Uzumaki Ryōta swore that he had never encountered such an outrageous shinobi in his life.
While he was earnestly explaining the fundamental theory of fūinjutsu, a casual glance at Shigure made him wonder whether his eyes were deceiving him.
Shigure was staring blankly at the ceiling, his mind clearly somewhere far away.
Even worse, despite obviously failing to absorb a single word, he continued nodding solemnly as though he understood everything.
It was practically an insult to Ryōta’s intelligence.
Tap!
Tap!
Ryōta knocked sharply on the table.
Shigure continued bobbing his head every now and then, completely exposing himself.
“Elder Shigure!” Ryōta called out with barely suppressed irritation.
Shigure abruptly looked towards him, his expression clearly asking why he had stopped.
“Oh?
Why did you stop, First Elder?” Shigure asked with a perfectly serious expression.
“I’m testing a theory of mine.
Don’t stop.
Please continue.” Continue?
You’re screwing with me, aren’t you?
Suppressing his displeasure, Ryōta frowned.
“How much of what I just explained have you understood, Elder Shigure?” “Thirty or forty per cent,” Shigure shamelessly replied.
“Keep teaching me for a few more days and I should master everything.” Ryōta was surprised to hear that Shigure had supposedly understood so much.
In his estimation, Shigure had not even grasped one per cent of the lesson, let alone thirty or forty.
“And which parts would those be?” Ryōta asked, clinging to the faintest trace of hope.
“Uh… That isn’t important.” Shigure waved dismissively.
“Give me a few more days.
Once I’ve mastered everything, I’ll give you a pleasant surprise.” Ryōta’s vague hope immediately vanished.
He sat in silence and refused to continue.
There was no point.
Under the present circumstances, teaching Shigure was a complete waste of time.
An awkward silence descended upon the room.
“How about this?” Shigure eventually proposed.
“Teach me for six hours a day for seven days.
If I still haven’t mastered it after that, I’ll give up!” Ryōta agreed almost before Shigure had finished speaking.
And so the lesson continued.
When the second two-hour session ended, another notification appeared in Shigure’s mind.
[Obtained Basic Fūinjutsu Fragments ×5.] At the end of the third session, he received another five fragments.
Over the next several days, Shigure settled into a demanding routine.
He spent two hours every day teaching Uzumaki Masaki the Thirty-Six Stratagems.
From time to time, the Senju shinobi accompanying him would also come to listen under Senju Akira’s leadership.
Afterwards, Shigure went to Ryōta’s residence and studied fūinjutsu for six hours.
Once he returned to his room, he would secretly slip beyond the outskirts of the Uzumaki compound, find a deserted location, and practise wind-nature transformation.
Three days later, deep within an uninhabited forest, Shigure gathered a sharp cone of chakra over his palm.
With a casual sweep of his hand, he sliced through a tree nearly a foot thick.
This was the result of three days of training.
Although achieving so much in only three days appeared astonishing, Shigure had built his progress upon years of accumulated theoretical knowledge.
The Rasengan was a non-elemental, seal-less ninjutsu based entirely upon an extremely advanced form of chakra shape transformation.
Its principle involved compressing and shaping chakra to an extraordinary degree, creating something comparable to a miniature Tailed Beast Ball.
By combining wind-nature transformation with the Rasengan and refining its shape into a shuriken, the technique could evolve into the devastating Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.
At present, however, Shigure could attempt the fusion only three times a day.
That was the limit of his chakra reserves.
Simultaneously maintaining both shape and nature transformation consumed a staggering amount of chakra.
After only three attempts, nearly all the chakra in his body would be exhausted.
Buzzz!
A shuriken-shaped mass of chakra slowly formed above Shigure’s palm.
It remained stable for barely a dozen seconds before collapsing.
“Damn it!
Only now do I understand how important shadow clones really are!” Shigure sighed and leaned against a tree, breathing heavily.
At this point in history, the Three Basic Techniques consisted of the Transformation, Clone, and Substitution Techniques.
The existing Clone Technique created only an illusion.
Although Shigure’s clones appeared far more lifelike than those produced by ordinary shinobi, they still possessed neither physical bodies nor chakra of their own.
Naturally, they could not assist him in training the Rasenshuriken.
Shigure’s training was countless times more difficult than the method Naruto would one day use.
If his Spirit were not powerful enough to let him barely divide his attention between two tasks, he would not even be capable of combining shape and nature transformation.
Without any outside assistance, independently mastering a technique that required two transformations at once was extraordinarily difficult.
Unfortunately, whatever progress Shigure could make through his natural potential had already been exhausted.
If he wanted to improve his Spirit quickly, his most reliable option was to use the Free Attribute Points he received over time.
“Forget it.
I’ll keep doing this every day,” Shigure muttered.
“If one attempt isn’t enough, I’ll try ten times.
If ten aren’t enough, I’ll try a hundred.
I refuse to believe I can’t master it!” Having made up his mind, Shigure glanced at the darkening sky and began walking back towards the Uzumaki compound.
However… He had taken only a few steps when his expression abruptly stiffened.
His body immediately flickered behind a large tree.
Someone’s here.
Two jōnin?
No one knew just how powerful Shigure’s sensory abilities were.
Even his grandnephew Tobirama knew nothing about the true extent of his sensory abilities.
Now that Shigure had reached the level of an Elite Jōnin, he could expand his sensory field across a radius of nearly ten kilometres.
However, he had never revealed this ability.
Extending his senses across such an enormous area rapidly exhausted his mental energy.
Even without deliberately expanding his sensory field, however, he could clearly detect every movement within a kilometre of himself.
They’re concealing themselves while circling the Uzumaki compound.
These two clearly aren’t members of the Uzumaki Clan.
In that case… Two kunai appeared in Shigure’s hands.
He remained perfectly still and waited for the approaching shinobi.
A dozen breaths later, he caught sight of their faces and clothing in the distance.
A strange smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
The Hōzuki Clan!
Add to library.
Send some Power Stones.