"Why hasn't Shin'un come back yet?"
Two hours had already passed, and Shiina Kō had been waiting here for a full half hour. Yūichi had even begun dozing against a tree trunk near Orochimaru. Unable to help it, Shiina Kō began worrying about Shin'un.
"What's the hurry?" Hearing Shiina Kō's words, Yūichi yawned before answering. "Just trust Shin'un. The rival I've personally chosen wouldn't come to grief in a place like this."
"I trust him too, but..." Shiina Kō couldn't help pacing back and forth across the grass to ease the agitation inside. "It's already been two hours..."
"Be patient. That guy Shin'un might be secretly researching something on his own, planning to give us a surprise!"
Watching Shiina Kō ignore his advice and continue pacing in front of him, Yūichi muttered irritably, "Big Brother Fugaku really was right. Love makes people blind..."
"What did you say?" Shiina Kō stopped pacing and looked at Yūichi with a serious expression. "I thought I heard you saying something rude?"
"No, no, no, I was just saying..." Realizing that Shiina Kō had actually heard his nonsense, Yūichi hurriedly shook his head in denial. Most of his drowsiness vanished at once, and his mind raced as he tried to figure out how to bluff his way past Shiina Kō.
Suddenly, Yūichi caught sight of someone emerging from the woods behind Shiina Kō. As though he had spotted his savior, he hastily stood up to greet him.
"Shin'un, you're finally back!"
"You were only practicing a C-rank Lightning Release jutsu, and you were slower than the old man next door to my house who's already seventy-eight."
"..."
Uncharacteristically enthusiastic, Yūichi walked over to Shin'un and slung an arm around his shoulders, offering one concerned remark after another.
"What's going on?" Yūichi's enthusiasm confused Shin'un, and he couldn't help looking toward Shiina Kō, who was approaching from the other side.
"Shin'un." Seeing that Shin'un had finally appeared, Shiina Kō sighed in relief, cast an annoyed glance at Yūichi, who was feigning enthusiasm to try to divert attention, then continued, "Hurry over to Sensei for your test. We've both finished already."
"Right!" Hearing Shiina Kō bring this up, Yūichi suddenly grew excited. "I was faster than you this time. I was the first to finish Sensei's test. I won, right?"
Seeing Yūichi looking as happy as though he had won a round, Shin'un couldn't be bothered to argue. He simply smiled and nodded, acknowledging Yūichi's victory.
Seeing Shin'un acknowledge his win, Yūichi became even happier and opened his mouth to say more about how pleased he was.
"Stop making a racket. Time won't wait. Hurry up and let Shin'un show Sensei his ninjutsu." Seeing that Yūichi seemed ready to say more, Shiina Kō quickly stopped him.
"Right, hurry over. This is your first test. Don't leave a bad impression." Hearing Shiina Kō's words, Yūichi also realized this wasn't the time to celebrate and hurriedly urged Shin'un to go to their teacher and complete the test.
Seeing the two of them urging him on, Shin'un nodded and walked toward Orochimaru.
"Sensei, I've finished training."
Orochimaru raised his head, his snakelike eyes fixing on Shin'un.
"Why did you take so long?"
His tone carried a cold menace, as though he was displeased that Shin'un had taken two hours to master a C-rank ninjutsu.
"Sensei..." Seeing that their teacher seemed intent on reproaching Shin'un, Shiina Kō hurried forward to speak up for him.
Raising a hand to stop Shiina Kō from continuing beside him, Shin'un said:
"Sorry, my fault. I didn't expect that ninjutsu to be so troublesome. It took me two hours to finish modifying it."
"That's no excuse for wasting time... What?" Noticing the different wording in Shin'un's statement, Orochimaru's reproachful tone changed.
"What did you say?" Orochimaru questioned Shin'un in disbelief.
Seeing that Orochimaru had noticed what he meant, Shin'un continued:
"After I successfully cast Lightning Release: Lightning Wall for the first time, I noticed that when the Lightning Wall ended, the currents that formed it simply dispersed randomly into the surroundings. I thought those wasted currents could absolutely be put to use..."
Shin'un recounted everything to Orochimaru, from noticing those wasted, dissipating currents to successfully modifying the ninjutsu.
During this process, Orochimaru went from finding it absurd to gradually growing serious as Shin'un spoke, listening to his account with rapt attention.
Even Yūichi and Shiina Kō, standing nearby, gradually widened their eyes as they listened to Shin'un's account, utterly astonished.
"...That's how it happened. Then I decided to stop modifying it for the time being and come back to report first."
After spending several dozen seconds clearly explaining the thought process behind his modifications to the ninjutsu, Shin'un looked back at Orochimaru.
Orochimaru nodded and began thinking.
Shin'un was only ten this year. Some other children his age were still playing childish ninja games. Anyone who could perform a passable ninjutsu with practical combat value could already be considered fairly talented.
For someone like Shin'un to modify ninjutsu right after graduating from the Ninja Academy was simply the stuff of fantasy.
However, Orochimaru was somewhat inclined to believe that Shin'un really had modified the ninjutsu on his own, not because of the logic and feasible methods revealed in his account of the process.
It was mainly because Orochimaru himself was a genius who had studied ninjutsu independently in his teens.
Thus, Orochimaru understood the world of geniuses. Some things that ordinary people considered fantasy were perfectly normal feats for true geniuses.
From the look of things, Shin'un might be just such a genius.
"I understand. In that case, show me."
Shin'un nodded and moved away under Yūichi's stunned gaze and Shiina Kō's admiring eyes.
Only after moving several dozen meters away did Shin'un turn to confirm that the upcoming lightning ring would not hurt Shiina Kō and the others in the distance, then begin forming hand seals where he stood.
Orochimaru stood up, curiously observing Shin'un as he performed the modified Lightning Release: Lightning Wall.
"Even the original seals have changed somewhat?" Orochimaru's keen eyes noticed that the hand seals Shin'un formed while performing the ninjutsu differed from those recorded in the scroll he had provided.
"Is that to better accommodate the lightning ring that follows?"
In the brief moment he spent thinking, Shin'un had already completed his ninjutsu.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Wall!"
As he poured in chakra, Shin'un was instantly bathed in countless raging electric currents. These currents halted in the air one meter away from him, interweaving and entwining under precise control.
In an instant, the lightning, which should have been explosive, chaotic, and immensely destructive, changed its form.
A blue-violet, translucent, stable defensive dome composed entirely of electric currents enveloped Shin'un. Outside the smooth main body of the dome, one or two violet currents occasionally coiled around it, lending it an intense air of menace and mystery.
A few seconds passed, and Shin'un, inside the lightning dome, formed several more seals. The dome around him abruptly disintegrated, and the currents it contained converged once again under his control, forming a tall ring.
The ring of electric currents abruptly expanded, sweeping across a radius of over ten meters around Shin'un, who remained standing in place.
Boulders, soil, trees, flowers, grass, leaves...
At a glance, everything around Shin'un had been scorched black by the raging electric currents.