The instant movent granted by Dance of the Startled Swan was already incredible—but what truly made it terrifying was its ability to grow.
Right now, the skill still had significant limitations. Leaving aside the duration of the sword shadows, the user could only perform three dashes, and each charge took six hours to recover. That ant Hoshiyomi could only rely on this jutsu in critical situations.
But as he grew stronger, those restrictions would gradually loosen.
According to the skill description, every 250 points of swordsmanship experience would improve the jutsu—adding one more maximum charge, reducing cooldown ti by an hour, and extending the duration of the sword shadows by another hour.
In other words, once Hoshiyomi's swordsmanship reached the Sword Saint level, Dance of the Startled Swan would have evolved four tis.
At full power, the skill's effects would be:
Maximum charges: 7
Cooldown: 2 hours per charge
Sword shadow duration: 5 hours
Seven dashes would leave behind six sword shadows, and with the ability to return to any of them—even repeatedly—Hoshiyomi could pull off 13 total movents in a flash.
This kind of movent ignored physical collisions entirely—so long as an attack hadn't already landed on his face, he could dodge it. It was practically like having 13 extra lives.
And even if he used them all at once, he'd just need half a day to rest and restore them fully. What a beautiful image that was!
After indulging in that thrilling daydream of the full-powered Dance of the Startled Swan, Hoshiyomi brought himself back to reality. First, it was ti to test how the movent actually worked.
He stepped out into the courtyard and, under the moonlight, slowly drew his Mikazuki Munechika. The hazy moonlight reflected off the blade, making the three crescent-shaped marks along its length shine brilliantly.
Under the moon, the sword looked like a flawless work of art. Even after over ten years together, Hoshiyomi had never once grown tired of looking at it.
Now, in the lower right corner of his field of vision, a small indicator had appeared:
Dance of the Startled Swan – Uses Remaining: 3
After casually spinning the sword in a quick flourish, he widened his stance and activated the technique.
The mont the thought of using Dance of the Startled Swan crossed his mind, he instinctively sensed that he could shift to any location within a 30-ter radius around him.
It felt like so kind of instinct—Hoshiyomi couldn't explain how he knew it, but he just knew he could move freely to any point within roughly thirty ters.
Glancing around the courtyard (which was spacious enough for straight-line movent), Hoshiyomi considered aiming beyond the wall. After all, the skill description claid to ignore physical obstacles. There was no way it would make him crash into a wall like Crescent Moon Slash used to, right?
Setting the target just outside the wall, he bent his knees in a sprinting pose—and vanished the next instant.
His vision blurred for a mont—and suddenly, he found himself standing on the street outside.
Thankfully, no Konoha patrol squads were around. Otherwise, he might've given soone a heart attack.
Even Hoshiyomi himself stumbled a bit. The first use of Dance of the Startled Swan was disorienting.
He closed his eyes and recalled the feeling. It hadn't felt like traversing a space-ti tunnel, nor like being tugged through a dinsional vortex. More like piercing a thin mbrane—and erging outside.
Thinking back on his wobbly landing, Hoshiyomi realized he should spend the next couple days getting used to it. Otherwise, in the heat of battle, a single misstep into an enemy kunai could spell disaster.
As he landed, another sensation entered his mind: he could clearly feel the sword shadow left behind at his original location.
It was like he'd planted a small surveillance cara. In his field of vision, he could clearly see what was happening around the sword shadow's location.
For instance, at that mont, he could see Minato Namikaze upstairs on the second floor, staring out the window and rubbing his eyes in disbelief—apparently having just witnessed Hoshiyomi's sudden movent.
The thought amused Hoshiyomi deeply. Showing off a movent technique like this in front of the future Yellow Flash? Life didn't get much better than that.
And he was quite pleased with the extra vision the sword shadow provided. That alone made the skill worth it. A whole hour of remote vision after each use? No complaints there.
The street was quiet, with no one else around—not that there was much to see—but Hoshiyomi casually strolled alongside the wall.
Partly, he wanted to test if he could return back to the sword shadow from any location. But mostly, he was just waiting to see how long it would take to freak Minato out again.
anwhile, Minato was doubting his own sanity.
He'd been unable to sleep after eating too much, and decided to admire the night sky… only to witness his beloved sensei practicing swordplay in the courtyard—then suddenly vanishing in a silver flash!
Rubbing his eyes, Minato opened the window and looked again. No sign of Hoshiyomi.
Did I drink sothing weird?
No, that was definitely juice Kushina gave him. He couldn't be drunk.
Maybe he just missed Hoshiyomi-sensei too much recently and imagined it?
Minato chuckled quietly to himself. He'd tell Hoshiyomi about it tomorrow. For now, he should get so sleep—
But just as he moved to close the window, another silver flash caught his eye.
Looking down, Minato nearly popped his eyeballs out.
Standing in the courtyard again, smiling up at him, was none other than Hoshiyomi Gekkō.
"Good evening, Minato," he said with a calm, knowing grin.
What the hell!?
Minato's mind nearly short-circuited. He pushed off the windowsill and leapt down from the second floor, landing with a thud. Disoriented but determined, he stepped forward and touched Hoshiyomi's arm, confirming it wasn't an illusion.
"Hoshiyomi-sensei… You… weren't there just now. And then suddenly you… you're here—how?!"
Minato stamred as he checked his teacher's presence with both hands, struggling to form complete sentences.
Hoshiyomi couldn't help but laugh at the sight. Patting Minato's head, he said in a mysteriously smug tone:
"Just a little space-ti ninjutsu I recently grasped. Pretty amazing, right?"
Space-ti ninjutsu?!
Minato's eyes imdiately sparkled with admiration.
"That kind of joy… I want it too!!"
Author's Notes:
I lowered the cooldown for Dance of the Startled Swan a bit; I feel like it makes it seem more powerful.
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