After his teacher left, Minato stood in place for a long time. Gradually regaining his composure, he redirected his focus toward the ninjutsu scroll before him.
The words he had spoken to Master Jiraiya earlier were no joke—he truly meant them.
For this reason, he must obtain the power to protect others, just as his teacher suggested.
His earlier sparring match with his teacher's Shadow Clone had drained his chakra greatly, making it unsuitable to practice ninjutsu immediately.
Therefore, he shifted his attention first to familiarizing himself with the hand seals of various techniques.
When selecting the type of ninjutsu to learn, Minato considered both his chakra nature and his personal strengths.
He possessed three chakra natures—fire, wind, and lightning. For someone who specialized in speed, like him, lightning release techniques were clearly the best choice at this moment.
Among the five elemental chakra natures, lightning release placed the greatest emphasis on speed. Among the Five Great Ninja Nations, the shinobi of the Land of Lightning were also most renowned for their speed.
It was said that the Third Raikage of Hidden Lightning Village currently held the title of fastest ninja in the entire Ninja World.
What he practiced was a special technique that existed between ninjutsu and taijutsu called the Ninja Body Technique. By using lightning release chakra to stimulate cellular activity within his body, he could dramatically enhance his strength, speed, and reflexes.
All of this knowledge had been acquired over the past year while studying under his master.
Undoubtedly, speed was also Minato's specialty, and he possessed exceptional reflexes. If he could understand how the Raikage utilized lightning release chakra to boost his physical abilities, it would surely lead to significant improvement for himself.
However, these techniques remained secret arts of the Yagura Clan within Hidden Lightning Village and would naturally never be revealed to outsiders.
Though he had never seen it in person, Minato had no intention of learning or imitating the Raikage's method. According to his estimation, using lightning chakra to stimulate one's own body required an extremely strong physique—a natural trait unlikely suited to him.
Lightning release was already the most volatile among the five chakra natures, and this approach directly affected the user's own body...
Moreover, there was a limit to how much cellular stimulation could be achieved—it was essentially pushing the human body to its limits.
Rather than pushing his limits, Minato preferred continuously improving himself through training.
Yet all of this would have to wait until he attained a certain level of mastery in ninjutsu. For now, he simply planned ahead and set himself a direction.
Just beginning to learn ninjutsu, Minato started with a basic D-rank lightning technique.
[Lightning Release: Thunder Flash Mat]
This was one of the few D-rank techniques recorded on the scroll. Its function was simple—release one's chakra outward to temporarily paralyze an enemy's body.
This required the caster to be extremely close to the target.
Generally speaking, no shinobi would bother learning such a dangerous technique since enemies wouldn't normally allow enough time to complete the seals during close combat, although this technique required only three hand seals.
But it wasn't all that tiring either. Even with the chakra he had left, Minato could easily use it five or six times.
Immediately afterward, following the methods recorded on the scroll, Minato quickly formed three hand seals. A "zi zi" sound then emerged from his palms.
Chakra gathered in Minato's palms, condensing into over ten strands of deep blue electric arcs.
It was only then that he understood why so few people practiced this jutsu... Not only was its power weak, but the commotion it created was slightly excessive.
In actual combat, this was simply an unusable technique.
Of course, there were exceptions... For instance, if the user possessed extremely high speed.
Speed fast enough to leave the enemy unable to guard, thereby allowing the opponent's body to be paralyzed and leading to victory.
However, compared to that, it would have been better to just directly attack the enemy with kunai for actual physical damage...
But Minato had never expected much from this technique in the first place; right now, his chakra was insufficient to practice other techniques. He just wanted to get a feel for Lightning Release techniques.
Minato remained at Training Ground Seven for another hour, practicing [Raikō Ma] several times before putting away the ninjutsu scroll. The seal drawn on the scroll really was convenient—it shrank back to its original size as soon as it was closed. Stashing it into his robe, Minato left the area.
In the afternoon, instead of idle time, he continued his basic training by running laps around Konoha.
After effortlessly completing twenty laps of running, Minato briefly recovered his chakra before once again delving into other Lightning Release techniques.
...
The next morning, as usual, he rose early to train. He'd stuck to this routine religiously for a whole year now.
Back home, after preparing himself a simple yet reasonably nutritious breakfast and packing lunch, Minato headed toward the Ninja Academy.
His cooking skills had also improved significantly under guidance from Mikoto.
As soon as he walked into the classroom, he spotted a familiar figure.
Her long red hair looked beautiful, and her once-chubby cheeks had begun to slim down, revealing more delicate facial features.
Compared to when she had first entered school a year ago, Kushina had clearly gone through tremendous changes. When she spotted the figure at the doorway, she moved forward in several quick flickers, arriving directly in front of Minato.
"Good morning!" Kushina said with a slight blush, her hands placed behind her back.
Kushina always looked so energetic in the morning, bright enough to energize Minato just by looking at her.
Minato also greeted her good morning before heading toward his seat, while Kushina followed closely behind, saying,
"I really hope to spar with you today."
When she got excited, her voice always carried a unique rise at the end. Hearing this, Minato let out an awkward laugh, scratching the back of his head.
Thinking back to the title she had earned throughout this past year... he couldn't help but smile bitterly.
However, at the Ninja Academy's sparring class, your partner is assigned by the homeroom teacher—and it's rarely ever the same opponent twice. There are no groupings based on skill level either.
So it's possible for the top student and the one at the bottom of the class to end up sparring against each other. The whole point of this setup is to help those who're struggling academically improve faster.
How can you improve if you're always fighting people at your own level?
More and more students slowly started filling up the classroom.
Another day of lessons had begun, and Moto Kouda stood at the front of the class announcing,
"Today's sparring session will be slightly different from usual."
"Today's training won't just involve our own class," Minato subtly lifted his eyebrows upon hearing this, because today they'd also be joined by students from Class Three, where Yan Uchiha is!
Class Three was where Yan Uchiha was!
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