By the riverside hot spring stood a quiet three-story house.
After returning home, Heiyan changed into his brand-new chunin uniform.
This chunin outfit consisted of a blue long-sleeve top and pants as the base layer, with a green tactical vest worn over it. The vest had many pockets for conveniently carrying various items.
Both the right shoulder and back of the uniform bore red Uzumaki crests—symbols of the long-standing friendship between Konoha and the Uzumaki clan.
This design had been preserved even decades after the Uzumaki clan's destruction.
Heiyan looked himself over in the mirror.
From today onward, he would no longer be stuck as an eternal genin.
He drew the Sword of the Thunder God, infused it with chakra, and activated Chidori Shunshin, vanishing from the living room and reappearing in the courtyard.
Shua!
A golden flash zipped through the air, slicing the training dummy clean in half diagonally. The cut surface was as smooth as a mirror.
Indeed a worthy blade—the Sword of the Thunder God.
Seeing this, Heiyan nodded with satisfaction.
In the original story, the Thunder God sword had been stolen by Idate Morino and given to Tsunade's rogue ninja subordinate, Aoi Rokusho. Later, during Aoi's battle against Team Seven, the sword first sustained cracks from Sasuke's Chidori, then broke completely when struck by Naruto's Rasengan.
However, it wasn't the sword's fault—it was because Aoi himself lacked strength.
The power of the sword mainly depended on its wielder.
Heiyan not only practiced sword techniques regularly but also mastered Lightning Release. Wielding this powerful lightning-infused weapon naturally made him even stronger—like a tiger with wings.
With the Thunder God sword in hand, his combat power reached a new level.
If another match in the arena occurred, just using Chidori Shunshin combined with the Thunder God sword techniques alone would allow him to swiftly defeat all seven Sand shinobi without resorting to large-scale techniques at all.
"From now on, I shall never disgrace your reputation."
Heiyan murmured softly while gently stroking the blade.
Then, he slung the Thunder God sword across his waist and returned to his room for a nap.
Two hours later.
"Heiyan!"
In the afternoon, a voice called from outside the courtyard, followed by the gate swinging open.
It was Tsunade.
Upon hearing her, Heiyan immediately went downstairs to greet her—he knew she had come to deliver the [Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu].
However, Heiyan noticed that Tsunade seemed somewhat... displeased?
Suddenly, without a word, she swung her arm forward and threw a punch straight at him.
Boom!
A powerful gust erupted from her fist. Even before reaching Heiyan, the air pressure blew his hair back, blistering and forceful.
"!"
Caught off guard, Heiyan instinctively crossed his arms in front of his chest and barely blocked Tsunade's strike head-on.
Peng!
Instantly, tremendous force surged through his arms, reverberating within his body. Luckily, since he was in Sage Transformation form, he remained unharmed.
"Are you okay? Why didn't you dodge?"
Tsunade quickly withdrew her punch, asking with concern.
She had originally intended only to scare Heiyan, expecting him to dodge. She hadn't expected this stubborn fool to actually step forward and take her punch directly.
As a result, not only did she fail to scare Heiyan, but she ended up frightened herself.
"I'm fine," Heiyan shook his slightly numb arms and smiled. "Since Lady Tsunade took the trouble to hit me, I must've done something to upset you."
"Hmph."
Tsunade let out a soft grunt upon hearing this, placing her hands on her hips. "I really am angry. You secretly cultivated on your own and became so powerful, yet you kept it hidden from me all along. I even worried about you during the arena matches!"
"I was wrong."
Heiyan felt warmth in his heart and quickly apologized.
"Here, take it."
Tsunade tossed her golden ponytail back and pulled out a scroll from her ninja tool pouch, handing it to Heiyan.
With eager anticipation, Heiyan unfolded the scroll. As expected—it was the [Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu].
"So that's how it is..."
He threw himself completely into studying the scroll. When he finished, he couldn't help but admire how brilliant it was.
There's an old saying: Don't forget the ones who made the tricks you use.
In the shinobi world, many may break the rules, but those who create the breakthroughs are the true immortal gods.
[Impure World Reincarnation], [Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu], [Flying Thunder God Technique], [Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags]...
Tobirama Senju was a genius beyond his time—a master of forbidden techniques and the god of game-breaking abilities.
After understanding the principles and chakra circulation path of the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu, Heiyan rolled up the scroll and prepared to test it.
"Don't make too many clones at once. Start with... um, five."
Tsunade reminded him, stretching out one palm with all five fingers spread.
"Okay."
Heiyan nodded, then pressed together the index and middle fingers of both hands, crossed them into a cross seal.
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!
A series of light popping sounds filled the air as four shadow clones appeared out of nowhere beside Heiyan, lining up neatly in a row.
It worked.
Heiyan ordered the four shadow clones to move around briefly before dispelling them. The moment they vanished, a flood of chakra returned to the original body, along with the memories from the four clones.
Heiyan showed no signs of abnormality.
Under Tsunade's supervision, he successfully tried creating ten and then twenty clones.
Now it was time to get serious.
"Heiyan, show me your limits."
Tsunade became excited, encouraging him enthusiastically, completely forgetting why Hiruzen Sarutobi had sent her here in the first place.
"Don't worry. I'm right here for you."
She added confidently, puffing out her chest and patting it firmly, signaling Heiyan to be bold in his attempt. If anything did go wrong, she could always channel chakra to him like she'd done countless times before.
"Mm."
Heiyan responded with a hum, crossing his hands into the Ram seal again. The next second—
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!
In an instant, over a hundred Heiyans burst into existence, filling the entire courtyard until there was hardly any space left to stand.
The place was packed.
"Ahh!"
Tsunade let out a startled scream, suddenly surrounded by Heiyan's clones from every direction, trapped within the crowd.
"Sorry."
Seeing this situation, Heiyan immediately dispelled those nearby clones. This was his first time controlling such a large number of clones, so naturally, his control wasn't very smooth yet.
"What an enormous amount of chakra..."
Staring at the courtyard filled with Heiyans, Tsunade looked somewhat dazed.
Since childhood, she'd grown up constantly surrounded by ninja from both the Senju Clan and Uzumaki Clan. She'd seen plenty of people with vast chakra reserves.
But for someone like Heiyan, who could effortlessly create over a hundred Shadow Clones, Tsunade recalled only one person matching that level of skill in her mind.
Hashirama Senju.
Thinking about her grandfather, who had passed away years ago, Tsunade felt a pang of sadness.
At this moment, Heiyan released all his Shadow Clones once again.
Actually, creating over a hundred clones was effortless for him. If he wanted, he could definitely create more than five hundred clones. However, each clone would receive very little chakra, making them practically pointless.
The Multi-Shadow Clone technique wasn't about quantity — beyond a point, the clones became too weak to be useful.
Heiyan glanced at Tsunade and suddenly asked,
"Tsunade-oneesama, I want to ask you something. That punch you gave me just now…"
"What? Just learned a Kinjutsu and already thinking of challenging me for revenge?" Tsunade snapped back from her thoughts, raising an eyebrow and interrupting Heiyan.
"No, you misunderstood."
Heiyan explained, "I meant to ask whether that punch was [Monster Strength]?"
"Hmm, more or less."
Tsunade gave a slight nod, having held back her true strength and used barely any force at all.
"Then, can you teach me?"
Heiyan got straight to the point.
"You want to learn Monster Strength?"
Upon hearing this, Tsunade first looked surprised, then frowned.
After hesitating briefly, she said, "It's not that I don't want to teach you. Although Monster Strength isn't some Kekkei Genkai, it's been historically mastered only by our Senju Clan..."
Before she could finish, Heiyan pulled out a red envelope he had prepared earlier.
It was a passbook.
Tsunade opened the book and saw rows of zeros immediately, her heart pounding rapidly, her vision blurring slightly.
Exactly 30 million ryō.
"This is the tuition fee. Please, Lady Tsunade, teach me. If I fail to learn it, it simply means I lack talent, so there's no need to return the tuition."
Heiyan said earnestly.
His confidence stemmed from the knowledge that Monster Strength was fundamentally about controlling Yang Release energy.
In the ninja world, the Senju Clan inherited Asura's Yang Release, thus enabling them to use Monster Strength. Others lacked either Yang Release altogether or didn't have enough of it to meet the threshold required to use Monster Strength.
Although Heiyan wasn't a member of the Senju Clan, possessing Sage Transformation meant that genetically, he was closer to Asura — essentially comparable to the ancestor of the Senju Clan.
Therefore, learning Monster Strength wouldn't pose any threshold challenge for him.
"Deal."
Without hesitation, Tsunade nodded firmly, fearing Heiyan might change his mind. Immediately snatching the bankbook from his hand, she hurriedly added,
Where should she put it?
Clutching the huge sum nervously, nothing seemed safe enough. Thus, under Heiyan's astonished gaze, she carefully slipped the passbook inside her clothing.
[She cleared her throat softly.]
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