throughout Konoha and even the entire ninja world—Ibiki Morino, examiner for the first exam and the ace of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Division.

The three stood in a neat row before the desk and bowed slightly in unison.

"Lord Hokage."

There was only one reason the three of them had appeared here together: the examiner assignments for the Chūnin Exams.

"You've worked hard, Anko, Hayate, Ibiki."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's gaze swept over their faces, his tone as gentle as ever. "I'll be relying on the three of you to preside over the upcoming Chūnin Exams."

"Ibiki will oversee the first written exam. Anko will oversee the second exam in the Forest of Death. Hayate will oversee the third exam preliminaries."

"Once the preliminaries are over, I will personally supervise the final official matches."