Chapter 24: More Training Adjustments

Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of Kishimoto

Naruto was annoyed.

It wasn't unusual for him to be annoyed recently thanks to the multiple new things he had to deal with but this was pushing it.

He didn't even know what the hell happened to Tsunami in order for the Loop to end just like that. His Shadow Clones died too quickly for him to gain anything from it.

It could be another enemy Ninja using any of the arts, or pretty much anything including poison or a summon taking her down permanently.

It appeared as though that he needed to protect her and her currently sulking and emo son from death to pass this checkpoint. And he thought that things wouldn't get more complicated than it already was.

He was sure that his Team plus Tazuna and his family needed to live. What about the rest of the Country of Wave? Did they need to live in order to pass the checkpoint; even if they didn't Naruto with his morals would protect them no matter what. A ninja does not abandon people! Though that thought was ironic itself.

Naruto was half sure that Gato needed to be killed or something along those lines.

Even with a sizable amount of Ryo in his bank account (Which ALL ninjas obtain when becoming a Genin); he wasn't scrap for cash since 500K from all those D-ranks made him quite wealthy for a young Orphan.

And that was the amount of cash he made with the bare minimum payout D-rank missions!

'And Gato is sure to have a lot more at his base…wherever it is…or he did the smart thing and hidden all those account names and money away from here' Naruto thought leaning towards Gato taking the safe path no matter how arrogant he was in thinking he could take over a country.

Then there was Zabuza and Haku.

He wasn't sure whether they needed to live or die for him to pass onto the next checkpoint but it would be nice to have a sign.

CRACK!

Space ripped open again and another note fell to Naruto. He snatched it out of the air before the space in which the note came from repaired itself as if nothing happened there at all. Naruto read the note and almost snared.

Conditions for next checkpoint:

Good job in getting pass Zabuza the first time. Long story short you are up to the part where lots and lots of things can happen. First of all, someone from Tazuna and his family needs to survive of course since they will be the core of the country later on and are a constant you need to follow. Plus I doubt you would want innocent people to die either way.

As for everyone else…they're free game. Even your team is free game aside from you, well after a certain point that is. From this point, most of the restrictions will disappear.

In summary, make sure the family lives, maybe kill Gato for being a giant prick and survive in general.

I mean, how HARD is it to get this down especially considering how much experience you have. Best to not make dying a habit else you may find yourself in trouble when you can't come back from the dead at will.

Signed, An Observer.

Great. Fantastic. More people to protect. Not that he wasn't already but still.

But who from Tazuna's family did he need to protect. It could be Tazune, the old drunk. That would make sense since he's the one building the bridge to the village's hope.

Then there was Tsunami which didn't make much sense since she's a housewife. And finally there was Inari, the brat who he needed to snap the emo out of him.

Yeah…it was probably Tazuna but he would better protect the rest of his family equally as well.

'Hmm…Traps. Yeah, traps would be a solution since it could easily take care of those mercenaries that came the last loop and might stall whatever killed someone the last time as well' Naruto thought with a grin. Traps were after all his expertise over everything else.

Yes, and why stop at just the house. There was also the bridge to consider and if he could trap it well enough, he could also save those workers that Zabuza killed as well.

And the village as well. That place was truly a wreck with people with no spirit, buildings all but ruined and people either stealing from each other to survive or trying to protect the last of their lives by submitting completely to Gato and his goons.

He got the memories from his Shadow Clones shadowing Tazuna while Sakura 'guarded' him. At least she proved that she had a mean right hook and some mercy to children though giving just sweets weren't enough for a starving child.

Naruto supposed he could help there as well in a later Loop if he could. He needed to work things one at a time first.

Training was important to him and now that he had two Earth Jutsus plus three possible Advance Battle Chakra Techniques to work with his Shadow Clones; he was opened to a lot more types of training.

The first thing he wanted to do was master Chakra Compressing, Chakra Cycling and Chakra Folding for both the battle potential and extra Chakra Control it would give him.

But on the other hand mastering even one of those techniques would take month even with Shadow Clones helping him and he didn't want to waste Kakashi donating some Jutsus or techniques for him to use later on.

Looking over to the still sleeping Sensei, Naruto simply chuckled. Since he already had some Jutsus in the Earth element; it would be wise to move onto another element. At bare minimum he wanted to learn at least 2 Jutsus each in each nature affinity.

Plus the Body Flicker Jutsu. Sure Kakashi actually taught him how to use it, he wasn't very good at it due to Naruto often overpowering the Jutsu too much each time and ending up with too much speed and not enough reaction time to not hit a tree…or the ground.

The Body Flicker Jutsu was a very useful Jutsu to use in travelling and even in combat due to the high speeds you can gain due to it.

The only weakness is that you can only travel in a straight line and that it is hard to tell what is happening while you're moving.

Those two points made it easy for ninjas to die from attacks as they moved or just as they landed. Because of this, ninjas often cover their initial movements with a puff of smoke though this is useless against those who can tell where you are moving even with the speed boost.

Nonetheless; Naruto found the Jutsu highly useful…even if it would take a while for him to master it enough. He had a feeling he would master it the moment he gained any kind of mastery in those Battle Chakra Control exercises.

With a sigh Naruto decided it would best for him to run over the tactics he had developed using Shadow Clones again. He surely did not want to waste too much time with Kakashi working on it in contrast in adding more Jutsus to them.

'First there was Chakra Enhancement which was a rough and cruel version of Chakra Compression. To compare the two techniques, Chakra Enhancement would be a straight line increase along with how much Chakra I used while Chakra Compression would curve upwards rapidly' he thought.

"Let's see…with Chakra Compression my Shadow Clones gained more power and speed naturally but more on the power side."

And since they were Shadow Clones and did not suffer the physical consequences of overdoing it and instead popped and as a result, the power and speed of his Shadow Clones were actually a bit higher than his own using this thanks to this fact.

This was an advantage even if they get taken out in one hit and the Shadow Clone was certain to disappear after one attack using this method.

"With Chakra Cycling my Shadow Clones gain another boost in power and speed along with recovering any fatigue they gained."

Like with Chakra Compression, his Shadow Clones could go beyond what is normally possible for the real him except that almost immediately the Shadow Clones would pop as a result.

Chakra Cycling wasn't that useful for Shadow Clones aside from the minor boost since Shadow Clones needn't to recover at all.

"Last is Chakra Folding…which isn't that good aside from making my Ninjutsu better for larger attacks which I don't know any of" he sighed.

Chakra Folding helped with executing Jutsus with more power and speed but there was almost no use for Shadow Clones to use it.

With another sigh, Naruto wondered when he would be strong enough to not rely on others for protection.

The rest of the day went smoothly with Naruto taking advantage of the lessons that Kakashi taught him with him explaining the basic concepts of the Three Battle Chakra Control Exercises.

This time Sasuke would be prepared for the fight sooner than before…as long as he gets down Tree-Climbing a least.

No matter how quickly Sasuke may grow in such a situation where it was a matter of life and death, Naruto still had 2 years more training than him. He was really still catching up on some of the basics.

Though he suspected that if this Time Loop thing didn't happen than Naruto would've to depend on his ever growing Chakra Reserves that was picking up in growth due to puberty and his also ever growing Stamina to catch up.

"Hn. So if I master this then I'll get stronger?" Sasuke asked to which Naruto nodded and grinned, "Yep and with that you can probably get a good hold on Chakra Compression. I mean you would want a technique that allow you to do that right?"

Naruto pointed at the tree which had a large hole to the side of it causing it to tilt over to lean on another tree. Sasuke seeing the destruction immediately wanted to learn how to do it but couldn't despite Naruto's instructions which went back to Tree-Climbing.

"Looks like you have to learn Tree-Climbing first" Naruto sighed, he was hoping that Sasuke didn't need that extra Chakra Control for now but it seems he was wrong.

Sasuke looked strangely at Naruto and asked, "Hn?"

Naruto nodded and replied, "Yeah, the concept is that you use your Chakra to stick your body onto things" and with that he started walking up a tree vertically leaving Sasuke more or less shocked, "Any experience Genin would know how to do this along with Water-Walking. You can see how this is highly useful for any Shinobi to have right?"

"…."

Sasuke thought about it for a bit and then looked at Naruto with gleam in his eyes, "Hn. Tree-Climbing allows for three-dimensional fighting in the air. Water-Walking is the same over water."

"Correct~!"

Naruto leaped down off the tree and landed on the ground with his legs reinforced with Chakra to lessen the damage to them to almost nothing.

"Plus think of all the Jutsus you can later learn with better Chakra Control" Naruto added which only sweetened the deal. Kakashi-sensei wouldn't have much to teach Sasuke for the rest of the week when he was done with him.

"Now to achieve Tree-Climbing…"

With his explanation on the basic concept of Tree-Climbing done, Naruto was now using his Shadow Clones to wonder around the Country of Wave.

He didn't know why he didn't do this the first time round but now with the occasional Shadow Clone popping; he was getting a better gasp of what was happening around Wave.

And on another note, it seemed that Sasuke didn't need the motivation of death to fully engage him into training.

He was already driven by vengeance to Itachi to begin with and was only aided by the fact that he the dead-last, the dobe knew all of this before him.

Naruto couldn't help but to snort.

He had asked around in a Transformation before about what kind of training that was expected for a Genin under a Jonin-Sensei would learn and lo and belo; in the first month those Genin were expected to learn both Tree-Climbing and Water-Walking as a bare minimum before going off to C-rank missions.

'I have no bloody idea where Kakashi got the idea that Team 7 was ready for C-ranks even if he said it was only due to him waiting for me of all people to show he knew what he was doing' Naruto thought.

Kakashi was lazy as hell; everyone knew that.

But at the same time he would also willingly die for a comrade and that showed in the fact that everyone trusted him with their lives.

And it does help in the teaching department that Genin were supposed to research what they wanted to learn. When Naruto wanted better Taijutsu Kakashi did the most logical thing and placed him with the best Taijutsu teacher he could get; even if he wasn't directly teaching per say.

Even if Kakashi didn't want to teach them (He's the copy-nin with a Thousand Jutsus for crying out!), he still had connections to the other experts in the village.

The proof is that Kakashi would give them proper training if they asked…the right way that is. Demanding him anything doesn't work and he forces you to build up your basics.

Basics that Naruto lacked and was repaired and built up again immediately.

Shaking his head, Naruto walked to an area deeper in the forest where he knew he wasn't going to be disturbed for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow he needed to be back at Tazuna's place for Kakashi's revelation that Zabuza was not dead and then sticking it to Sakura again.

'Oh I enjoyed doing that more than I should' he thought. There was something about ripping someone he hated apart. At this point everything that made him have a crush on the girl disappeared.

He didn't need the attention of trying to pursue an impossible target anymore or her affections. Naruto wanted to spit at that last point. He was a fool and he knew it back then.

There was little time to set up everything so things would go the way he wanted in this and the following possible loops.

He was going to make sure that the country of Wave was protected from Gato and Zabuza.

He was going to trap the hell out of the places around the small village and possible paths to it.

And it was going to take a LOT of time and Shadow Clones and his materials to do so.

A week wasn't a lot of time considering his need of training.

Cue Kakashi waking up, his revelations and him ripping apart Sakura in front of everyone.

He did it so well that the girl was more to the brink of a sobbing mess than last time. No one really wanted to comment on his words since they were technically true but in somewhat extreme in how I worded it.

There were plenty of people more useless than Sakura; otherwise those who could not manage to graduate from the Academy into Genin.

Yeah, that really didn't make sense; for only 9 Genin to appear every year. Surely there were other methods that Konoha kept to maintain the number of their forces.

Naruto momentarily pondered where those failed graduates went.

It was pretty clear that since they failed they would go back to the Academy…but if that was the case and the number of graduates would make the graduating class much much bigger.

Yeah…he would need to ask and find out later…maybe to Hokage-jiji but that is waaaay to long away for him to remember properly to ask. Kakashi would be better.

It would take him another 2 days to properly move without a crutch and another 4 to fully recover.

And by then the battle with Zabuza and Haku on the bridge will happen again. Though this time he was going to be a lot more prepared; first was making sure those workers are safe this time round.

He would need to have extra care in trapping the bridge to allow those two to appear but at the same time do so that they fall easily to him and his traps.

With that line of thought Naruto knew it was impossible even with the help of Funjutsu to aid him. Zabuza was a Jonin and that meant he was good. Very good at what he did since he survived that long.

With a sigh, Naruto grabbed a stick from the ground and then started drawing a rough map of Wave.

The village or town was near the centre and there were several…no a LOT of rivers cutting through the country to make it seem more like several small islands with little space between each other.

Then there was the bridge to the west side of the country which was half complete meaning a good portion of the bridge was deeply guarded by the water from land attacks.

Doesn't change the fact that Gato has ships which can easily negate this small advantage.

And from what Naruto could see, Tazuna also lives near the West side of the country meaning his place is near the bridge.

This made it easier and more difficult to protect the place at the same time. Easier since he didn't need to spread out his traps and Shadow Clones too much. Difficult in that if the defence at the bridge failed; then Tazuna's home was next.

Anyway he needed several sets of parameters traps in order to protect both locations as well one around the village as well.

It was a good thing that he brought pretty much all of his tools with him on the mission. He had an entire scroll dedicated to his Fuinjutsu supplies and another in part for any traps he could make to use.

Now…the first thing he would do would be to trap the area around Tazuna's home…and make sure those traps didn't activate to anyone in Tazuna's family or his Team.

Later that afternoon when Naruto finally felt that he and his Shadow Clones had protected Tazuna's house well enough, he was back to training.

He had to explain it to everyone that anyone that was not part of Team 7 as well as Tazuna's family would explode into bits quite painfully in various manners fitting to anyone trying to trespass into a protected area.

It was quite simple to protect the house itself.

There were several triggers around the area in random locations as a safety and triggers at points in which someone could get into the house as well. Mainly the front door, the windows and the places leading to that open space out the house.

Now after that, things became difficult in that Naruto needed to key people into the traps so they won't accidentally activate on them instead of enemies. This was an Intermediate level Fuinjutsu skill at bare minimum with more checks and safeties the higher your skill in Fuinjutsu was.

Naruto himself was not actually at the Intermediate level of the Fuinjutsu art but he was able still use parts of the higher level but not at the same proficiency as others at that rank.

It was like being able to kick to being able to kick while in mid-air while dropping and spinning around.

Basically for this; those with a 'key' in this case a small slip of paper would be allowed into the house undisturbed.

For those who don't…pitfalls, flying weapons and explosions are what await them.

Now back to Naruto actually training…

"Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap" Naruto continued to sigh seeing his Shadow Clones pop one at a time as they fail to progress in Chakra Compression.

He simply did not have the proper control and experience with it to have a good enough mastery of it to not damage himself while using it.

His Chakra Control by his estimates would be around High Genin despite him mastering Tree-Climbing and Water-Walking as well as combining those activities with the Leaf Exercise.

Urgggh! It frustrated him greatly since any other Ninja would have at least Chunin level Chakra Control in any other situation. What was with his Chakra that was making it hard for him to control.

Simply Quantity wasn't the only issue here. He would need to inspect his Chakra later with some mediation…perhaps it has something to do with the Kyubi. Naruto shuddered thinking of what can of worms that would open if that thing was the issue.

However with the three Battle Chakra Control Exercises which also serves as Advance Chakra Control Exercises; Naruto was sure he would break into the Chunin level Chakra Control. It would help in quite a bit since frankly his reserves of Chakra alone was getting too big too quickly.

He was already at Low Elite Jonin levels worth of Chakra and by the end of this mission and some months later he was sure that would be bumped up to Kage level reserves.

"There's…something wrong with that thought."

Low Elite Jonin levels Chakra Reserves.

"If that's the case then I can I use so many Shadow Clones? Even Kakashi-sensei can't and he implied that he has roughly the same amount of Chakra as me…" Naruto muttered but then remembered the same lessen and what Kakashi explained to him and Sasuke.

Chakra supply, capacity and density.

He was equal in supply as Kakashi but what about Chakra Capacity and Density? Hmm…he would need to ask him when he wakes up. But…until then.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he cried creating another batch of 100 Shadow Clones to refine his Chakra using Chakra Compression bit by bit. After all, this was only step one in a long list of how to get stronger.

Plus Naruto would almost do anything to gain the control to properly use the Body Flicker Jutsu.

He was still overcharging the damn Jutsu to the point where he couldn't even tell where he was going to the point he didn't even have tunnel vision while using it!

His head and body were hard and strong but it doesn't mean he likes hitting them into trees or the ground!

After Kakashi woke up, the explanation of Zabuza being alive and Haku being a fake Hunter-nin and the oh-glorious rant at Sakura; Naruto and Kakashi were finally alone with Naruto's not so subtle hints to Sasuke to start training again.

With an eyebrow raised the conversion started with Kakashi, "Soooo…what was that about?"

Naruto shrugged, "Wanted to get that off my chest for a long time now. She's lucky I didn't actually attack her and that would just be messy to clean."

"Well you can't unless she turns traitor" Kakashi remained Naruto, "I don't want to need to take you down if you turn traitor because of that. Now what do you want to ask me? Don't think I didn't see you talk Sasuke to train."

"Yeah yeah" Naruto didn't bother to response properly and said with a no-nonsense tone, "I have two questions…and one statement to say to you. First is what happens to those who failed the second test for graduation? The second is why I can use more Shadow Clones than you when I should have roughly the same amount as you currently. The math doesn't add up."

"And the statement?" Kakashi inquired.

Naruto shrugged again, "I'm setting up traps. So far with my Shadow Clones, I got the house protected and such with pitfalls and other trigger traps."

"Oh and before I forget" Naruto took out a slip of paper and gave it to Kakashi, "This is the 'Key' so the traps don't activate on you."

Kakashi looked at the piece of paper seeing the uncoded seal matrix. From what he could tell (Kakashi was an Expert in Fuinjutsu. Fuinjutsu ranks from Basic, Beginner, Intermediate, Advance, Expert and Master) it was a basic Seal Matrix that was incomplete in his eyes.

A Fuinjutsu user of the appropriate rank to create 'Keys' for their Seals would be able to hide the process of the 'Key' but Naruto clearly didn't which meant he wasn't of the Intermediate Rank in Fuinjutsu.

But for a Genin at Naruto's age; hell for someone of Naruto's age to do this and connect them to so many different objects was nearly unheard of. Well…not really but those people who could had many tutors to help them unlike Naruto who worked this out alone.

Naturally the Uzumaki Clan were a part of those kinds of people who were able to do stuff that even a Fuinjutsu Master like Jiraiya look plain and common but could Naruto inherit that aspect as well? Was he more like an Uzumaki like his Mother? Though his Father was also a Fuinjutsu Master.

"Interesting…" Kakashi muttered looking Naruto straight in the eyes, "You do know that this is incomplete right?"

Naruto flinched at that since he really didn't like not finishing projects but this time he really didn't have a choice. In training other aspects of himself, he hadn't been using Fuinjutsu that often and his training in that area slacked a bit.

"I have the scrolls but I'm still learning how to connect stuff together to trigger. The 'Key' stuff is just something I read about and looked it up in the later volumes to use" Naruto explained nervously but then hardened his eyes, "Now answer my questions Sensei."

"Mare mare" Kakashi not even bothering to understand the change in attitude dismissed the subtle threat and said, "There are four choices, well fivve choices when someone fails the secondary Jonin-Sensei test."

He held out five fingers, "The first is naturally they get sent back to the Academy to retrain and try again later on. These people are usually those who have some potential but haven't actually trained much. Sakura would be one of them but…"

"The second are those who continue to become Independent Genin without a Jonin-sensei to train them. These people are those who have the skills necessary for a Ninja including knowing team-work but were screwed over by their team-mates and don't want to retake another year or don't want a Jonin-sensei for whatever reason."

This makes sense and Naruto at once point would've consider this to be a good option but…Kakashi was honestly a good teacher when he wants to be.

"Alternatively the third type of Genin comes from those who become apprentices under a Jonin who does not have a team. If not for the fact that Gai wanted a full team, Lee would've been an apprentice under him though I heard that Lee is all but an apprentice either way."

Naruto nodded and shuddered at the thought of more and more of those green…things. You could tolerate it but sooner or later it gets to you…like Neji who is extra withdrawn or TenTen who tries and fails to be the guiding hand of being 'normal'.

"The fourth type are those considered Genin in all but skill. These people have technically graduated and has gotten clearance as a Ninja to work on Shinobi related matters but are too weak physically for combat. These people are the administrators and other workers you see in the Hokage Tower. If not for the fact that Sakura honestly has potential for the team even if she's not showing it, I would've stuck her there immediately."

"And naturally the final type are those who really drop out of the program for whatever reason."

Naruto pondered on why some people would drop out but remembered the butchery mission even though Team 7 didn't do it. There are just some people not suited for a Shinobi life.

"And the fact that I can make more Shadow Clones than you?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi sighed, "That…there are several reasons I believe. The first is that you can simply use more Chakra than me at one time in a literal sense. The second is that of that you regenerate Chakra at a monstrous rate as well so Chakra Exhaustion may be a bit difficult for you unless you overdo it badly…and the third is that my Chakra is highly dense more than yours to the point it's a Bloodline of sorts. I can't use wide-scale Jutsus as well as other Ninjas but I can use smaller Jutsus that are more powerful. Either way my reserves are actually smaller than it should without it. So while I can probably use the same Jutsu as you, I cannot throw them left and right as I wish."

Hearing this answer, Naruto thanked his Sensei and left for training. Now that Kakashi told him of the flaw in his design which was there because of his lack of skill, Naruto decided to get back into Fuinjutsu.

If he cannot use simply himself even with his Shadow Clones to win the fight, then Fuinjutsu may tip the tides.

A/N:

The end of this chapter is my take on what happens to the other 66% of Academy Students that fail the second Jonin-sensei test and are sent back to the Academy to remedy classes.

How I see it is rather simple.

Genin are either under the guidance of a Jonin-sensei or not while they operate as a Ninja.

There are Genin who are part of a Genin team under a Jonin-sensei. These types of Genin have the best potential and warrants resources to be used to make them the possible next generation Jonins.

The entire Naruto cast are pretty much from this type of training with few exceptions which can or cannot be confirmed to Canon.

Next on the tiers of Genin are the ones under apprenticeships. Anko actually falls under this with Orchimaru. Noticed how there was no mention of said Snake Sannin having a Genin team?

These types of Genin are possibly the rarest types since the teacher, a Jonin is passing down their skills directly to the Genin, their successor.

Thirdly down the list are Genin without Jonin-senseis at all, namely Independent Genin.

These Genin are frankly good enough to be a Ninja but not good enough to have a personal Jonin-sensei to them to spare the resource nor spare the resource to turn them away from being a Ninja.

It takes resources of the Academy to train each one and Konoha be damned if they didn't want to use them as much as they could. Frankly these Genin are the types of be cannon fodder that are sent out to frankly fill out ranks, intimidate and die quickly to the enemy.

Not exactly nice to say but they are.

Finally there are the bottom Ninjas in the totem tree, quite literally. These are like Part 1 Sakura with more theoretical than practical for a Ninja but without the perfect Chakra Control and thus potential.

Think of that glasses girl in Part 2 who helped with decoding Jiraiya's final message. She isn't the type to be a combat Ninja but she could still use Chakra, be of use to the village.

Honestly in all definition, Ninjas in the Naruto world basically means those who use Chakra in one form or another.

Because of this, the definition of a Ninja went from strictly combat orientated to expand to also include Medical Ninjas, Tacticians, Interrogators and the likes. Its kinda strange to have all of these roles as ones who Ninjas nearly exclusively have instead of civilians but even civilians when trained properly can use Chakra and count as a Ninja...right?

Meh, what a Ninja is, is rather confusing so I rather not dwell on that.

Next part is for one reviewer really and that I was bored and that this A/N was kinda shortish without a rant.

Well I was going to talk about this next topic in another 2 chapters but since one reviewer 'kindly' told me that I somehow screwed up in most of what I wrote about Naruto's growth here in several points and that I was a fanboy for Sasuke for not making him pathetic compared to Naruto (well that was implied though more like frustration that he really wasn't with the time he had), bad writer and most of what I did for Naruto's growth were 'errors'.

Yeah not getting into that since I actually responded to his review with more kind words there than here frankly.

I might as well talk about Shadow Clone Training now rather than in 2 Chapters.

Basically the premise of this is that since Naruto's Shadow Clones can give him the experience that they had in the forms of memories when they dispel that he can learn things faster than normal.

And taking into account on how many Shadow Clones he can make...

You can really see how a collection of writers here using the same method can easily fall into the trap that using this training is what really made Naruto powerful and so quickly that they can use that as a plot point as well.

They basically see this kind of training as a method in which Naruto can get stronger quicker than his peers and make himself some sort of powerhouse in everything he does from there on.

I'm going to frankly say outright that Shadow Clone Training does not work like that!

Naruto will

Seriously Naruto only use the training twice. Once for his Wind Manipulation Training due to Akatsuki and that was only for cutting a leaf in two, cutting a waterfall in two and combining Wind Manipulation into the Rasangan. And the other for his Sage Training to sense Natural Chakra better and that was damn limited as well.

Both times he was in a dire need of time which he didn't have and both times strained him heavily in one form or another with lots and lots of stress.

So why do people think its a good idea to use this?

Frankly because its convenient to use (me guilty here as well).

What easier way to explain how Naruto grows faster in an area a writer wants him to? I mean the only other way is that Naruto is 'instinctively' good at gasping whatever he wants to learn or has a teacher that literally tells him what to do and it works.

Shadow Clone Training...is more impersonal and with a lot more effort frankly.

So I'm going to outline what I know of Shadow Clone Training and what its NOT suppose to be and errors that frankly make me cringe. Starting from what I believe to be wrong with how most people see it as.

Note this is not how I used Shadow Clone Training and more of my own opinion. Also edited due to plot holes~

1) Shadow Clones do NOT transfer physical effects onto the original

I don't even know where to start on this since its stupid to the point its almost self-explanatory. First of all, nowhere in Canon does it say that Shadow Clones doe that. Second, what happens if it did?

Naruto and a hundred of his Shadow Clones does one set of 100 push-ups. Bam! They dispel and then suddenly his body has to deal with him doing 10 000 push-ups in an instant! He would literally explode if that happened.

So yeah, no transferring things physical to the original. Too many problems there if Naruto gets the physical exhaustion along with the already strainous mental exhaustion.

2) A thousand nothing is still NOTHING! (Without proper instructions and guidance or dumb luck)

Just because Naruto can split himself into a thousand to train on something or learn something doesn't mean it takes a thousandth of the time to train in it. Frankly if Naruto doesn't know how to do something, he literally doesn't know how even with Shadow Clones.

Just like if he's capable of learning something in a year of training doesn't mean if he makes a thousand Shadow Clones to learn it, it takes a thousandth of the time to do so. Sure it may dramatically reduce the time he needs to learn something but the time difference in learning isn't exact in how much time he saves with this method.

For all we know, he can literally still take half a year or the same time with or without using Shadow Clones because he's doing the same mistake over and over again without knowing. Hell it might be cause of other factors like his body not being suited to something.

God knows that Naruto in his current size will never be as effective with Zabuza's sword than Kakashi.

Therefore there's no point in Naruto actually trying to push his learning there and somehow managing to match someone with a much better build in the art of giant sword swinging.

Basically for any training using Shadow Clones to be effective, Naruto needs a reference on what to do or someone to tell him how. There may or may not be other factors at play here as well.

I did this, Naruto did fine enough but without it, it would take way longer or Naruto would never get to it or just goes a different path from what was intended.

3) Did I mention the mental stress and somehow not mental aging?

So whenever Naruto makes a Shadow Clone and gains its memories, he has overlapping memories on two things happening in the same time. Multiple this with the more Shadow Clones he makes.

Does no one...really not notice that he's actually mentally aging faster than this?

One Shadow Clone lives for an hour, dispels and Naruto gains an extra hour in his life. He ages mentally an hour thanks to this and don't tell me how much more he does when he makes hundreds or thousands of them when training for days.

So yeah, the mental stress comes along with this and actually helps in some form with the training since it kinds blurs what happened all at once. While his head still gets shoved with the memories, he doesn't actually relive all of the hundreds or thousands of hours he did on one thing over and over again.

Basically I think this is a self-protection instinct from his brain...or from the Kyubi to make sure Naruto doesn't end up brain-dead. For that kind of training to work he needs to basically cut off the useless bits immediately and retain what he needs.

2-3 chapters after this one, I'll explain some more on this.

4) Once again, more training does not mean more skilled, just more Experienced

So Naruto has 2 years on Sasuke with Shadow Clone Training. How doe the former not kick the latter's ass by now some may ask? Well simple, Shadow Clone gives experience in all but not skill though may account for the latter.

Experience does not mean more skilled.

And in this case skilled can also refer to as creative in use.

A genius may be able to use any Jutsu perfectly with short training. Does not mean he's experienced in using it.

A veteran may use the same Jutsu for decades. While experienced does not mean he's skilled in using it compared to the genius who can make up new ways of doing things.

Therefore Experience does not equal Skilled/Creative.

But then you need to account for a person's body, their speed and power. Their reaction time and how they react and so on. So many factors that experience and skill gets blurred together with other stuff that gives a person a win.

Basically the point I'm making here is that even if Naruto can perfect everything he learns, there would be someone else with a hell of less hours on the same thing he learnt that can probably do something Naruto didn't think of.

Frankly its kinda lazy to think that Naruto can just use...anything more skilled and in more ways than anyone else because he used Shadow Clones to train and get all the experience he wants to in that area.

...

So yeah, that's it so far with my opinion on Shadow Clone Training. There's actually an explanation a short 2-3 chapters away where my interpretation goes off of what Canon states or rather doesn't state and I rather not spoil it yet.