"Allen? Guy-sensei? You've already dealt with those two enemies?"
Seeing the two strongest members of the team appear simultaneously, Lee's face lit up with a smile of excitement and joy. His fatigue and inner unease vanished in an instant.
"Yeah! All settled! You two did well. Your teacher felt the burning heat of your youth!" In his signature eccentric fashion, Might Guy grinned and gave a thumbs-up.
"Guy-sensei, please be serious. We still have one enemy left to deal with," Neji reminded him, massaging his forehead in frustration.
Although he was well aware of his Taijutsu instructor's immense strength, for some reason, he couldn't help but feel a sense of pity for the ninja defeated by Guy. If it were him, and he found out the person who beat him was such a buffoon in daily life, he'd probably want to commit suicide immediately.
But Might Guy clearly saw no issue with his personality. He continued to smile and replied, "No worries! Just leave it to Allen. He just said he wanted to demonstrate a new Ninjutsu he's been developing."
"That's right! Leave this to me."
Allen wore a harmless smile. With his handsome, boyish face, he looked both radiant and innocent.
Without a doubt, this was a mask. It was precisely because of this persona that he was accepted by the massive shinobi collective known as Konoha.
Appearance is justice; character determines destiny. These aren't just idle sayings, they describe the objective laws of human interaction. If a person looks fierce, normal people will instinctively be on guard regardless of how kind they are inside. But if it's a handsome young man, even if he is cruel and evil, countless people will still find themselves feeling favorable toward him.
Though it sounds harsh for those not blessed with good looks, it is an ironclad fact. By the same logic, if someone's personality is dark and volatile, others will instinctively stay away. But if someone is bright and positive, even those with difficult temperaments will be happy to associate with them.
Allen understood this deeply, which was how he crafted a nearly perfect public image. Even the Third Hokage felt as though he were catching a glimpse of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. But the old man would never know that this young man, in whom he placed so much hope, had planned to defect from the very beginning.
What Allen truly desired, Konoha simply could not provide.
"Kid! Did you really kill my comrades?" the female ninja asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Yes. Your companion was brave. Even in his final moments, he covered himself in paper bombs, trying to take me down with him. Out of respect for that spirit, I ensured his death was painless."
As Allen spoke, he began to manipulate lightning-natured chakra, creating a Thunderbird once again. Compared to the previous one, this one was much smaller, only about the size of an adult human. However, the violent power and the terrifying destructive energy contained within made everyone who saw it wear an expression of shock and disbelief.
"Such terrifying chakra! What kind of Ninjutsu is this?" Neji stared intently with his Byakugan, tracking the flow of chakra inside the Thunderbird.
"It looks like some kind of incredibly powerful Lightning Release Jutsu. This kind of talent and ability isn't something that can be explained by a Kekkei Genkai alone. It won't be long before he becomes a powerful shinobi capable of standing on his own," Might Guy evaluated solemnly.
"Allen really is a genius!" Lee's voice was filled with blatant, undisguised envy. Due to his constitution, he couldn't practice any Ninjutsu, so he naturally felt an unparalleled yearning for the ability to manipulate chakra so freely.
"Guy-sensei, this Jutsu must be at least A-rank, right?" Tenten asked curiously.
Might Guy shook his head slightly. "No. More than that. Though my knowledge of Ninjutsu is limited, I know that simply transforming chakra into lightning and coating one's hand is considered an A-rank Jutsu. This technique... it might very well be S-rank."
While they were talking, the violent currents on the Thunderbird's surface finally began to stabilize. To the naked eye, it looked like a real white bird, save for the dazzling light it constantly emitted into the surroundings.
"Lightning Release: Thunderbird!" Allen announced the name of his original technique with a smile.
Seeing this, the female Iwagakure Jonin couldn't help but sigh. "Konoha truly is a village that mass-produces geniuses and monsters. Fine, I believe now that you truly had the power to kill my comrades."
"So, will you surrender?" Allen asked with a playful grin.
"Surrender? Impossible! I am a ninja of the Stone, possessing the Will of Stone! Come! Let me see just how strong your Ninjutsu is!"
With that, the female ninja began weaving hand signs at extreme speed, intending to put everything into one final, desperate struggle, even though she knew it would likely be futile.
"As you wish..."
Allen controlled the Thunderbird to charge at his opponent. The process was exactly the same as when he killed the previous Stone ninja. In a mere instant, the Thunderbird vanished from everyone's sight!
In less than a tenth of a second, it bypassed the defensive Ninjutsu and erupted from within the target's body.
BOOM!!!
Accompanied by a deafening roar, a pillar of white light once again pierced the heavens and the earth. The terrifying chain reaction even affected the low-hanging clouds above. When the lightning subsided, the female Jonin had been reduced to charred remains, giving off a pungent, burnt smell.
"Done! So, how was it? The power of my original Jutsu isn't bad, right?" Allen intentionally acted like a child, turning around with a boastful smile.
"More than 'not bad'! It was amazing! Quick, tell me, how did you do it?" Tenten, his closest friend, was the first to rush over, wrapping her arm around his neck and demanding an answer.
"If you want to learn, I can teach you! Of course, that's assuming you can learn it," Allen joked.
"Really? You're willing to teach me?"
Not only was Tenten stunned into silence by this answer, but Neji, Lee, and Might Guy were equally shocked. After all, the education they had received from a young age emphasized that missions, intelligence, and high-level Ninjutsu were often more important than a ninja's life. A powerful S-rank technique like this was usually something only blood relatives or direct disciples would be permitted to learn.
"Yes! If you're willing to learn, I'm willing to teach. However, this technique has extremely strict requirements for chakra volume, as well as lightning-nature transformation and shape transformation," Allen replied without hesitation.
As a modern person, he hated how everyone in this world kept everything hidden and secret. It was no wonder that after years of development, instead of progressing, the world suffered from the bizarre phenomenon of each generation being weaker than the last. Especially with things like Ninjutsu and Hiden techniques; if more people could learn, understand, and participate in systematic research and development, the shinobi world would never be this stagnant.
But now? Every Great Village hid high-level Ninjutsu like treasures, letting them gather dust. The people in the Naruto world truly had some twisted logic.