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Chapter 99: Reactions from All Sides, A New Super S-Rank Jutsu, The Core of Teleportation
"Yoru, you gave this old man quite a massive shock."
Konoha. The Hokage's office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked over Yoru, who had returned even before Jiraiya, his expression full of disbelief.
As the second person in Konoha to have mastered Flying Thunder God Technique, the developer of Rasengan as the perfect companion technique to Flying Thunder God, a student of Orochimaru and Hiruzen's own grand-student, and the one who had used the Adamantine Sealing Chains to restrain the Nine-Tails jinchuriki, Hiruzen held Yoru in extremely high regard. It was why he had given him so many advantages, promoted him twice through special commendation, and granted him the privilege of ignoring certain fools.
In Hiruzen's eyes, Orochimaru was the most suitable person to inherit his mantle, and equally the best candidate for the Fourth Hokage. Yoru, in turn, would be the best candidate for the Fifth.
At the start, Hiruzen's greatest expectation for Yoru had been simple. He hoped Yoru would stay beside Orochimaru, learn from the experience of the three students, sharpen his overall capabilities, and prepare to become one of Konoha's reliable jonin pillars in the future.
He hadn't imagined Yoru would be this outstanding.
On his very first day at the border base, he had helped Tsunade raid Hanzo's pharmaceutical workshop, enabling their side to rapidly develop the antidote for the salamander's lethal toxin. He had then joined the three students to repel Hanzo, becoming the first person in decades to wound both the salamander and Hanzo himself. That had left Hiruzen astonished while also making him proud of his own judgment.
Using that achievement as the basis, Hiruzen had specially promoted Yoru, a pure-lineage member of the Hokage faction, to tokubetsu jonin.
But the gap between tokubetsu jonin and full jonin was enormous. Tokubetsu jonin only required a specific talent, a mastery of some particular skill among the three ninja disciplines, and passing an assessment. Full jonin, as the backbone of every ninja village, required proficiency in ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, mastery of at least two nature transformations, command ability, and a comprehensive evaluation of combat ability, intelligence analysis, analytical capacity, and loyalty by the Five Kage before a formal appointment.
The clearest example was Kurenai Yuhi, a year older than Kakashi Hatake. She had easily become a tokubetsu jonin through the Yuhi clan's exceptional genjutsu talent and genjutsu lineage. Yet she hadn't been promoted from tokubetsu jonin to full jonin until just before the main story began. Meanwhile Kakashi, a year younger than her, along with Asuma Sarutobi and Might Guy, had long since become ace combatants and core pillars of Konoha.
Full jonin, in other words, were also called all-around jonin. True generalists, true complete fighters.
After the first special promotion, Hiruzen's expectation for Yoru had been to have him tempered further on the battlefield, sharpened through life-and-death combat to increase his chakra reserves, battle experience, and adaptability.
Once the war ended, he would formally appoint him as a full all-around jonin and make him an official member of Konoha's inner circle.
After coming of age at eighteen, Yoru would become one of Konoha's ace combatants, standing alongside Kushina Uzumaki as a standard-bearer for the new generation.
By that point, Hiruzen himself would still be at his peak. Three beloved students entering their prime, a new generation rising, and the jinchuriki ready to be deployed. Hiruzen didn't dare imagine what Konoha's strength would look like then. What he could say with certainty was that Konoha's combined power would surpass what it had been during the First Shinobi World War.
Hiruzen had already held a very high opinion of Yoru. And he had still drastically underestimated him.
A prodigy that appeared only once in several decades, just like Tobirama-sensei.
Before even graduating from the academy, he had developed the unmarked A-rank technique Rasengan, then fused shadow clone and body flicker to create Phantom Body Flicker, a technique capable of shifting between tangible and intangible states while perfectly concealing chakra presence.
After graduation, he swiftly mastered Flying Thunder God, built Lightning Release nature transformation from nothing, and went on to develop the Black Lightning secret technique.
A level of jutsu talent that made even Hiruzen, called the Professor for his encyclopedic knowledge of jutsu, feel genuinely humbled.
In terms of intelligence, Yoru had exploited an information advantage to instantly kill fifty-five Sand ninja, including Sunagakure's intelligence king.
He was specially promoted a second time to full all-around jonin, setting the fastest promotion record on record, becoming the youngest field commander on the battlefield.
After only one year of being tempered in combat, Yoru had displayed terrifying dominance, become recognized across the shinobi world as an ace combatant, and now had defeated even the Demigod of the Shinobi World.
Yes, there had been an information advantage. But a win was a win, and even Hanzo himself acknowledged his defeat.
Without realizing it, Yoru had accomplished something the Five Kage had never managed.
In less than two years, he had gone from a young prodigy to the sharpest blade in Hiruzen's hands. No wonder Hiruzen was still in a daze.
Yoru smiled modestly. "Hokage-sama flatters me. My ability to defeat that demigod came from the advantages of youth and information. I am still in my growth period while his strength has already reached its limit. Over this past year of exchanges, both Orochimaru-sensei and I have come to know all of his information thoroughly."
"My ability to inflict a serious wound came from catching his real body at exactly the right moment, creating an opportunity while he was airborne, and having a new technique that happened to be a Lightning Release secret art."
"Fortunately that demigod was already thinking about withdrawing. Otherwise, having exposed this new technique, it would not be so easy to defeat and injure him again in the future."
Hiruzen understood this point perfectly well and still praised him without reservation. "Even so, you remain the only person in these past several decades to wound both the salamander and Hanzo. You are now just one step away from the shinobi world's pinnacle. Once your chakra reserves catch up, not even this old man may be your match."
"No, I still have many shortcomings. My speed and Flying Thunder God have simply been covering those weaknesses." Yoru shook his head and stated the purpose of his return.
"Hokage-sama, I would like to exchange for the training method of a particular technique."
"Which technique?" Hiruzen was genuinely curious.
The previous year, when Yoru had been allowed to freely select a forbidden technique, he hadn't gone for any S-rank or super S-rank secret arts. He had chosen the A-rank Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags.
Hiruzen had assumed Yoru was walking the same path as Tobirama-sensei, the path of inventing jutsu. After all, Rasengan, Phantom Body Flicker, the Black Lightning secret technique, and the new Laser Beam were all extraordinarily powerful techniques with extremely high training difficulty.
And yet Yoru was exchanging for a technique now. Was he seeking inspiration from existing jutsu to continue developing new ones?
What Yoru said next confirmed Hiruzen's guess.
"Hokage-sama, I would like to exchange for the Spiritization technique." Yoru stated his reasoning. "My current speed has nearly reached the limit of what I can perceive, and it is very difficult to push further. In ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, and the fields of sealing and medical techniques, I am also not lacking."
"My biggest current weakness is sensory ability."
"The Spiritization technique is a super S-rank Yin Release secret art. From what I understand, Dan-senpai could not only separate spiritual energy from physical energy and shift into a spirit state to launch attacks across extreme distances, but could also possess others, control their bodies, read their memories, and conduct battlefield sensing. So I want to exchange for it, study the essence of this super S-rank technique, and see whether I can use it to improve my sensory ability."
What Yoru said was half true and half not.
The true part was that he genuinely had this intention.
The reason he hadn't exchanged for the technique the previous year was that his talent at the time had not been sufficient to attempt a super S-rank secret art of this nature.
There was also the issue that using the Spiritization technique caused the soul to leave the body, leaving it in its most vulnerable state.
The biggest weakness of Yoru's Space-Time abilities was the fear of being assassinated. Even now, with his chakra control having reached a new realm, entering full intangibility still required a certain amount of time for Space-Time chakra to spread through his entire body. He couldn't do it instantly.
If he released the Space-Time Yin Seal and utilized its properties, he could achieve near-instant entry into intangibility. But someone who was already paranoid about being assassinated would never use a soul-leaving technique and put his body at risk.
In Yoru's view, the Spiritization technique had always been the most impractical and useless of the super S-rank jutsu.
But now, with talent that had transformed from being hopeless at the abstract into being a genius at it, Yoru was deeply interested in the technique.
As he had said, the Spiritization technique was a super S-rank Yin Release secret art. The ability to perfectly separate spiritual energy from physical energy, allowing the former to leave the body as a spirit state, was a level of Yin Release mastery that exceeded any genjutsu and even surpassed the Yin Release of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
In the original series, Dan Kato's rescue had been an intervention that not even Madara Uchiha's Rinnegan could detect. The technique also possessed top-tier concealment properties.
If he could grasp the essence of this technique, Yoru's Yin Release mastery would improve dramatically, and more importantly, his control over spiritual energy would reach an entirely new level. That was the true key.
As long as he could control spiritual energy perfectly, his sensory ability would improve accordingly.
The talent enhancement from the second evolution had made Yoru highly confident in a theory he had held for some time.
Developing Space-Time teleportation that required no pre-placed formulas would require mastering two core elements. First, sensory ability reaching a peak level. Second, Space-Time chakra separating completely from the body. Then combining both, allowing Yoru to perceive the existence of Space-Time itself.
These two cores could be summarized in two words: control.
The first was control of spiritual energy. The second was control of the Space-Time energy within the body, which could also be called physical energy.
It was at this realization that Yoru finally understood just how powerful Kekkei Mora truly was, and why only members of the Otsutsuki clan could master it.
Controlling the fusion of seven nature transformations into a bloodline limit required not only cultivating each nature transformation to an extremely high level, but also a level of control ability that belonged to a different dimension entirely.
Yoru's chakra control had already reached a new realm. Looking across the entire shinobi world, the only person he could think of who might compare was Nagato. Those who could stand above him were, setting aside Otsutsuki Isshiki who belonged to a completely different dimension, only Madara Uchiha with his Susanoo who could also perfectly control spiritual energy and Yin Release chakra, and the third son of Kaguya Otsutsuki, the protagonist of his own story, the product of Yin-Yang Release itself: Black Zetsu.
In the same moment, Yoru also finally understood why even certain Kekkei Mora could only barely invoke Space-Time energy, with fixed techniques and single-purpose applications. And why every pure-blood Otsutsuki seemed to have Space-Time talent and could command various Space-Time abilities.
The chakra control required to synthesize Kekkei Mora barely touched the threshold of Space-Time. Powerful Kekkei Mora might get half a foot through the door of the Space-Time world, but applications remained single-purpose. To truly enter the Space-Time world and freely interfere with both real space and pocket dimensions, one's chakra control had to surpass the level required for synthesizing Kekkei Mora.
Yoru didn't know whether the God of Otsutsuki, who seemed to have transcended this dimension entirely, had reached such a state.
But what he could say with certainty was that as long as he continued evolving, with each evolution bringing comprehensive improvement, he would definitely reach it.
The talent enhancement from the second evolution had already brought Yoru's physical energy control to the required standard. All he needed was to elevate his spiritual energy control, and with Flying Thunder God providing inspiration, the probability of developing formula-free Space-Time teleportation at this stage was high.
Beyond helping improve his spiritual energy control for the teleportation development, the Spiritization technique, once the issue of the real body's vulnerability was resolved, was genuinely a technique comparable to Flying Thunder God as a killing move. It would also allow him to communicate with Konan under the eyes of Black and White Zetsu without being detected.
Hiruzen naturally had no idea that Yoru's thinking extended to Space-Time, something more complex than both Yin and Yang Release combined.
Seeing that Yoru's reason for exchanging for the Spiritization technique was to improve his sensory ability, confirming his guess while also agreeing with the logic, Hiruzen nodded in approval.
"A sound idea. If you manage to learn it, not only will your sensory ability improve dramatically, you will also become a Yin Release type assassin."
As though something had occurred to him, Hiruzen's expression turned serious. "Given the merit you have accumulated over this past year, exchanging for this technique is not a problem at all. But before I give it to you, I must remind you of one thing. Your current weakness is sensory ability, which means spiritual energy and Yin Release are equally your weak points. By rights, given those conditions, it should be very difficult for you to learn this technique. But the world of genuine geniuses doesn't operate by ordinary logic, especially someone like you who appears only once in several decades. Nothing that happens involving you would surprise me."
"So if you do learn it, before your spiritual energy and Yin Release have grown stronger, do not casually enter the mental world of a Yin Release specialist. Every technique has weaknesses and flaws, and super S-rank jutsu like Flying Thunder God and the Spiritization technique are no exception. When your spirit enters another person's mental world, it becomes a contest of spiritual energy and Yin Release. If your spirit takes a severe hit inside that world, it means your mind and possibly even your soul has taken a severe hit. That kind of injury is extremely difficult to heal and could even cause permanent damage, leaving your strength unable to advance any further."
Yoru nodded firmly. "Understood, Hokage-sama."
Hiruzen had complete confidence in Yoru's maturity. Besides, becoming an excellent assassin required not only speed but a personality that was careful and cautious. Assassins were the shinobi who were best at keeping themselves alive.
And so Hiruzen began processing the exchange for the Spiritization technique.
"What a fast technique. If not for the charging windup, it would be essentially unblockable. If you charged it in advance and paired it with Flying Thunder God's teleportation, there might be no one who could survive the first-strike kill."
In a dimly lit underground space, Madara Uchiha used Yin-Yang Release to read the scenes White Zetsu had observed, as though watching Yoru use the Laser Beam with his own eyes.
He gave the Laser Beam an extremely high assessment, then analyzed it with deep and searching eyes. "Black-red light, lightning-fast speed, and a thunderous boom. Is it the Black Lightning secret technique or a Storm Release laser? But whether it's Black Lightning or Storm Release, both involve Lightning Release. So why are there no traces of electricity?"
"Is that annihilating destructive power truly a property of Black Lightning?"
Madara Uchiha, suspicious by nature, did not believe the outside world's conclusions.
Most critically, Black Lightning and Storm Release were not unheard of in the shinobi world. Yoru was nowhere near the first case. Did a secret technique or bloodline limit of that kind really need to be hidden?
Furthermore, Madara had never seen Black Lightning or Storm Release produce a destructive force at this level. Even a Tailed Beast Ball, with its terrifying explosion, still kicked up endless clouds of dust and shrapnel. What gave mere Lightning Release or Storm Release the right to accomplish what a Tailed Beast Ball couldn't?
Thinking this, Madara's contempt for Hanzo deepened. "That poison-loving guy couldn't even force a single secret out of one small brat, and he dared accept the title of Demigod of the Shinobi World. Shameless."
"Madara-sama, what if you guessed wrong and it really is that simple?" White Zetsu gave Madara no face whatsoever.
"Get lost."
Madara closed his eyes, not bothering to argue.
"Even Hanzo lost..."
At the Sand frontline's temporary command post, Chiyo stared at the intelligence report that had come through. Her expression kept shifting, her eyes full of disbelief.
Just as in the original series she would have a visceral reaction to hearing the name White Fang or seeing Kakashi Hatake, now every piece of news involving Yoru triggered the same response in her.
Among all the parties in the four-nation war, the one who hated Yoru most and wanted him dead most was not the Rain ninja he had frightened into submission, and not Hanzo who viewed him as the greatest obstacle to invading the Land of Fire. It was Chiyo.
By extension, she also despised Sakumo Hatake, who similarly had white hair and was equally skilled in Lightning Release and assassination.
But right now, Chiyo felt as though a bucket of cold water had been dumped over her. Her heart had gone cold.
If even Hanzo of the Salamander had been defeated, just how far had that brat's strength advanced?
With Flying Thunder God at his disposal, who in the world could actually kill him?
Did she still have any hope of revenge?
"Mother, the Kazekage wishes to speak with you."
A red-haired young man walked in from outside and addressed her respectfully.
"I know..."
Chiyo walked out of the tent in a daze.
....
"Old man, even that demigod lost. Should we keep fighting Konoha?"
In the Tsuchikage's office at Iwagakure, Kitsuchi looked at Onoki seated behind his desk and felt a sense of helplessness for the first time, along with something he couldn't quite name: fear.
Over the past two years he had heard Yoru's name more times than he could count and had always been paying attention to him.
He had watched with his own eyes as Yoru went from an unknown nobody to a figure recognized across the entire shinobi world.
And the age gap between them was only a few years.
That was precisely why Kitsuchi felt the same helplessness and despair that his generation shared when confronted with Yoru's name. And something else: genuine fear.
The Flying Thunder God user who wounded the salamander. The Shinobi World's First Divine Speed who instantly killed fifty-five Sand ninja. The top-tier assassin who made Rain ninja flee at the mere mention of his name. Every single event had given Yoru a new title, each one demonstrating the weight of those achievements.
Any one of those accomplishments would have made a jonin a name known across the shinobi world and elevated them directly to ace combatant status within their village. And Yoru had achieved all of them at once, and then gone on to defeat the person universally acknowledged as the shinobi world's pinnacle.
That kind of presence made young ninja from enemy nations, those without iron-strong mental fortitude, tremble just at hearing his name. Coming face to face with Yoru in person would likely cause full-body shaking before a single exchange had taken place.
Kitsuchi was no exception.
Seemingly reading his son's mood, Onoki couldn't help but reprimand him. "You little brat. Nobody's asking you to go to the frontlines. What exactly are you afraid of? With mental fortitude like that, forget becoming a full jonin, I'm half tempted to demote you back to genin. You can't even muster the courage to face an enemy directly. What right do you have to lead a squad in combat?"
"Father, I'm sorry."
Kitsuchi lowered his head, genuinely ashamed.
"He defeated Hanzo one-on-one. So what?" Onoki continued without softening. "Without that salamander, Hanzo only has his Water Release and Body Flicker worth praising. One-on-one against me, he couldn't even touch the hem of my robe. He'd only have running away left. That brat defeating him just means he had an information advantage. Hanzo didn't have time to break his poison-resistant mask before taking a critical hit."
Looking at the intelligence report in his hand, Onoki immediately grasped what Hanzo had been communicating, and spoke with measured weight. "And in this fight, regardless of whether that brat won or Hanzo won, neither of them would have been killed. Neither dared kill the other."
"Hanzo, or more precisely Rain Country, could no longer sustain this level of attrition war. He had been looking for a way out for a long time."
"Before withdrawing, he went to fight that brat, possibly looking for a stepping stone. What he didn't expect was that the outcome would only benefit his opponent and ourselves."
"Ourselves?" Kitsuchi blinked, confusion written across his face.
"Correct. This is actually good news for us." Onoki's eyes carried a trace of wariness. "That technique's speed is too fast and its power too strong. Once paired with Flying Thunder God, even I might fall to a first-strike kill before I could react."
"But now, intelligence on this technique has been exposed. We can assume the worst and prepare accordingly."
"This technique very likely is not Black Lightning at all, but a Storm Release laser."
"This brat has become a troublesome existence on the level of the Third Raikage. The difference is that the Third Raikage had both the ultimate shield and the ultimate spear but no long-range teleportation like Flying Thunder God, so he could be dealt with through attrition tactics."
"This brat has no ultimate shield, but possesses attack capability that rivals the ultimate spear along with Flying Thunder God to escape any situation at will. Attrition tactics are useless against him. The only option is manufacturing traps to catch him off guard."
After saying this, Onoki folded his arms and closed his eyes, seemingly deep in thought.
Kitsuchi didn't dare breathe too loudly, terrified of disturbing his father.
After some unknowable length of time, Onoki slowly opened his eyes, his gaze deep and searching. "Flying Thunder God, the Lightning Release branch of ninjutsu taijutsu, the Black Lightning secret technique and the Storm Release laser, the special ability to perfectly conceal chakra presence, all three types of the ninja disciplines. This brat's ninjutsu and taijutsu have both reached extremely high levels. The only thing he has never used is genjutsu."
"He may not be skilled in Yin Release or sensory techniques. This can be seen from the fact that he and Hiruzen's two students spent this entire past year being chased around by Hanzo without being able to locate Hanzo's real body."
At this point, Onoki's eyes suddenly sharpened with wariness again. "But his growth speed is simply too terrifying. If we let him keep growing, even that weakness will likely be filled."
"We cannot pull back. We must intensify our offensive, force that brat onto our frontline, and try to create an opportunity to take him down there. If we wait until he reaches adulthood, he may become a second Hanzo of the Salamander that nobody can deal with."
Onoki made his decision immediately.
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