Feiyu didn't really buy a word of what the Third Hokage had said—but he didn't show it on his face.
Instead, he quietly opened the Scroll of Seals, the part that had already had most of its outer seals undone, and started reading carefully.
…And immediately got confused.
Even with the seals lifted, the actual contents of the scroll were completely unreadable. Aside from the jutsu names and a short description under each entry, the rest of the text was just dense, crawling gibberish.
Feiyu looked up with a baffled expression.
The Third Hokage chuckled, clearly expecting this, and explained:
"After all, shinobi techniques come in all shapes and forms. Even the Uchiha's Sharingan can copy not just hand seals, but memories as well. To be absolutely safe, all jutsu inside the scroll are recorded in cipher."
"You can pick what you want based on the names and descriptions," he continued. "Once you've decided, I'll give you a decoded copy of the specific jutsu."
Feiyu gave a small nod, but inwardly he sighed.
In terms of information security, the ninja world really does go all-out…
Under normal circumstances, the contents of the Scroll of Seals were nearly impossible to leak.
Of course, normally didn't account for outliers like Uchiha Madara or Orochimaru—people who'd once stood at the very top of Konoha's power structure, then defected for their own reasons. Once someone like that walked away, the scroll's secrets were bound to trickle out to some degree.
That thought flickered across his mind and passed.
He lowered his head again and started going through the scroll in earnest.
Just as he'd expected, there was no sign of Impure World Reincarnation, and not even a trace of Flying Thunder God in the visible portion of the scroll. Hiruzen's words might have sounded generous, but a big chunk of the real treasure was being held back.
Not that there was nothing worth having.
Things like the Eight Trigrams Seal, Five-Style Great Consecutive Bullet, Creation Rebirth, the Eight Gates technique—they were all recorded here.
Unfortunately, none of those fit Feiyu's style particularly well. He skimmed past them and finally stopped at one line of text.
Yin Release Secret Art – Spirit Transformation Technique
The moment he saw it, his eyes lit up.
Good. I was half-afraid this one would be buried in the still-sealed section…
The Spirit Transformation Technique came from Dan Kato, Tsunade's tragically short-lived boyfriend. No one was sure if it was a family inheritance, something he invented himself, or something he'd learned from this very scroll.
Now that Feiyu could see it here, he could at least cross off "secret clan technique."
Maybe Dan had created it and then recorded it in the Scroll of Seals afterward.
Or maybe he'd just learned it from here like Feiyu was about to.
Feiyu didn't care about the backstory.
He only cared about what it did.
The Spirit Transformation Technique was simple in concept: the user's soul leaves their body and attacks directly, killing with pure spirit—a bit like how "ghost cultivators" were portrayed in certain novels in his past life.
Its strengths were obvious:
Astral form with massively enhanced sensory range
Thought-speed movement: the soul flies at the speed of intent
A spirit attack that's almost impossible to guard against with conventional means
The weakness was just as brutal:
Once the soul left the flesh, the body was frozen in place—no reflexes, no guard, nothing. If you had the bad luck of being discovered, even a seven- or eight-year-old academy brat could walk up and stick a kunai in you.
In essence, it was a jutsu that made it very easy to kill…and very easy to get killed.
Under normal circumstances, no matter how strong a specialist in this technique became, they'd still be seen as heavily "one-sided". With such a glaring weakness, it was hard to truly count them as stable Kage-level combatants.
But for Feiyu, who possessed the Warden of Wandering Souls, this technique was a whole different story.
The souls he harvested and controlled with Warden of Wandering Souls couldn't normally leave and kill on their own. They were tied to his will, useful mainly for skill-copying, sensing, and occasionally puppeteering weak enemies.
If he could combine Spirit Transformation with his soul arsenal…
Let those controlled souls use Spirit Transformation through him…
Then the result wouldn't just be "strong".
In a world where almost no one had any defenses against direct spiritual assault…
That would be a hard counter and near-instant kill.
"Spirit Transformation Technique?" the Third Hokage repeated, visibly surprised. "Are you sure you want to choose this one?"
He studied Feiyu carefully.
The technique was extremely difficult, and fundamentally very niche. Only ninjas with unusual talent or very specific circumstances picked it up. For ordinary shinobi, it was a high-risk, low-practicality choice.
And Feiyu's fighting style—sharp and decisive, a perfect continuation of the White Fang—didn't match Spirit Transformation at all. The only weak link connecting the two was that the Sharingan was a Yin-based bloodline, which might help with training.
But for an Uchiha, further developing the Sharingan was the true "main road." Spirit Transformation seemed wildly off-track.
"I'm sure, Hokage-sama," Feiyu replied.
Seeing his complete lack of hesitation, the Third didn't push it further.
Training paths were personal, and he didn't really believe this particular jutsu could change the underlying nature of an Uchiha anyway.
Feiyu then picked out a few A-rank and even B-rank practical jutsu as supplements—things to round out his toolkit rather than define it—and finally closed the scroll.
The Third Hokage produced another scroll, formed a short sequence of seals, and the ink on the Scroll of Seals began to tremble.
Strings of cipher-text peeled off the parchment and flowed into the blank scroll like black smoke.
Moments later, fresh gibberish once again surfaced on the Scroll of Seals, re-encrypting itself, while the second scroll's text resolved into clean, legible characters.
When it finished, Hiruzen flicked his wrist and tossed the new scroll over.
It spun through the air and dropped neatly into Feiyu's arms.
"Anything else?" the Hokage asked kindly.
Feiyu, already holding his prize, shook his head—very wise, very self-aware—and took his leave.
Whatever the old man and Orochimaru wanted to say next had nothing to do with him, and he had zero interest in listening.
Whether his new "teacher" ended up becoming Hokage or not? That was his problem. Feiyu had better things to do.
Like getting home and reading up on Spirit Transformation.
Back at his place, Feiyu first gave the dust-covered house a quick cleanup.
Then he sat down, unrolled the scroll, and began reading in detail.
Naturally, the first section he turned to was the Spirit Transformation Technique.
Because of his long experience with Warden of Wandering Souls, Feiyu already had a deep understanding of souls and spiritual structure. After just one careful read-through, he'd basically grasped the core of the technique.
First, Spirit Transformation required soul separation—a proper out-of-body state.
To achieve that, a shinobi needed an extremely refined control over Yin Release chakra, strong enough to pry their soul loose from their body without damaging it.
Second, once outside the body, the soul needed a chakra-formed vessel, a special outer shell to "hold" it. Only then could it maintain vitality and lethality.
Otherwise, if you sent your bare, naked soul crashing into someone else's?
That wouldn't be a suicide attack.
That would be a double kill.
Both souls would come out shredded.
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