Land of Rain, Konoha camp.
A surprised voice rang out in a clearing.
"You created a ninjutsu yourself!" Minato Namikaze looked at Shin'un before him in disbelief.
After Yūichi and Shiina Kō's embellished account, he had just learned that Shin'un had done something big today.
"Don't listen to their nonsense. I didn't create a ninjutsu. I just modified an existing one with some ideas of my own."
Shin'un denied Minato's claim and stated the facts.
"So what?"
"After your modifications, didn't that ninjutsu go from C-rank to A-rank?"
"Your teacher even asked you to give it a new name to distinguish it from the original C-rank ninjutsu. How is that any different from a new ninjutsu?"
Minato Namikaze immediately countered Shin'un's modesty, marveling at his achievement in modifying the ninjutsu.
Listening to Minato Namikaze, Shin'un found a suitable spot in the clearing and sat down to rest.
"Really, I just incorporated my own ideas into a ninjutsu I'd newly learned."
"You could try it too, if you wanted."
"I could too?" Minato Namikaze clearly didn't take Shin'un's words to heart. He shook his head with a smile and asked another question.
"I wanted to ask how you did it. Do you have any experience or tips to share?"
Shin'un frowned and looked at Minato Namikaze. "Why do you ask?"
"I'm just having some trouble." Sitting down beside Shin'un, Minato began explaining his problem.
"Lately, although I've been making fast progress in my ninjutsu training, I haven't felt comfortable with it. It's like it doesn't fit."
"Do you understand? Those ninjutsu are too slow. They drag down my personal combat rhythm a bit."
As he spoke, Minato Namikaze looked at Shin'un beside him, hoping he could understand his problem.
After a little thought, Shin'un understood Minato's problem.
"So you're asking whether I have a way to solve that?"
"Why don't you ask your teacher? Lord Jiraiya should have more experience than me."
Leaning against the tree trunk behind him, Minato Namikaze said helplessly:
"Of course I asked, but Jiraiya-sensei said I could adapt the ninjutsu by modifying them."
"So when I heard you'd developed a ninjutsu yourself, I came to ask you."
Only after hearing Minato Namikaze's explanation did Shin'un understand his thinking. After a moment's thought, he looked at Minato Namikaze. "Actually, this sort of thing is very simple."
At those words, Minato Namikaze looked at Shin'un in surprise.
Had he not been familiar enough with Shin'un's personality, he would have thought Shin'un was showing off his achievement.
Seeing the obvious lack of understanding in Minato Namikaze's eyes, Shin'un immediately offered him a few examples.
"Why don't you believe me?"
"Think about it. When you usually practice ninjutsu, have you ever thought about increasing their power?"
"Of course." Minato Namikaze paused, then answered immediately. "Every ninja has thought about that, right?"
"Then that makes things easy. What have you done to increase the power of your ninjutsu?"
"What have I done?"
After thinking for a moment, Minato Namikaze began to answer.
"First came daily training, becoming more proficient with ninjutsu and practicing chakra nature transformation. But once I realized it would take a long-term commitment to see results, I started researching other methods and techniques while keeping up my training."
"For example, consuming more chakra to increase a ninjutsu's intensity, mixing explosive tags into ninjutsu, using ninjutsu in specific situations and at specific moments, changing the way I release ninjutsu..."
"Quite a few, really. I've tried dozens of methods, but not many actually work in battle."
At this point, Minato Namikaze looked at Shin'un in confusion. "Why are you asking?"
"Let me ask you this. If a method you tried genuinely increased a ninjutsu's power, would that count as innovation?"
"After all, the ninjutsu scroll never mentioned that you could increase its power that way."
Hearing Shin'un's answer, Minato Namikaze immediately furrowed his brow.
"If you put it that way, then it would, but..."
Watching Minato grow conflicted again, Shin'un smiled helplessly.
"What I'm saying is simple. If you're dissatisfied with the ninjutsu you commonly use, then as long as you have an idea, just find a way to make it happen."
"Our teacher taught us something today. I'll pass it on to you."
"He said that as ninja, as long as we stay calm and rational, think carefully, and observe everything around us, we can always achieve our goals."
Minato Namikaze seemed somewhat moved by those words.
"Jiraiya-sensei said something similar today."
"He mentioned The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, which he's writing. He said a ninja's most important quality is perseverance, or guts!"
Shin'un nodded in agreement.
"There you have it."
"What are perseverance and guts? Aren't they just sticking to a goal or an idea without wavering?"
"As long as you keep holding on to an idea and putting it into practice, no matter how distant and illusory your goal is, you can still see hope."
As he spoke, Shin'un suddenly turned to look at Minato Namikaze.
"Don't you feel that the ninjutsu you're practicing now don't suit you? Because your reflexes are very fast, or because your personal combat rhythm is very fast?"
"Ultimately, it's ninja who use ninjutsu, so don't make yourself adapt to ninjutsu. Make ninjutsu adapt to you."
"Think about what kind of ninjutsu suits you. Once you've found ninjutsu that suit you, just keep working in that direction."
Those words seemed to bring Minato Namikaze to a realization. Resting his chin in his hand, he murmured vaguely.
"Ninjutsu that suit me..."
Minato Namikaze frowned and began to think, while Shin'un watched with keen interest from beside him.
He really wanted to know whether Minato Namikaze could create the Rasengan, a ninjutsu requiring no hand seals, more than a decade ahead of time.
The next day, Konoha's central command tent.
Shin'un lifted the entrance flap and walked inside. After greeting Nara Shikahito at the conference table, he continued deeper into the tent.
Orochimaru sat upright in his chair, his cold, sinister air unchanged, dealing with some seemingly complex documents. They appeared to concern the many matters on the Land of Rain battlefield that required decisions from him as one of its commanders.
Jiraiya, however, was no longer beside him. There was no telling what he had gone off to do.
Shin'un stopped and spoke.
"Sensei? I'm here to collect our training plans for the next few days."
Orochimaru raised his head slightly, pulled three sheets of paper from the pile of documents before him, and held them out to Shin'un.
Shin'un took them with both hands and skimmed the three sheets. Each contained a training plan for one member of their squad.
From the writing that filled the pages, with plans covering even meals and daily schedules, it was clear that Orochimaru had indeed put thought into the three of them.
Shin'un looked up at Orochimaru. Seeing that he had nothing more to say, he turned to leave.
Just as he was about to turn and leave, Orochimaru suddenly spoke.
"I forgot to ask yesterday. Would you consider handing your modified ninjutsu over to Konoha?"
"You'll be compensated accordingly."