Ever since the legend of the "Namikaze brothers" spread through the academy, Naruto had become the undisputed campus star, while his older brother, Namikaze Shinju, turned into a figure of myth—known by name, rarely seen in person.
Most students had only heard of him, almost none had met him.
That afternoon, during a theory class on chakra nature transformation, Shinju—planning to go home with Naruto after school—asked permission from Kushina-san and the instructor, Iruka-sensei, to sit in. With both their approval, he slipped quietly into an empty seat in the back row to "audit" the lesson.
His arrival calmed the room at once.
Every student unconsciously sat up straighter—even the mischievous Kiba toned it down. The girls in the front rows kept sneaking glances over their shoulders, eyes bright with curiosity at the "god" from the rumors.
Sasuke's back went ramrod straight. He could feel that tranquil gaze resting somewhere behind him, and the pressure stoked his competitiveness. He decided he would shine in today's class.
Iruka-sensei felt the pressure too.
Teaching children was one thing; being audited by the Namikaze family's eldest—praised even by the Fourth Hokage—was entirely another.
He cleared his throat and began the day's key points.
"…As we said last time, there are five basic chakra natures: fire, wind, lightning, earth, and water. These five form a web of counters. Fire counters wind, wind counters lightning, lightning counters earth, earth counters water, water counters fire. Understanding and applying these counters is foundational to becoming a capable shinobi."
It was by-the-book, and the students listened earnestly enough.
Soon, though, they reached the hard part.
"Today we'll focus on why 'wind counters lightning,'" Iruka-sensei said, chalking the phrase across the board.
He winced inwardly. Among all counters, "wind over lightning" was the most abstract and the hardest to explain.
Others—like water over fire, fire over wind—were easy to grasp.
But how did wind restrain lightning?
Iruka-sensei could only follow the textbook's line.
"Think of it this way: wind-natured chakra, because of its high-speed flow, can… uh… cut apart the 'shape' of lightning-natured chakra, thereby restraining it. Kind of like how wind can disperse thunderclouds…"
Even he heard how fuzzy it sounded.
So did the students.
"Cut it apart? How?"
"If wind blows away thunderclouds, then how come fire burns wind—why is fire over wind?"
"I don't get it…"
Most were already nodding off. Only a few like Shikamaru frowned, thinking hard, but even he couldn't pin the logic down.
Sasuke's brow furrowed as well. The vague explanation wouldn't sit.
Seeing the confusion, Iruka-sensei dabbed sweat from his forehead, embarrassed. He knew he hadn't made it clear, but with only the textbook to lean on, he had no better way. He decided to skip the snag and move on.
Just then—
A hand rose calmly in the back row.
Shinju.
Shff.
Every gaze in the room—sleepy or not—snapped to him.
Iruka-sensei's heart leapt into his throat.
"Sh–Shinju-sama, do you have a question?" he asked, nerves showing as he slipped into honorifics.
Shinju stood. His expression was serene, without a hint of showing off or provocation—just a diligent student.
"I don't have a question, Iruka-sensei."
"I just have a small idea about 'wind over lightning.' I'm not sure it's correct. I'd like to discuss it with you."
He lowered himself with impeccable courtesy, giving Iruka-sensei full respect.
Flustered and honored, Iruka-sensei bowed slightly. "Please—go ahead!"
Shinju nodded, let his gaze sweep the room, and spoke in a clear, resonant voice that carried to every corner.
"Iruka-sensei, maybe we can change perspectives."
"Let's set 'countering' aside for a moment and talk about the 'essence' of the two natures."
"What is the essence of lightning? It's the high-speed, directed movement of electrons; in ninjutsu, that appears as bursts and transmission of chakra energy in very short intervals. Lightning's strengths are speed and penetration."
"And wind?"
He didn't answer himself; he looked to the class.
This, at least, was simpler than "wind over lightning."
Shikamaru was first to react, hand half-raised, lazy as ever. "The movement of air?"
"Not quite," Shinju said, shaking his head. "Movement is the surface. Wind's essence is the high-frequency vibration of air molecules."
High-frequency… vibration?
A term they had never heard before.
Shinju went on, unfazed by their puzzlement:
"Now, let's combine them. For lightning-natured chakra to transmit, it needs a relatively stable medium—the way electrical current needs a wire. In air, that medium is the air itself."
"When wind-natured chakra intervenes, the 'high-frequency vibration' it generates violently and randomly perturbs that 'stable medium.'"
"Imagine trying to send a wave down a rope that's lying still—easy, right? But if that rope itself is already whipping about in chaotic tremors, how are you supposed to send a stable wave down it?"
"So," Shinju concluded, his voice cutting cleanly through the hush,
"wind doesn't counter the energy of lightning-natured chakra itself."
"It counters lightning's 'transmissibility.'"
"When the vibration frequency of wind-natured chakra resonates with—or severely disrupts—the transmission paths lightning relies on, a lightning jutsu will destabilize and collapse on its own before it ever reaches the target."
"That is the true mechanism behind 'wind over lightning.'"
Silence.
Every student stared slack-jawed at the figure in the back row.
They didn't fully grasp "high-frequency vibration" or "transmission medium," but the rope analogy—they got that.
So that's it!
Wind doesn't "cut" lightning—wind shakes it apart.
The explanation was a hundred times clearer—and ten thousand times more interesting—than what Iruka-sensei had said.
On the podium, Iruka-sensei was stunned.
He turned Shinju's words over and over in his mind.
Vibration… medium… disrupting transmission…
Not a clash of energies, but the sabotage of transmissibility.
A problem that had stumped him—and Konoha's traditional ninjutsu pedagogy—for decades had just been solved by a single youth with a theory no one had heard before, yet crisp and undeniably right.
In that moment, the look Iruka-sensei gave Shinju was no longer for a "Hokage's son" or a "genius."
It was the look reserved for a seer—for a master.
Trembling, he bent at the waist and bowed a full ninety degrees.
"Shinju-sama! Thank you for your guidance! I…I understand now! Completely!"
His voice brimmed with genuine gratitude and respect.
The whole class gasped.
A teacher bowing in thanks to a student auditor.
Sitting rigid at his desk, Sasuke felt that familiar sense of being crushed. The gap between him and Shinju wasn't something effort alone could bridge. It was… dimensional.
Propping his chin on one hand, Shikamaru watched Shinju and muttered, "What a drag… total monster…"
From that day on, an unspoken rule spread among the academy staff.
They stopped calling that boy "Shinju-sama" or "Shinju-kun."
In private, they used a title edged with awe:
"Shinju-sensei."
(End of Chapter)
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