The blue lightning danced in Hagoromo's palm as if it possessed a life of its own. His fingers seemed barely able to contain the mass of energy; danger and destruction flickered in the air, threatening to erupt at any second.
Kakashi and the others instinctively leaned back, their bodies trying to create as much distance as possible from the lightning. Their subconscious was screaming at them about the sheer lethality of the thing in front of them.
As for Hagoromo, he felt zero shame in posing as the creator of the jutsu while demonstrating it right in front of its actual inventor.
"The power is comparable to an S-rank Jutsu!"
Unlike Kakashi's retreat, Minato Namikaze's eyes lit up. While the destructive power was impressive, that wasn't what truly captivated him. What he saw was a seal-less technique—achieving nature transformation and massive chakra condensation without a single hand sign. The difficulty of such a feat was unimaginable. That was the real draw.
"Truly remarkable, Kushina. I didn't expect your student to develop a seal-less Ninjutsu of this caliber..." Minato remarked with genuine admiration.
Currently, Minato was inspired by the Tailed Beast Bomb and was in the middle of developing his own seal-less technique, the Rasengan. However, he was still in the experimental phase; the Rasengan was just a basic prototype, let alone adding nature transformation to it.
A seal-less jutsu required no hand signs, meaning it could be triggered instantly in combat. Compared to Ninjutsu that required dozens of signs, the tactical advantage was incomparable.
"Of course," Kushina said, boasting without a hint of modesty. "It just proves that I'm a teacher who is very good at guiding students and helping them realize their hidden potential."
Hagoromo briefly considered what would happen if he mentioned he had completed this jutsu before he even met Kushina.
After a moment of thought, he decided to just roll with her story. He had absolutely zero interest in finding out what the consequences of telling the truth would look like.
However, noticing that Minato's understanding of the technique was slightly off, Hagoromo quickly spoke up. "Minato-senpai, you've got it slightly wrong. This technique isn't strictly a seal-less Ninjutsu."
"Is that so? But you didn't perform any hand signs just now." Minato looked confused. Had Hagoromo made signs? Impossible. If he had, it couldn't have escaped Minato's eyes.
So why would Hagoromo claim it wasn't seal-less?
"In reality, Chidori isn't a seal-less jutsu. It's just that my body is unique; I was born with an extremely high affinity for Lightning Release, so I can force it out without signs."
Hagoromo let the Chidori in his hand dissipate. "Normally, Chidori requires hand signs."
To demonstrate, he began weaving signs with his hands.
Ox — Hare — Monkey.
After the three signs, a mass of lightning erupted in his palm once more.
Honestly, he was mostly doing this for Kakashi's benefit. Hagoromo considered himself a "principled" thief; while he had stolen the naming rights, he wasn't about to strip Kakashi of the right to actually use the technique.
He believed that as the original developer of the technique, Kakashi would be able to master the jutsu quickly once he had the proper sequence.
"I see. So it's just a result of natural talent?" Upon learning it wasn't a true seal-less Ninjutsu, Minato's interest waned significantly.
After a short exchange, Minato had to admit that Hagoromo was a genius-level Shinobi. Setting aside the Chidori itself, being able to manipulate Lightning Release so skillfully at such a young age was no small feat.
But it wasn't the "seal-less" breakthrough he was looking for.
…
At this stage, Hagoromo could use both Lightning and Fire Release. These were the two chakra natures he was born with. Naturally, he was much more proficient with Lightning and preferred it over Fire.
Fire and Lightning both had their merits—Lightning had superior piercing power for single targets, while Fire had a larger area of effect. However, the real reason Hagoromo didn't favor Fire Release was simple: he couldn't get his hands on any A-rank Fire Style Jutsu.
Apparently, even Kushina didn't know any A-rank Fire Style, and rumors suggested that even the village itself lacked them.
It was a truly tragic story.
Aside from these two innate nature transformations, Hagoromo was also following Kushina's lead in learning others, though he hadn't seen results yet.
Regardless of what the others felt, Hagoromo thoroughly enjoyed the meal. For the next few days, he didn't see much of Kushina. It wasn't until after Minato left that she threw herself back into the development of Sealing Jutsu with renewed energy.
Over the following week, she tackled several difficult problems in rapid succession. Finally, the Forbidden Jutsu was declared complete.
…
One morning a week later, at the edge of the barrier in the northwest corner of Konoha.
This was a secluded stretch of dense forest, far from any foot traffic. Two figures—one tall, one short, one female, one male—were moving stealthily through the woods just as the sky began to pale with dawn.
Naturally, it was Kushina and Hagoromo.
Kushina was lugging a massive sealing scroll. She walked to a specific distance from Konoha's protective barrier and stopped.
She couldn't go any further. If she did, the barrier would react, likely summoning the Anbu. That would put a permanent end to their Forbidden Jutsu trial.
"Hagoromo, come here. Take this scroll and place it right against the edge of the barrier. For certain reasons, I can't get too close to it myself," Kushina instructed.
Hagoromo nodded. He took the scroll, which was actually taller than he was, and walked step by step toward the edge of the barrier.
He had a rough idea of why Kushina couldn't approach it. Apparently, she had once tried to sneak off to the front lines. Unfortunately, she was caught by the Hokage and brought back. Since then, the Konoha barrier had been fitted with a sensor specifically tuned to the Nine-Tails' Chakra. The moment Kushina as a Jinchuriki approached the edge, the Hokage would know instantly.
For Kushina, Konoha was both a shield that protected her and a cage that imprisoned her.
Hagoromo carefully placed the scroll at the very edge of the barrier and unfurled it on the ground as directed.
The inside of the scroll was covered in dense, microscopic characters. The characters gathered into lines, and the lines formed a complex formula.
The shape of the formula itself was far more intricate than the Four Symbols Seal. It was also fundamentally different from the Reverse Four Symbols Seal that appeared in the original story.
Once the scroll was open, Hagoromo sprinted back to Kushina's side.
He wasn't being a coward; he just wanted to be as far away from this dangerous thing as possible.
"Reporting to the commander: the Italian Cannon has been deployed and is ready for detonation!" he reported to Kushina.
Kushina didn't actually understand the reference, but miraculously, she understood the meaning.
She nodded, her expression entirely different from her usual self. She was deadly serious.
"Alright. Let's back up a bit... actually, let's back up a lot. The effective range of this formula is still unclear. We need to ensure our own safety."