Night had fallen. After dinner, Naruto and Sasuke went out again, heading to the training ground used by Team 7. This was a training ground for genin, which meant it was usually empty since there wasn't much here. If someone wanted to train, they'd typically go to a place with proper facilities.
"Tell me what you learned," Sasuke said, crossing his arms with a half-smile as he looked at Naruto.
Naruto found Sasuke's expression a bit odd, but he still answered honestly. "My dad taught me the Flying Thunder God today. Turns out I was doing it wrong before. Pervy Sage had me practicing the Summoning Jutsu since it's also a space-time jutsu, but in reality, Flying Thunder God isn't based on summoning. It's more like a mix of sealing and the Body Flicker Technique."
Simply put, while the Summoning Jutsu is technically a space-time technique, it doesn't actually rely on space-time itself—it works through a contract.
That contract is a type of sealing technique. Just like how a sealing scroll stores items, the Summoning Jutsu uses seals and chakra to maintain balance, allowing the user to summon creatures when needed. It's called a space-time jutsu, but at its core, it's really just sealing.
Jiraiya had Naruto practice summoning to sharpen his sense of space-time jutsu. It wasn't completely useless, but it took the long way around.
Flying Thunder God combines sealing techniques with the Body Flicker. The idea is to create a seal, and then, when needed, use chakra to "summon" yourself to the sealed location. The Body Flicker part acts like a hand sign to trigger the technique. That's the secret to performing Flying Thunder God without hand signs.
The jutsu has three major difficulties: first, sensing space-time, which is why practicing summoning helps; second, understanding sealing techniques, which is absolutely necessary; and third—summoning yourself.
A sealing scroll can't store living things. If you want to summon a living being, someone else has to form the hand seals. That's how both the Summoning Jutsu and Reverse Summoning work.
The hard part is that instead of using someone else's hand seals, you have to substitute them with the Body Flicker Technique and summon yourself instead.
The first two steps can be learned through practice. The third, though… it takes a bit of imagination.
Basically, even Minato didn't know how to explain it. It all comes down to intuition.
You either get it, or you don't.
Naruto had no idea if he had that kind of intuition.
After listening to Naruto's explanation, even someone as confident as Sasuke thought it sounded ridiculously difficult. He shook his head. "Honestly, you don't have to force yourself to learn the Flying Thunder God. Ever since your father passed away, no one in the entire ninja world has been able to master it."
"You'd be better off using this time to strengthen your current abilities," Sasuke said seriously.
He wasn't trying to put Naruto down—he genuinely believed it.
Even without Flying Thunder God, Naruto was already strong. Space-time jutsu was powerful, but whether the effort required was worth the payoff was another question. If Naruto spent too much time on this and it slowed down his overall growth, it wouldn't be worth it.
Naruto knew that too.
He sighed, then firmly shook his head. "This is something I have to learn. Not just because it's powerful, but because… it's one of the only two famous jutsu my dad left behind. I need to bring it back to the ninja world, so people don't forget that the Yellow Flash of Konoha once existed."
It wasn't about becoming stronger.
It was about making sure people remembered Minato.
That was the real reason Naruto insisted on learning this jutsu.
"…Alright." Sasuke let out a helpless laugh. "In that case, let me give you some extra motivation."
"What?" Naruto blinked in confusion.
In the next second, space around him shifted.
Before he could react, he felt a strange force pull at him. Almost instantly, his surroundings changed—Sasuke, who had been standing in front of him, had vanished.
No—he hadn't disappeared.
He had—
"Switched places," Naruto realized, staring at Sasuke, who was now standing beside him. "Just now, in that split second, we swapped positions! It was like we traded places in an instant!"
"You're exactly right."
Sasuke, now in Naruto's previous spot, let his Rinnegan spin slowly. "Heavenly Hand Power. My Rinnegan's ability. It lets me swap the positions of two things in an instant. A real space-time dojutsu."
Naruto: "..."
Guys, I'm losing it.
Sasuke pointed to his eye with a helpless tone. "But this technique has its limits. The object I switch with has to be within my line of sight. The stronger the target, the more chakra it takes. And, I can only swap two things at a time. Ugh, it's not as good as—
the Flying Thunder God"
Even though his tone sounded helpless, the smile on Sasuke's face didn't look helpless at all.
Naruto stared at him with a dark expression. "You're showing off, aren't you?"
"Of course not~" Sasuke lifted his head and smiled proudly.
Naruto: "…"
Just wait. Once I master Flying Raijin, we're gonna have a real talk.
The night was just as busy as always. It wasn't until the moon reached its highest point that Naruto finally stopped training, panting slightly.
He turned to look outside the village, eyes wide in surprise. "Sasuke, can you feel that? That strong chakra presence?"
"I can." Sasuke could still sense it at this distance. He sat on a rock with his chin resting on his right hand. "It's Kurama's, right? That's insanely powerful. Ever since we came back from the Sage era, I haven't seen him do anything. He's probably not stronger than us now, right?"
"Judging by that chakra, if we team up, we should be able to win." Naruto nodded, but there was a hint of doubt in his voice. "Still, I've always felt something strange brewing inside Kurama… a power that really gives me chills. I don't know if I'm just imagining it."
"Forget that for now." Sasuke sat up straighter and looked at Naruto. "Can you sense the other two presences?"
"Of course." Naruto nodded. "You and me, but without the Sage powers. It's clearly the versions of us from this world."
"If we take care of them, we can go back, right?" Sasuke sat up.
Naruto shrugged. "Not sure. But once they're out of the way, we can try using the Rinnegan and tailed beast powers to break the Genjutsu."
Even Kurama wasn't sure if the Genjutsu could be broken that way. All he could say was: maybe.
Sasuke stood up from the rock. "Then let's finish this fast. The village is still waiting for us to save it."
"Hold on a sec!" Just as they were about to move, Naruto suddenly raised a hand to stop Sasuke.
Sasuke tilted his head. "What's wrong?"
Naruto had a strange look on his face as he stared out toward where Kurama was. "Kurama just spoke to me through the mind link. He said we should wait a bit. He's trying something, and it'll take about an hour."
Sasuke thought for a moment. An hour wasn't too bad.
He sat back down on the rock, looking bored. "Fine."
Who knows what that dumb fox is up to now…
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