"Because I have been promoted to Chunin..."
Senju Chen's voice was not loud, but like a stone thrown into a calm lake, it set off silent ripples in Ichiraku Ramen Shop.
The sound of huffing and puffing suddenly stopped.
Might Guy still had half a noodle in his mouth, his eyes were as wide as copper bells, and his trademark thick eyebrows were twisted into strange shapes due to extreme shock. He slowly turned his head inch by inch, as if he was seeing Senju Chen for the first time.
"Chunin?!"
Compared to Might Guy's outward shock, Kakashi's reaction was much more restrained and more lethal.
His movement of holding the noodles froze in mid-air, and the exposed dead fish eye shrank suddenly. Although the mask covered most of his face, Senju Chen could still read the severely wounded pride in his tight jawline and suddenly cold eyes.
I, Kakashi Hatake, was hailed as a genius that only happens once in decades. I graduated at the age of eight and had just received the status of representative ninja, Forehead Protector. I was immersed in the joy of surpassing my peers.
But the guy who was once in the same class with him and whom he regarded as his target, actually... has moved further ahead.
Chunin.
These two words, like two invisible mountains, weighed heavily on Kakashi's heart. The talent he was so proud of seemed a bit ridiculous at this moment.
"Humph."
Kakashi slowly put down his chopsticks, making a slight clinking sound. He did not look at Senju Chen again, nor did he touch the ramen in front of him again. He just squeezed out a cold syllable from his throat and stood up.
"I'm full."
After saying that, he Earth Flow walked out of the ramen shop without looking back, his thin back carrying a sense of aloofness and loneliness that was inconsistent with his age.
"Hey! Kakashi! You guy!" Might Guy finally reacted and shouted at the door, but Kakashi's figure had already disappeared at the corner of the street.
"Chen... you... you are really..." Might Guy turned around, his tone full of complex emotions, including the excitement of being happy for his friends, and the disappointment of being left far behind.
"Yeah." Senju Chen smiled and nodded, then dragged Kakashi's bowl of almost untouched ramen in front of Might Guy. "Don't waste it, Kai, come and help Kakashi solve it together. This is a feast to celebrate his promotion."
"Oh... Okay! Burning youth by eating ramen is also a kind of spiritual practice!" Might Guy was quickly rekindled by food and blood, and once again threw himself into the battle with noodles.
Senju Chen ate the noodles slowly and chuckled in his heart.
Hehe, Kakashi, your father personally asked me to take good care of you. I hope this stimulation can make you grow up faster.
Saying goodbye to Might Guy who turned appetite into motivation, Senju Chen did not go home to enjoy Kushina's "warm embrace", but skillfully walked through several alleys and arrived in front of a seemingly ordinary house.
He knocked on the door three times rhythmically, and the door slid open silently.
The cold, damp air rushed towards my face, mixed with the pungent smell of formalin and a vague, faint smell of blood.
This is one of Orochimaru's underground laboratories.
Senju Chen has long been accustomed to this kind of environment. He looked as usual. Earth Flow walked down the long stairs. Along the way, he could see huge glass containers filled with various creepy biological specimens and even some incomplete human tissues.
At the end of the laboratory, Orochimaru was facing away from him, standing in front of a huge experimental table, carefully dissecting something with a scalpel. He was wearing a white research coat, and his golden vertical pupils shone with an inhuman cold light under the dim light.
"Little Chen, you're here." Orochimaru didn't look back. His unique hoarse voice, like a snake rubbing sandpaper, echoed in the empty laboratory, "Arrange the experimental records in cabinet No. 3."
"Yes, teacher." Senju Chen responded respectfully, walked to the bookcase on the side, and began to sort out the scrolls and reports filled with complex data.
He behaves like the most perfect and obedient student, silent, efficient, and never asking too many questions. It is precisely because of this that Orochimaru allowed him to enter his most core secret base.
The only sounds in the laboratory were the faint sounds of instruments colliding and papers being turned.
After a long time, Orochimaru seemed to have completed the work at hand. He wiped his hands, picked up an encrypted scroll next to him, read it, and said in a calm tone like talking about the weather:
"Something happened to Sunagakure, Third Kazekage is missing."
Senju Chen's movement of sorting out the scrolls had an almost imperceptible pause, and then returned to normal.
He raised his head, with just the right amount of confusion on his face. "Missing? Was he attacked by someone? Kazekage is the shadow of a village, how could he..."
Orochimaru turned around, his golden vertical pupils full of amusement and excitement. "Who knows? Maybe you are tired of the wind and sand in the desert and want to see the outside world... hehehe..."
His laughter was low and weird, making the temperature in the laboratory seem to drop a bit.
"In the near future, please don't accept missions from the direction of Land of Wind. The current Sunagakure is a bit weak."
"I understand, teacher." Senju Chen lowered his head, hiding the turbulent waves rising deep in his eyes.
Third Kazekage is missing!
Scorpion!
This time... you can't go wrong! Third, known as "the strongest Kazekage in history", was assassinated by the genius puppet master Sasori of the Red Sands and made into Human Puppet!
This is one of the most important triggers for the Third Shinobi World War outbreak!
War is coming.
Senju Chen's heart was beating violently in his chest, and an unprecedented sense of urgency overwhelmed him like an icy tide.
Not enough! Far from enough!
The current strength is still far from being able to protect itself in the upcoming war!
Must... make yourself stronger quickly!
After leaving the cold underground laboratory, Senju Chen took a deep breath of the fresh night air. His heart, which was agitated by the shadow of war, was suppressed by his reason. Without stopping at all, he turned around and walked towards the training ground on the other side of the village.
He knew that at this point in time, that person must still be there.
Sure enough, at Training Ground No. 44, the place reserved by Minato Namikaze all year round, Senju Chen saw that familiar golden figure.
Under the moonlight, Minato Namikaze stood alone in the center of the field, holding up his right hand. The ball of Chakra in his palm was rotating and expanding violently, making a harsh buzzing sound. His brows were furrowed, and his handsome face was covered with sweat. He was obviously at a critical stage of the development of Ninjutsu.
Senju Chen didn't bother, just stood quietly and watched from a distance.
Suddenly, the high-speed rotating ball of Chakra lost control and exploded violently!
"Pfft!"
There was a muffled sound and a strong repulsive force that made Minato take a step back. Several blood marks were instantly cut on his right hand by the violent Chakra.
"Did you still fail..." Minato Namikaze looked at his injured palm and sighed helplessly.
"Brother Minato."
Only then did Senju Chen speak and walked over slowly.
"It's Little Chen," Minato Namikaze saw him and immediately showed a gentle smile on his face, as if the failure and wounds just now didn't exist, "Why haven't you rested so late?"
"I just finished the mission and I have some questions about Flying Thunder God that I would like to ask you." Senju Chen found a perfect excuse, but his eyes fell on Minato's injured hand, "Are you practicing that technique again?"
"Well, we encountered a bit of a bottleneck." Minato wiped away the blood with his other hand nonchalantly, with unyielding fighting spirit burning in his eyes, "But we are almost successful."
Senju Chen looked at him and couldn't help but want to laugh.
This is the future Fourth Hokage, the famous "Yellow Flash" of Shinobi World, but now he is like an inventor who has suffered many failures and has become disgraced because of a "little ball".
But the smile in his heart was soon replaced by admiration.
The so-called genius is not that he is born omnipotent, but that he has put in a thousand times of sweat and effort in a corner that no one sees, to turn that one percent inspiration into a hundred percent reality.
"Brother Minato, can you... show me that technique?" Senju Chen's eyes were shining with pure curiosity and yearning, "Ninjutsu, the attack that can be launched without fingerprints, I'm really curious!"
"Haha, of course." Minato has always been willing to give advice to this talented and studious "younger brother".
He stretched out his right hand again, took a deep breath, and Chakra gathered in his palm again.
"The inspiration for this technique comes from Tailed Beast Bomb. I divided it into three stages. The first step is spin!"
The Chakra in his palm began to spin crazily and made a buzzing sound.
"The second step, power!"
As more Chakra was injected, the swirling airflow became more violent, even bringing up the surrounding fallen leaves.
"And the third most difficult step... maintaining form!"
Minato concentrated all his energy and tried to compress the violent ball of Chakra into a perfect spherical shape. However, less than half a second after the Chakra sphere was formed, it became unstable again and the edges began to escape.
"Finally... condensation!" Minato shouted in a low voice, trying to control it forcefully.
"Bang!"
The result was still the same. Chakra exploded again, smaller than the last time, but still declared a failure.
"Alas..." Minato was discouraged and shook his head with a wry smile, "It still doesn't work. The form cannot be stable and the power cannot be concentrated on one point."
Senju Chen looked at this scene, suppressing a smile, but with a deeply shocked expression on his face. "It's so... so amazing! Brother Minato! Can Shape Transformation, who is just Chakra, be able to do this?"
He admired from the bottom of his heart.
This is Rasengan.
"Brother Minato," Senju Chen's eyes became extremely serious. He took a step forward and asked in an almost pleading tone, "Can... can you teach me the principle of this technique? I just want to know what is the theory of rotating Chakra in multiple directions and maintaining its form without a 'shell'?"
Looking at Senju Chen's clear eyes full of curiosity, Minato Namikaze didn't have the slightest doubt, and he smiled happily.
"Of course."
At the training ground, the future "Yellow Flash" began to explain to an eight-year-old boy without reservation the secrets of Ninjutsu, which would be the most powerful Shinobi World in the future.