Chapter 8: The Basic Three
Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of Kishimoto
"You want to know more about the Basic Three Ninjutsu we use?" asked Iruka in some disbelief that Naruto of all people would ask this.
A had been a day or two since 'that' incident but Naruto was already showing a lot more maturity in that short amount of time.
Iruka knew of Naruto's burden and also how his Chakra levels were higher than they should which meant his Chakra Control was horrible; not that he didn't try to correct it several times in the past.
The boy refused any kind of Chakra Control training since it was too 'boring' for him.
For Naruto to show interest and wanting to improve himself moved Iruka by a good margin as he called up information about the Basic Three Ninjutsus that Konoha Shinobi learn and use first. With a smile, Iruka asked Naruto, "First tell me what you know about the Basic Three so I can fill in the gaps."
Naruto agreed and started to speak saying, "The Basic Three are the most Basic Ninjutsu that a ninja can have and also covers the most vital areas that a ninjas need to be capable of doing. The Transformation Jutsu allows you to change your appearance and follows the creed of distraction. The Substitution Jutsu allows you to quickly escape from an attack using another object as cover and follows the creed of escape. Finally the Clone Jutsu allows you to make hollow copies of yourself with only the appearance and no form and follows the creed of deception."
Naruto basically repeated the lecture that Iruka gave him before when he asked about the Ninjutsu he should work on.
He felt some glee in the look of astonishment that Iruka was having right now.
Opening and closing his mouth several times in shock he let out, "Okay…you know a lot about them so why do you need me for?" with a sigh. There was really not much else he could teach Naruto if he knows all of this.
"I want to know more" Naruto stated bluntly, "I know what they do but how to use them is different. Plus I still don't know the use of the Clone Jutsu when the Shadow Clone Jutsu is way better."
Iruka sighed and rubbed his forehead, this was going to be a long lecture. But as a teacher, he was determined enough to explain to Naruto about the use of the Basic Three. It was actually surprising how many don't use them despite their advantages.
"Well…the greatest use of the Basic Three is that they don't use that much Chakra and require less control compared to other Jutsus" he explained, "Since all of them are E rank jutsus this is expected. While the Jutsus may be weak in many eyes, when used correctly they are as strong as higher ranked Jutsus and cost way less to use them. The Tranformation Jutsu is actually a toned down version of a Genjutsu that can cover any object's true appearance. Because it is limited to only yourself it counts as a Ninjutsu."
"I don't need to say how useful the Transformation Jutsu is considering how often you use it for pranks right?" Iruka asked.
Naruto laughed a little embarrassed at the praise though it wasn't really him praising him at the same time. It felt good for Iruka to acknowledge his abilities a bit.
"Anyway you can distract enemies with the Transformation Jutsu. A good example of this is actually your Sexy Jutsu (He doesn't know about the Harem Jutsu) which either causes males and females to be shocked in a different way" Iruka turned to Naruto and added, "Don't use the Jutsu in front of Kunoichis if you value your life."
Naruto nodded grimly remembering how those perverts who peeked were beaten to near death for their actions.
While Naruto peeked himself, it was for research to make the Sexy Jutsu.
"Next is the Substitution Jutsu which replaces yourself with another object quickly to avoid an attack and possible counter-attack in that moment" Iruka said, "This Jutsu is really useful to have though it uses more Chakra than the other two Jutsus. I don't have to say anything of how a person will react if they suddenly hit a log out of nowhere or in some cases dangerous objects."
Naruto thought about it and then spoke up asking, "What about other people?"
Iruka thought about it and said, "It is…possible but doing so is a lot harder and even more so with a person with a lot of Chakra."
"Then my Shadow Clones?" Naruto asked next. He bet the person hitting him would be even more shocked when he thought they hit a clone instead of him out of nowhere when they thought he was the real one.
"Maybe, I don't know since no one really tested it out" Iruka explained which was all that Naruto needed to know to experiment with using Substitution with Shadow Clones just like Transformation with Shadow Clones.
Then Naruto frowned thinking of the two Jutsus. Iruka said that the Substitution Jutsu took the most Chakra of the Basic Three but whenever he used the Transformation Jutsu, it took loads of Chakra to use.
"Ne, Iruka-sensei. Does the Transformation Jutsu use more Chakra than the Substitution Jutsu?" he asked to which Iruka answered, "No, it actually takes less Chakra than the Clone Jutsu."
It was then that Naruto figured something was wrong. He couldn't use the Clone Jutsu since his Chakra levels compared to his Chakra Control was too high. If the Transformation Jutsu took less Chakra than the Clone Jutsu of all thing then why could he use it and have it cost more?
"Then why does the Transformation Jutsu cost more to use to me than both the Substitution Jutsu and damn Clone Jutsu?" he asked his teacher.
"Hmm…perhaps you are not doing the Jutsu properly or you are doing something to make the Chakra Cost of the Jutsu to rise" Iruka answered and then prompting Naruto to use the Jutsu in front of him, "Try using he Jutsu and I'll and pick out what's different about it. Transform into me…and nothing else" he said with a blush on his face.
Naruto nodded, gathered Chakra and made the hand-seals and shouted, "Transformation Jutsu!"
Poof!
With a flash of smoke Naruto turned into a copy of Iruka who started to observe Naruto to see if there were any differences to him. However Iruka found none and was confused about this.
What about his movements then?
"Naruto, walk from one end of the room to the other" he instructed and Naruto shrugged before doing so. Iruka watched as a copy of himself did so and found that it was done perfectly without any desynchrony with Naruto and the illusion.
'Wait not desynchrony? No difference at all?' he thought before suddenly touching the person in front of him. The copy of himself flinched before saying, "What gives Iruka-sensei?!" but Iruka wasn't paying attention to Naruto right now.
Right now he was touching Naruto. As in he was touching the physical copy made by the Transformation Jutsu. This was not an illusion…this was real and solid. This was definitely not the Transformation Jutsu at all!
"Naruto…" Iruka looked at Naruto who just dispelled the Jutsu with some awe. There were a couple of jutsus whose ideas would become revolutionary but never actually became a thing due to the sheer impossibility of achieving it.
The True Transformation Jutsu which physically altered the body was one of them.
"Iruka-sesei…." Iruka looked down to see Naruto with a worried look as he asked, "Am I not supposed to do it like that? What am I doing wrong?"
Iruka quickly shook his head having a hard time understanding how to explain it to him…and later Hokage-sama about this. What was the reason for Naruto being capable of this while…too many failed. Iruka frowned at the one possibility he saw which was the Kyuubi.
"Naruto I want you to understand that you did nothing wrong" he said, "The Transformation you did not only created a shell but also made it physical."
Iruka took a moment to see Naruto gulp.
"Because of this the Transformation Jutsu you did was not an E rank jutsu but rather an A or even S rank jutsu which is one of the most prized thing that all Ninjas want to do. Literally turn into someone else at will."
"But it's just a Transformation! And it takes a tone of Chakra to do!" Naruto exclaimed not understanding fully on why his Transformation Jutsu was so different. He saw Iruka shake his head before saying, "Naruto. With this jutsu you will be capable of getting anywhere. Since you physically change and your Transformation isn't an illusion, it cannot be detected at all even by ANBU. Hell I won't be surprised if you manage to Transform into inanimate objects with this Jutsu like weapons."
Naruto gapped at the sheer possibility of the Jutsu. He had remembered using the Jutsu to turn into a potted plant that one time so he knew he could do that but for him to not get caught even by ANBU?
However things seemed to have side tracked and he wanted to get as much information as possible from Iruka about the Basic Three or in his case; The Not Transformation Jutsu, Substitution Jutsu and the Clone Jutsu.
"Iruka-sensei…can you explain more about the Clone Jutsu first?" he asked taking Iruka out of his musing.
Without thinking much about it which was really a calling to how good he was at teaching Iruka started to explain about the Clone Jutsu, "The Clone jutsu is another Ninjutsu that resembles a Genjutsu like the Transformation Jutsu. It creates a copy of yourself which can use basic motor functions like moving but they do not have an actual form. Due to this, it has a low Chakra cost in casting it but the most it can do are in the form of distractions since there are many ways in telling that they are fake."
"Such as?" Naruto asked.
"The first is that anything can pass through them like leaves or dust. The second is that they don't cast a Shadow on the ground since they're not real. And third is that they don't have weight so you won't see any footprints with the clones. Any experienced Ninja will know the difference one way or another like how the Inuzuki Clan can tell by smell or how the Hyuga Clan with their Byakugan which can see Chakra" Iruka explained which Naruto absorbed.
Now he was sure that the Shadow Clone Jutsu was way better.
From what he could tell with them, his Jutsu didn't have any of the weaknesses that the Clone Jutsu had…but they were actually solid and could get hit.
It would be great if he could use the Clone Jutsu…his Chakra Control was too bad for that. He could mix up Clones with Shadow Clones together to confuse people in thinking what was real and fake.
With that done asked the next thing he wanted in mind.
"Iruka-sensei is there any way on improving the use of a jutsu?" he asked.
Forgetting about the fact that Naruto could use a True Transformation Jutsu for a moment, Iruka immediately answered, "There are a couple of ways in fact. The first and easiest way is the speed in execution of the Jutsu as well as lowering the amount of Chakra needed for said Jutsu as well. Another way for some Jutsu is to make it less apparent that its being used like the smoke in Transforming or making a Clone. But the most key factor would be reducing the number of hand-seals needed for a Jutsu which at minimum would become seal-less."
Naruto nodded and with that, he had what he wanted to know about. Now he knew what he was going to train in at least for the Pre-Genin test that Kakashi would give them.
Quickly moving back to his personal training grounds, he saw that the Shadow Clones were still training hard and that it had been a few hours since he created them. Shouting loudly he said, "Right! New plan here, dispel first to give me all the experience you got!"
Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof!...
All of a sudden the moment the Clones dispel themselves from existence, his mind was bombarded with information and most importantly experiences that the clones had while they were created and training while he was with Iruka.
He learnt of some new methods of bringing his Chakra Control up with leaves and how to get more than one leaf to stick on him with the Clones.
His aim was adjusted slightly so that it was more accurate and that he could throw faster than before by a split second. And his Taijutsu had some adjustment so that his body's muscle memory was more suited to the Academy Style of Taijutsu than before.
While this made him happy; Naruto would be even more happy with the new training he would start and would be completed a number of Time Loops later.
"Let's do this!"
Checkpoint 2: Loop 28 End (Total Loops: 31)
A/N:
In many Fics, the Basic Three were heavily overlooked, hell even the Canon did despite that they were some of the most basic moves Konoha Shinobi had. And there is the difference between the Transformation Jutsu that Naruto uses and what the other Shinobi may or may not have used, at least according to a good deal of Fics.
Basically it comes to whether said Jutsu transforms the person physically or with an illusion.
The Transformation Jutsu is an E-rank Jutsu.
So there is a pretty good reason on why some people would think that it wouldn't be an physical changing Jutsu in the most literal sense and instead call it an illusion like the Clone Jutsu which is also classified as a Ninjustu but acts more like a Genjutsu.
Therefore I'm looking at it more as a Genjutsu low enough to be an Ninjutsu than anything else.
Aside from discrepancies, such a convenience Jutsu cannot exist for the lower ranks if it really did change someone's appearance physically to such an extent they could turn into objects so much smaller than they really were. If it did then the Jutsu should really be a lot higher ranked than a mere E-rank which Academy Students can do.
Really, there was a bloody movie with a guy who actually could Transform perfectly into another, but that's not Canon like almost all other Naruto movies.
Then there is the issue where apparently you could turn into inanimate objects, how does that work if that's actually physical changing and not an illusion? Lots and lots of problems there on how that works if it actually changes someone's physical appearance into an inanimate one.
Well apparently there are Jutsus that does change a being's appearance physically. The Beast Human Clone is one that Kiba and Akamaru uses, the Transformation the Monkey King Enma uses to turn into an Adamantine Staff is another.
But seriously, other than those examples, only Naruto used the Transformation Jutsu in a fight...ever. And that's against Zabuza and against Pein. Not much use but its meant to be used in infiltration and such...but so was Shadow Clones ironically.
But yeah, it changed your physical appearance and is easily taught to every Academy Student that manages to get to their last year.
Basically think about this, you have...66% of graduates from the Academy failing to be a true Genin and some even dropping out of the system but still retaining the ability to use Chakra (even if its a low amount) and the ability to Transform physically into anything you want.
Suddenly you decide to leave Konoha and become a civilian completely aways from all those ninjas but yet you still have the ability to use Chakra among those who don't know how to and were never taught to.
And they had no reason to suspect something was wrong.
I can literally think of a dozen ways this can turn out bad for Konoha and the other Shinobi Villages if the Transformation Jutsu actually did allow someone to transform physically instead of casting an illusion over oneself.
Seriously why would Jiraiya bother to peek if he could just Transform into a woman and enter the female side of the hot-spring just like that, one would presume a Sannin would have mastered such a thing no matter what.
But yeah, this became a rant...
But still, I think the Fanfics out there got it right in that the Transformation Jutsu simply cast an illusion over a person.
Too many problems if it didn't and that just makes Naruto a bit more unique if he managed to create one or accidentally use a higher version of the Transformation Jutsu that actually did physically Transform someone into another.