Chapter 19: The Birth of "Burst Step"
After seeing Kushina safely home, Shinra didn't head back to his own apartment. His mind was still churning, replaying the fight with the Kumo ninja.
In that brief, violent clash, he'd done something instinctive. He'd merged the principles of "Soru" (Shave) from the Six Powers inherited from Whitebeard's world with the Body Flicker Technique he'd just mastered. The resulting burst of speed had been shocking, even to him.
The Kumo squad leader had been strong, likely at the peak of chunin level. While Shinra was confident in his power, defeating such an opponent should have required more effort. The difference had been that initial, overwhelming velocity. It had robbed the ninja of any chance to mount a defense, allowing the tremor's destructive power to land a clean, fatal blow.
But he knew that wasn't the limit.
What he wanted now was to consciously forge a new technique. A footwork born from the fusion of chakra-based Body Flicker and the purely physical, explosive movement principles of Soru. A technique that could one day rival the legendary speed of the Fourth Raikage.
"Flicker… and Shave… together!"
BOOM!
The ground beneath Shinra's feet in the training ground exploded. Solid earth and rock fractured into a spiderweb of cracks.
The terrifying recoil transformed his body into a blur. He crossed dozens of meters in the blink of an eye, his speed more than double his previous maximum.
Yet, he frowned, skidding to a halt. "Not enough. It should be faster."
The relentless drive for perfection, a core part of his nature, reasserted itself. He wouldn't settle for 'good enough.'
BOOM!!
Another thunderous detonation. This time, the shockwave was visible, kicking up a plume of dust. His speed doubled again, a streak of motion that was more force than form. The acceleration and stopping power were immense, far beyond the standard Body Flicker.
The so-called 'teleportation' techniques of this world were about achieving blinding speed in an instant, creating the illusion of vanishing. The pinnacle was Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God. This… this was something born of a different philosophy of movement.
"Once more."
He analyzed the minute differences between the two attempts—the chakra flow, the muscle engagement, the timing of the release. His eyes sharpened with focus.
BOOM-CRACK!!!
This time, the sound was different—deeper, more violent. The ground didn't just crack; a small crater erupted where he'd pushed off. There was no afterimage this time. He simply vanished.
No—he reappeared.
Almost in the same instant he disappeared, his form solidified nearly a hundred meters away. The displaced air from his passage arrived a heartbeat later, a roaring gust of wind that shook the trees and sent leaves swirling in a violent vortex.
"This… speed…"
Even Shinra was stunned, coming to a stop. But alongside the awe was a sharp, warning twinge in his legs. A deep, protesting ache. This extreme velocity was pushing his current physical vessel to its absolute limit.
Still, it was a breakthrough. By mastering the fusion of these two movement principles, and as his body grew stronger, his speed would increase exponentially. Surpassing a Raikage's top speed wasn't a dream; it was an eventual certainty.
Feeling the raw, exhilarating power of that last burst, a fierce light ignited in Shinra's eyes.
"That… I'll call it Burst Step."
A wicked, excited grin spread across his face. This was just the beginning. The true horror of Burst Step was its near-lack of a ceiling. In simple terms: the stronger Shinra's body became, the faster he could go. The only limit was how much force his own frame could withstand at the moment of ignition.
"If I could obtain the Lightning Release Chakra Mode to fortify my body… or learn the Eight Inner Gates… the speed of Burst Step then would be…"
His mind raced, solidifying his future path. Forge the body. Master the Eight Gates. Acquire lightning-based fortification. The goals were clear.
Suppressing his swirling thoughts, Shinra spent the rest of the deepening night practicing, refining. Thousands of micro-adjustments. He sought the perfect chakra output, the optimal muscle firing sequence for his current state.
By the time the first hints of dawn tinged the sky, he had it. A stable, reproducible form.
A preliminary assessment: his normal speed using Burst Step was now three times his previous maximum. It was terrifying progress.
But Shinra understood. This was merely the prototype. Only when his physique reached its peak, perhaps with the gates thrown open, could Burst Step reveal its true, world-altering potential.
And then… the title of the world's fastest man might not belong to Konoha's Yellow Flash. It might belong to the one who moved with the force of a breaking quake.
(End of Chapter)
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