‘Chomei, my good days are officially over…’
Walking through the village, Gekko Senzan felt a deep wave of helplessness washing over him.
With his Flying Thunder God Jutsu exposed to the upper brass, combined with his Transparency Jutsu…
sigh.
There was absolutely no way he could keep a low profile anymore.
Thankfully, he still had the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu and the Eight Inner Gates tucked away as a surprise.
Tsk, tsk.
When it came to hidden trump cards, the more the merrier.
After all, this was a ruthless, dog-eat-dog world.
‘Tch, don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing,’ Chomei snorted in his mind.
‘You’re my Jinchuriki now.
I know exactly how much power you’re really packing.’
‘If you actually fought with your life on the line, an ordinary Jonin wouldn’t stand a chance against you.
Even that massive Cloud brute from the other day wouldn’t be able to beat you.
And that’s without borrowing my chakra!
If you actually used my power, even an average Kage wouldn’t be able to do much against you.’
Chomei let out a long, continuous rant.
Its new partner was ridiculously averse to combat.
The kid was clearly incredibly strong, yet he acted like a total coward.
Senzan immediately shot back, completely unbothered by the beast’s critique.
‘What do you know?
Having forbidden jutsu is one thing, but I actually need the physical capital to use them!
Come on, I’m only fourteen!
How much chakra do you think this fragile, growing body can realistically hold without burning out?
Did you see the Third Raikage’s son?
His arm was thicker than my entire waist!
Fight him?
Yeah, right.
Forget it.’
Chomei: ‘…You talk the most, so I guess you’re right.’
Arriving home, Senzan smiled at the sight of his baby brother.
No matter what happened outside, his family was what truly mattered.
“Sami-obasan, I’m back!” Senzan called out.
“Here, my pay from the mission.”
Seeing the thick wad of cash in Senzan’s hand, Sami blinked in surprise.
“How much is this?”
“I did a quick count.
It’s roughly one hundred and fifteen thousand Ryo.”
In reality, the official mission payout wasn’t nearly that high.
Since two Anbu operatives had died, the vast majority of the funds were allocated to their families as death benefits.
He and Heiichi Yamanaka had only received ten thousand Ryo each.
The rest was entirely looted off those paralyzed Cloud ninja.
He had to admit, those Cloud shinobi had made an absolute killing doing outsourced missions in the Land of Hot Water.
“Why is it so much?” Sami asked, eyes wide.
“What kind of mission did you go on?
An A-rank?”
Rank?
Senzan pondered for a moment.
Considering he had crossed paths with the Raikage’s son, the danger level easily eclipsed an ordinary A-rank mission.
After all, that guy was the absolute strongest of Kumogakure’s younger generation.
“I guess you could call it an A-rank.
Lord Hokage assigned it to me personally, so I couldn’t exactly say no,” Senzan shrugged.
“I didn’t even have time to let you know before I left.”
Seeing Senzan covered in dust and looking thoroughly exhausted, Sami swallowed whatever scolding she had been about to give him.
“Haha, I’m fine!” Senzan grinned, noticing her concern.
“I made it back in one piece, didn’t I?
Plus, I got promoted to Jonin after this mission!
From now on, I’ve got some serious weight to throw around this village!”
Jonin formed the core backbone of any ninja village.
The strength and quantity of a village’s Jonin largely determined its overall military might.
The Hidden Leaf had always maintained its position as the strongest of the Five Great Shinobi Nations not just because it produced generational geniuses, but because it possessed a staggering number of elite Jonin.
“A Jonin, huh…” Sami murmured, her tone softening.
“Just be careful on your missions from now on.
If things go south, just run.
Running away from a battle is far better than throwing your life away.”
Perhaps thinking of her late husband and lost friends, Sami’s expression grew deeply somber.
As a survivor of the war, she knew the cruelty of the battlefield all too well.
“Don’t worry,” Senzan reassured her lightly.
“I might suck at fighting, but when it comes to running away, I am absolutely top-tier in the entire Hidden Leaf.”
Hearing that, Chomei couldn’t hold back an exasperated mental spit.
In the mindscape, of course.
Over the next few days, Senzan officially registered his new Jonin status.
But before he could even enjoy the perks of the rank for two days, he was intercepted.
“Minato, seriously, why do you insist on sparring with me?”
“Hahaha!
My sensei told me everything!
I had no idea you actually learned the Flying Thunder God Jutsu too, Senzan!”
Yes, Minato Namikaze had tracked him down and was fiercely demanding a sparring match.
The moment Senzan heard those words, it all clicked.
That sneaky old Hokage had deliberately told Jiraiya to leak the news of Senzan’s Flying Thunder God to Minato.
He was using Minato to test Senzan’s capabilities!
He had to hand it to them—the people sitting at the top of the village were incredibly devious!
Sigh, but now that Minato was literally at his front door, what could he do?
Being in the same graduating class, Senzan knew Minato’s personality perfectly well.
He finally understood why Naruto Uzumaki would grow up to be so incredibly stubborn.
Because his father was exactly the same.
Once Minato set his mind to something, not even a herd of eight hundred bulls could drag him away.
But Minato, you know it too, don’t you?” Senzan deflected smoothly.
“It’s really no big deal.”
Hearing Senzan’s confirmation, Minato’s eyes instantly lit up like floodlights.
“Senzan, let’s spar!
A pure match of the Flying Thunder God Jutsu!”
Damn it.
Talk about your worst fears coming true.
Spar?
Spar my ass!
When it came to pure reflexes, not even A, the son of the Third Raikage, could compare to Minato.
There was absolutely no way Senzan was agreeing to this.
“Look, Minato, I’ve only just barely grasped the technique.
I’m incredibly rusty with it,” Senzan lied without missing a beat.
“Let’s skip the sparring, but we can definitely sit down and exchange some notes.
How does that sound?”
With that, Senzan pulled out his custom marked kunai.
Seeing the formula, Minato smiled brightly and reached into his pouch, drawing a kunai of his own.
Unlike standard kunai, Minato’s weapon possessed a highly distinct, three-pronged shape.
It was clearly custom-forged.
“This is my custom blade and jutsu formula.
What do you think?” Minato beamed.
“Pretty cool, right?”
The inner chuunibyou of Minato Namikaze had officially logged on.
“‘Sword of Shinobi Love’…?
Minato, your naming sense really is just as…
sigh…”
Minato just laughed off the critique.
But a second later, his gaze shifted back to Senzan’s kunai.
In the very next second, he froze.
What was he looking at?
Daddy is here???
Why on earth would Senzan use a phrase like that for a jutsu formula?!
That was just too…
“Minato, do you know about the Flying Thunder God’s alternate applications?” Senzan asked casually, completely ignoring the other boy’s shock.
That question instantly snapped Minato out of his speechless stupor.
“Are you talking about the Flying Thunder God Mutually Instantaneous Revolving Technique?”
Minato’s eyes lit up once more.
He had known about this specific jutsu application for a while, but because he was the only one in the village who knew the Flying Thunder God, he had never been able to practice it.
“Hehe, exactly,” Senzan nodded.
“If we mark each other with our respective jutsu formulas, we can use the Flying Thunder God to instantly swap places on the battlefield.
It’s an incredibly overpowered jutsu.”
Senzan put on a highly exaggerated, theatrical performance of awe.
The Mutually Instantaneous Revolving Technique was indeed incredibly effective—but it came with a prerequisite: both users had to be normal people.
If one of the users wasn’t a normal person, well…
that jutsu was going to get very, very interesting.