Chapter 123: Obtaining the Flying Thunder God Technique

After learning of Uchiha Feiyu's request, a look of distress appeared on Orochimaru's face for the first time:

"That Second Hokage? Feiyu, it's not that I'm reluctant—well, I am a bit reluctant. Furthermore, if you want him to help you, you'll have to ask the Second Hokage himself about his own wishes."

Hearing this, Uchiha Feiyu paused for a moment, then looked up at Orochimaru:

"Teacher Orochimaru, don't tell me you didn't keep that Second Hokage in a coffin, but actually let him out!"

A trace of an awkward smile appeared on Orochimaru's face as he said:

"There was a slight accident... I didn't expect that the former Second Hokage would have a contingency plan to counter the Reanimation jutsu."

"To have considered that he might be dug up and reanimated after his death while he was still alive—this Second Hokage is truly far-sighted."

"Honestly, when that Second Hokage broke free from the Reanimation, I thought I was going to have to fight a great battle with him, but in the end, we managed to coexist peacefully."

Orochimaru nodded. For someone whose dream was to study all the ninjutsu in the world, he naturally wouldn't pass up the Space-Time Ninjutsu that was the Flying Thunder God. As for his current lack of talent for space-time, he could just switch to a body that had the talent when the time came, and then he would be able to learn the Flying Thunder God, right?

"The original version? Forget it, that's enough. At least it can be used for traveling and emergencies."

As Orochimaru's disciple, Uchiha Feiyu was once a rising Shadow-level powerhouse who had made a name for himself throughout Konoha. Just flashing this face was enough to gain the trust of some of Orochimaru's old subordinates, not to mention that he was also carrying Orochimaru's written order.

The difference was that the Second Hokage had an invincible, kind-hearted older brother above him and later inherited the position of Hokage, while Orochimaru only had a hypocritical, stubborn, and indecisive Hokage for a teacher, and was eventually betrayed by that very teacher into defecting from Konoha.

There was no helping it; a good foundation was just like that. Having absorbed the different constitutions of many ninjas and using ninja souls to lay a solid foundation, Uchiha Feiyu's talent for ninjutsu was almost shocking; no ninjutsu posed the slightest difficulty for him.

Although space-time talent is rare in the Ninja World, in reality, most ninjas have at least a little bit of it. If one truly had zero space-time talent, they probably wouldn't even be able to use the Summoning Technique.

Hearing this, Uchiha Feiyu was speechless. He hadn't expected that the current Second Hokage would be just like Orochimaru, setting his sights on this soul-reincarnation ninjutsu.

"However... Teacher Orochimaru, you should be careful too. After all, I've heard that the Second Hokage is, well, quite like you."

The Second Hokage Senju Tobirama's Flying Thunder God Technique requires a certain cooldown time after each use. Although the cooldown is only a few seconds, it greatly degrades the Flying Thunder God—a ninjutsu that relies entirely on speed—from a flash skill that can be used in actual combat to a sneak-attack skill that relies on the element of surprise.

The biggest difference between the Second Hokage's Flying Thunder God Technique and Namikaze Minato's is that Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique can perform continuous jumps in an extremely short time, which can be considered a flash method without any restrictions.

Facing the Rock Ninja, who held an absolute advantage in numbers, Konoha had already been forced to send young ninjas who had just turned ten to the front lines. These young ninjas were so young that they had only been on the battlefield for half a year after graduating from the academy, so the severity of the casualties was naturally imaginable.

The only difference was that Orochimaru's direct superior had changed from the Third Hokage to the Second Hokage.

Orochimaru had grown up in Konoha for 30 years, and his various influences were deeply rooted. Before leaving Konoha, he was almost universally recognized as the next Hokage and had dealings with all the ninja clans.

It was precisely for this reason that the Second Hokage had begun researching soul ninjutsu with Orochimaru. He was currently in a reanimated body and could not appear openly even if he returned to Konoha, but if he were reincarnated into a living person, he could naturally take control of Konoha once again.

"Moreover, the Second Hokage gave me a promise: as long as he becomes Hokage, I can also rejoin Konoha. Not only will there be no restrictions, but all kinds of funding and research results will be open to me."

Orochimaru's original Living Corpse Reincarnation, while full of flaws, could only be performed by the living, because the souls of the living and the dead are different—there is a distinction between living souls and dead souls.

A smile appeared on Orochimaru's face as he said:

"The reason the Second Hokage stayed to help me instead of returning to Konoha is, of course, because he also wants to be resurrected!"

"I have also studied this space-time ninjutsu, but unfortunately, I could never find the way in. Without enough space-time talent... ugh, ugh, ugh!! I've truly seen the Sage of Six Paths!!"

Most importantly... he still had the God-Controlling Technique Genjutsu!

Orochimaru was, at any rate, his teacher. Although this cheap teacher and he were just using each other, he had never done anything to wrong him.

The Second Hokage was different. In any case, Uchiha Feiyu didn't know the guy. If he really had any ideas later, Uchiha Feiyu could just brainwash him with a God-Controlling Technique and be done with it.

After silently sneaking into Konoha, Uchiha Feiyu found Orochimaru's former subordinates and quickly learned about the current situation on the Konoha front lines.

"If I can't invite the person over, can you teach me the Flying Thunder God Technique? I've been coveting this ninjutsu for a long time!"

After a long time, Orochimaru finally calmed his emotions and then bid farewell to his cheap disciple—having been stimulated too much, Orochimaru prepared to quickly study the Reincarnation Jutsu and switch to a powerful body to raise his strength once again.

Although the Cloud Ninja had suffered heavy losses and theoretically could not participate in the Ninja World War again, otherwise one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages might fall apart.

However, this had nothing to do with him. Thinking carefully, both the Second Hokage and Orochimaru were the type of research-oriented ninjas. Once they were alive, they could create endless forbidden ninjutsu. In this respect, it was more beneficial than simply obtaining the soul of the Second Hokage.

This was learning too fast, too smoothly! Seeing his disciple master the Flying Thunder God Technique in an instant, almost in seconds, Orochimaru was shocked and dumbfounded.

"Sure enough... this Flying Thunder God Technique has a significant connection to the Summoning Technique. To a certain extent, the Flying Thunder God Technique is a remote-controlled type of Reverse Summoning Technique."

As for whether he could handle the Second Hokage, Uchiha Feiyu still had some confidence. Even if Senju Tobirama's sense of justice was stronger than Orochimaru's, it wasn't by much.

After absorbing the constitutions of so many ninjas, Uchiha Feiyu's space-time talent was definitely far superior to that of an ordinary ninja, so learning the Flying Thunder God was not a problem.

Those ninjas might not all be loyal to Orochimaru, but they certainly had close ties to him. After all, at that time, he was the only recognized candidate for the Fourth Hokage; it was only natural for ninjas to gravitate toward Orochimaru.

Orochimaru ordered his subordinates to bring a Sealing Scroll, and after breaking the seal, he handed it to Uchiha Feiyu. This was the Flying Thunder God Technique he possessed.

Since he couldn't invite the person for the time being, and Uchiha Feiyu guessed that the Second Hokage wouldn't want to see him either—after all, he was an "evil Uchiha"—he had to settle for the next best thing.

The Flying Thunder God Technique had extremely high requirements for talent, but Uchiha Feiyu was very confident in himself now. Having used the Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art to absorb the constitutions of so many ninjas, Uchiha Feiyu was absolutely outstanding in terms of talent for any ninjutsu.

Orochimaru shook his head:

"The principle is indeed very simple, but there aren't many ninjas in the entire Ninja World who possess this kind of space-time talent and sensory ability."

However, the Second Hokage had not yet been resurrected, and Uchiha Feiyu was not sure what effect Genjutsu would have in the Reanimation state. He would leave these matters until after the Second Hokage was resurrected.

For such a person, even if he defected from Konoha, the Third Hokage could not wipe out his subordinate forces—if he really did that, Konoha would likely lose at least a third of its ninjas.

In Konoha, a village that pursued ideals, dreams, and World Peace, the Second Hokage pursued naked interests and reality.

Uchiha Feiyu's mouth twitched slightly. Konoha's Second Hokage, huh? He was practically a breath of fresh air in Konoha.

Moreover, as the battle between Konoha and the Rock Ninja gradually showed signs of decline, even the Cloud Ninja, who had been heavily damaged, had redeployed heavy troops on the border between the two countries, forcing Konoha to divert part of its forces to defend, making them even more stretched thin.

"Tsk... alright, it seems it will be very difficult for me to invite the great Second Hokage over."

"Hehe, as for that..."

It could only be said that these mad scientists understood each other's needs better. Perhaps Orochimaru believed that working under the Second Hokage was definitely better than working under the Third Hokage?

But Uchiha Feiyu believed more that the two were currently playing along with each other, both coveting the other's research results. There would definitely be a time when they would turn on each other, but they were just in a honeymoon period for now.

It could only be said... the situation in Konoha was very bad, very bad indeed.

Judging by actions rather than intentions, just in terms of being a teacher, Orochimaru had been good enough to him, so Uchiha Feiyu would not directly control him with a Genjutsu.

In essence, Orochimaru was like a failed Second Hokage. Their personalities were not exactly the same, but they were at least 80% to 90% similar.

But with Lich Reincarnation, there was no need to worry about that much. The reincarnated Lich itself belonged to the undead, so naturally, it could use both living souls and dead souls.

In any case, with Uchiha Feiyu's strength, even without using the Flying Thunder God Technique, he could sweep across the entire Ninja World as it was today. Therefore, for him, the Namikaze Minato version of the Flying Thunder God Technique was just icing on the cake; not having it wouldn't have any impact.

Given the Second Hokage's personality, the fact that he could get along with Orochimaru didn't surprise Uchiha Feiyu in the slightest—to put it bluntly, if Orochimaru had been born a dozen years earlier, the position of Third Hokage would definitely not have been Sarutobi Hiruzen's.

After obtaining the Flying Thunder God Technique from Orochimaru, Uchiha Feiyu left behind a Flying Thunder God Mark, then took Orochimaru's Information Scroll and headed toward Konoha.

However, precisely because of this, the number of informants and spies Orochimaru had within Konoha was truly not small; although some ninja were unwilling to defect from Konoha alongside Orochimaru, there were far too many ninja willing to provide some information and cover.

"And after this Second Hokage recovered, did he not return to Konoha?"

Although the Flying Thunder God Technique is the most profound and obscure Space-Time Ninjutsu, it could never exceed the scope of chakra's nature transformation, so it was naturally learned easily by Uchiha Feiyu.

Uchiha Feiyu sighed helplessly; it seemed he would not be able to get his hands on the soul of Konoha's greatest master of Forbidden Techniques.

This was Konoha's true future; for Konoha to be willing to disregard the future and send young ninja onto the battlefield, it must have been a situation where they would be finished if they didn't fight for their lives.

This condition seemed no different from the result Orochimaru had left in Konoha back then; after all, given Orochimaru's situation at the time, even if he couldn't become Hokage, he could still become a Danzō.

However, Uchiha Feiyu's craving for the Flying Thunder God Technique lay more in its supreme mobility, and he did not care much about the lack of Power Level in the original version.

"And the Living Corpse Reincarnation, fused with the Lich Reincarnation Ritual, is the best choice for his resurrection!"

It was not that he was a person of great brightness, greatness, integrity, or selflessness, but rather that this Second Hokage was a true ambitious hero who treated things like the Will of Fire entirely as a facade.

Opening the Scroll and reading through it once, Uchiha Feiyu nodded:

Uchiha Feiyu casually took out a Kunai, and a strange Cursed Seal crawled onto it; he threw it away, the Kunai flew over ten meters, and then he flashed and appeared right next to the Kunai.

Unable to clear away Orochimaru's influence, the Third Hokage could only pretend to be magnanimous and did not pursue any of Orochimaru's subordinate ninja, hoping that time would smooth everything over.

"Flying Thunder God Technique? I do have it, but only the original version; I don't have the improved Flying Thunder God Technique that Jiraiya's student later developed on hand."

However, having said that, there was one more thing that made Uchiha Feiyu quite puzzled:

"Given the Second Hokage's personality, it's normal for you to get along, but you are a missing-nin of Konoha; can he forgive that aspect?"

Of course, whether there was any intention to settle accounts after the war was something only heaven and earth knew.

Furthermore, in this world, the barrier between life and death is extremely easy to break; with a living body, it is also very easy to transform a dead Soul into a living Soul, so resurrection is absolutely not a delusion.

As for whether these two would truly live in peace in the end? Uchiha Feiyu held a pessimistic attitude toward this. Both of these old schemers were likely thinking of stabbing the other in the back once they were finished using them.

But all the ninja in the Ninja World knew that the most famous ability of those barbarians, the Cloud Ninja, was their stubbornness; if these guys were willing to sacrifice their own Ninja Village just to give Konoha a hard hit, wouldn't Konoha be in trouble? Therefore, necessary precautions could certainly not be lacking.

Besides this, the Mist Ninja Village, which had remained isolated overseas and had not joined this Ninja World War, was also restless and had repeatedly harassed Konoha's coastline; facing the harassment of the Mist Ninja, the exhausted Konoha could only continuously shrink its defensive lines, which instead made the ninja of the Land of Water even more rampant.

(End of this chapter)