With the lunar new year holiday over, the Konoha Ninja Academy has ushered in a new semester.
In this world, the school year is divided into three semesters: April to July, September to December, and January to March.
It's January, the start of the school year, a time when winter is giving way to spring.
At the opening ceremony, the third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, attended as usual and delivered an important speech.
This elderly man, who had been in charge of Konoha for many years, would always say something to the children at the start of each school year.
He not only talks about the inherited philosophy of the Will of Fire, but also often shares interesting stories and insights from his training, as well as some insights on popular yet practical Ninjutsu, making his speeches anything but boring.
During his speech, he would occasionally randomly select a few students to answer their questions, and this year was no exception.
"... When learning Ninjutsu, we often pursue the power of the techniques too much..."
The third Hokage used simple yet slightly humorous language to explain some basic but profound truths.
After finishing his explanation of his insights on Ninjutsu, he paused, his kind gaze slowly sweeping over the students lined up neatly below the stage, preparing to select a few children who raised their hands, as usual.
At that moment, a student in class 2, grade 3, who calmly raised his hand, instantly caught his attention.
Shinichi Higashino.
The third Hokage's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, then he smiled even more kindly and gently raised his hand in that direction, indicating, "This student from class 2, grade 3, please stand up. Do you have any questions or opinions you'd like to share?"
Shinichi stood up, bowed respectfully towards the podium, and then, with a perfectly measured mix of confusion and uncertainty on his face, said, "It's like this, third Hokage. For the past two years, I've been trying to develop a new Ninjutsu. In the end... Well, I could say I succeeded, but I could also say I failed, because I discovered that this technique seems to have a huge problem that I can't solve on my own."
"Oh? Developing new Ninjutsu?"
The third Hokage's smile widened, carrying an encouraging tone: "It seems this student is quite the adventurous genius."
He praised him in a kind tone, but deep down, he didn't really care.
In his view, this so-called new technique is mostly a superficial modification or combination of existing techniques.
Reaching the C-rank is already rare, and touching the B-rank threshold is even rarer.
"Excuse me, what's your name?"
The third Hokage asked in a harmonious voice, as if hearing it for the first time.
"Shinichi Higashino."
"Well then, Shinichi."
The third Hokage nodded, "Why don't you explain in more detail, or perhaps demonstrate your new technique? Let me see where the problem lies, and maybe I can give you some advice."
Upon hearing this, Shinichi glanced hesitantly at the crowded student queue around him, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.
The third Hokage understood and smiled, "It seems that Shinichi's new technique is quite powerful and impressive, so it's not convenient to demonstrate it here. How about this, Shinichi, come up to the stage."
"Yes!"
Shinichi responded, stepped out of the class line, walked through the crowd, and headed towards the podium. At the same time, suppressed murmurs arose from below the stage.
"Shinichi? He actually developed a new Ninjutsu on his own?"
"As expected of Shinichi... I always felt that he knew a lot."
"So it was him! That ruthless guy! Every morning when I come to school, I see him using Shadow Clones to beat himself up!"
"Is he the Shinichi Higashino who defeated Kakashi back then?"
"It was just luck. Kakashi-senpai has already been promoted to Chunin, and he's definitely much stronger than him now. The two of them are no longer on the same level!"
"What Ninjutsu did he develop? Did you give him any guidance?"
A homeroom teacher from another class asked curiously.
"I don't know, the child never mentioned it to me."
Matsumoto shook his head.
Whispers of amazement, curiosity, and doubt flowed through the crowd, all eyes focused on the young man's back as he steadily walked toward the podium.
"Shinichi, use your Ninjutsu. Don't worry, I'm right here."
The third Hokage said with an encouraging smile and gentle eyes.
The two advisors, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, who were accompanying the group, also cast curious glances over.
"Yes!"
Shinichi took a deep breath, his expression becoming focused. He slowly raised his right hand, his five fingers naturally spread out.
At first, only an invisible current of wind gathered slightly towards the palm, as if condensing chakra.
"Huh?"
Upon seeing this, the third Hokage initially let out a soft exclamation, but the next instant, the amiable smile on his face vanished abruptly.
Not only him, but also Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, who were standing next to him, their expressions almost changed simultaneously.
On Shinichi's palm, the invisible chakra gathered and quickly became visible to the naked eye!
It transformed into rapidly flowing, highly compressed streams of azure chakra and began to spin at an astonishing speed!
Buzz!
A low, trembling sound, as if the air were being torn apart and then condensed, faintly rose.
In the blink of an eye, a pale blue ball of light, about the size of a fist and composed entirely of highly condensed and wildly spinning chakra, was already floating in his palm!
Inside the sphere of light, clear lines of chakra swirled and roared like a storm, creating visible turbulent air currents that ruffled Shinichi's sleeves and the strands of hair on his forehead.
Rasengan!
The new technique that Shinichi mentioned was none other than this high-ranking, Sealless Ninjutsu that was developed by the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, in the future, inspired by the Tailed Beast Ball, and classified as an A-rank!
At this point in time, Minato Namikaze may have been conceiving the technique, or perhaps it had just begun, but the technique was certainly not yet complete, much less yet seen in the world.
The original work clearly demonstrates the principles and practice process of the Rasengan.
First step, the gathering phase: Gather the chakra into your palm.
Second step, the water balloon stage: Releasing the chakra causes the water inside the balloon to move erratically until the water balloon explodes.
The third step, the rubber ball stage: Maintain the released chakra and materialize it until the rubber ball can be broken.
In the final stage, combine everything from the previous stages, gather high-density chakra in your hand, continuously release and maintain it, and finally solidify it to form a high-density chakra ball.
However, after completing the third ball stage, Shinichi failed to enter the final stage, presumably because there are some techniques involved in the Rasengan that were not shown in the anime.
So he added a fourth stage, the iron ball. After successfully breaking the iron ball, he also successfully used a stable Rasengan.
In other words, with the support of various attributes centered around the word Genius, Shinichi's talent and aptitude are those of a true absolute genius.
Otherwise, even with the corresponding ideas and methods, it would be difficult for him to develop the Rasengan on his own.
Shinichi's plan is to take advantage of this time before Minato Namikaze has developed the Rasengan, an A-rank Ninjutsu, and then showcase it at the opening ceremony, a public occasion attended by the entire school's teachers and students as well as Konoha's high-ranking officials, thereby producing a sensational impact.
In doing so, he aimed to directly generate a comprehensive talent related to ninjutsu aptitude.