Faced with Shinichi's sudden increase in speed, Minato was equally startled.
But the Yellow Flash was still the Yellow Flash, although surprised, he remained calm.
Just before Shinichi's thunderous strike could touch even the edge of his clothing, Minato vanished from the spot.
Shinichi's attack instead smashed heavily into a giant tree requiring three people to encircle it, blowing it apart into a cloud of splintered wood.
At this time, Shinichi showed no intention of continuing the pursuit; instead, he stood where he was and closed his eyes.
The lightning around his body flicked unpredictably, sometimes flaring outward and sometimes withdrawing inward. He carefully sensed the degree of fusion between the lightning nature chakra and every part of his body, even every individual cell, continuously adjusting, calibrating, and reshaping it.
Neither Kakashi, who had been watching from the sidelines, nor the reappearing Minato made a sound to disturb him, and they simply waited quietly.
A moment later, the lightning surrounding Shinichi abruptly contracted and completely withdrew into his body, then he opened his eyes once more.
"Shinichi, did you succeed?" Minato asked.
Kakashi was likewise staring at him without blinking.
"Yes, senior Minato." Shinichi nodded and said, "After all these days of repeated discussions, reviews, and practical verification, I finally succeeded in using Lightning Style Armour just now. This Lightning Style Nintaijutsu that the three of us developed together can now increase the user's burst speed, physical strength, and even neural reaction speed during combat. During daily training, it can also be used to rapidly temper one's neural reflexes and physical strength, fundamentally enhancing one's basic capabilities."
"Though if I had to point out a difference..."
At this point, Shinichi smiled and joked: "Then I suppose our Lightning Style Nintaijutsu is an S-rank Ninjutsu, while Village Hidden in the Cloud's Lightning Style Nintaijutsu only reaches B-rank."
Hearing this, Minato laughed.
Of course, he knew Shinichi was not saying that this Lightning Style Nintaijutsu was necessarily stronger than the Village Hidden in the Cloud's.
What he meant was that the mastery threshold of this Ninjutsu was simply too high, and the requirements for talent, chakra control, and physical strength were enough to stop the vast majority of people at the entry level alone.
Village Hidden in the Cloud's Lightning Style Nintaijutsu, on the other hand, was a classic example of being easy to learn but difficult to master.
Its B-rank entry threshold allowed more ninja to come into contact with it and benefit from it, though reaching the level of the third Raikage remained an almost impossible feat.
As for which of the two Lightning Style Nintaijutsu systems was stronger, it was still difficult to say. However, in terms of popularity and accumulated inheritance, the Village Hidden in the Cloud was still far ahead.
Thinking of this, Minato said, "That can't be helped. The Village Hidden in the Cloud's Lightning-Style Nintaijutsu has been gradually perfected over several generations since the Warring States Period through the efforts of countless people. As for you, Shinichi, you started from nothing, and in such a short period of time, you've already achieved this much. That's already incredible, and one could even call it a miracle."
Although Shinichi had always said the technique had been developed by the three of them, Minato understood the truth very clearly.
Whether it was setting the direction, overcoming bottlenecks, or finding the correct path through countless trials and errors, the one who had always done those things was Shinichi alone.
Kakashi and Minato had merely filled in gaps and added a few finishing touches.
Without the two of them, Shinichi's progress might have been slower, but sooner or later, he would have walked this path successfully on his own.
Hearing this, Shinichi merely smiled slightly without saying anything; however, inwardly, he was already pondering.
Now that Lightning Style Nintaijutsu had finally taken complete form, it was time...
...
"Then it's time to find an opportunity to sacrifice the Incarnation of Lightning and use it to upgrade the Clone talent."
Returning from the Forest of Death and bidding farewell to Minato and Kakashi, Shinichi walked along the road home while thinking to himself.
That's right, after successfully using the mature form of Lightning Style Armour just now, Shinichi had already decided to find an opportunity to sacrifice his Incarnation of Lightning talent.
During the two months since returning to the village, he had repeatedly weighed which purple talent to sacrifice.
After thinking about it for a long time, he abandoned the idea of sacrificing any of his comprehensive, special, or support-type talents.
Even something like Cultivation Lord, which seemed to provide no direct increase in combat power, was something he would rather preserve than Fire Style itself.
Not to mention how much those nutrient-rich special crops, and even crops with unique enhancement effects, helped improve his baseline strength when combined with Gourmet.
The role that talent played in developing people's livelihoods, accumulating prestige, and serving as the foundation for grain and abundance in his grand plan to gradually ascend to the position of a Kage made it clear that this talent could never be exchanged for anything.
Thus, he focused his attention on three chakra nature talents: Incarnation of Fire, Incarnation of Wind Style, and Incarnation of Lightning.
Incarnation of Fire was immediately ruled out.
Fire Style Nintaijutsu remained the core of his combat system. If Crimson Flame Shinichi no longer possessed Incarnation of Fire, then what kind of Crimson Flame Shinichi would he be?
Then that leaves two options: Incarnation of Wind Style and Incarnation of Lightning.
Shinichi did not struggle with this choice for very long.
The incarnation of Wind Style possessed irreplaceable strategic significance for him. His ability to fly was his greatest guarantee of battlefield superiority. Especially in an era when the vast majority of ninja lacked aerial combat capabilities, control of the skies was practically equivalent to possessing absolute initiative.
Moreover, the wind strengthened the fire, and the fire borrowed the wind's power.
Shinichi had long planned to merge Wind Style and Fire Style Nintaijutsu in the future, creating an entirely new combat system that combined the impact, cutting power, and agility of Wind Style with the heat, combustion, and explosive force of Fire Style.
Losing Incarnation of Lightning, on the other hand, would not have much of a substantial impact on his combat power.
Most of the effects provided by Lightning Style Nintaijutsu were also available through Fire Style Nintaijutsu.
Whether in explosive power, destructive force, or overall strength, Fire Style Nintaijutsu was no less impressive.
In terms of long-distance burst movement speed, Fire Style Nintaijutsu was indeed inferior to Lightning Style Nintaijutsu, but that point was not particularly important.
What truly mattered was Lightning Style's unique ability to activate the nerves and stimulate reflexes.
This was something Fire Style Nintaijutsu neither possessed nor could replace.
Thus, Shinichi planned to use the time before sacrificing the Incarnation of Lightning talent to develop a complete Lightning Style Nintaijutsu as quickly as possible, one capable of training his own neural reaction speed.
That way, even after the talent disappeared, he could still rely on the already perfected Lightning Style Armour to continue tempering his neural reaction speed.