He had utterly perfected the technique, Naruto thought to himself, panting from the repeated exertions of forcing chakra into solid copies of himself. An honest-to-goodness B rank jutsu, and he, the dead last, had mastered it! Naruto knew he had a stupid grin on his face, but he could not hide it, he was so proud of himself. While he wanted to learn another jutsu from the forbidden scroll, his exhaustion forced him to take a break; he had been blasting out chakra trying to perfect the jutsu for over an hour now.
'Might as well look at the other jutsu in the scroll while I wait.' The orange clad ninja thought to himself as he rolled open the scroll further. To his surprise he realised the Shadow Clone technique had more information written about it. He had simply stopped at the basic description and hand seals when had begun practicing it. He read the new passage, in case there were some spooky side effects. It was in the forbidden scroll after all.
The Shadow Clone jutsu is an extremely versatile technique. It can be used to scout a head during a mission, as memories from the clone will return to the original user upon the clone being dispelled. This occurs regardless if the clone dispels itself, if the user dispels the clone, or the clone is destroyed by a third party. However, it should be noted that a clone that is dispelled rather than destroyed will return its chakra back to the user. Unfortunately, if the clone is destroyed, the charka will be lost. The sharing of memories can also be used to supplement training, as a clone that practices a ninjutsu can transfer the memories of practice back to the user when dispelled. If many clones are used in tandem, this can severely reduce the time to learn a ninjutsu. This can also extend to taijutsu forms. Further uses of the jutsu includes gauging an opponent's strength or techniques before the user engages, to have a clone distract from a far with projectiles or other long range ninjutsu, or to even supplement a taijutsu string with a quick use of the Shadow Clone technique between blows.
Naruto finished reading the passage, awestruck. He did not fully understand everything the scroll detailed about the jutsu, but he did seem to understand that it could basically be used to learn new jutsu faster, which was totally out of the realm of what he expected to use the technique for. Ironically, failing the Genin Exam was about to make him a much better ninja. He would have to thanks Mizuki for giving him this opportunity.
"Naruto!" Iruka angrily yelled out the academy student's name as his landed in front of him. Naruto scratched the back of his head and sheepishly explained to the academy instructor what Mizuki had told Naruto. No sooner than that, Iruka's arm was pierced by a kunai as Mizuki made his declaration of betrayal.
That night Naruto learned another use of the Shadow Clone Jutsu that was not in the scroll.
Summoning the strength of a thousand to purely overwhelm an enemy.
It had been a busy couple of days for the newly minted genin. The day after becoming a genin, he was placed in a three-man unit consisting of himself, the object of his affections, Sakura-chan, and his bitter rival Sayuri Uchiha. They were placed under the leadership of a jounin, a man named Kakashi. Just when Naruto thought he was beginning his journey to become Hokage, he had to take another test! This one turned out to be more a lesson on teamwork, and it truly was eye opening for the young shinobi. So, while it was annoying to do another test just as he made genin, he was glad he learned something useful from it.
This was the third day since he made genin and it was a day off. Naruto found it a bit surprising that they were not jumping straight into missions, but Kakashi had explained to them that the test he had given them was strenuous compared to the regular rigors of genin missions, so he permitted them one day's rest before they began taking missions.
Naruto didn't really understand what any of that meant, just that he had the day off.
While he was disappointed in not starting missions, he was excited he had more time to go check out the most important thing about the Shadow Clone jutsu. Using it to learn even more ninjutsu!
The young shinobi quickly made his way to the library. It was not a place he usually frequented, but he came on occasion to pick up scrolls on jutsu like the Transformation Jutsu, or the regular Clone technique. He also borrowed scrolls on shuriken and kunai throwing before. All these things belonged under the unraked section of the library, and now that he was a genin he could take the next step and enter the D ranked section.
He greeted the librarian who was settled at the front desk before making a beeline toward the doors leading to the D ranked section. The librarian stationed at the front of the door asked for his ID and he pulled out his one-day old genin ID. The librarian quirked an eyebrow at the extremely bombastic kabuki face paint his ID picture donned. Naruto had to bribe the photographer to send that picture in, instead of the reshoot the Sandaime had forced him to take.
"Okay, the library closes at 6 pm, so you can stay until then. If you want to take out a scroll or book, your allowance is up to three items borrowed at one time. You can borrow a scroll for up to a week. If you want to renew a scroll or book, you will have to ask the head receptionist in the front, and she will tell you if there are any holds on the items. Any questions?" The receptionist droned with efficiency that indicated she had delivered this information countless times.
"Nope, I got it!" Naruto was giddy to see what new jutsu he would have access too. It truly felt like he took a large step into his path to become Hokage. Naruto entered the room after the door was opened. It was not as big as he expected it to be, but it was packed with scrolls and other forms of literature. It also was not as busy as the main library, but that made sense since that area was open to everyone, including civilians.
Naruto spent half an hour just looking at the names of random scrolls, hoping to find a cool jutsu to learn. To his disappointment, the vast majority of them were boring or generic. He wanted something like Sayuri's Great Fireball jutsu, but he could not find anything remotely similar. With a sigh, Naruto decided he would just pick something with a quick time to learn, since he noticed many of them had an estimated learning time of 3 weeks or greater. One of the more interesting ones he saw that only estimated a week or so to learn was a scroll on tree walking; the act of climbing a tree using only the chakra on one's feet. That seemed relatively cool to Naruto and seeing as he just wanted to test how the Shadow Clone technique would work in helping him learn new things, he decided to go with the one scroll for now.
Naruto went to the head receptionist and borrowed the scroll. After that he rushed straight to the training grounds.
Naruto arrived at the closest training ground to his home, training ground twenty-one. It was small compared to many of the other training grounds littered about Konoha. It was modest too, a few logs to practice weapon throwing, a few training dummies to practice taijutsu, a clearing where Naruto estimated about 8 or so people could all spar at one time, and a pond. And, of course, trees, but there were trees everywhere in Konoha.
Naruto unfurled the scroll and was about to read it when he had an epiphany. He could try and get a clone to do it. After all wasn't that how the jutsu learning aspect of the Shadow Clone jutsu worked anyway? Through memories? This was basically a test run.
Quickly calling a shadow clone, the clone already understanding what to do, Naruto hid behind a tree, making sure to face away from the clearing. He also closed his eyes and covered his ears just in case. Naruto waited patiently for ten minutes, but he was starting to become annoyed with how long it was taking his clone to read the scroll. While grumbling to himself, he suddenly stood up as realised the clone had dispelled itself. The assimilation of the information into his mind shocked Naruto. He expected it to be like a sudden memory or a dream-like experience, but rather it was as if he had spent the ten minutes himself reading the scroll and had just finished.
"Oh boy." Naruto muttered to himself. He might not be the brightest ninja outside of his clothing choice, be he understood that the Shadow Clone jutsu was a very special jutsu indeed.
Naruto swiftly returned to the clearing to pick up the scroll his stupid clone self had forgotten, there was no way he was going to pay a fine for misplacing the thing, and then went to a different area of trees that were lined up horizontally.
Naruto was unsure how many clones he should use at one time, so he decided to just use nine, since there were ten trees lined up, and Naruto himself wanted to practice the tree walking. With another use of the Shadow Clone jutsu, nine clones appeared, and each moved toward a single tree.
"Alright guys, the scroll said it takes about a week to fully master this stuff, so let's see how fast we can do it!"
"Let's go, datteybayo!" The nine clones shouted in unison. In perfect synchronization, the ten Narutos formed a seal and displaced chakra into the soles of their feet. Charging at the trees with a yell of determination they all planted their first foot on the tree before swinging their second foot and attaching that too.
At least that was the plan. In reality, the nine clones dispersed as they all slipped after planting their second foot and clocked their heads against the ground, leaving their user alone on the ground, clutching his skull in pain and with a few tears in his eyes.
He was training for about two hours, none of the clones had managed to take more than ten steps up the tree. It was pretty aggravating to try and get the sweet spot where he was not putting too much or too little chakra into his feet. With a huff, the original Naruto took a break watching his clones try again. Some where already falling off the tree, some not even reaching the ten-step mark.
Naruto groaned and decided maybe he should take a break. He was craving Ichiraku's.
"Alright guys, I'mma get ramen, so let's end training for now!"
The clones dispersed themselves and Naruto blinked has he synthesized the memories. He was unsure if it was because he was doing something practical, rather than reading a scroll, or because he had more clones doing a singular activity, but the memories were a bit choppier than the seamless transition he got from the clone reading the scroll. Either way, Naruto now more understood the feeling and concentration he required to displace the correct amount of chakra to his feet.
Delaying his trip to Ichiraku's for the moment, Naruto concentrated clearing his mind of anything other than the tree, chakra, and delivering the right amount of it to his feet. Sending the chakra to his feet, he once again ran at the tree in front of him. He reached the first ten steps in no time, surprising himself. However, he refocused and concentrated on climbing as high as possible.
"Sixty, sixty-one, sixty-two, sixt-" Naruto cut short his count as he felt his foot slip from a lack of proper chakra application. He pushed off hard and bounded towards another tree, and the back to the first tree once more before pressed off again and landed with a small thump on the ground.
"That was sick!" Naruto exclaimed in jubilation. He went from ten steps up the tree, to past sixty in the blink of an eye; that was over half the tree!
He quickly summoned more clones, about thirty this time. While nine, plus Naruto himself, stayed in the same area, he sent the rest of the clones to find trees in random parts of the training ground to practice.
"Guys, lets finish this up dattebayo!"
The clones throughout the clearing yelled out in affirmation and they began their practice once again.
"Hey guys!" Naruto greeted his teammates boisterously. He was in such a chipper mood after completing his tree walking training last night that he even included Sayuri in his greeting. It was a generic greeting, but in a greeting, nonetheless.
"Hello Naruto." Sakura replied cautiously.
Sayuri just grunted boyishly to affirm Naruto's presence. She was a tomboy through and through, Naruto thought. Short haircut, unisex clothes wear, husky voice, no curves, the only feminine thing about her was her naturally pretty face.
'Yet somehow she's got all the boys and girls to go gaga over her. Unreal.' Naruto thought disdainfully. Shaking his head to rid himself of his jealousy, he thought about the missions they might take.
"What kind of missions ya think we're gonna get? Saving a princess? Fighting a warlord? Oh, maybe escorting a secret ramen recipe?!" Naruto started rocking on his heels becoming amped from the endless possibilities for their first mission together.
"I seriously doubt we will get any of that stuff Naruto. Most likely we'll do something like delivering a message or maybe cleaning a decrepit area of Konoha. Something like that." Sakura tried to bring her teammate back to earth.
"Ah, don't be a party pooper, Sakura-chan. What do you think, teme? Definitely an escort or protection, at least, right?" Naruto turned towards the raven haired kunoichi.
She glanced at him, "I think you are an idiot." She drawled, earning a chuckle from Sakura and a hard glare from Naruto.
"Whatever!" The orange clad ninja growled in petulance, lacing his fingers behind his head.
The trio waited, Naruto and Sakura rather impatiently, for over half an hour before their jounin sensei arrived.
"You're late!" The two louder members of team seven shouted at Kakashi in vexation.
The book-touting shinobi raised a single hand in defense before he gave a complicated reason for his tardiness, accomplishing nothing to dissipate his student's annoyance.
"Alright sensei," Naruto punched his open palm in excitement, "what kind of mission are we going to do today? Escort? Assassination? Espian- Espioon-"
"It's pronounced espionage, you dunce." Sayuri commented, earning another glower from Naruto.
"Ah, shut up, Sayrui!" Naruto hissed bitterly.
"C'mon guys, don't bicker before our first mission." Sakura attempted to placate the two.
"I don't think Naruto understands what 'bicker' means Sakura." The last Uchiha smirked at the blonde.
"Why, I oughta-"
"Okay! That's enough now." Kakashi said while closing his book. His eye was smiling, but there was a menacing undertone to his command. The three ninja stood to attention. "Have you all calmed down? Good. Today we will start our first mission, which will be to clean the weeds at the Inuzuka compound! Isn't that exciting?"
"In what world is manual labour exciting?" Sakura intoned. Sayuri just kissed her teeth in response.
"No for real, Kakashi-sensei. What's our mission?" Naruto placed his hands on his hips, expecting a more exciting answer this time.
"It's no joke Naruto, you lot are genin and we are going to be starting with D rank missions. A lot of them will be similar to what we will be doing today. This is the first step to becoming Hokage, if you don't like it, I can send you back to the academy if you want?" Kakashi's tone was light, even if he words at the end were a bit sour.
"Man, you don't have to be so mean sensei." Naruto muttered. "Can I just use my shadow clones to do everything by themselves?"
"Decent idea, dead last." Sayuri nodded at the boy, and Sakura hummed in agreement.
"Nope, that defeats the purpose of building camaraderie! Alright my cute genin team, let's get to work!"
"Ugh!"
It had taken the trio several hours to complete the task, the Inuzaka compound was large and weeds sprouted throughout. Their sensei, meanwhile, continued to read his literature in the shade for the duration of the mission.
"Damn, payouts pretty good!" Naruto remarked as his flipped through the ryou given to him by the receptionist at the Hokage office.
"Makes sense, it was a clan that gave the mission, not to mention how big the compound was. If it was any less, I'd actually be pretty mad!" Sakura said, having already put heir money in her small pouch.
"When are we going to get a real mission?" Sayuri asked their sensei, the payment was a paltry reward to her. What she desired was real action to test her skills.
"That was a real mission. You three need to develop some teamwork before we can even consider anything more sophisticated."
The last Uchiha scoffed at the response. The sort of idealization of teamwork and lower ranked missions she expected from an academy instructor, not an elite soldier of Konoha.
"Well, whatever, at least it didn't take that long. We still have the whole day a head of us!" Naruto chirped optimistically. "Are we going to do another mission sensei?"
Kakashi smiled under his mask. "Not today Naruto, you have the rest of the day off. I'll expect you three at the same spot, same time tomorrow. Enjoy your day and train hard!" With a wave, Kakashi quickly poofed away in cloud of smoke.
"But sensei, are you going to be on time tomorrow?!" Sakura shrilled too late to catch the silver haired jounin's ears. "Ugh, this guy!" She could not help but stomp her feet in frustration.
Combing his hair roughly with his hands, Naruto sidled up to Sakura and gave her a gigawatt smile. "Say, Sakura-chan, it's pretty much lunch. Why don't you let this guy," Naruto pointed both thumbs at himself, "treat you to some Ichiraku ramen?"
Sakura stared blankly at the boy for a moment, "You mean, like a date?"
"Hehe, you said it, not me, Sakura-chan." Naruto scratched the back of his head in faux timidity.
"Uh, no thanks Naruto," Sakura tried to hold back the disgust in her voice, but some of it seeped through, "I'm going to meet up with Ino. Later Naruto. Bye Sayuri-chan."
"Oh, yea no problem. Maybe next time, yeah?!" Naruto hollered at the girl's back as she left. The kunoichi either ignored him or did not hear him, but either way she did not reply. Sayuri had already begun to leave, but Naruto quickly caught up to her.
"Hey teme, you didn't even say goodbye!"
The raven-haired girl rolled her eyes at the rambunctious shinobi. "Goodbye dead last." She said mockingly, before increasing her gait slightly to out pace the shorter blonde, yet, despite her efforts, he managed to keep up.
"Wanna get ramen?" Naruto's offer was innocent, but Sayuri stopped walking and narrowed her eyes at the boy.
"Are you trying to use me for a rebound?"
Naruto blinked rapidly, "No way! Who would want to take you out on a date!" Unlike Sakura, the disgust in Naruto's voice was pure and unhindered by a sense of courtesy.
"Plenty of people!" Sayuri snapped in irritation. Naruto shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.
"Would it kill you to be humble? Talk about an ego."
Sayrui felt her ears heat up in anger. 'Don't let this dolt get under your skin.' She thought to herself, taking a deep breath and letting out a huff of annoyance. "No, thanks Naruto. You can eat ramen by yourself." Sayuri finalized in an even tone as she began her walk back home.
"Suit yourself." Naruto laced his fingers behind his head and leisurely followed behind the boyish kunoichi.
"Stop following me, dunce!" Sayuri hissed after a few minutes of silence.
"Ichiraku's is this way, teme!" Naruto barked back, causing the girl to flinch.
"Oh." She uttered meekly. What felt like searing heat engulfed her cheeks. She was glad she was walking in front, so the boy could not see the visual representation of her embarrassment.
"Hey, your neck is turning red. You sick?"
Sayuri groaned mentally and began walking faster.
As the duo approached Ichiraku, Naruto began to speed up and overtake the kunoichi.
"Ramen, ramen, raaaamennnn~" The blonde sang as he raced towards the ramen stand. Sayuri started walking away from the stand and toward her home, when the smell of umami and hearty broth spilled out of the stand the moment Naruto lifted the covers leading into the stand. Her stomach let out a bellow, demanding sustenance. It was loud enough that Naruto leaned back from his bar stool in curiosity to peek through the covers to see the source of the growl. Noticing it was coming from his teammate, he let out a healthy chortle to Sayuri's obvious embarrassment.
Despite her pride, she walked into the stand and took a seat at the furthest end from Naruto, which wasn't very far as the stand consisted of six bar stools.
"Damn, you were acting all tsun-tsun about eating lunch with me, but here we are!" Naruto cackled at the kunoichi.
"Shut it, Naruto!" Sayuri growled at the boy. To her relief the female employee also sided with her.
"Don't annoy the other customers, Naruto!" Naruto gaped at the female employee defending the ebony haired girl.
"But, Ayame-nee, she-" Naruto cut himself off, understanding this was a lost battle, "Fine! I'll stop." He could not hide the sour expression from his face. However, the ramen girl smiled warmly at him.
"That's a good boy!" She leaned over the counter and whispered to the orange clad ninja, "I'll give you some extra toppings." Even though it was a whisper, Sayuri was able to hear it and watched as Naruto's expression flipped into a large grin.
"Now what can I get you sweetie?" Ayame swung over to the kunoichi with a notepad in hand. Sayuri's mouth twitched at the 'sweetie' designation but did not mention her dissatisfaction with it. Rather she quickly browsed the menu and made a decision.
"I'll have the tomato chicken ramen, please."
Naruto nodded in approval, "That's a good one'ttebayo."
"Anything else?"
"No, that will be it. Thank you very much." Sayuri politely responded. Ayame smiled.
"No, thank you dear customer. Naruto, you could learn a thing or two about manners from your friend here."
"We're not friends."
Ayame quirked an eyebrow at the synchronized response. "Oh, did I make a mistake?"
"We're rivals!" The blonde exclaimed proudly.
"We are teammates." Sayuri explained at the same time.
This just caused the ramen girl to giggle. "Whatever you say, you two." She took a step back and read the order to her father, the cook.
There was a moment of silence between the two genin, the only sound the delicate creation of broth and noodles from the chef and the dull 'thuck, thuck' sounds of Ayame's knife pressing against the chopping board while slicing vegetables.
"So, pretty good we finished so early. Gotta lot of time to train n'stuff." Naruto probed conversation with the generally mute Uchiha.
"Yea, it's not bad."
"Wish we would be able to do some stuff that would actually test our ninja skills though, ya'know?"
"I agree." The kunoichi prepped her chopsticks.
"… you, uh, you like tomatoes?" Naruto found it difficult to keep the conversation going, but he was a persistent fellow. "Cause, ya know, tomato ramen is good, but I don't see that many people pick it."
"Tomatoes are good." Sayuri replied simply.
"S'alright I suppose." Naruto commented with a prompt shrug.
"They're good." Sayuri sent a glare toward the boy, indicating this was not something to be argued.
A hush fell over the two, but it only lasted a moment as two bowels of ramen were placed down with a small 'clank', one in front of each ninja.
"Oh boy, thanks Ayame-nee, old man Teuchi!" Naruto's voice increased in volume, so the chef in the back could hear.
Sayuri also offered her thanks, and the two dug into their food. Weak conversation substituted with thick slurps and quiet chewing.
Even though Naruto had an extra bowl, the two shinobi finished at about the same time, and left the stand together. Naruto rubbing his stomach in content.
"Whooo that was good!" The boy stretched his upper limbs luxuriously.
Sayuri nodded, "Haven't been there in a while. It's excellent."
"Hehehe, you think so too eh, teme? We should all go there next time. Me, you, Sakura, and Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto pumped his fist in excitement.
"Well, if you could convince Sakura." The kunoichi pointed out the biggest issue with Naruto's plan, however the boy paid no mind.
"Ohhh so you'd come?!" The boy started beaming. Sayuri just rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I gotta go home and check out some scrolls, I'll catch ya later!" The blond waved at his teammate before he bolted away.
"Alright, Naruto, good luck with training." Sayuri gave a small wave back to the retreating ninja before she turned on her heels and headed home. Taking in a big breath of fresh Konoha air on her walk back, Sayuri found her self feeling strangely satisfied with her day so far, despite how little she had accomplished. With a small frown, she planned to make sure the training she did today would make her premature satisfaction earned.
Naruto returned home to pick up his scroll to deliver back to the library. Naruto found out there was a sequel to the tree walking scroll that was about walking on water, which thoroughly piqued Naruto's interest and he was in and out of the library in under ten minutes. He once again rushed to his favourite training ground and read the scroll in preparation.
"Three to four weeks to master?" Naruto scoffed at the time estimate. "We'll show this stupid scroll what-for, right boys?"
"That's right, datteybayo!" The declaration roared out from the fifty plus clones that littered the clearing.
"Let's go!" The rowdy group applied chakra to their soles and jumped onto the pond.
And all fifty plus exited the pond, shivering and clothes drenched from the cold water.
A/N Fem Sasuke is my new fetish.
Any comments, compliments, criticisms, or suggestions are appreciated.