Land of Rivers – Leaf Forward Camp
In the middle of camp, Taiichi stood frozen, face twisted in pure annoyance. He slapped his forehead, stomped once, then gave himself a quick mental kick for being an idiot. Sensory ninjutsu—how the hell had he forgotten that?
The moment he activated it, the entire camp lit up in his mind. Everything except the areas sealed by privacy barriers came through crystal clear. His perception locked onto Minato's familiar chakra signature in seconds.
In a small grove in the southeast corner, Minato's head snapped around, eyes narrowing in the exact direction Taiichi was scanning from.
Sharp as always.
Taiichi pulled his sensing back immediately and gave a quick, respectful bow to the surrounding area.
Konoha had plenty of talented shinobi. Five different ninjas in camp had just noticed his probe. Apologizing was the polite thing to do—randomly scanning people was rude as hell.
Back in the grove, Minato's sudden glance caught his team's attention.
"Sensei, something wrong?" Rin asked, always the most observant.
"Hm? Nah, nothing. Taiichi should be here soon," Minato said, still looking toward the camp. That chakra signature and the way it swept over him? Definitely Taiichi.
Kakashi and Obito exchanged confused looks. They stared in the direction Minato had glanced but saw nothing. They could only marvel at their teacher's insane perception.
Sure enough, a few minutes later Taiichi came jogging into the grove, looking a little rushed.
"Taiichi, it really is you!" Obito blurted, sounding way too pleased with himself.
Taiichi blinked, then caught the smug "I knew it" grin on Obito's face and realized Minato must have mentioned he was coming.
He grinned and greeted everyone. After a quick round of small talk, he turned to Minato and got straight to business. "Sensei, Jiraiya-sensei sent me to learn Flying Thunder God from you." He handed over the note.
"Oh, the village reward finally came through?" Minato asked, clearly already in the loop. "You picked Flying Thunder God? You sure you don't want to reconsider?"
"What? Flying Thunder God? That name sounds badass as hell," Obito cut in, eyes wide like a kid hearing about a cool new toy.
"Idiot, that's Sensei's signature technique—the instant teleport one," Kakashi said, rolling his eyes. "It's an extremely rare space-time jutsu."
"Space-time jutsu?" Obito looked completely lost. Theory had never been his strong suit.
Taiichi just smiled at the usual back-and-forth. "I'm sure. Jiraiya-sensei already warned me how difficult it is, but I still want to try."
Minato studied him for a second, then broke into a knowing little smirk. "I see. In that case, I won't try to talk you out of it."
Taiichi caught the sly grin and knew Minato had figured out Jiraiya's little loophole. Master and student really do think alike.
"Sensei, can we learn Flying Thunder God too?" Obito asked, suddenly excited.
That was exactly what Kakashi and Rin were wondering. The technique looked insanely useful.
Minato shut it down immediately. "Sorry, no. It's from the Sealed Book. You'd need major achievements and the Hokage's personal approval. Even then, the learning requirements are extremely strict—not everyone can master it."
Obito, Kakashi, and Rin looked disappointed, but they understood. High-level secret techniques weren't handed out like candy.
"Alright, you three keep practicing on your own," Minato said. "I'm taking Taiichi to the other side of the grove. Don't slack off!"
"Got it, Sensei!" Obito answered, already sounding half-defeated.
On the other side of the grove, Minato turned to Taiichi. "First, how much do you already know about Flying Thunder God?"
"Not much. I know it's a space-time ninjutsu, supposedly inspired by the Summoning Technique and created by the Second Hokage."
"Correct," Minato said. "The original concept started from summoning, but turning it into a practical combat technique took a lot of refinement and upgrades."
He pulled a scroll from his pouch and handed it over. "These are my own notes and insights from when I was learning it. Take them—you can study them later too."
Taiichi accepted the scroll without any fake modesty. The knowledge inside was worth at least an S-rank technique. But they were basically brothers at this point—no need for awkward thanks. A simple "Thank you" said everything that needed saying.
Next, Minato broke down the core principles of Flying Thunder God in detail.
"Flying Thunder God is essentially a technique that lets you sense your own chakra at a distance and teleport yourself to it," Minato explained, putting it in simple terms. "Normal summoning uses a blood contract as the medium between ninja and summon. Flying Thunder God's first step is creating a reliable link to your target location."
"That link is usually chakra—since it's something we produce ourselves and understand completely. But the problem is, once chakra leaves the body, it dissipates almost immediately. So the first major hurdle is a sealing technique that can preserve your chakra for a long time. That's the Flying Thunder God formula."
"Now that you have the medium, the next step is sensing it. And I don't mean normal sensing—I mean perceiving its exact coordinates in space."
"That's the hardest part. Most shinobi, even sensor types, simply don't have the talent for it. They can't perceive their marker in the spatial dimension, so they can never break through the barrier to teleport."
Minato was an excellent teacher. Even though this was Taiichi's first exposure to the technique, he came away with a solid understanding of how it worked.
The only part that stayed vague was the mysterious "space-time talent." Minato tried his best to describe it, but the words just wouldn't line up.
"Sensei, what exactly is this space-time talent? Or how does it feel when you sense your own Flying Thunder God marker?"
Minato scratched his head and stared at the sky, searching for the right words.
"It's like… being out in the middle of the ocean and spotting a faint, flickering light deep underwater. It's there, but it keeps slipping in and out of sight."
Taiichi stared at him, completely lost. The description was way too abstract—he couldn't grasp the key point at all.
Minato saw the confusion and tried again, but it was like trying to describe an itch you can't scratch. You know it's there, but you can't explain it to someone who's never felt it.
Taiichi finally understood why so many people failed to learn Flying Thunder God. Space-time talent really was just that—a talent. If you didn't have it, no amount of effort or study would help. You literally couldn't perceive it. If you did have it, the marker was right there in front of you, impossible to miss.
They skipped the abstract part for now and moved on to the actual Flying Thunder God formula.
This wasn't the simple "Sword of the Shinobi's Love" kanji Minato carved on his kunai—that was the final, polished version after years of refinement. The real formula was incredibly complex.
Even with Taiichi's Lv11 sealing skill, he spotted dozens of brand-new runes he had never seen before—pure space-time runes that formed the core of the technique.
They worked straight through until evening. By the end, Minato was genuinely impressed. Taiichi's sealing foundation was rock-solid, far beyond his own at the same age. He only had to explain each part once for Taiichi to understand and memorize it. The only section that needed extra time was the space-time runes.
"Sensei, thank you so much for teaching me this," Taiichi said sincerely. "Without your clear explanations, I never would have picked up such a complex technique this fast."
"No need to thank me," Minato said, patting his shoulder. "If you get stuck on anything, especially the spatial perception part, come find me right away. Don't try to figure it out alone. And if it turns out you really don't have the talent, don't force it—just go back to Jiraiya-sensei and pick something else."
There it is, Taiichi thought with a grin. Minato had dropped the polite act and was openly helping him cheat. Master and student really were the same.
"Don't worry, Sensei. I know my limits."
"Good. I've taught you everything I can. The rest is up to you. I won't keep bothering you."
With that, Minato gave a casual wave—and vanished with a soft whoosh. Taiichi stared at the empty spot, one eye twitching. Show-off. Just wait until I learn it. I'm definitely rubbing it in his face.
Alone in the grove, Taiichi pulled up his panel.
[Flying Thunder God Lv0 (99/100)]
His foundation had been strong enough, and Minato's teaching was crystal clear. The moment the theory clicked, the skill shot straight to Lv0 with 99 experience.
But then it hit a wall. No matter how much Minato explained or how well Taiichi understood, the progress bar refused to move.
That was when Taiichi realized the truth. Hard work and study only went so far. Some things required the right conditions. Without the proper "body" for it, understanding meant nothing.
It was like humans understanding the principles of flight but never being able to fly like birds—because they didn't have wings.
But Taiichi had skill points. What was impossible for others was just a matter of time for him.
He spent 1 skill point without hesitation.
The panel updated instantly.
[Flying Thunder God Lv1 (1/100)]
Then the experience bar started climbing on its own.
Lv2—
Lv3—
Lv4.
It stopped at Lv4 (231/600). His strong foundation had given him a huge head start the moment the skill unlocked.
A flood of new memories and insights poured in. Along with them came a strange new sensation—like every cell in his body had been washed clean. The world itself seemed to peel back another layer, revealing something deeper.
When Taiichi opened his eyes again, he finally understood what Minato had been trying to describe. It wasn't that Minato's explanation was bad—it was just impossible to put into words if you'd never experienced it.
It was the same natural, obvious feeling fish have living in water or humans have living on land. You couldn't describe it to someone who had never known anything else.
But Taiichi had just crossed that line. The contrast made it crystal clear.
He flicked out a small ball of chakra. It dissipated quickly, but he could still sense it perfectly—not just in the normal way, but as a distinct point moving through the spatial dimension.
This was spatial perception. It really was pure talent. Without it, no amount of study would let you feel it. With it, the marker was right there, impossible to miss.
Next, Taiichi got to work creating his own personal Flying Thunder God formula. In theory, as long as you could sense your own chakra, you could use the technique without any formula at all.
But the formula existed for a reason. Its runes—especially the space-time ones—not only preserved chakra for a long time, they also amplified its presence so the user could locate the marker instantly, even in the chaos of battle.
He formed the seals. Chakra shifted to Earth nature. With his insane control and shape transformation, a simple desk and chair formed out of the ground in seconds.
Taiichi pulled out paper and a brush and quickly wrote out the basic Flying Thunder God formula. Then he started refining and compressing it according to his own understanding and needs. After burning through an entire stack of drafts, he finally had his finished version.
Unlike Minato's "Sword of the Shinobi's Love," Taiichi's formula read simply:
有我無敵
(With Me, Invincible)