By the time Jiraiya finally allowed us to stop the training, we collapsed near the rocks, both of us soaked with sweat from repeated failures at maintaining elemental transformation. We had to do it while also dodging pebbles, being flicked at us at random, sometimes smacking me right in the middle of the head, making me grow... ruthless! Sensei, you are ruthless! Were you like this with Naruto, too, when you took him on that trip between the time jump? Ugh, no wonder he mauled you in his tailed-beast form... And well, you did push him into a chasm when teaching him summoning jutsus... Tsk!
"Okay, boys, it's lunch time!" Jiraiya declared, already halfway through opening a food pouch. "You can relax for a bit."
"Ugh..." Minato moaned as we pulled ourselves up to his rock, then stared at his hand after taking a portion of the bento for himself. "It all stings..."
"Oh no," I muttered, unwrapping a rice ball for myself, "my fingers are tingling... It's hard to grasp even the food... Sensei, I'm not going to suffer a permanent injury... Am I?"
"What?" he asked without looking at me, "Where did that come from? Of course not, everyone goes through this. Without a bit of pain, there are no results."
"But... We have been at this for ours, and after understanding the outlining principles, it shouldn't be... this hard..." Minato suddenly spoke up, chewing on his share, still looking at his hand.
"You're thinking about something new?" I asked, already reaching for my second riceball, throwing it into my mouth.
"I am thinking about how to stop the wind from dispersing," He explained, barely blinking his eyes, "Manifesting my nature in my chakra is hard if I try to do it at once. What if I just try to do it in one place? Like... compressing it into my hand and going from there... We are trying to make a jutsu from scratch, so it makes sense... Start small, no?"
"Compression...?" I asked, tilting my head and glancing towards Jiraiya, but he acted like he didn't hear us, working on his notebook, munching on a breadstick. Still, beyond that nonchalant exterior, I was sure he was listening carefully, wanting to see what we would come up with.
"Yes," Minato muttered to himself while he closed his eyes. "When I try to infuse wind into my chakra, somewhere along the line it disperses... Something is not right; thinning it is simply not enough. To infuse it into my chakra, I will first need to understand how my chakra works, without an elemental nature. Just my raw chakra. Then, if I understand that, infusion will be much easier, and I can create the actual jutsu itself. We haven't made progress at all since early morning, because we were approaching this from the wrong angle!"
I watched, as still in the middle of dinner, Minato began feeding chakra into his palm. At first, it looked like Kabuto's hand did in the show, but then he drew it into his palm, just holding it, keeping it there, focusing it into a single point.
"Hmmm..." He grunted, looking at it, and I couldn't help but smile. Am I seeing how the Rasengan came to be?
Thinking about it, I also raised my hand and mimicked him, and as I did so, my brain, or in this case, my memories, took over, because, with all that I knew about the technique, I was sure I could mimic it. Maybe fuse my affinity into it rightaway? That would be... something else.
"It's... not good enough..." Minato hummed, his free hand stuffing food into his mouth. "Even my chakra disperses if I just summon it and do nothing..."
"Rotate it." I said without hesitation, already showing it to him, "That way, it stays in motion and keeps it from escaping."
"Rotate?" he asked, already copying me, "Yes! Good idea, Renji!"
It wasn't near to anything like the true Rasengan would be, but at least it was a start.
"Hmm... Just rotation is not enough, because even if we develop this into a jutsu, it's... very unstable," he added, trying to use it, but the moment he pressed it into the ground, it popped like a bubble.
As Minato was saying that, I noticed Jiraiya, who had been pretending not to listen, take a swing from his flask, his eyes firmly on the swirling chakra above our palms. Which also meant that we were on the right path. We needed a basic technique first, so that we could infuse our nature into it and transform the half-made one into its own, proper jutsu. Just like Naruto did. And apparently... being associated with Minato, the Rasengan was the starting point for me too, not that I am going to complain about it. It's a technique that is perfect for building on. As far as my memories hold, it was a half-completed technique anyway, as per Jiraiya's own words, because Minato died before he could finish infusing his element into it. Well... now, that won't happen. While I was thinking about my old memories, Minato was already trying to infuse his wind affinity into it. Of course, it was the wrong choice, and I watched the rotating chakra suddenly distort and then pop like a balloon.
"Haaah... It destabilizes immediately."
"Of course it does," I said, looking at my own hand. "Chakra flows forward in a predetermined way, following a certain direction in our body. Yours began changing directions like a compass thrown into a basket of magnets."
"It is good to see that someone was listening in the Academy." Jiraiya suddenly spoke up, making us look at him, while I just grinned, because it was more like I remembered stuff he told Naruto... Damn. I felt like cheating.
"Yeah, you are right..." Minato hummed, resummoning his chakra, watching it rotate in one direction, and as he concentrated on it, it became rhythmic, syncing up with his own breath and heartbeat. "When I insert my wind," he started, and the moment he did, it visibly became chaotic, canceling itself out. "It totally disrupts the flow. I will have to form my chakra in a way that is already like that. Ah!"
"What is it?" I asked, raising a brow, seeing him flinch.
"Do you remember what we saw on the ship?"
"You mean, what you saw?" I chuckled, "Yes, the Uzumaki's swirls underwater, the ocean's dangerous currents."
"Exactly! I need to mimic it and make my chakra flow like that! Chakra is nature, and if nature can do it, so can we."
There it was... he immediately began trying to mimic it, do it, without any balloon or rubber ball, without popping them, as they were not yet even a thing. It was simply Minato, on the way to create a jutsu, that, even when halfway done, turned out to be only something that could be used as a weapon. Thinking about it, the technique became even more awesome than it was to begin with... Just a half-made creation of Minato was a staple of the entire show, heh!
"Oh?!"
"Hm?" I looked at him, wondering what the reason was for his sudden exclamation, and then noticed he was pointing at my palm.
"Yes! Like that! That's great, Renji!"
"Hm?" I repeated and looked down... holding a small Rasengan in my palm. Oh... fuck... I suddenly realized that my Sharingans were on, copying the knowledge from my memories and then completing the jutsu to the point where I remembered it. Shit. That was... not my intention!
"Incredible..." Jiraiya muttered, standing behind us, looking down at the spinning ball in my palm, "I only wanted you two to come to the realization that creating your own jutsu is the most complex thing a shinobi can do. I didn't expect either of you to already take the step for it to become a reality and to... do it in such a way."
"An accident..." I murmured, feeling a bit ashamed, because this felt like I was stealing something important.
"Why are you being humble at times like this?" Jiraiya asked with a shrug, knocking on the top of my head, "This is an important moment, especially because usually half-complete jutsus are not usable and are way too unstable to maintain them. That?" He pointed at my palm, "It could already be clarified as something functional."
"Nice job, Renji!" Minato grinned, showing me a thumbs up, making me purse my lips.
"It's a joint work," I added, looking away from the two for a moment, dispersing it, "It was your idea, I just managed to make it first."
"That's true," Jiraiya chuckled, still looking at us both, "and you cheated."
"Eh?" I snapped my head up to him, wondering what he meant by it. No, he can't know that...
"Your eyes!" He laughed, knocking on my head again, "Damn Sharingan. You Uchiha are dangerous..."
"Oh." I blinked them, dispersing my Sharingan, "Well, I can't help it, it came out on its own!" I grumbled, crossing my arms.
"It's your gift." Minato encouraged me, "Use it! Now... start showing me how you did it, I want to copy it before dusk!"
"But lunch..." I complained, but of course it meant nothing... So, the rest of the day was spent creating the Rasengan, letting Minato and Jiraiya observe it, so they could learn it themselves.
I just hope that this change won't come and bite me in the bum...
...
....
...
"What's the long face for?" Kushina asked, seeing us return like exhausted skeletons.
"We are stuck!" I said, throwing myself down on the cushions, close to where she was sitting, "And I'm spent! I have no more chakra in me..."
"He is overexagrating it," Minato shrugged, also sitting down, acting like an old man, moaning, "but yeah, we are indeed spent... But we are only stuck because of the lack of experience and control..."
"What did you do? Fought all day?" She asked, turning her head back and forth between us, sipping on a glass of juice.
"Making a jutsu." Minato raised his palm, showing the Rasengan, but, of course, given our current exhaustion levels, it only lasted a few seconds before fizzling out. "We came up with this... but..."
"Hm? But?" She asked, getting curious and interested, "What does it do? Do you throw it?"
"No," Minato answered, blinking his eyes, but Kushina wasn't done.
"Then? Is it something you hit others with?"
"Kinda." I answered for Minato, my voice muffled, my face still in a pillow, fighting the urge to fall asleep, "It's a meele jutsu in its current form, but it isn't finished yet."
"Yeah..." Minato shrugged, exhaling like a disappointed parent looking at his son's report card.
"So, let me get this straight, dattebane..." She growled at us, putting her hand on her hips, "After decoding a Hokage-level jutsu from private letters, you went ahead and created a half-jutsu thing that is as good as others' regular jutsus. Am I getting this right, dattebane?!"
"It's incomplete and– Eh?!" Minato yelped as Kushina slapped the back of his head.
"Greedy! Both of you are greedy, dattebane!" she yelled at us, "Do you know how many shinobi would hate you right now?! You two do things that regular people can't in their whole lives, and then you... complain?! You come home, looking like you failed a mission and lost someone dear?! What's wrong with you, dattebane?!"
"Um..." we both looked at each other, trying to find something to say, but... damn. She was right. I wasn't sad that infusing our nature into the Rasengan hadn't succeeded yet; it was not something that could be done in a day. Only Minato was the impatient type, mostly because he could feel what needed to be done, he just... couldn't do it yet.
"Idiots." She scoffed, returning to her drink, "Be happy you got this far... Hmph! What, you think you will be Hokage by tomorrow? Grow some common sense, dattebane!"
"She's right..." I moaned, pushing myself up into a sitting position, "We need to take this step-by-step, Minato. Nothing will happen if we rush it."
"See?" Kushina harumphed again, pushing her chest out proudly, "Even the Uchiha sees it when I'm right, dattebane!"
"Yes, you are right," Minato also agreed sincerely, smiling at her, which suddenly made Kushina blush, "If I want to rush it, I will just screw it up."
"Good." She nodded again, looking back and forth between us, "So... what's the jutsu's name?"
"Rasengan." I said before Minato had a chance to open his mouth, "Its name is Rasengan." I repeated, giving a small explanation before any of them could ask, "After all, we are here, in Uzushiogakure, so it's fitting to name it appropriately to how it was conceived!"