Flying Thunder God Technique

The special seal marked kunai Minato uses for his Flying Thunder God Technique.

• Name: Flying Thunder God Technique (飛雷神の術, Hiraishin no Jutsu, Viz: Flying Thunder God Jutsu)
• Type: S-rank, Supplementary, All ranges
• User: Minato Namikaze
• Debut (Manga): Chapter 240
• Debut (Anime): Shippuden episode 119

This jutsu was created by Minato Namikaze, and quite possibly the reason behind his nickname, "Konoha's Yellow Flash" (木ノ葉の黄色い閃光 Konoha no Kīroi Senkō). It allows the user to move himself to another location in the blink of an eye. Although it is often compared with the Body Flicker Technique, the speed of this jutsu is much greater. In principle, this jutsu is similar to the Reverse Summoning Technique, as it revolves around manipulation of time and space rather than accelerated movement, but instead of bringing something to users, it sends them somewhere. Additionally, it makes no noise and produces no puff of smoke, allowing the user to appear behind someone unnoticed.

To activate this jutsu, the user needs a special seal or "jutsu formula" (術式, jutsu-shiki) to mark the destination. After this is done, the user enters a dimensional void that almost instantaneously transport himself to the location of the seal. Minato applied the formula in advance to weapons such as kunai. By giving one such kunai to a person, he can immediately teleport to that person at any time. He can also apply the mark to a touched area, such as his opponent or some other surrounding feature.

Furthermore, if an object marked with the seal may touch the ground, Minato will immediately know the position of everyone close to the object. This technique also possesses surveillance purposes as he can continuously sense where anyone is as long as the seal is on them. No matter where an opponent is, he arrived directly next to them. The jutsu is also very unique because it requires no use of chakra, due to a special secondary seal that emits the same chakra as him, allowing him to have an instant connection to the area.

It is because of this technique that Konoha came out victorious in the Iwagakure-Konohagakure Ninja War. After having his subordinates toss marked kunai randomly into the enemy ranks, Minato used the technique to appear within their ranks, using the great speed of this jutsu to seemingly appear to be in several places at once and wipe out entire squadrons one by one in moments before they could even react.

Trivia

• The name Hiraishin is also the phonic of the Japanese word 避雷針, which means "lightning rod"; this may suggest the reasoning as to why the technique is restricted towards a seal, because lightning is attracted to lightning rods.