Flying Thunder God Technique

"Flying Thunder God Technique?"

Dozens of Narutos crowded around at once.

The Shadow Clone holding the scroll nodded vigorously, his finger nearly poking the lines of the formula.

"The Second Hokage created it, and the Fourth Hokage used it to make his name throughout the shinobi world!"

"They say the Fourth could appear anywhere in an instant!"

"His enemies couldn't even catch a glimpse of him!"

Naruto's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

The Fourth Hokage was a household name in Konoha.

His face was carved into Hokage Rock, his exploits appeared in school textbooks, and the legend of the "Yellow Flash" still circulated throughout the village.

How could a technique that made the Fourth Hokage famous across the shinobi world be anything ordinary?

"We're learning this one!"

Naruto slapped the scroll.

"Forget the other techniques for now. Everyone, focus on Flying Thunder God!"

The Shadow Clones immediately crowded closer.

A moment later, the forest, so lively just moments before, gradually fell silent.

They recognized every word on the scroll, but strung together, they looked like some code deliberately designed to torment people.

Spatial coordinates, formula anchors, chakra sensing, instantaneous transfer...

Naruto stared at one passage for ages, only to feel the black characters swimming before his eyes.

"Why do we have to calculate this coordinate like that?"

"No idea."

"Why does the last stroke of the formula have to return to the starting point?"

"No idea."

"And what's a spatial node?"

"Give it a rest! Aren't we the same person? If you don't know, how would I?"

Several Shadow Clones stared at one another.

One had barely finished half a page before clutching his head and falling flat on his back.

"I think the Clone Technique is pretty good."

Another Shadow Clone sprawled over the scroll, his eyes glazed over.

"How about we pick something easier?"

"No!"

Naruto rejected the idea immediately.

A ninjutsu the Fourth Hokage had used was right before him. How could he give up just because he couldn't understand it?

Besides, Cangyue had told him to learn as much as he could.

If he couldn't understand the theory, he would try the most straightforward approach.

Naruto climbed onto a rock and pointed at the Shadow Clones around him.

"Here's the plan. Everyone, remember your assignments."

"Ten of you will memorize the formula!"

"Ten of you will practice leaving marks!"

"Ten of you will close your eyes and sense chakra!"

"The rest will follow the scroll and try activating it!"

"Brilliant plan, original!"

The Shadow Clones scattered in a rush.

One group of Narutos huddled beside the scroll and began memorizing the complex formula by rote.

Another group took brushes and painted the formula on tree trunks, rocks, and leaves.

A third group shut their eyes tightly and sat cross-legged around the marks, working to distinguish the chakra left within them.

The final group took the most direct approach.

They chose their marks and formed hand seals.

"Flying Thunder God Technique!"

Nothing happened.

"Flying Thunder God Technique!"

Still nothing happened.

"Flying Thunder God-"

Poof!

The Shadow Clone mishandled his chakra and instantly dissolved into white smoke.

His memories and the lessons from his failure returned to the original at once.

Naruto clutched his head, his face suddenly turning pale.

"That hurts!"

It felt as though someone had forcibly stuffed a pile of complex formulas into his brain, then smashed it several times with a hammer.

The other Shadow Clones all turned toward him.

"Did it help?"

Naruto gritted his teeth and climbed to his feet.

It hurt, but he now knew where he had gone wrong.

The formula couldn't be used simply by drawing it.

The caster had to infuse it with his own chakra, turning it into a coordinate connected to himself.

"It helped!"

Naruto grinned.

"Keep going!"

White smoke burst out one cloud after another.

Shadow Clones dispelled themselves after each failure.

Some drew the formula incorrectly.

Some used too much chakra and burst their leaves apart.

Some used too little, causing the marks to dissipate before they were finished.

The lessons from countless failures kept flowing back to the original.

Naruto rolled back and forth on the ground in pain, yet never once called for them to stop.

An ordinary ninja would have needed to check the formula after each failure, then spend time recovering their chakra.

He could have dozens of Shadow Clones test different approaches at once.

Whenever one method failed, they immediately moved on to the next.

In mere moments, Naruto had ruled out a host of wrong approaches that would have taken an ordinary person days to test.

The Konoha ninja watching from the shadows felt their eyelids twitch.

The Multiple Shadow Clone Technique could be used like this?

That was a forbidden technique.

Yet Naruto had turned it into a tool specifically for making mistakes on his behalf.

Even more absurdly, despite creating so many Shadow Clones and repeatedly enduring the return of their memories, he still had plenty of chakra.

This went far beyond a clever training method.

Without such enormous chakra reserves, an ordinary ninja might have passed out on the spot after trying it just once.

In the forest, Naruto sat down again.

As the lessons from his failures accumulated, the formula finally stopped looking like a meaningless jumble.

He could feel a trace of his own chakra within every mark left on the tree trunks.

But that sensation was very faint.

It was like sensing something through a thick fog.

Naruto tried harder to concentrate, only to feel more chaotic chakra surging inside his body.

Within the sealing space, the Nine-Tails opened his eyes impatiently.

Through Naruto's senses, he saw the Shadow Clones outside scurrying around, and the corners of his eyes twitched.

Was this how you learned Flying Thunder God?

When that blond brat used this ninjutsu back then, he hadn't been stupid enough to make dozens of himself before teleporting.

Still, whether Naruto succeeded had nothing to do with him.

The Nine-Tails shifted position and was about to lie down again when he noticed Naruto's chakra falling into chaos once more.

The chakra kept battering the seal, then flowing haphazardly through Naruto's chakra pathways, making such a racket that he couldn't get any peace.

"Annoying brat."

The Nine-Tails let out a low growl.

A vast surge of chakra emerged and mingled with Naruto's, guiding it smoothly through his chakra pathways instead of letting it run wild.

Outside, Naruto's body gave a slight shudder.

With that tremendous power supporting him, the fog clouding his senses suddenly cleared.

Tree trunks, rocks, leaves.

The marks he had left with his own hands surfaced clearly in his mind, like faint lights shining in the darkness.

Naruto's eyes snapped open.

"Thanks, Kurama!" He had felt the Nine-Tails' power.

Then Naruto called out to the Shadow Clones around him.

"I found them!"

The surrounding Shadow Clones all gathered around.

"You can really sense them?"

"Which mark is the clearest?"

"This one, of course!"

Naruto picked up a leaf from the ground.

A crooked formula was drawn in the center of the leaf, holding a wisp of his chakra.

He left another formula on a rock a few steps away, then closed his eyes to sense it.

Both coordinates appeared at once.

Naruto channeled his chakra according to the instructions on the scroll.

"Flying Thunder God Technique!"

The forest was silent.

Naruto still stood in the same place.

The leaf in his palm hadn't changed either.

Several Shadow Clones scratched their heads.

"Did it fail?"

"The formula must be too ugly."

"Flying Thunder God shouldn't care about handwriting, right?"

Naruto glared at them.

"Don't interrupt me. One more try!"

He checked the formula again.

When the transfer had begun, his chakra had briefly connected the two marks, but the connection had broken at the last moment.

Naruto simply dispelled the Shadow Clones responsible for memorizing the formula.

Poof! Poof! Poof!

White smoke rose in succession.

A more complete understanding of the formula's structure poured into his mind.

Naruto's head hurt so badly that his vision darkened, but he finally found the missing link.

The mark wasn't just a destination.

The caster also had to construct a temporary passage with his own chakra, pulling the target from its current position to the formula's location.

"One more time!"

Naruto placed the leaf in his palm.

Chakra flowed swiftly along the formula.

A faint ripple came from both his palm and the mark on the rock.

The next instant, the leaf vanished into thin air.

Every Shadow Clone went still.

A few steps away, the leaf settled quietly onto the rock.

The forest fell silent for a moment, then erupted in deafening cheers.

"It worked!"

"It really is Flying Thunder God!"

"We learned the Fourth Hokage's ninjutsu!"

Dozens of Narutos jumped and bounced around the rock.

The original Naruto rushed over and cupped the leaf in his hands, his grin stretching almost from ear to ear.

Although it had only moved a few steps, and although the thing teleported had only been a leaf, that was enough to prove he was on the right track.

An object could make it across.

Naturally, so could he.

"Get ready to try teleporting my real body!"

Naruto gave his Shadow Clones the order.

The cheering stopped abruptly.

Several Shadow Clones silently backed away.

"Boss, how about teleporting a rock first?"

"A leaf can still be used once it gets there. A rock might not work."

"That's still better than teleporting yourself out of existence, isn't it?"

A vein throbbed on Naruto's forehead.

"Enough nonsense!"

"I'm going to become Hokage! How could a few steps scare me off?"

He left a formula beneath a tree, then walked several steps away.

Naruto closed his eyes and locked onto the mark.

The distance was short.

He could sense it clearly.

A chakra channel gradually took shape.

"Flying Thunder God Technique!"

The air warped slightly.

Naruto's body abruptly vanished.

Only a few leaves stirred up by the airflow remained where he had stood.

All the Shadow Clones turned at once to look at the mark.

Nobody was there.

"Where's the original?"

"Did he really teleport himself out of existence?"

A moment later, a scream came from above.

"Aah-!"

Naruto appeared beside the trunk, headfirst.

He had meant to land on his feet, but Flying Thunder God only delivered him near the mark. It did nothing to adjust his posture.

Thud!

Naruto plunged headfirst into the grass.

His legs waved around outside for a few moments before finally going still.

The Shadow Clones gathered around him.

"Boss, are you still alive?"

"His feet are still moving. He's probably not dead."

"Quick, pull him out!"

More than a dozen hands grabbed Naruto's legs at once and forcibly hauled him out of the grass.

Bits of leaves covered Naruto's face, and two streams of blood ran from his nostrils.

Sitting on the ground, he shook his head.

Dozens of identical faces overlapped before his eyes, as though the whole forest were spinning.

"I'm so dizzy..."

The Shadow Clones exchanged looks.

"So did it work or not?"

Naruto held his nose and looked up at the spot where he had left his mark.

It was exactly a few steps from his original position.

He had vanished.

Then appeared here.

He hadn't run or passed through the space in between.

Naruto's eyes suddenly lit up.

"It worked!"

"I really learned Flying Thunder God!"

He sprang to his feet, but the dizziness hadn't faded, and he landed right back on his backside.

The Shadow Clones didn't care about that.

Cheers rang through the forest again.

Just then, a calm voice came from overhead.

"Strictly speaking, you've only grasped the basics."

Every Naruto looked up at once.

Cangyue was hanging upside down from a low branch.

His legs hooked around the branch, his body dangling toward the ground, with the Flame and Thunder Swords crossed on his back.

He also held a paper bag and was leisurely eating dumplings.

His hair hung down, nearly brushing the top of Naruto's head.

Dozens of Narutos fell silent at once.

They had been so busy studying Flying Thunder God that none of them had noticed when Cangyue arrived.

More importantly...

What was the point of that pose?

"Cangyue?"

Naruto tilted his head back and asked, "When did you get here?"

"When you crashed into the grass the first time."

Cangyue picked up a dumpling and took a bite.

He had only intended to check on Naruto's progress.

After discovering people keeping watch nearby, he hadn't landed directly. Instead, he had hooked his legs around a branch and hung upside down.

That way, he could look as though he had anticipated everything while also practicing eating upside down.

Two birds with one stone.

Naruto touched his still-bleeding nose.

"So did I learn it wrong?"

He looked down at the mark, then recalled the sight of himself appearing headfirst.

The Fourth Hokage certainly wouldn't plunge headfirst into the grass when using Flying Thunder God.

No matter how he looked at it, his version didn't seem like the same ninjutsu.

Cangyue swallowed his dumpling, still hanging upside down from the branch.

"You vanished from there and arrived here."

"Yes."

"Then there's nothing wrong with it."

Naruto paused.

Cangyue raised a hand to catch a bamboo skewer slipping from the paper bag.

"Your posture doesn't matter. Getting there is what counts."

The forest fell quiet again.

The Konoha Ninja hidden nearby looked up at Cangyue eating dumplings upside down. For a moment, they couldn't tell whether he was commenting on Naruto's Flying Thunder God or explaining why he was hanging upside down in a tree.

Yet his words were undeniably true.

The essence of Flying Thunder God was crossing space to reach a marked location instantly.

Naruto appearing headfirst only meant he hadn't mastered his orientation upon arrival, not that the ninjutsu had failed.

Even the Fourth Hokage hadn't mastered Flying Thunder God to that degree in a single day.

Naruto successfully crossing several steps on his first attempt to teleport himself was already astonishing enough.

"Your posture doesn't matter. Getting there is what counts..."

Naruto repeated the words softly, the doubt on his face quickly disappearing.

He braced his hands on his knees, stood again, and wiped away his nosebleed.

"I get it!"

"For now, I just need to get there. I can practice my posture later!"

Cangyue nodded.

That was exactly what he meant.

Flying Thunder God was incredibly difficult. Naruto managing even one short-range teleport through trial and error with his Shadow Clones was already absurd enough.

Pursuing the Fourth Hokage's stability, precision, and consecutive teleportation now would only waste time.

Naruto immediately began organizing what he had learned so far.

He could only teleport beside formulas he had placed himself.

Beyond the clearing in the forest, his sense of them quickly grew hazy.

He needed to close his eyes and concentrate before activating it; he couldn't trigger it instantly.

After repeated use, he grew too dizzy to stand steadily.

As for his posture upon arrival, that was entirely down to luck.

But none of that mattered.

Because he had truly gone from nothing to crossing the threshold of Space-Time Ninjutsu.

This attempt had been unstable.

The next would be steadier.

If a few steps weren't enough, then he would make it a dozen.

Someday, he too would be like the Fourth Hokage, leaving his enemies with nothing but a fleeting flash of light.

"One more try!"

Naruto turned and charged toward the clearing.

But Cangyue flicked the bamboo skewer from his hand.

Snap!

The skewer struck squarely into the mark Naruto had been about to touch.

"That's enough for tonight."

Naruto looked back.

"Why?"

"You're already starting to lose your balance."

Cangyue unhooked his legs from the branch.

As he fell, he flipped once in midair and landed lightly.

"Use it again, and you might end up inside a tree."

Naruto looked at the thick trunk and shuddered.

Flying Thunder God only sent him near the mark.

If the formula went wrong, nobody knew whether his body might overlap with the tree.

Shadow Clones could fail as often as they liked.

There was only one real Naruto.

Though excited, Naruto hadn't lost his basic judgment.

He nodded in agreement and took a break to recover his strength and chakra.

He also had his Shadow Clones organize the Flying Thunder God Formula and what they had learned from their failures.

[Valor Points +50]

Cangyue watched the notification appear, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

Naruto had grasped the basics of the Fourth Hokage's signature ninjutsu in a single night.

Most of the shock came from the Konoha Ninja watching from the shadows.

Perhaps some also came from the Third Hokage in the Hokage's office.

His accumulated Valor Points changed accordingly.

His accumulated Valor Points reached 1,236.

His currently available Valor Points reached 681.

He would soon be able to upgrade his swordsmanship.

Meanwhile, at the edge of the forest...

Mizuki hid behind a tree, his expression dark as a storm cloud.

He had seen Naruto vanish from where he stood with his own eyes.

Though Naruto had reappeared in an awkward position and even plunged headfirst into the grass, that was definitely not ordinary high-speed movement.

There had been no footsteps.

No afterimages.

Nor had there been any path of movement through the space between.

Naruto crossed that stretch of space.

"Flying Thunder God..."

Mizuki's grip on the Fūma Shuriken tightened slightly.

Things had spiraled completely out of control.

He had only intended to have Naruto learn a Forbidden Technique, then seize the Scroll of Seals once Naruto had exhausted his chakra.

Instead, Naruto had not only mastered the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique but had also begun to grasp Flying Thunder God.

Waiting any longer would only introduce more variables.

Suddenly, Iruka's anxious shouts rang out in the distance.

"Naruto!"

"Where are you?"

Mizuki took the Fūma Shuriken off his back.

I can't wait any longer.