Chapter 7: The Thirst for Knowledge
Whoosh!
Gōenji leapt high into the air and landed on a treetop. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan slowly swept across the surrounding forest, taking in every detail within his field of vision.
Minato Namikaze really is a slippery bastard.
Half a month had passed since the previous battle.
His injuries had mostly healed, leaving barely any visible scars. During those fifteen days, the war had continued to rage, and Minato Namikaze had stolen the spotlight once again.
With his overwhelming speed and combat ability, he had repeatedly disrupted Kumogakure's advance into the Land of Fire, making it extremely difficult for the Cloud forces to continue pushing forward.
From the information Gōenji had gathered, the other battlefields were just as intense, though the situation varied from village to village.
Kirigakure was relatively quiet for the moment, while Iwagakure and Kumogakure were attacking the most aggressively.
Sunagakure was a different story.
With the Third Kazekage already dead, the Sand Village had lost one of its strongest combatants and wasn't launching any large-scale offensives. Instead, they focused on harassing Konoha's borders.
It was an extremely effective strategy.
Konoha knew that Sunagakure's true goal was to tie down its forces, but it couldn't simply ignore the border. Troops had to be stationed there regardless.
That meant fewer shinobi were available for the other battlefields.
Sunagakure could weaken Konoha's resistance without sacrificing large numbers of its own soldiers.
After experiencing the war firsthand, Gōenji couldn't help feeling as though he'd been thrown into a history book.
For now, however, he was still little more than an observer.
During his recovery, aside from receiving treatment from the medical-nin, he spent most of his time using his Sharingan to observe the area surrounding the camp and watch for possible enemy infiltrators.
Looks like A and Killer B won't be able to stay quiet for much longer.
Minato wasn't the only person whose reputation had exploded during this period.
The Cloud's A and Killer B had also become increasingly famous.
Minato's activities over the past two weeks had finally attracted Kumogakure's full attention. Based on Gōenji's knowledge of the war, it wouldn't be long before the two sides inevitably crossed paths.
Probably within five days.
But that had nothing to do with him for now.
His immediate priorities were simple: keep watch over the surrounding area and continue developing his own ninjutsu.
"My new technique is finally finished."
Gōenji couldn't help sighing.
"No wonder so few shinobi create their own techniques. Even with this brain of mine, it still took half a month."
During his recovery, he had devoted a considerable amount of time to developing his first close-range Fire Release technique.
And now, it was finally ready for actual combat.
That alone made Gōenji appreciate just how difficult creating ninjutsu truly was.
In the original Naruto series, there weren't many shinobi capable of creating completely original techniques.
Kakashi.
Sasuke.
Naruto.
Every one of them was an extraordinary genius.
Yet even they had created only a handful of truly distinctive techniques.
Gōenji's new technique was called—
Fire Release: Fire Dragon Iron Fist.
He formed a hand seal with his left hand.
At the same time, a fierce flame suddenly erupted around his right fist.
He clenched his hand tightly, the pose vaguely resembling Kusanagi Kyō, a character from a fighting game he'd played in his previous life.
Of course, Gōenji was nowhere near the point where he could casually manipulate flames with his bare hands.
The technique had been developed from Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique.
Rather than releasing the flames outward, he altered their shape and properties, compressing them around his fist before unleashing them at close range.
The result was a concentrated burst of power.
It might have looked simple, but Gōenji had spent an enormous amount of time refining it.
The technique didn't merely contain the penetrating force of Great Dragon Fire Technique.
He had also incorporated the explosive characteristics of Fireball Technique.
Shape transformation and nature transformation were fundamental aspects of ninjutsu.
Explosion.
Impact.
Heat.
Combustion.
These were all characteristics that could be explored through the transformation of Fire Release.
Of course, this wasn't how the basic properties of chakra were formally categorized in the shinobi world. Most techniques weren't analyzed with such precision.
But the deeper a shinobi's understanding of a particular aspect of nature transformation became, the more pronounced that characteristic could become in their techniques.
Aside from the amount of chakra a person possessed, this was one reason why some shinobi's Fire Release was so much stronger than others'.
Their understanding was simply deeper.
Gōenji had used shape transformation to concentrate Fire Release's explosive force into his fist.
This deeper understanding of nature transformation was the key to pushing Fire Release further.
If I want to keep growing stronger, I need to understand it even more.
And that required knowledge.
A lot of it.
If he wanted to survive in this world, Gōenji couldn't remain satisfied with his current strength.
Eventually, he would have to face monsters like Pain, Madara, Obito, and Kaguya.
And if he couldn't reach a level where he could stand against them, then when the Uchiha clan's downfall eventually arrived, he wouldn't even be able to protect himself from the people behind it.
He needed a direction.
And he had chosen Fire Release.
As long as the temperature was high enough, there was almost nothing that couldn't be burned.
As long as the impact was strong enough, almost no defense would be able to withstand it.
If he could generate enough explosive force, even something comparable to the Rasengan might eventually be possible.
There were countless possibilities.
Gōenji had already begun forming ideas for the techniques he could develop in the future.
But to understand those possibilities, he needed to understand fire itself.
He needed more knowledge about Fire Release.
He also needed a basic understanding of temperature, impact force, combustion, explosions, and the physical and chemical principles behind them.
His knowledge of the original Naruto series gave him a few clues.
Kakashi's Chidori, for example, involved extremely high-frequency vibration.
When Kisame once fought Killer B, B also incorporated vibration into his Lightning Release, using it to give his pencil an extraordinary penetrating force.
These examples proved something important.
The shinobi world might use chakra, but the underlying principles of nature still existed.
If he could understand those principles and combine them with chakra, there was enormous potential for improvement.
Unfortunately, there was one problem.
He didn't have enough knowledge yet.
He would have to wait until the war ended—or until he returned to Konoha—to properly study all of this.
That frustrated him more than he expected.
He had never been this eager to learn before.
The problem was that his predecessor's knowledge was severely lacking.
The original Gōenji had devoted almost all of his attention to becoming stronger as a shinobi. Books and academic knowledge had never been his priority.
And as for Gōenji himself...
He had only been an ordinary student in his previous life.
His education had been nothing special, and his exam scores had rarely exceeded forty percent.
If his mind hadn't somehow become vastly more capable after transmigrating into this body, knowing what he knew wouldn't have been enough.
Knowledge was useless if you lacked the ability to understand it.
Talent really is talent.
Hard work can't completely replace it.
"Hey, Gōenji!"
A Konoha shinobi suddenly called out to him.
"Emergency mission!"
Whoosh!
Gōenji immediately moved toward him.
"What happened?"
"We're going to face A and Killer B."
The shinobi's expression was serious.
"They've attacked another one of our units. Lord Minato is leading a team there as reinforcements, and he needs shinobi with enough strength to participate."
Gōenji's eyes immediately lit up.
So it was finally happening.
A and Killer B versus Minato Namikaze.
This was one of the most famous confrontations from the original story.
It had also been the subject of endless arguments among Naruto fans.
Some claimed Minato could easily defeat the A and B duo.
Others believed Minato would be injured while one or both of the brothers would die.
There were countless other theories as well.
One death.
Two deaths.
One side suffering heavy casualties.
The entire Cloud force being wiped out.
Gōenji had heard plenty of speculation about how such a battle might have played out.
Now, he would finally get to see it with his own eyes.
His injuries had mostly healed, and his current strength was sufficient for a battle of this scale.
More importantly, he wouldn't just be a liability.
I wonder if I'll get a chance to use Fire Release: Fire Dragon Iron Fist in a real battle.
For the first time in several days, Gōenji felt genuine anticipation.
He leapt from the treetop and followed the Konoha shinobi toward the battlefield.