Chapter 42: Testing the Crystal Ball

Back at home.

Naruto went into the bathroom, used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport to somewhere in Konoha, and stuffed the crystal ball into his sealed space.

He then used the Flying Thunder God Technique again and instantly returned to the bathroom, washed his hands, and walked back out.

The entire process took less than twenty seconds.

Even Uchiha Izumi hadn’t noticed anything unusual. She genuinely thought Naruto had simply gone in to wash his hands.

Thinking about the explosion earlier that day, Izumi quietly sensed the surrounding area before asking in a low voice,

"Naruto, was that you?"

Sensing techniques were essentially applications of Yin Release and spiritual energy.

Members of the Uchiha clan naturally possessed Yin Release and had exceptionally strong spiritual energy. After receiving systematic instruction from Minato Namikaze, Izumi’s sensory abilities had become quite good.

Minato, meanwhile, was thoroughly enjoying the sense of accomplishment that came from teaching his child as a father.

After all, a future daughter-in-law was practically half a daughter, wasn’t she?

Wasn’t teaching her basically the same as teaching his own child?

Nothing wrong with that!

"Mm."

Naruto gave a soft hum and admitted it.

Izumi nodded without asking why Naruto had done it.

She had already expected that a day like this would come.

She also felt no sympathy for Konoha’s destruction or the casualties among its villagers.

She was simply curious about how Naruto had accomplished it.

When had he planted all those explosive tags?

And where had the explosive tags even come from?

Naruto didn’t know how to make explosive tags.

So how much money had all those tags cost?

When had he secretly built up such a huge stash of money?

No.

Calling it a stash was understating it.

It was practically a treasure vault!

As the family’s financial manager, how had she not known about it?

Naruto briefly explained how he had encountered the old man Gen’ō the last time.

Only then did Izumi suddenly understand.

"Come in. I’ll show you something interesting."

After explaining everything, Naruto pulled Izumi’s consciousness into his sealed space.

When Izumi saw Minato sitting cross-legged inside the sealed space with a crystal ball in his hands, she froze for a moment.

Then she suddenly realized something.

Her eyes widened.

Wasn’t this the "decoration" that the Third Hokage often kept on his desk?

Izumi had never known what the crystal ball actually did. She had always assumed it was nothing more than a decorative ornament.

Seeing Naruto deliberately "take" it and bring it into the sealed space, she immediately realized that this crystal ball was far from ordinary.

Naruto walked over to Minato and asked,

"Dad, do you know how to use it?"

After three years together, they had developed a genuine father-son bond.

Naruto had also accepted his father in this life and, after adapting to this world, had changed the way he addressed him.

"I do. I’ve used this crystal ball before."

Minato nodded.

He then set up a small barrier inside the sealed space and began feeding chakra into the crystal ball.

Before long, an image of the sealed space appeared inside the crystal ball.

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

Izumi’s eyes widened again.

Then she suddenly thought of something embarrassing.

She immediately covered her chest with both arms, her face filled with shame and indignation.

Naruto glanced over.

Hmm.

At eleven years old, she was already quite well-developed.

Still, an old man like the Third Hokage wasn’t the sort of person who would spy on a young girl like that.

But just as Naruto’s gaze shifted toward Izumi, he suddenly felt a strange sensation.

He was being watched.

Naruto immediately turned around and looked suspiciously at the crystal ball—and at Minato, who was staring into it.

The sensation of being watched instantly disappeared.

Naruto’s heart stirred.

It was as if someone were watching him from behind, creating that strange feeling of being observed.

But once he turned around and looked directly at the person behind him, the feeling disappeared.

Because he could already see them.

After figuring it out, Naruto asked,

"Can we eliminate that feeling of being watched?"

"Only extremely perceptive shinobi can sense it. Under normal circumstances, no one will notice."

Minato explained.

He then looked toward Izumi.

"Izumi, turn around."

Izumi obediently turned her back.

Minato stared at the crystal ball and asked,

"Izumi, do you feel anything?"

Izumi shook her head.

"See? Izumi can’t sense it."

As he spoke, Minato gave Izumi a meaningful glance.

Izumi immediately lowered her head in embarrassment.

She understood what Minato was implying.

She was the only one here who couldn’t detect it.

Her sensory abilities were clearly still far behind theirs.

Naruto nodded.

It was perfectly normal that Izumi couldn’t detect it.

However, he still wasn’t satisfied with Minato’s answer.

"Can it be eliminated completely?"

His plan was to use the crystal ball to monitor Konoha’s higher-ups.

Those old foxes had been around for years and were experts at hiding their true intentions.

Their senses were bound to be extremely sharp.

If this feeling of being watched couldn’t be eliminated, then the crystal ball wouldn’t be much use.

Minato stared at the crystal ball and pondered for a while.

Then something seemed to occur to him.

"Naruto, turn around. Izumi, don’t look at the crystal ball either."

Naruto turned around.

Izumi also moved her gaze away.

Minato faced the crystal ball with his eyes deliberately unfocused.

"Naruto, do you feel anything?"

Naruto’s pupils suddenly contracted.

Nothing!

He knew Minato wouldn’t deliberately avoid looking at the crystal ball just to ask that question.

Which meant...

He had already solved the problem of the feeling of being watched!

Naruto immediately turned around.

With surprise and a hint of admiration in his voice, he asked,

"How did you do that, Dad?"

Minato pointed toward his eyes and smiled.

"Focus."

His son was far too clever.

It wasn’t often that Minato got a chance to show off his own intelligence.

Naturally, he looked extremely pleased with himself!

Naruto immediately understood.

When the eyes focused on something, the mind and spiritual energy also became focused.

That was what allowed particularly perceptive shinobi to sense the gaze.

But when the eyes deliberately dispersed their focus, spiritual energy would also become dispersed.

That made it much harder to detect.

For an ordinary person, looking at something without focusing their eyes and relying only on peripheral vision made it difficult to see clearly.

But shinobi were different.

Especially powerful shinobi.

Even when using only their peripheral vision, they could still see things clearly.

At the same time, Naruto finally understood the underlying principle.

The crystal ball projected an image through a barrier.

The barrier required chakra.

The projection also required chakra.

Every step involved chakra processing, creating a continuous chain.

When someone’s gaze was directly focused on the crystal ball, that gaze could potentially be transmitted through the crystal ball, then through the barrier, and ultimately onto the person being observed.

Of course, after passing through so many layers, the sensation of being watched became extremely faint.

That was why only exceptionally perceptive shinobi could detect it.

If someone looked using only their peripheral vision, the sensation would become even weaker after passing through all those layers.

As a result, even highly perceptive shinobi wouldn’t be able to detect it.

But then another thought occurred to Naruto.

What if they used a camera?

Or a projector?

There would no longer be chakra processing in the middle.

Would that mean the sensation of being watched wouldn’t be transmitted at all?

Wouldn’t that make things even better and more convenient?

Monitoring equipment already existed in this era.

Before the Uchiha clan massacre in the original story, Konoha had continuously used modern surveillance equipment to monitor the Uchiha district.

The problem was that getting their hands on such surveillance equipment would probably be extremely difficult.

Naruto shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

If he could get some, that would be ideal.

If he couldn’t, it wasn’t a major problem for now.