At that time, even if Ling encountered the peak Rinnegan Madara, she could exchange a few moves. The main reason was that Ling was too well-rounded; even the Third Raikage A would be dragged into a losing battle against her.
However, this was not her limit. With her mastery of the Flying Thunder God Technique and the activation of her Sage Body and Mangekyo, her strength could become even greater.
By then, she could directly participate in the Fourth Great Ninja War and even act as the third main force against Kaguya. Ling somewhat admitted that she was an overpowered character. At seven years old, possessing the strength of a Kage-level Ninja, she was among the top-ranked among many transmigrator predecessors.
The first thing to do upon returning to Konoha was naturally to report the mission to the Third Hokage. Ling also followed along, intending to exchange for two forbidden Ninjutsu.
If mission merits weren't used, they would expire and become void. As soon as Ling completed the mission, she naturally trotted over, eager to exchange them.
This time, Ling planned to exchange for the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu and the Mutual Exploding Tag Jutsu. The former would allow her to handle multiple tasks concurrently.
Anyway, with the Escaping Rabbit ability, the side effects and backlash of Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu could be greatly reduced, allowing her to train with thousands of Shadow Clones like Naruto.
As for the Mutual Exploding Tag Jutsu, it was naturally prepared for her batch production technique of Exploding Tags. Don't underestimate the damage of a single Exploding Tag.
However, an explosion of six hundred billion Exploding Tags, like Konan's, would be enough to flatten an entire Ninja Village. Combined with her Flying Thunder God Technique, it would be absolutely invincible for siege warfare.
The Third Hokage held his pipe, listening to Minato Namikaze's report. Hearing about the mission's success, he was beaming with joy, no longer anxious about the war.
"Ling, you did very well this time, showcasing Konoha's might. You stayed here because you plan to exchange for Ninjutsu, right?"
The Third Hokage looked at Uchiha Ling with increasing satisfaction. To be able to defeat Fourth Raikage A at such a young age meant that Konoha's next generation would completely overwhelm Kumogakure.
"Teacher, I merely did what a Konoha Ninja should do. I plan to exchange for the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu and the Mutual Exploding Tag Jutsu."
Ling didn't want any verbal praise. She didn't want to dilly-dally; she wanted tangible benefits directly. She would naturally fight for the Village.
"Ling, are you aware of the side effects of Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu?"
The Third Hokage calmly puffed on his pipe. He wasn't particularly concerned about these two forbidden Ninjutsu themselves; he was just afraid that Ling would misuse them and harm herself.
"Teacher, I know. Currently, when I use Shadow Clone to create more than ten Shadow Clones, there's no backlash. Perhaps my body is special."
Ling intended to attribute her ability to freely use Shadow Clones to her physique. She knew that the Third Hokage would definitely think of her Senju bloodline because of this.
In reality, not only the Third Hokage but also the Sannin and Minato believed this was the reason, unaware that Ling herself had not yet awakened her Senju Body.
"Hmm, alright then. You can read these two Ninjutsu scrolls here. Your mission merits will be reset to zero."
The Third Hokage took out two scrolls and tossed them to Uchiha Ling. He believed that with Ling's talent, she could learn them in this short amount of time.
Ling naturally first looked at the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu. This Jutsu only had one hand seal, but its difficulty was not low, requiring sufficiently strong willpower and spiritual power to perform.
This Jutsu instantly divides one's Chakra and spiritual power into hundreds or even thousands of portions. Most Ninja simply cannot withstand it, which is why it became a forbidden Ninjutsu.
With the foundation of the Shadow Clone and Ling herself meeting the training conditions, after reading through it once and mentally going over the points to pay attention to, she quickly grasped the knack.
The 'Jin' hand seal for Multiple Shadow Clone can be the fixed one with the index and middle fingers of both hands crossed, or it can be a self-created alternative.
For a master like Ling, who could already perform basic one-handed hand seals, the difficulty was only average. However, Ling adopted a one-handed seal.
This was because she recalled Naruto being forced into a situation where he couldn't form hand seals by Sasuke's taijutsu during the Valley of the End battle, and one-handed hand seals were much simpler.
"Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Ling succeeded in forming the hand seal on her first try, and the Hokage Office instantly became packed with Ling's Shadow Clones, as if a nest of Uchiha Ling had been poked.
Ling immediately dispelled these Shadow Clones, mainly because if she didn't, the Hokage Building would almost explode from the overcrowding.
"Haha, um, Teacher, Minato-nii, this was all an accident, an accident, do you believe me?"
Ling helped up the two individuals who had been squeezed under the desk and into the corner by the Shadow Clones, hastily apologizing. It was her first time performing Multiple Shadow Clone, and she was careless; she didn't dodge.
"Seeing you still so lively, it seems the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu indeed causes very little harm to you. However, for the upcoming Mutual Exploding Tag Jutsu, please don't test it in the office."
The Third Hokage took a deep puff from his pipe, feeling that Ling was truly worthy of being someone who combined the advantages of two great bloodline clans, retaining their strengths and offsetting their weaknesses.
He somewhat wanted to persuade Uchiha Fugaku to arrange marriages between the Uchiha and some hidden Senju Clan members, to see if another miracle could be created.
If it could succeed, then Konoha would truly take off. He wasn't greedy; ten or eight geniuses slightly inferior to Ling would suffice.
In reality, the Uchiha Clan elders and Fugaku had indeed considered this. They were also investigating mixed-blood Senju born after the Senju Clan integrated into Konoha.
And the only surviving Senju elder in Konoha, Senju Touka, had a similar plan. After her death, the Senju Clan might truly cease to exist.
She had also taught some mixed-bloods, intending for them to restore the Senju's glory, but most of them had ordinary talent and were not suitable for great tasks.
She thought that if the mixed-bloods of the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan could possess great talent, then she might be able to violate the policies of the First and Second Hokage and rebuild the Senju.
After all, Hashirama and Tobirama were dead, and with their deaths, their policies would fade. If she could achieve it, it wouldn't be impossible to defy the ancestors' decisions.
Ling quickly learned the Mutual Exploding Tag Jutsu. Suppressing the urge to immediately detonate one, she went into the Death Forest, intending to blow something up.
Ever since she gained the technique for batch production of Exploding Tags and learned the Mutual Exploding Tag Jutsu, she felt that anything could be easily blown up, and not blowing something up made her feel uncomfortable all over.
"Darn it, I must have been infected by the inherently mischievous short-legged loli Klee. It definitely isn't my own fault."
Ling arrived in the forest, found a large rock, and then threw out two Exploding Tags folded into the shape of a Shuriken.
As she activated the Mutual Exploding Tag Jutsu, crackling sounds were incessant. Before long, the large rock was utterly destroyed.
This was just a small test with a thousand Exploding Tags. Ling was very satisfied with this power; it was well worth the great deal of time she spent.
Ling's Exploding Tags came in many varieties, and the paper type was not soft paper, but rather special waterproof and slightly fire-resistant paper.
Some were controlled by Paper Release to form Exploding Tag paper Shuriken and Exploding Tag paper Kunai, while others were Exploding Tag paper balls mixed with a large number of rusted, poisoned iron nails and steel beads, all of which were great weapons of war.
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