Chapter 242: Photification x I Become Light Itself
A muddy shoal appeared beneath his feet...
A familiar "spatial rhythm" permeated outward...
Minato Namikaze only felt his vision blur. The boy accompanying him smiled faintly at him, hooked the Nen thread in his hand, and abruptly sank into the ground bringing Rin Nohara along. When they reappeared... they were already over a hundred meters straight ahead!
"Space-Time Ninjutsu?!" Minato Namikaze's feet didn't stop chasing behind, but his brain froze abruptly. He stared blankly as Roy carried Rin Nohara away, leaving him far behind.
The "Yellow Flash" lived up to his name, highlighting just one word: "Fast". Minato Namikaze's two most famous ultimate skills were, first, the "Rasengan", and second, the "Space-Time Ninjutsu", "Flying Thunder God"!
This Ninjutsu developed by the Second Hokage had stumped countless elite ninjas who came after. Looking at the entire Konoha, the number of people who mastered this Ninjutsu could be counted on one hand. This was enough to show... how insanely difficult it was to learn "Space-Time Ninjutsu" and how high the required talent was!
"Fly... Flying Thunder God?"
Tap... tap... Because of Minato Namikaze's pause, Kakashi and Obito finally caught a sliver of an opportunity to catch up. The two were distinctly separated, one on the left and one on the right, but the focus of their gazes all converged to the front, on the boy who was constantly entering and exiting the "surface" and "underground" with Rin Nohara, or drilling out from a bluestone, a tree, or a stream!
Kakashi blurted out, but was subsequently denied by himself... He didn't see a "kunai", nor did he see a "mark". This was fundamentally not the "Flying Thunder God Jutsu" that his teacher was most adept at, but... another unknown [Space-Time Ninjutsu]!
With a mop of swaying white hair... the boy whose lower face was covered by a dark blue mask swallowed his saliva uncontrollably, his Adam's apple bobbing... He locked his eyes straight on Roy, who was gradually running farther away, and tilted his head to ask Obito, "Are you two really from the same Uchiha?"
Obito Uchiha, who was already burning with anxiety because Rin was swept away, glared at him angrily and said, "What do you mean?"
Kakashi remained silent, gave him a hasty glance, and then withdrew his gaze... This kind of silent suspicion and contempt, if placed in ordinary times, for Obito, would be no less than Deidara tossing a clay bomb straight into the lake of his heart, detonating him completely!
But today, on this genial morning, deep in the lush Southern Border Forest... Obito wore his goggles on his head, yet he showed no sign of a stress reaction. Instead, he was even more silent than Kakashi. Exerting force under his feet, he merely chased forward blindly. It was to chase Rin, but it also seemed to be in pursuit of... Jin Uchiha!
"This guy..." Kakashi was startled, completely baffled by the boy's abnormal attitude.
Where did the usual idiot go, the one who would jump in agitation at a casual remark or rumor?
Why... upon encountering that Jin Uchiha, he was like a sheep whose fleece had been smoothed down along its back... docile? Incomprehension and confusion turned into a tide, strongly surging into Kakashi's heart. Yet, even more so than him was...
Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was hiding behind the scenes and peeping all along. Or rather...
"This old man is not peeping, but observing openly..."
In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind the massive desk. Recalling the warning glance the boy had cast towards him during his unexpected encounter with Sakumo Hatake earlier, light overflowed from his old eyes, firmly locking onto the crystal ball. As Roy "sank," "emerged," "sank again," and "emerged again," he seemed to have even forgotten to puff on the pipe dangling from his mouth. After a long while, he faintly took a puff and deeply exhaled a stream of smoke... "Boy, are you doing this deliberately for this old man to see?"
"What a fine 'Space-Time Ninjutsu'!"
If previously Hiruzen Sarutobi still harbored a trace of doubt about Fugaku being able to train a child like Roy, then... now Hiruzen Sarutobi could be one hundred percent certain that Jin Uchiha's growth was entirely due to his personal talent and had little to do with Fugaku!
Because let alone Fugaku, even he, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, the [Professor of Ninjutsu] acknowledged by the major ninja villages, couldn't personally teach a child "capable of proficiently mastering [Space-Time Ninjutsu]", not to mention...
[Space-Time Ninjutsu] is exceptionally precious. Looking at the entire ninja world, there aren't many, excluding common goods like the "Summoning Jutsu".
Whoosh~ A gust of wind suddenly blew in from outside the window, lifting a corner of the scroll spread on the desk... On the back of the scroll, four large characters clearly marked Roy's name — Jin Uchiha...
Hiruzen Sarutobi stared in a daze.
With the brush in his hand, the ink had already dried. He wanted to lift the brush to add another sentence at the end of the scroll, but for a long time, he didn't know what to write... While ordinary seven-year-old kids were still in the Ninja Academy learning the "Three Basic Jutsu" and practicing throwing "shuriken," the boy in front of him, taking Rin Nohara to shuttle through rocks, trees, lakes, and paths as if walking on flat ground, could already self-create "Space-Time Ninjutsu". This... even if his teacher resurrected and sat in his position, he probably wouldn't believe it.
And, this is a genius, an Uchiha genius not inferior to the Senju!
Swoosh... Southern Border Forest.
When Kakashi and Obito, carrying logs on their shoulders and sprinting wildly, brushed past the shoulder of a certain yellow-haired man...
Minato Namikaze finally seemed to recover from the shock of "Roy actually truly mastering Space-Time Ninjutsu"... He had always thought this was his exclusive ultimate skill, and had fantasized more than once about having a student inherit this Ninjutsu from him. Unfortunately... Kakashi couldn't, Obito couldn't, and Rin couldn't either... until—
Minato Namikaze slightly raised his chin, watching Roy taking Rin Nohara into the dense mountain forest, his back almost invisible. Only then did his eyes narrow into a smile, a very happy and hearty smile. Then, he patted his waist and flung a kunai branded with the "Flying Thunder God Formula", piercing the air and shooting forward like lightning!
His yellow hair swaying, the man flashed and vanished into thin air. When he reappeared, he had bypassed Kakashi and Obito in the blink of an eye, appearing at the location marked by the kunai. Just like that... "Throw," "Flash," "Throw again," "Flash again." A distance of a kilometer was traversed under his feet... In just an instant, Minato Namikaze caught up and flashed to Roy's side!
A green Jonin flak jacket, a blue forehead protector, and a pair of lake-blue eyes casting a burning gaze... Feeling the "spatial rhythm" emanating from Roy's side, Minato Namikaze said with clear admiration, "A very formidable 'Space-Time Ninjutsu'."
"Relying on objects as entrances and exits of space, skipping the 'mark', a genius idea."
Indeed, as Minato Namikaze said, compared to a directional "Body Flicker Jutsu" like the [Flying Thunder God Jutsu], [Swamp Space] directly skipped the step of "Chakra marking". With just a thought, a door could be opened anywhere, making it indeed much simpler. But... just like... the "Law of Equivalent Exchange" in the Hunter world, the magnitude of an ability is often tied to "risks" and "restrictions"...
[Swamp Space] allowed for doing as one wished, but the distance became shorter. The limit was as far as the eye could see, far less distant than the [Flying Thunder God Jutsu], which also had a transfer function...
"This is my current 'fastest'..." Roy said frankly to Minato Namikaze, "Three hundred meters is my limit." "Which is also the limit my current [En] can capture," the boy added silently in his heart after speaking.
Tap... Taking a step, Minato Namikaze "teleported" along with Roy. A glance from the corner of his eye looked at Rin Nohara, who was tied to the Nen thread and already feeling a bit dizzy. He smiled and said, "It's very good already, after all, you brought a person along."
Human... am I still a human?
The wind blew in her ears, the clouds floated in the sky, and the sunlight hit Rin Nohara. The young girl's beautiful short brown hair was wet, still stained with a string of water droplets flowing from the stream. Listening to the boy ahead and her teacher chatting, her head was dizzy. She felt less like a "human" and more like an "earthworm"—an "earthworm" that could drill through the ground, wade through water, gnaw through trees, and smash rocks!
It was too magical!
So... this is what Earth Style feels like.
So... this is what Water Style feels like.
So... this is what Wood Style feels like. I, Rin Nohara, reject my humanity!
The brief space-time travel brought the young girl an unspeakable thrill. It was a fresh feeling she had never experienced before, and for the first time, it made her realize... the boy named Jin Uchiha ahead was extraordinary!
Fwoosh~ The Nen thread at her waist moved, and Rin Nohara exclaimed as she was brought underground by Roy again... The soil whistled past her ears like air. When the young girl recovered her senses, Roy reappeared and brought her darting forward another hundred meters or so. Only then did he shake his head and say to Minato Namikaze, "You praise me too highly... I am merely being opportunistic."
Opportunistic with the Swamp Demon's abilities, exploiting the tricks of the "Blood Demon Art." Because the [Magical Beast Encyclopedia] replicated the opponent's talent, it wasn't created by Roy himself, so naturally, there was nothing to boast about...
A ripple appeared in Minato Namikaze's eyes. Noticing the sincerity in the boy's words didn't seem faked, he matched his movement with another teleport and asked curiously, "You're not satisfied?"
Should I be satisfied?
Great-Grandfather always said... human imagination lies in... imitation, transcendence, and subsequent creation...
Right now, he was still stuck in the stage of imitating the Swamp Demon. Let alone creation, even transcendence was only reliant on the boost from [En]. What was there to talk about being "satisfied or dissatisfied"?
Roy remained silent, simply shouldering the log and taking Rin Nohara through the boundless depths of the Southern Border Forest...
One lap, two laps, three laps. Running around the forest, for him whose physique had broken a thousand and whose "Potential Aura Volume" had broken through to the B- level, was just the effort of taking a breath...
His silence left Minato Namikaze frowning in thought. After a long while, until they passed a small stream and the two waded across, listening to the gurgling and splashing of the flowing water... Minato Namikaze tilted his head, looked at the boy, and probed, "Perhaps it's a problem with the person, not the jutsu."
Person? Jutsu?
Roy froze, causing his footsteps to pause. He was a bit slow to open the door, so that half of Rin Nohara's body was still underground while her head poked out first, appearing right in the stream. She was forcibly made to swallow a large mouthful of stream water and couldn't help but choke. Only then did Roy snap back to attention, hurriedly picking up his pace and leaping up to bring her out of the water...
"Cough, cough, cough..."
"Sorry."
The boy and the girl stopped simultaneously. Roy took out a square handkerchief from his pocket and handed it over. It was the one his mother Mikoto had prepared for him to wipe his sweat. Looking at it now... it could be put to use for Rin Nohara.
"No need, I have one." Rin Nohara's hair was wet. She lowered her eyes, declined Roy's kindness, and took a handkerchief from her own pocket to wipe herself. Her youthful awkwardness made Minato Namikaze feel as if he had returned to the past, to the scene when he first saw Kushina beat up her classmates.
"Heh heh heh... I never said to stop~" The man "tactlessly" winked at Roy and Rin Nohara.
Roy looked helplessly at Rin Nohara and deliberately instructed her in a gentle voice, "Let's go."
Rin Nohara made a soft "mm" sound, as quiet as a mosquito. She simply wiped her body, hoisted the log back onto her shoulder, and followed Roy's "ups and downs", teleporting and running forward...
Four laps... five laps... six laps... The wind whistled past his ears. While using [Swamp Space] to teleport, Roy pondered the words Minato Namikaze had just spoken. After a moment, he tilted his head and asked the man beside him, "Sensei, what is a person, and what is a jutsu?"
"A person is of course a person, but a jutsu isn't necessarily a jutsu." Minato Namikaze smiled profoundly at Roy. "Or you could say, a jutsu is also a person; it's merely the product of human imagination visualized through Chakra..."
Visualized through Chakra?
Materialized through "Nen"!
Roy frowned, vaguely feeling like he had grasped something.
He vaguely remembered, once upon a time, he had "discussed the heart" with Silva... He had observed the stars at night with Gotoh... He had also discussed the visualization of man with Great-Grandfather Maha... Gradually... a familiar yet unfamiliar answer pointed straight to his heart, ready to burst forth...
"It's the sun!" A bright light suddenly shot out from the boy's eyes as he whispered, "The omnipresent sun..." Just like the Swamp Demon relying on the "swamp" to achieve "teleportation", reflecting its "muddiness" and "filth"...
"My teleportation should be the sun!"
"..." Suddenly, a gust of wind rose, blowing down a few leaves. Abruptly...
A "spatial rhythm" far stronger than [Swamp Space] swept out, instantly enveloping Minato Namikaze!
Minato Namikaze fiercely looked at Roy. With a great sun directly above his head, the boy instantly fell into a mysterious state. As he lifted his foot, his body instantly "Photified"!
With a blow of the wind, he turned into specks of fluorescent light and merged into the sunlight. It was unknown if he was the sunlight, or if the sunlight was him. In short... when Minato Namikaze took another look, trying to capture the boy's figure... he had taken a leap and arrived a kilometer away, abruptly drilling out from the sunlight and revealing his figure. "This..."
Minato Namikaze stopped abruptly, his eyes narrowing.
Following Roy's reappearance, Rin Nohara also turned into a ball of light and emerged behind him. She stood frozen in place, dazed for a moment, feeling ethereal and devoid of solid reality!
"Light... Did I become a beam of light?" The young girl blankly raised her chin, looking at the boy not far ahead who had also stopped to close his eyes and savor the feeling. At this moment, whatever punishment, whatever running laps, was no longer important. It seemed there was only light, solely light. The dazzling light, the blinding light that would exist forever in the world, was also like a blade of light that crossed the river of time, piercing through the [Telescope Technique], and ruthlessly stabbing Hiruzen Sarutobi!
☆☆☆
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