“I never thought you would actually master the Flying Thunder God, Rei. That’s quite something.”
Jiraiya thoughtfully rubbed his chin, unable to hide his amazement.
Back in the day, he had thought that with his white hair, he possessed quite a bit of the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju’s talent.
He had even believed that he might become quite skilled in Space-Time Ninjutsu.
Unfortunately, the aptitude required for the Flying Thunder God was spatial perception, not hair color.
In the end, he had regretfully destroyed the copy of the Flying Thunder God Technique he had transcribed from the Scroll of Seals.
“Minato, you’d better step it up too. This time, you’re the one who’s fallen behind.”
Jiraiya laughed as he gave Minato a heavy pat on the shoulder.
He had always encouraged healthy competition between his disciples.
A fighting spirit immediately ignited in Minato’s eyes.
“I will, Jiraiya-sensei!”
Jiraiya’s gaze returned to Shiranui Rei.
He hesitated, seemingly wanting to say something but unable to decide whether he should.
He was worried about throwing cold water on his disciple’s enthusiasm, but he was also concerned that the random teleportation effect might one day cause Rei to suffer a disastrous setback.
Deviating coordinates and random teleportation could cause trouble for both himself and his teammates.
As for the former, if Rei accidentally teleported directly onto an enemy’s blade or onto a pre-set explosive tag, he might close his eyes and open them again in the Pure Land.
As for the latter, imagine fighting alongside your comrades only for you to suddenly disappear and have no idea which country you had been teleported to.
Wouldn’t that be screwing over your teammates?
With that thought in mind, Jiraiya still reminded him, “Rei, your Flying Thunder God Technique is still unstable. If you use it in actual combat, you need to think it through carefully.”
After all, Jiraiya himself had never mastered the Flying Thunder God, so he didn’t know whether this random teleportation effect was normal.
All he could do was offer some advice.
“I understand, Jiraiya-sensei.”
Shiranui Rei smiled and nodded.
Actually, he didn’t need Jiraiya to remind him.
He understood the problem perfectly well.
This “Random Flying Thunder God” was fine for ordinary use.
On the battlefield, unless he was using it to escape for his life, randomly teleporting like that would only leave him caught off guard before he could catch his enemies off guard.
That was also why he hadn’t dared to use the Flying Thunder God offensively while dealing with Blackbeard Teach aboard the Moby Dick.
What if he accidentally delivered himself straight in front of Whitebeard?
Wouldn’t that have been a complete disaster?
“All right. You two have even more important missions waiting for you later, so get some good rest over the next few days.”
“After all, knowing how to steal some leisure from a busy schedule is also an essential part of a shinobi’s training~”
Jiraiya pushed himself up from the table.
His words sounded somewhat philosophical at first, but the more carefully one thought about them, the less sense they made.
With that, the “Jiraiya Team” lunch officially came to an end.
After Jiraiya paid the bill, the three master and disciples headed off in different directions.
As for what Jiraiya was going to do, the barely concealed lecherous expression on his face before he left was enough to give a pretty good idea.
Minato, meanwhile, said he wanted to head to the training grounds that afternoon and continue practicing the Flying Thunder God Technique.
After saying goodbye, he hurried off.
That left Shiranui Rei alone.
After thinking about it for a while, he decided to head straight home.
It was already afternoon, and the slanting sunlight stretched the shadows across the ground.
Walking toward the sun, Shiranui Rei slightly narrowed his dark eyes, a lazy look spreading through them.
He had truly experienced quite a lot that morning.
Going head-to-head with Blackbeard had put him under pressure no less intense than facing a Kage-level expert who specialized in Taijutsu.
And that was with both sides deliberately suppressing their movements because they were wary of disturbing the sleeping Whitebeard.
If the two of them had fought without any restraints, Tsunade really might have needed to perform major surgery on him earlier.
Although he had escaped safely from the sea, his energy still hadn’t fully recovered.
He walked through the increasingly lively afternoon streets, passing children playing shinobi games, before finally climbing a narrow but clean staircase and stopping in front of his home.
After entering, he changed into his house slippers.
Shiranui Rei rested his left arm behind his dark-purple hair and leaned back against the sofa.
He raised his right hand and held it suspended in midair, his slender fingers curling into a claw.
With a thought, a deep, dark aura spread from his palm.
The clearly visible hand was quickly enveloped in darkness.
At first, it was only a wisp of black smoke.
Very soon, however, it expanded to the size of a millstone and continued growing at a visible rate.
Clatter, clatter—
The table and chairs nearby, along with the cups and other objects resting on them, began to tremble violently, unable to resist the gravitational pull originating from the darkness.
The clock hanging on the wall began shaking violently as well, struggling to break free from its restraints and embrace the floor.
A tiny flying insect that had somehow slipped into the room through a crack sensed that something was wrong and desperately flew in the opposite direction from the darkness.
But in the end, the poor little creature still couldn’t escape the force of gravity.
It was dragged into the darkness and crushed into dust.
Seeing this, Shiranui Rei hurriedly withdrew the Devil Fruit’s power from his hand.
Only then did the disturbances in the room gradually disappear.
Seeing that he had managed to control the Devil Fruit’s power fairly well, Shiranui Rei finally breathed a sigh of relief.
This was also why he hadn’t recklessly tested the Yami Yami no Mi’s abilities at Minato’s house earlier.
He had only just obtained the Yami Yami no Mi and hadn’t completely adapted to its power yet.
If he accidentally turned his good friend Minato’s home into a pile of rubble, that would have been a serious offense.
Judging by the results, he seemed to be adapting to the Yami Yami no Mi fairly well.
From now on, mastering the Devil Fruit’s abilities had to become one of his top training priorities!
Next came the Flying Thunder God Technique.
At the thought of this, an intense excitement was difficult to suppress in Shiranui Rei’s eyes.
Compared with the Yami Yami no Mi, he actually cared more about his SSS-rank ninjutsu, ‘Random Flying Thunder God .”
After all, the reason he had been able to snatch the Yami Yami no Mi right out from under Teach’s nose was precisely because “Random Flying Thunder God” had allowed him to cross between worlds.
Random teleportation wasn’t exactly a good thing.
But if it meant randomly teleporting to other worlds, then that was simply incredible!
The only problem was that Shiranui Rei still hadn’t figured out how to activate the Flying Thunder God in a way that would allow him to cross into another world, or whether there were any reproducible conditions that would make it possible.
Practice was the only way to discover the truth.
Just as he felt he had rested enough and was preparing to activate the Flying Thunder God again to see whether he could return to the world of pirates, the sound coming from outside his door made him stop.
Through the door, he vaguely heard the slightly childish voice of a girl talking to herself.
“Oh no, I can’t quite remember the address Lady Tsunade gave me.”
“Is it this way? Or maybe next door…”
Along with her voice came the faint sound of footsteps as she paced back and forth.
“Ah, forget it. I’ll just knock first and see.”
Knock, knock, knock—
As soon as the girl finished speaking, the sound of knocking came from Shiranui Rei’s brown wooden door.
“That voice sounds a little familiar, but…”
Perhaps the door had muffled the sound and made her voice somewhat different from how it normally sounded.
Whatever the reason, Shiranui Rei couldn’t immediately remember who was speaking outside.
Thinking about it carefully, over the years as a shinobi, he had met quite a few fellow shinobi.
While he couldn’t say he had regarded many of them as close confidants, there were certainly quite a few he could chat with.
He walked to the entrance and opened the door.
The sight of the red-haired beauty standing outside left him stunned.