The Rasengan Plan

Clang!

The sound of Liu Yun drawing his blade broke the silence.

The Lightning Armor and Thunder Sword had vanished, leaving only the lifeless bodies of three Takigakure ninja and several charred craters.

He walked up to the Takigakure jonin, glanced at the lingering bewilderment and fear in his eyes, and casually plunged his Ninja Blade into him.

To make sure he was dead.

And also... to replenish his chakra.

Feeling his chakra begin to recover in thin streams, Liu Yun let out a breath of relief.

The [Kubikiribōchō]'s chakra-restoring property was incredibly useful and gave him a great deal of confidence. At least he did not have to worry about running out of chakra.

Lightning Release: Heaven-Splitting Thunder Serpent consumed a little more than he had expected, but the overall cost was still acceptable.

This time, he had only summoned a dozen or so lightning serpents. He looked forward to the day when he could summon hundreds and turn them into Thunder Swords that filled the sky.

Only then would he truly display his ultimate technique in its complete form.

"Gulp!" ×2

As Liu Yun went around making sure all three were dead,

Minato and Nawaki snapped out of their daze. They exchanged a glance, then both swallowed.

They glanced at the three bodies on the ground before focusing on Liu Yun, their eyes full of shock.

The sight of him covered in Lightning Armor, summoning lightning serpents and turning them into Thunder Swords with a wave of his hand was still vivid in their minds.

Unable to contain their excitement, Minato and Nawaki grabbed the merchant and hurried over.

"What was that jutsu?" Minato asked.

Nawaki nodded furiously like a chicken pecking at grain, clearly just as curious.

"That jutsu... I named it Lightning Release: Heaven-Splitting Thunder Serpent."

"Lightning Release: Heaven-Splitting Thunder Serpent..." Minato murmured.

After receiving repeated private lessons from Jiraiya, Minato had learned several jutsu and become familiar with some of the more famous ones.

But he could not recall any jutsu with that name.

With that thought, Minato asked, "Did you develop it yourself?"

Liu Yun considered it. "Yeah, you could say that."

He had found the equipment materials himself and forged the equipment himself, so why shouldn't it count as a jutsu he had developed?

Minato suddenly found it hard to believe.

Could a Ninja Academy student really develop such a terrifying jutsu?

Why was the gap between them growing wider and wider?

"You really developed it yourself? Is it A-rank or S-rank?" Nawaki exclaimed.

Liu Yun thought for a moment. The complete Heaven-Splitting Lightning Serpent should be S-rank.

"In its current state, it should be A-rank."

Nawaki stared blankly, looked Liu Yun up and down, then suddenly grabbed his arm. "Senior Liu Yun, you jerk! Don't talk about such an incredible jutsu so casually!"

"Hold on." Liu Yun's expression turned odd. "What's this about 'senior'? If I remember correctly, you're three years older than me."

Nawaki waved that aside, his eyes filled with nothing but admiration. "Age doesn't matter at all. Besides, my sister told me to listen to you."

Liu Yun abruptly asked, "What, want to learn it?"

Nawaki froze for two seconds before his eyes suddenly lit up. Even his voice trembled. "C-can I?"

Naturally, he wanted to learn such an incredible jutsu, but high-level jutsu had always been precious resources.

Unless they were teacher and student, even close friends might not be able to learn each other's jutsu.

Liu Yun gave him a meaningful smile. "Of course. Agree to one condition, and I'll teach you."

"What condition?" Nawaki asked eagerly.

"Well... we'll discuss that later. As for the jutsu, it isn't complete yet. I'll teach you once I've perfected it."

The equipment's properties allowed him to use this jutsu. As long as he was willing to put in the time, he could also work backward to figure out its underlying principles.

However, there was no second Kiba left in the world. Even if someone else truly learned the jutsu, its power would probably be somewhat diminished.

"Yes, yes!"

Nawaki nodded repeatedly. Never mind one condition-he would agree to ten or even a hundred. He trusted Liu Yun's character and knew he would not ask for anything too unreasonable.

"And you too, Minato. Once I've perfected the jutsu, I'll teach you as well."

Liu Yun patted Minato on the shoulder.

Somewhat taken aback, Minato pointed at himself. "Me?"

He had not expected to be able to learn it too. After all, Liu Yun's teacher was Tsunade, and Nawaki was Tsunade's younger brother, while he and Liu Yun were merely classmates.

Liu Yun nodded firmly. Teaching two people was no different from teaching one.

It was only a jutsu. His true trump cards were his ever-growing collection of equipment.

He could consider it a gesture of thanks for [Minato Namikaze's Kunai], the piece of equipment that had made up for his shortcomings.

Besides, he was planning to "borrow" Minato's idea and try developing the Rasengan ahead of time.

Chidori was also in his plans.

He could never have too many jutsu that required no hand seals.

Whoosh!

Just then, Jiraiya appeared.

"I've confirmed it. There were only these three Takigakure rogue ninja. There aren't any other ninja lying in ambush nearby."

Having said that, he glanced at the bodies of the Takigakure ninja on the ground and walked over to Liu Yun.

Looking at Liu Yun with surprise, he asked with interest, "What was that jutsu called?"

Jiraiya could tell that one of the three Takigakure ninja was a jonin, while the other two were somewhere between chunin and special jōnin.

A squad like that might not amount to much against him.

But he had expected them to give Liu Yun and the others quite a bit of trouble.

It would have been the perfect opportunity to remind them that, no matter how talented they were, they still needed to maintain the caution and vigilance expected of a ninja.

He had also been ready to support them at any moment, but he had not expected Liu Yun to unleash a jutsu that even he found astonishing, in addition to summoning lightning.

He had manipulated lightning into armor, summoned lightning serpents to paralyze his enemies, then transformed those serpents into Thunder Swords to inflict damage.

That complex sequence of maneuvers could be called the pinnacle of chakra shape transformation. In all honesty, even he would have struggled to develop such a jutsu from scratch.

"Lightning Release: Heaven-Splitting Thunder Serpent."

Jiraiya repeated the name, rubbing his chin. "Heaven-Splitting Thunder Serpent, huh? The name fits. That's a very impressive jutsu."

"And you two did well too. You reacted quickly to Liu Yun's instructions. That's good. Keep it up."

Minato and Nawaki could not help smiling.

Liu Yun gave Nawaki another look.

Although Nawaki had performed rather poorly on his first mission because he had been so well protected growing up, his actual strength was no worse than that of an average chunin.

Over the past month of missions, once he had overcome his mental barriers and adjusted to the rhythm of combat, his performance had been quite commendable.

His teamwork with Minato was especially seamless.

A short while later, after they finished a brief review of the battle, Jiraiya's smile faded and his expression grew serious.

He turned toward the merchant, who had hunched his shoulders and was doing his best to avoid drawing attention.

His tone turned cold as well. "Now, it's time we cleared up why you lied about the mission's rank."