Including their sparring match, Hiruzen Sarutobi's guidance to Uchiha Gen lasted for nearly an hour.
For the Third Hokage, who had been back in the village for less than a day and was swamped with work, to spare so much time for teaching and building rapport was enough to show Uchiha Gen's rising importance in everyone's eyes.
Not only did he possess the combat power of an Elite Jonin, but he was also the youngest Jonin in Konoha's history.
In the eyes of almost everyone, this meant that Uchiha Gen was certain to become a new Kage-level Expert in the future.
He had strength, talent, and a prestigious background.
His status as a scion of a noble clan and a direct disciple of the Hokage made many people restless, as if they were witnessing the birth of a new Konoha elite in the near future.
Whether within or outside the Uchiha clan, many people sought out Uchiha Gen to visit him and build connections, hoping to get on his good side, but without exception, they were all turned away.
This was because Uchiha Gen wasn't even living at home; at the Great Elder's reminder, he had long since moved his important belongings elsewhere.
As for where he moved—
"Aunt Mika, Sister Mikoto, thank you for your hard work."
Uchiha Gen set down the heavy box in his hands and spoke to the young girl and the young woman wearing aprons in front of him.
"It's fine, Gen. This room hasn't been lived in for a few years, so your arrival will bring some life to the place. If there's anything you're not used to, just tell your aunt."
Mika took off her headscarf and apron, revealing the charm of a mature woman, and smiled at Uchiha Gen.
"Yes, Gen. This place isn't far from ours. If you need anything, we can look out for each other."
Uchiha Mikoto put away the rag and nodded gently.
The two of them had come over to help with the move and the tidying up.
This place was only a few dozen meters away from the Great Elder's residence, so the two sides were now neighbors.
At first, the Great Elder had wanted to prepare a room in his own mansion for him, but Uchiha Gen had declined.
Although it would have been free, he already owed the Great Elder too many favors. It wouldn't be right to keep sponging off him.
More importantly, Uchiha Gen had secrets of his own and wasn't suited to living with others.
With his current financial situation, while buying a new house in the clan compound was unrealistic, renting a spacious house here was no problem at all.
He moved here partly to avoid people and partly because the Third Elder had been gradually sending over some medical equipment.
His original house was too small and lacked space. If Uchiha Gen wanted to set up a medical room like Tsunade's or even a laboratory like Orochimaru's in his home, he really needed to move.
That afternoon, after the Great Elder arrived, Uchiha Gen treated them to dinner to celebrate the housewarming before seeing the family off.
Under the bright light, Uchiha Gen wore his pajamas and wrote lines of small characters on a scroll.
He was organizing and summarizing what he had gained from Hiruzen Sarutobi that morning.
Regarding Ninjutsu of the five attributes, the Third Hokage had given him many pointers, and he had benefited greatly, especially regarding combination Ninjutsu.
Uchiha Gen had now proficiently mastered Ninjutsu of four attributes: Wind, Lightning, Fire, and Earth. Except for Wind Release, he had learned one Nature Transformation for each of the other three, reaching the Jonin level.
He was now fully capable of performing many powerful combination Ninjutsu.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had provided many useful improvements for even the Great Flame Wind Technique that he had developed himself.
To Uchiha Gen's surprise, the Third Hokage also offered some seemingly valuable suggestions for his training of the Phantom Body Flicker Technique.
When his cousin was developing this technique, he had actually consulted Senju Tobirama and frequently discussed it with his teammate Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was highly talented in Ninjutsu.
Although the Phantom Clones of the Phantom Body Flicker Technique weren't as powerful or practical as Shadow Clones, Uchiha Kagami's teacher was the inventor of the Shadow Clone Technique and Multi-Shadow Clone Technique, and his teammate, the Third Hokage, had created the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique. It was impossible for him not to reference the principles of Shadow Clones.
Through the Third Hokage's explanation, Uchiha Gen roughly understood his cousin's thought process when developing this technique twenty years ago.
Previously, when he looked through the notes, he thought the clone portion of this technique was just a normal Clone Technique fused with Sharingan Genjutsu to create Phantom Clones that were difficult for enemies to see through.
From his current perspective, a Phantom Clone could actually be understood as a mutated version of a Shadow Clone performed using ocular power and Genjutsu. This allowed the Phantom Clone to possess a physical form that even the Byakugan could not see through, just like a Shadow Clone.
This was the choice Uchiha Kagami made as a compromise after discovering his Chakra couldn't support a large number of Shadow Clones. However, it was precisely because of this that the Phantom Clones could fuse with other Genjutsu, making the main body's movements between the Phantom Clones flawless and difficult to detect.
After understanding the principle, Uchiha Gen found it much easier to construct a Phantom Clone using the principles of the Shadow Clone.
After recording today's gains, Uchiha Gen formed a few hand signs, activated his Sharingan, channeled his ocular power, and released a Phantom Clone, controlling it to perform movements different from his main body.
Perfect.
Furthermore, the proportion of ocular power consumed was more than twice as low as before.
"With my ocular power, while ensuring it doesn't affect the normal use of my Sharingan's functions, I should theoretically be able to release a total of about six to seven Phantom Clones in a short period."
Phantom Clones possessed some characteristics of Shadow Clones, but they were merely a physical shell built upon Genjutsu. They didn't have the independent consciousness of a Shadow Clone, only simple combat awareness, yet they could be controlled by the main body.
A single word of true teaching is worth ten thousand volumes of false ones.
Learning the secret of this technique essentially pointed out the direction for Uchiha Gen's subsequent training for the clone portion of this Ninjutsu.
As long as he could successfully train the Phantom Clones, the Body Flicker portion wouldn't be that difficult. He only needed to proficiently channel the ocular power of the Three-Tomoe Sharingan to perform Genjutsu and conceal his form while moving at high speeds with the Body Flicker Technique, and he would have essentially mastered the entire technique.
Referring to the combat records of Uchiha Kagami passed down in Konoha Village, Uchiha Gen was confident that with his current foundation of strength, he might already possess combat power close to that of a Kage-level Expert and join the ranks of top-tier masters.
Uchiha Kagami, who had left behind his legacy, would never have imagined that the Ninjutsu inheritance he had worked so hard to leave would one day be further completed in such a way.