"Amazing!"
Looking at the scorched ground all around Shin'un, Yūichi muttered in shock.
"This is a C-rank ninjutsu?" Shiina Kō was likewise stunned speechless.
Only their teacher, Orochimaru, walked over to Shin'un with a gleam in his eyes, examining the traces the current had left around them as he spoke.
"This ninjutsu has been modified beyond recognition!"
"The barrier of electric current originally used for defense has been condensed into almost a single whole, producing something like a dome of light."
"And presumably to accommodate the subsequent lightning ring attack, that dome has been thickened considerably as well. The chakra consumption must have increased quite a bit, hasn't it?"
As he spoke, Orochimaru looked at Shin'un, hoping he could answer his question.
"Mm..." Looking at Orochimaru, who had suddenly grown excited over his modified ninjutsu, Shin'un found it a little hard to adjust.
But then Shin'un realized that Orochimaru was still fairly normal at this point. His wish was to master the secrets of every ninjutsu in the world, and he had yet to become obsessed with the Sharingan.
"That's right. To accommodate the lightning ring that follows, I increased the amount of current making up the lightning wall. That naturally made the resulting dome of electric current much thicker, and the corresponding chakra consumption naturally grew as well-an increase of a little over fifty percent compared to the original..."
"Just as I thought."
Hearing Shin'un's answer, Orochimaru nodded expressionlessly, but the gleam in his eyes grew brighter. The ninjutsu before him seemed to have thoroughly captured his interest.
Examining the traces left by the current around them, Orochimaru seemed to notice something and asked with a frown.
"But that thing you call a lightning ring isn't lethal?"
Seeing that Orochimaru had quickly discovered the ninjutsu's shortcoming, Shin'un nodded.
"That's right. The lightning ring that spreads outward after the lightning wall collapses isn't lethal."
As he spoke, Shin'un walked to one side and found a shrub amid a patch scorched black by the current. He crouched, pinched one of its leafy twigs, and scraped hard with a fingernail.
"For now, the lightning ring can't kill. In my conception, it was only meant to paralyze the enemy anyway."
"At most, it'll be like this shrub. The surface has been scorched black by the current, but the inside is actually completely unharmed. The twigs and leaves are still tender and green."
Taking in everything around him, Orochimaru also realized why Shin'un had not raised the lightning ring's power to a lethal level.
"It's because increasing its power would increase the chakra consumption even further."
Shin'un smiled at Orochimaru's words. As expected of the only person in Naruto who researched science, he had so quickly identified what limited the improvement of the ninjutsu's power.
"That's right. To ensure the lightning ring's attack is effective, I made its attack range cover all the space within a dozen or so meters around me."
"Ensuring a lethal attack over that range would place too heavy a burden on my chakra. Of course, if I'm willing to expend the chakra, the lightning ring can be lethal too."
Orochimaru nodded in agreement.
"Indeed. Merely ensuring that the lightning ring paralyzes enemies within a dozen or so meters increases the chakra consumption by fifty percent. Increasing the consumption further under those circumstances would reduce the ninjutsu's practicality."
"Especially for a genin like you, who is still young, hasn't entered puberty, and has little chakra."
"But I noticed that the hand seals you used when performing the ninjutsu differed from the original?"
"That's right. There were originally seven seals. I kept only three of them and added another five. The final seals are now completely different from the original Lightning Release: Lightning Wall."
Hearing Shin'un's words, Orochimaru asked curiously, "Then how did you change the direction of chakra flow through the meridians in your body?"
"I worked out that there are several dozen meridians in the body..."
"If that's the case, when the chakra and hand seals affect each other, wouldn't..."
"No, because I can completely control the chakra's..."
"Then when the meridians..."
"It has no effect, because..."
Watching the two begin discussing ninjutsu development before them, Shiina Kō and Yūichi fell into thought.
"Can... can you understand them?" Yūichi quietly asked Shiina Kō beside him.
At Yūichi's question, Shiina Kō shook her head blankly.
"You can't understand them either? That's a relief..." Seeing Shiina Kō shake her head, Yūichi breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he wasn't the only one who couldn't understand.
"I know every single word they're saying, but once they put them together, I really can't make sense of it!" As though he had found someone who shared his plight, Yūichi began pouring out his complaints. "They're even harder to understand than that seventy-eight-year-old man who lives next door to me."
"The direction chakra flows through the body's meridians? The types and functions of meridians? The functions and adjustment of hand seals? The effects of Lightning Release? Modifying ninjutsu..."
"I mean, our teacher is the Third Hokage's student and almost thirty, so it's normal for him to know this stuff. But Shin'un is the same age as us. How does he know all this?"
"Sometimes I wonder whether there's an older guy hiding inside that brat Shin'un."
"And he even..."
"Hey, I'm talking to you!"
As he talked, Yūichi noticed that Shiina Kō beside him wasn't responding. Only when he turned his head did he discover that she was gazing starry-eyed, her attention focused entirely on Shin'un up ahead. Clearly, she hadn't heard a single word Yūichi had said.
Seeing her like this, Yūichi promptly stopped wasting his breath and switched to talking to himself.
"Love makes people blind... Big Brother Fugaku really spoke words of wisdom."
"What's so great about Shin'un?"
"He's just better-looking than me, a better talker, more talented, stronger, has greater potential..."
"Aside from all that, how is Shin'un better than me?"
"Hmph!"
"I thought I'd beaten Shin'un this time, but he went and modified his ninjutsu like he was cheating..."
"So that's how it is."
With that exclamation, Orochimaru finally understood the entire process by which Shin'un had modified the ninjutsu. He narrowed his eyes, his thoughts unknown.
"Phew..."
Shin'un also let out a relieved breath. Orochimaru's desire to understand ninjutsu was simply too intense, and his questions often came tumbling out one after another.
Moreover, those questions were highly technical and obscure. How would he know any of that?
After all, when modifying the ninjutsu, Shin'un had simply relied on instinct and talent to brute-force the changes.
Fortunately, his experience modifying the ninjutsu was genuine. Combining that with his years of experience practicing ninjutsu, he had ultimately managed to scrape through Orochimaru's questions.
"Give this ninjutsu a name!" Propping up his chin, Orochimaru suddenly came out with this remark.
"A name? Name what?"
Shin'un couldn't quite understand what Orochimaru was talking about.
"Don't you understand naming? You can give it a nice-sounding name, or you can call it Lightning Release: Gousheng!"
As though displeased that Shin'un was playing dumb, Orochimaru shot him a glance.
Vaguely sensing what Orochimaru meant, Shin'un frowned, blinked, and said uncertainly.
"You mean, give my modified Lightning Release: Lightning Wall a different name?"