Inside a secret chamber within the Hokage Building.
The walls, ceiling, and floor of the room were covered in densely packed fūinjutsu formulas and barrier arrays. This was Konohagakure's highest-security archive, a vault containing scrolls and documents of the utmost importance.
Only the Hokage himself and a handful of specially authorized senior officials knew the specific sequence of hand seals required to undo the layers of techniques protecting the place.
Any intruder who entered without authorization would not only trigger devastating defensive mechanisms immediately, but also activate prearranged self-destruction techniques, reducing every document inside to dust in an instant and ensuring absolute security.
That was also why Shinichi had chosen to simply destroy the Raikage Building during his operation in Kumogakure.
He had neither the time to search for such a room nor the confidence to break through Kumo's equally rigorous security measures. It had been far simpler—and far more effective—to make sure the enemy was left with nothing at all.
At this moment, beneath the chamber's soft lighting, Hiruzen retrieved an ancient scroll from a specific sealed compartment and solemnly handed it to the boy standing before him.
"Shinichi, this is the complete training scroll for the Flying Thunder God Technique."
"But I must warn you in advance. Among all the ninjutsu recorded within Konoha's Sealing Scrolls, the difficulty of learning and mastering this technique stands among the very highest. It can truly be called an insurmountable chasm."
At this point, a trace of nostalgia appeared in the Third Hokage's eyes.
"Even back when I was personally instructed by Tobirama-sensei, I failed to truly grasp its fundamentals. Merely understanding its most basic theoretical framework already left me struggling. Later, Orochimaru attempted to study it as well. With talent like his, he spent years trying to unravel its mysteries, yet in the end achieved nothing and could only stop in regret."
"So, Shinichi, if you take this scroll and find your progress slow—or if you spend a long time unable to find the proper path—never allow yourself to become discouraged because of it, nor should you doubt your own talent. That is simply the nature of this technique. The fault does not lie with you."
"I understand, Third-sama. I will remember your teachings, do my utmost, and never give up lightly."
Shinichi respectfully accepted the scroll with both hands and answered in a solemn voice.
Hearing that, Hiruzen smiled warmly and nodded.
"It is good that you understand. As for the actual training of the Flying Thunder God Technique, there is little guidance I can provide. However... in a little while, Minato should be returning to the village. When that time comes, if you encounter any questions or difficulties, feel free to seek his advice directly. In my view, his mastery and application of this technique are already no less impressive than those of Tobirama-sensei, who originally created it."
No less impressive? He's already surpassed the master.
Shinichi thought to himself, nodding heavily.
"Yes. When the time comes, I will certainly seek plenty of guidance from Minato-senpai."
As he spoke, Shinichi reached into the pouch at his waist and pulled out another scroll, offering it with both hands.
"What is this?"
Hiruzen raised an eyebrow slightly as he accepted it.
Shinichi explained, "Third-sama, this contains some of my research, observations, and theories from the past two years regarding the path of Fire Release nintaijutsu that I developed myself. It also includes summaries of several techniques that have already begun to take shape, along with their training methods and underlying principles."
"It records the failures and lessons I encountered while developing techniques such as Vermilion Heaven Purge and Heavenly Collapse, as well as various key insights and precautions regarding the integration of chakra nature transformation with physical enhancement."
"Although the system is still far from complete, I thought that perhaps these experiences might serve as useful references for future comrades or juniors in the village who wish to explore the path of nintaijutsu, or study the interaction between chakra nature transformation and bodily strengthening."
"And since Third-sama is recognized throughout the shinobi world as the Professor of Ninjutsu, possessing unparalleled knowledge and experience, I hope that after reading it, you might be able to point out any shortcomings I have overlooked."
Shinichi truly did not care about handing over something he had painstakingly created.
In fact, the more people who learned his techniques, the better.
Ideally, everyone in the world would be studying the things he created.
Shinichi differed greatly from most shinobi, who regarded their secret techniques as lifelines and guarded their abilities and intelligence with extreme caution.
Even that self-proclaimed god, Pain, was no exception.
Aside from a handful of trump cards that absolutely could not be revealed, Shinichi was more than willing to let others know about most of his abilities, thought processes, and even weaknesses.
In the future, he could even publish books himself and personally tell the world everything about him.
The more people studied him, the better.
The ideal outcome would be for the entire shinobi world to obsessively analyze him over and over again, deepening their impression of him with every passing day.
In that case, the harder his enemies worked to study him and the more effort they invested in developing countermeasures against him, the more their attention and understanding would continuously transform into fuel for the advancement of his Entries.
It would create an unsolvable cycle.
The more his enemies feared him, the more they would have to analyze him.
And the more they analyzed him, the stronger—and more impossible to deal with—he would become.
At the same time, it would help establish an image of invincibility.
One could even say an image of a lone master without equal.
And such an image would bring enormous benefits to him as well.
"You've put a great deal of thought into this."
Hiruzen opened his mouth as though intending to say more, but in the end he simply patted Shinichi's shoulder gently and sighed with emotion.
The boy before him had spoken lightly, but Hiruzen knew exactly how valuable this scroll truly was.
And yet, he had handed it over as naturally as if it were nothing.
Hiruzen did not ask questions like, "What reward do you want?" or "What would you like the village to give you in exchange?"
Because he knew that if Shinichi truly wanted something, he could ask for it directly—and he had more than earned that right.
As long as it lay within his power, Sarutobi Hiruzen would grant it without hesitation.
The boy was simply fulfilling the promise he had made himself from the very beginning.
He was trying to create, for Konoha—and perhaps even for the Hokage—a combat system centered around fire, one distinctive enough and powerful enough to embody a spirit of its own.
"The village will treasure this sincerity and trust."
"Afterward, I will study it carefully myself."
"But don't expect this old man to provide any particularly useful advice. When it comes to Fire Release, there may no longer be anyone in the shinobi world who surpasses you."
He solemnly placed Shinichi's scroll—one that embodied Konoha's present strength—alongside the other scrolls in the room that carried Konoha's strength from ages past.
After saying that, the smile on the Third Hokage's face deepened slightly as he spoke in a warm tone.
"Shinichi, once you've taken care of the things on your plate, come have a simple meal at my house. Biwako has been talking about wanting to meet you for a long time now."
Shinichi was briefly taken aback before replying, "Yes. When the time comes, I'll be imposing on you and Biwako-sama."
...
That same afternoon, at Higashino Shinichi's home.
Shinichi sat alone in his room.
The lighting was soft, and the only sounds in the room were his steady breathing and the faint rustling of a scroll gradually being unfurled.
A long while later, he expressionlessly lowered the Flying Thunder God scroll in his hands.
I can learn it.
But probably only a little.
More than a month ago, he had already asked Minato about the general principles of the Flying Thunder God Technique and learned some of the basic requirements and characteristics of the space-time ninjutsu. He had entered this with certain expectations.
Yet only now, after personally studying the Flying Thunder God Technique, did he realize just how demanding it truly was.
Learning the Flying Thunder God Technique required four core prerequisites.
First: profound mastery of fūinjutsu.
The Flying Thunder God formula itself was an extraordinarily intricate space-time sealing formula. To inscribe it onto mediums such as kunai, the user had to understand, construct, and stably maintain such a complex sealing framework.
Whether it was Senju Tobirama or Namikaze Minato, their ability to casually inscribe formulas and deploy formations seemingly out of thin air was built upon a deep and comprehensive foundation of sealing knowledge.
Second: powerful sensory abilities.
The Flying Thunder God Technique was not truly limitless teleportation.
The range of one's perception was the natural boundary of its effective teleportation range.
Two conditions were required to activate the technique.
First, the destination had to bear the user's formula mark.
Second, the user had to be capable of sensing the spatial coordinate represented by that mark.
If a Flying Thunder God kunai—or any other marked location—was placed beyond the maximum range of the user's sensory abilities, then the user would be unable to lock onto that coordinate and naturally could not activate the technique to teleport there.
This also explained why, during the Third Shinobi World War, Minato still had to physically travel to the front lines when providing support.
He had never demonstrated the ability to simply hand Flying Thunder God kunai to frontline forces in advance and then provide truly unrestricted, instantaneous support across the entire battlefield at any time.
By the same logic, why hadn't the Second Hokage simply teleported back to Konoha and then returned with an army to kill Kinkaku and Ginkaku?
In addition, one of Shinichi's previous suspicions had now been confirmed.
The chakra consumption of the Flying Thunder God Technique was not primarily determined by teleportation distance.
For the Flying Thunder God Technique, once a coordinate had been successfully sensed and locked onto, and the space-jump itself initiated, the actual physical distance between two points in the real world effectively lost all meaning.
Teleporting one meter and teleporting ten kilometers were fundamentally no different.
The true additional cost came from extending one's perception, searching for distant coordinates, and locking onto them.
Third: extraordinary neural reaction speed.
This determined whether the user could precisely control their landing point and respond to unexpected disturbances during instantaneous spatial transfers.
Fourth—and most fundamentally, most importantly—
Space-time talent.
This was the foundation beneath all foundations.
Without it, everything else became irrelevant.
No matter how outstanding the first three conditions might be, without space-time talent one could do nothing but stare at the ocean and sigh. Even reaching the entry level would be impossible.
The Third Hokage and Orochimaru had undoubtedly achieved exceptional standards in the first three areas.
Yet because they lacked this crucial space-time talent, they could not even cross the threshold.
In contrast, Shiranui Genma, Namiashi Raidō, and Tatami Iwashi were far inferior to the former two in the first three categories.
Yet because they possessed space-time talent, they were able—after more than a decade of effort—to barely achieve entry-level proficiency and jointly perform the simplified Flying Thunder God Formation.
As for Shinichi himself, his sensory abilities and neural reaction speed already met the requirements.
However, he had never systematically studied fūinjutsu.
As for the most important factor, space-time talent, with the all-around enhancement provided by the Genius Entry, he possessed a little.
But only a little.
Shinichi closed his eyes.
With the support of the Piercing Insight Entry, his thought processes accelerated to a speed nearly comparable to that of a supercomputer.
Within his mind, he rapidly constructed model after model, incorporating the snowball effect provided by the Perseverance Entry into his projections.
The conclusion made him shake his head slightly.
Even if he immediately began cramming fūinjutsu and progressed at the most ideal rate possible, coupled with his pitiful amount of space-time talent, he would still need at least five years of uninterrupted effort just to barely gain entry-level mastery of the Flying Thunder God Technique.
And that would only be enough to perform basic teleportation.
As for reaching the effortless, instinctive level displayed by Namikaze Minato or Senju Tobirama, the amount of time required was nearly impossible to estimate.
For Shinichi, who was currently in the golden period of his explosive growth and already possessed a clearly defined path of development, this was an investment with extremely poor returns.
One could even say it was a waste of life.
'To do a job well, one must first sharpen one's tools.'
Shinichi silently recited the saying to himself.
He carefully stored away the Flying Thunder God scroll and kept it close to his body.
The value of this divine technique was beyond question.
The space-time principles contained within it were even more priceless.
It could serve as a long-term auxiliary research project—something to occasionally study, ponder, and draw inspiration from.
But it absolutely should not become the primary focus of his current training.
Unless he could use it to reverse-engineer derivative applications similar to the Reverse Summoning Technique—applications that carried strategic value for both survival and combat.
Otherwise, investing enormous amounts of energy into gnawing away at this hard bone at his current stage would be unwise.
"It's far more practical to continue refining my own system."
However...
How exactly was he supposed to generate an Entry related to space-time abilities?
This was different from strength, speed, or even intelligence.
Those qualities could be deliberately displayed or reinforced through accomplishments, allowing the outside world to gradually form a common perception.
Space-time abilities, however, were far harder to establish that way.
They would require something more elaborate.
Perhaps a truly astonishing performance involving spatial phenomena.
Or perhaps some event that could naturally and intuitively make people associate him with space-time abilities.
And then there were Entries related to fūinjutsu...
Could the ninja profession system even generate specialized Entries of that sort?
Shinichi could not help but feel doubtful.
He had already begun studying basic fūinjutsu after becoming a chūnin.
Later, after reaching jōnin rank, he had been exposed to more advanced material as well.
Yet whether he possessed the Chūnin profession or the Jōnin profession, there had been virtually no difference in his learning efficiency when it came to fūinjutsu.
That led Shinichi to a realization.
Just as weapon-related skills had been categorized under the Sword Master profession system, highly specialized and ancient disciplines such as fūinjutsu might likewise be classified under older and more specialized profession branches.
For example, shrine maidens.
Or priests.
Gradually, understanding dawned on him.
It seemed that the ownership of specialized Entries in certain fields was not determined by whichever profession currently used the skill most often or most effectively.
Instead, it was rooted in history and culture, deeply tied to the professions that had originally pioneered those arts and relied upon them as their primary foundation for generations.
Much like the samurai of the Land of Iron.
When it came to the practical use of various weapons, they were not necessarily superior to modern shinobi.
Yet professional weapon-related Entries still belonged to the Sword Master profession system.
Having reached that conclusion, Shinichi shook his head and temporarily set aside the flood of thoughts occupying his mind.
He rose to his feet once more and pushed open the door to his meditation room before heading into the courtyard.
The Flying Thunder God Technique was extraordinary.
But it was not an urgent priority.
Acquiring space-time Entries and fūinjutsu-related Entries would require long-term planning and the right opportunities.
For now, strengthening his foundation, continuing to grow the snowball created by the Perseverance Entry, further refining his Fire Release nintaijutsu, and generating and upgrading more Entries—
That was the clearest and most effective path he should devote himself to with all his strength.
The path to becoming stronger.
...
That evening, at the bustling Aji no Takumi Restaurant in western Konoha.
The spacious main hall was already packed to capacity.
Every seat was occupied.
Seated at the main table beside her father, Yūhi Shinku, Yūhi Kurenai widened her beautiful crimson eyes as she stared in disbelief at the spectacular sight before her.
There were Uchiha.
There were Hyūga.
There were Kurama, Aburame, Inuzuka...
In short, nearly every major shinobi clan she could think of was present.
Even more numerous, however, were shinobi of civilian origin.
Whether from clans or civilian backgrounds, nearly all of them were chūnin.
A considerable number of jōnin were present as well.
Adding in members of their own generation—Shizune from Team Ten, Kakashi, Rin, and Obito from Team Seven, as well as Might Guy and many other peers—
A rough glance was enough to tell her that all three floors of the Aji no Takumi Restaurant contained no fewer than a thousand people.
And among those thousand people, aside from their own small circle of classmates and friends, the overwhelming majority seemed to share a similar identity.
To varying degrees, every one of them had once served under Higashino Shinichi directly or indirectly.
Some had been members of units he led.
Some had fought alongside him in the same battles.
Others had carried out missions under his command.
Shinichi had already...
Kurenai's heart began beating faster of its own accord.
She knew Shinichi was incredible.
She knew of his countless military achievements.
She knew he had many friends and was widely liked.
But only now, witnessing with her own eyes this enormous gathering that transcended clan boundaries, united elite civilian shinobi, encompassed ranks from genin to jōnin, and even included wounded shinobi who had arrived wrapped in bandages while forcing themselves to endure the pain—
Only now did she truly and viscerally understand.
A gathering brought together solely by the name of Higashino Shinichi.
For the first time, she felt with complete clarity and overwhelming force just how popular he was.
Or rather—
Just how great his influence had become.
Shizune, seated beside her, was not thinking nearly that much.
In her simple and straightforward worldview, wasn't Shinichi being popular and well-liked simply the most natural thing in the world?
After all, he was strong.
He was smart.
His cooking was unbelievably delicious.
And he was such a good person...
If the invitations for this gathering had not been limited to shinobi who knew Shinichi personally, and if the venue itself had not imposed restrictions, far more people would probably have come.
A banquet of ten thousand people?
Maybe even tens of thousands?
Shizune felt that was entirely possible.
At the moment, only one thought occupied her mind.
"When are we eating?"
After all, this banquet was being personally prepared by Shinichi himself.
She had not tasted Shinichi's cooking in months.
Just smelling the aroma drifting through the air was enough to make her mouth water.
Wuuuu!
If only she could eat Shinichi's cooking every single day forever!
Shizune imagined it happily and regretfully in her heart.
Just then, she suddenly noticed the lively noise throughout the restaurant fall silent.
It was as though someone had pressed a mute button.
Immediately afterward came the sounds of chairs shifting and people standing up, spreading like waves from nearby to distant tables, from the first floor all the way to the third.
Shizune blinked.
Reluctantly pulling her gaze away from the fragrant and tempting dishes in front of her, she finally realized that the young man seated at the place of honor before her had somehow risen to his feet.
His posture was straight.
His expression calm.
Beneath the soft lighting, despite his youth, he naturally carried a presence that drew the attention of everyone present.
And as he stood, a chain reaction seemed to spread throughout the building.
Whether on the first floor, the second floor, or the third floor, every single person in the restaurant rose to their feet.
Their gazes converged upon the same young man.
The entire restaurant fell so silent that a pin drop could have been heard.
"Uh..."
Though she was still somewhat confused and had no idea why everyone had suddenly stood up, Shizune immediately followed suit.
Standing as well, she looked toward Shinichi at the head table.