"Yeah!"
Kushina replied.
"I'm telling you, it took a lot of effort to get these Lightning Release scrolls from the Third."
Shin'un looked at the Lightning Release scrolls finally in his hands, feeling pleased.
"Thanks! I'll treat you to barbecue on our next day off!"
At the word barbecue, Kushina's eyes lit up.
"You're a real bro! It's settled, we're having barbecue this Sunday! Remember to bring plenty of money!"
With that, Kushina's mood visibly brightened. Seeing that there was still plenty of time before class, she immediately went over to talk to her two good friends.
Shin'un thought nothing of Kushina telling him to bring plenty of money.
How much could a nine-year-old girl eat?
What mattered most now was examining the Ninjutsu scrolls in his hands.
Shin'un unrolled the scrolls one by one to examine them.
One C-rank scroll and two B-rank scrolls.
Since Shin'un currently only had the lightning Chakra nature, all three Ninjutsu were Lightning Release.
They were Lightning Release: Electric Current, Lightning Release: False Darkness, and Lightning Release: Earth Flow.
After reading through all three scrolls, Shin'un quickly put them into his shoulder bag.
He couldn't help marveling inwardly.
Ever since he had used the Skill Editor to create [Lightning Release Mastery] two years ago, he had been searching for Lightning Release techniques.
But neither of Shin'un's parents had ever been a ninja, and there was nothing at home about ninja training. For the past two years, Shin'un had been practicing some Lightning Release tricks he had picked up through hearsay on his own.
Although his training had reached the point where he could produce one or two faint currents in his hands, they were only for show and couldn't hurt anyone at all.
It wasn't until he heard about the upheaval in the Land of Rain not long ago that Shin'un could no longer hold back.
He went straight to Kushina and asked her to find him a few Lightning Release techniques.
Feeling the Ninjutsu scrolls in his shoulder bag, Shin'un couldn't help marveling a little.
Only yesterday, Shin'un had told Kushina that he wanted her to find him a few scrolls. He hadn't expected to have several in his hands today.
Tonight, Shin'un could practice real Lightning Release Ninjutsu.
And the timing happened to be quite good, too.
With a thought, Shin'un opened the Skill Editor panel.
At a glance, Shin'un's gaze locked onto the progress bar at the bottom of the panel.
[Lightning Release Mastery]: (Progress: 99%)
Two years had passed, and the new skill had loaded far faster than Shin'un had expected. He estimated that he would receive his second skill within the next two days.
After the Ninja Academy let out, Shin'un hurried to his usual training ground with the Lightning Release scrolls he had received that day.
He already couldn't wait to try the Lightning Release techniques he had just obtained.
"Thump~"
Taking out the scrolls, Shin'un tossed his shoulder bag beside the large tree at the edge of the training ground.
Unrolling Lightning Release: Electric Current, which had a training rank of C, Shin'un began studying it.
"Oh, so that's how it works... like this... it's pretty simple."
After carefully reading the scroll, Shin'un thought what it described was very simple.
According to the scroll, the entire process of using Lightning Release: Electric Current involved forming hand seals while circulating Chakra through the body, gathering it in the hands at the right moment, converting it into lightning Chakra, and releasing it from the palms.
The written explanation looked simple, but Shin'un only realized the difficulties after trying it himself.
After standing up, Shin'un had to form hand seals while dividing his attention to control the flow of Chakra inside his body, and also control its conversion into lightning Chakra within his body...
There were simply too many difficulties for Shin'un. After an hour of continuous practice, he had only succeeded once.
He had merely managed to produce a few tiny currents in his palm, and had nearly burned through his sleeve in the process.
Shin'un had no teacher, so he had no idea whether successfully releasing a Lightning Release Ninjutsu once after an hour of practice was normal.
Or was his talent for Lightning Release just as terrible as his talent for combat?
"Sigh~"
Shin'un calculated his remaining Chakra and only then realized that, after an hour of practice, he still had more than half left.
Perhaps this was one of Shin'un's few strengths.
Shin'un had long since discovered that he had a lot of Chakra, second in his class only to Kushina Uzumaki of the Uzumaki Clan.
None of the others had as much Chakra as Shin'un, whether it was Fugaku or Yūichi from the Uchiha Clan, or even the future Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.
Shin'un's parents were both ordinary people, and sometimes he, too, wondered why his Chakra far exceeded that of an ordinary person.
Looking at the setting sun about to disappear on the distant horizon, Shin'un didn't dare rest and hurried to begin his usual daily basic training.
The next morning, in Shin'un's bedroom.
"Ding~"
"Huh!"
Awakened by a notification that seemed to come from the depths of his soul, Shin'un quickly stood up in bed, on guard.
A few seconds passed. As Shin'un stood swaying on the soft bed in his underwear and gradually woke up, he slowly realized what had happened.
Shin'un immediately opened the Skill Editor panel, his gaze instantly locking onto its center.
[Lightning Release Mastery] (Click the skill name to install the skill)
The early-morning surprise left Shin'un overjoyed, and he hurriedly clicked the skill name with his mind.
At that moment, Shin'un only felt a gentle breeze rise within his body, brushing softly over every part of him from head to toe, and his mind couldn't help going blank.
A few minutes later, when Shin'un came back to his senses, [Lightning Release Mastery] had already appeared elsewhere on the panel.
Loaded skills: [Extreme Reaction], [Lightning Release Mastery].
Shin'un sat down on the bed and looked at his hands.
Although he looked the same as ever, Shin'un knew that his talent for Lightning Release had received an enormous boost.
Unable to contain his excitement, Shin'un looked up at the clock on the wall.
It was only five o'clock. The sun hadn't risen, and it was still dark outside the window, but Shin'un already couldn't wait to test his current aptitude for Lightning Release.
After sitting on the bed and thinking for a moment, Shin'un put on his clothes and decided to head out to the training ground.
He trained every morning anyway; this was only an hour or two earlier.
After leaving a note on the dining table in the living room explaining where he was going, Shin'un jumped straight out the window.
Excited, and with not a soul on the streets at this early hour, Shin'un simply imitated those Anbu Ninja, running across the rooftops in a straight line toward his usual training ground.
Before long, Shin'un arrived at the training ground, having used the Body Flicker Technique to travel.
After an hour of practice yesterday, Shin'un had already memorized the hand seal sequence for Lightning Release: Electric Current and the path his Chakra took through his meridians.
Standing in the center of the training ground, Shin'un briefly recalled the details, then immediately began trying it.
The instant he began mobilizing the Chakra within his body, Shin'un noticed a difference from before.