Authors Note: We finally get to one of the most heavily abused training implements in almost all Naruto canon and fanfiction, shadow clones. I still haven't decided whether to nerf experience gain by 200% or 400% when using shadow clones to learn something. I already feel like he's becoming OP because keep in mind he's only 4 right now. Anyways enjoy the chapter.
Saiko came to get me before Minato came back home. I said my goodbyes to Kushina and left with Saiko. We traveled back to base but before she could begin my physical training I wanted to ask something.
"Saiko is it possible for me to get three techniques before we begin my training?" She relaxed out of her taijutsu stance before she answered me.
"That would entirely depend on what techniques you are asking for. If you're asking for more elemental techniques than sure but it'll be a maybe if you ask for anything else." That sounds fair enough.
"First off I was wondering whether I could get the mystical palm technique so that I have something that I can use to heal me or others when I'm on a mission. My only other healing technique is a village secret so I can't use it easily."
She seems to consider it for a while before nodding. "I'll get you a scroll on it. Teaching it would be a long… it would normally be a long process but it would be easier to just let you 'eat' the knowledge. What's next?" Yes, healing jutsu score.
"I want something that can improve my taijutsu."
She tilted her head at me. "You can do that by practicing it and growing up so you have a longer reach." Ah, that's not what I want.
"I meant something chakra related that could make me more deadly in close quarters combat. Right now it's a weakness and I don't like that. So since I'm really good at learning chakra related things I was wondering if there are any techniques that could give me an edge."
Saiko sat down on the floor and started rubbing her chin. She sat like that for a while before she spoke up again. "I think I know a technique that could help you there. It's a medical jutsu called chakra scalpels. It creates a small blade of chakra that doesn't need to cut the skin to cut the inside of a body. I do have to warn you that it is hard to use it fatally in battle but you could still cut your opponents muscles and tendons leaving them open for a fatal blow. Does that sound like something you want?" It sounds perfect actually and I nod. One last thing then.
"I don't know what it is called but I saw Kushina perform it and I would prefer a different type of clone than the water one." I frowned momentarily. "It's good for distractions but having a clone that is only operating on 10% of your capacity isn't the best thing every." Saiko nods knowingly.
"I get it you want an upgrade for it essentially. I don't see any problem with that but can you explain what Kushina's clone did when it popped. If you do I might be able to tell you what it was."
"Sure. It was just after the village wide announcement of our victory over Iwa and Minato being announce as the Yondaime Hokage. We went back to Kushina's house and a clone was holding Mito. When it handed her back to Kushina it popped into a cloud of smoke." She made a humming noise at that.
"I know which clone technique she was using then and I'm not sure if I should teach you it to be honest." I gave her my best puppy dog eyes and she snorted. "I told you those don't work on me brat." A kunai was lightly tossed my way and I managed to snag it out of the air by putting my finger in the key ring. Letting it spin around on my finger I gave a small smile at her.
She just continued on as though nothing had happened. "It's not that it's a hard technique it's more of the fact that it's a potentially dangerous one." I had to tilt my head to the side at that.
"Aren't all ninja techniques potentially dangerous? What makes this one more so than all the other ones?" I could feel the halfhearted glare through her mask.
"Don't be a wise ass and this one is more dangerous to the user and not your target like most other techniques. It creates clones by dividing your total chakra between however many clones you make. Say for example you made 4 clones. Each of you would receive a fourth of your total chakra. The upside to this is that if the clone is destroyed without using any techniques you get that chakra back as well as the memories of the clone itself." My eyes widened at that and my mind immediately went to the possible training benefits it could give me.
"See, that right there is why I don't know if I should teach you it. I know you'll try to use them to train but the problem with it is that you get all the experiences of a clone when it pops and that can create a lot of mental fatigue. On the other hand you never seem to get tired and your recently acquired perfect recall tells me your body should adapt to the strain. The key word being should in this case."
Silence settles between us as we both reflect on what Saiko just said. Finally I spoke up again. "If it helps me get stronger faster than I need it. My recent activities have put a lot of attention on me and sooner or later that will bite me on the butt. I can limit it to 15 minutes per clone and go from there. If my body doesn't adapt then I can quit and have a better clone technique but if it works then I'll have a better clone technique along with a training tool."
Saiko seems to consider it for a while before sighing heavily. "You're right but I want you to promise me to not push yourself with this." She stood up and put her hand on my shoulder. "I'm being very serious when I say you cannot try to ignore something if it comes up. If you need to take a break, take a break. If you need to stop then you've already broken or the ignored the first part and you need to stop immediately. So please promise me not to push yourself too hard when you do this."
"I promise I'll stop if I need to stop Saiko." Her hand briefly tightened on my shoulder and then she stepped back.
"Good. Now this is called the shadow clone technique and the hand sign for it is this." She made the hand sign and with a puff of smoke another Saiko was standing next to her. The clone pulled out a kunai and stabbed itself in the leg to disperse into smoke. "One more thing about the jutsu. The clone is easily damaged and dispersed as you just saw. Now you try it."
Alright, I made the required hand sign and then flowed my chakra like Saiko had done.
Ding!
Learned Shadow Clone Jutsu (B Rank Active(Varies)) LVL 1 – 0 %
This technique creates copies of the user that are corporeal instead of illusions. The user's chakra is evenly distributed among all the clones that are created giving each one a fraction of the user's overall power. The user receives memories from the clone when it disperses and each clone is able to use techniques and skills that the user knows.
Decreases casting time by 5%
The smoke cleared and I found myself staring at myself. I had never really just stared at any clones I created before and I found myself a little perturbed by how… cold my face seemed. It didn't help at all that I could feel the link between us and while I intuitively knew I could mentally command the clone it could also function semi-autonomously if it chose to do so.
"Good you have it. Now have it dismiss itself." I sent a mental command and the clone pulled out a kunai and jabbed it into its leg. I felt a stream of memories that were not mine and a phantom pain in my right leg before it went away. "How do you feel?" Saiko said cautiously. "Are there any problems?"
I had finished sorting the new memories and nothing felt different. "I'm good Saiko. No problems at all." It was an odd experience but nothing that I couldn't get used to.
"Alright then that's good. I'll be right back after I go get the scroll for the two techniques you wanted. Try not to get into trouble while I'm gone." With that said she flickered out of the room leaving me alone. Time to test this thing out for learning then.
"Shadow clones." I whispered out the name after performing the hand sign. Another puff of smoke signaled the arrival of two clones. I reckoned that with my high chakra regeneration and meditation increasing it even more 3 of me with around 8,000 chakra each was enough for now. We nodded to each other and the two clones went off to work on wind and water manipulation while I worked on more physical aspects. We worked on our separate things for about ten minutes before I decided to dismiss them. The flow of memories hit me but as I thought it wasn't as disorientating as the first time.
Checking my experience I couldn't help but frown. I didn't expect water manipulation to change much because it was kind of a high level but wind manipulation barely changed either. I had to expand the experience bar to even see the change and it was far less than if I had done it by myself. My confusion lasted only for a moment until a thought hit me. Shadow clones probably have a hidden modifier for learning. It seems like a negative one as well.
My disappointment at the potential experience gain being diminished was only momentary because while I wouldn't learn as fast as I would like I still could learn faster than before which is a good thing. It would also seem that my high chakra regeneration rate still applied for my shadow clones so they wouldn't be running out of chakra anytime soon if they stuck to lower level jutsu. I was distracted from my thoughts by Saiko reappearing and tossing me two scrolls.
"It's good I didn't find you laying on the ground unconscious when I got back. I would have banned you from using shadow clones after you woke up, but not before I set Kushina on you for being irresponsible." Her casual mention of setting beast mode Kushina on me made me blink before I thought yes to each pop up that had appeared when I touched the scrolls.
Ding!
Learned Chakra Scalpels( Active(60(48)/min)) LVL 1 – 0%
A blue glow of chakra surrounds your hands and a small blade is projected from your fingertips. This technique is primarily used in surgeries but can also be used in a more offensive capacity as well.
Decreases casting time by 5%
Learned Beginner Mystical Palms (A Rank Active(200(160)/min)) LVL 1 – 0%
This technique can be used to diagnosis and cure superficial wounds at this level. At higher levels user's can heal major wounds and later life threatening ones.
Heals yourself 10HP/min
Heals others superficial wounds.
Decreases casting time by 5%
This is exactly what I wanted although mystical palms highlighted how different my body is from normal people. I could have done without the reminder if I'm being honest. Saiko clearing her throat broke me from my thoughts and I looked over to where she was impatiently waiting. I gave a sheepish smile and created two clones who went to the sides of the room to start practicing. "Let's start then."
The night went well with my physical training as well as popping the shadow clones every 15 minutes and recreating them. I stopped briefly before it was time for my daily Angel Breath session to recover my chakra and then spent the next two hours to recover my chakra completely after I had used it twice.
Before I could leave to go to Kushina's house Saiko stopped me. "There is a mission that just came in that they want you to do. Go to the mission desk and I'll go tell Kushina that you have a mission." She left me and I went towards the mission desk.
Once I got there I found 3 other Root agents, 2 males and 1 female, waiting in front of the desk for the mission. I quickly stood next to them and waited for the briefing to begin.The agent behind the desk began to speak.
"This is a standard B rank mission for the extermination of a bandit camp close to the borders of Kusa. In addition the client has asked for the heads of all the bandits for killing his wife. While it would normally be ranked lower due to the recent conflict there are roves of rogue ninja in the area and as such the mission rank is increased. Try to avoid conflict with them and maintain standard operating procedures during the mission. Are there any questions? No, dismissed."
Ding! Task Received.
Exterminate the Bandits (B rank)
Find the bandit camp near Kusa and eliminate all hostiles.
Reward: 500xp, 8000ryo
We flickered out of the room and began our mission. We left Konoha through the North Gate in a diamond formation and began heading northwest towards Kusa. The journey wasn't entirely uneventful. They weren't kidding when they said that there was a roving rogue ninja problem in the area. Along the way I saw a multitude of low leveled genin with a sprinkling of chunin for variety. We had even run right over the camp of a genin without them even noticing which left me darkly amused.
Reaching the small hamlet which had given the mission we began to search the surrounding area for any signs of people living nearby. After half an hour Ni signaled that she had found something. Forming back up on Ni we followed a trail further into the woods for about 20 kilometers. It would seem that it was the correct trail as we found a large camp of about 30 people in a clearing. My senses told me that none of them had anymore chakra than a civilian.
First we took care of all the sentries that were posted around the camp. It showed an unusual amount of intelligence on their part for actually posting them. Almost none of the bandits I've run into so far had done so. I dropped behind my assigned sentry with nary a whisper and rammed my kunai into his skull. He twitched and started to fall but I caught him and lowered him gently to the ground so he wouldn't make a noise. A quick application of chakra strings saw the body float behind some nearby bushes hiding the body for now.
I repeated the process once more and then met back up with my squad mates. Usually this would be the part where we would unleash a terrifying display of elemental power that would tear the bandits to shreds. This time we would not because the client wanted the heads of the bandits. Why he would want them I have no clue and frankly don't care. All I care about is that this would make me work harder than I normally would.
The signal was given and we flickered next to our chosen target. The man had a brief moment to widen his eyes at my sudden appearance before my tanto took off his head. A man standing next to him seemed to be frozen in shock as the first man's head separated from his body. A fatal mistake he found out as my tanto once more lashed out.
A third man standing slightly farther away had begun to scramble for his weapon before one of my kunai took him in his throat. He hadn't even begun to fall before I flickered to my next target. It became almost repetitive in execution. Flicker next to hapless victim tanto strike to the neck maybe a kunai throw or two and then flicker away. An alarm was raised but it was far too late and they were far too weak to matter. It ended quickly enough as the last few of them started begging for mercy instead of trying to run or fight. We granted their request although not in the way they wanted and began the process of looting all the bodies along with the camp.
It was a pretty good haul with a decent amount of ryo, weapons and various other things that could be reused or sold. Then the process of collecting the heads of all 38 bandits came and we set them on a scroll which Ichi used to seal them all in. Finally there was the post battle clean up as we buried the bodies in the ground and cleaned off any blood on us. Finishing with the cleanup we ran back to the hamlet and knocked on the door of the client.
"Yes." A timid voice called out from inside the house. "Who is it?"
Ichi spoke up. "A group of ninja that took care of a problem for you. We have your requested items as well."
"Do you really? Hang on a moment." He sounded excited and I could hear thumps from within the cottage. The door opened and an older man with white hair and a missing right leg appeared. "You have them?" There was a slightly crazed gleam in his eyes when he said this.
Ichi merely presented the scroll to him. "They're in the scroll?" A nod. "Excellent." He paused for a moment. "Could you listen to a request of an old man?" A few hand signs were exchanged between us before Ichi answered.
"We will listen."
He smiled widely. "As you can see,' he gestured down at his leg, 'it's hard for me to move around like I used to. I would request that you mount the heads on spikes outside of the hamlet with a sign to warn off all further bandits. If you do we'll always go to you for all our bandit problems." Gruesome and not a little unsanitary. Still it would be an effective warning I suppose and left unspoken was the implication that he might give missions out to other villages instead if we don't do this. Another round of hand signs and we agreed. "You can leave after you're done. I've already paid for the job." With that we were dismissed and he went back inside his house.
We left the hamlet and went a little ways down the road. Once there San tapped his foot against the ground causing stone spears to stick up out of the ground. Unravelling the scroll and unsealing the heads we planted them on the earthen spikes although I used chakra strings so I wouldn't have to touch any of the heads. Then we made a simple sign warning of the dangers of resorting to banditry.
The mission complete we made to leave but were interrupted by the arrival of a red haired woman holding what seemed to be a small red haired child. The woman seemed to be unwell if her pale and sweaty skin was any indication. The fact that her breathing was labored hinted towards it as well. All of that could have been an act though as the Kusa headband and her vest told me that she was at least a chunin. My squad mates and I moved apart to avoid being taken out with one jutsu yet close enough to support each other.
There was silence as the five of us stared at each other and we communicated that we couldn't sense any other people near us through hand signs. Finally the woman spoke. "Would you please listen to my request?" More hand signs were exchanged before Ichi spoke.
"Make it fast." She nodded.
"My name is Kino Uzumaki." I couldn't help but have a brief hiccup in my mind when she said her name. Was she part of Kushina's clan? My thoughts were thankfully not translated to body motion. "As you can see I am now a Kusa chunin yet reasons forced me to leave the village." She paused. "I do not seek shelter from which ever village you are from yet I would ask that you take my daughter Karin. She is only a few weeks old and could yet grow up to be a loyal member of your village." Once she was finished speaking she knelt on the ground and bowed to us. Awaiting our answer.
Hand signs that I didn't know went between my three squad mates as they conversed. Ichi spoke up again. "Are you being pursued?"
Kino bit her lip before answering. "I'm not sure but I might be."
"What would you do afterwards if we took your daughter?"
Her eyes briefly glazed over as she looked down at the bundle. When she looked back up there was only steel in her gaze. "What needs to be done to keep her safe." There was a pause and then Ichi motioned me forward to take Karin. I sent a clone and I knelt in front of Kino arms out stretched for the baby. A look of pure relief was on her face as I knelt in front of her. The look changed to one of love and sadness as she brought Karin up to her face and kissed her brow.
"Never let anyone tell you I didn't love you my little angel. I pray that you find happiness in your life." She gave her another kiss and handed her over to me. Her gaze never wavered from Karin as she took out a kunai and stabbed it into her chest. Her eyes never left her even as they glazed over until she crumpled to the ground dead. Ichi was suddenly beside me and after quickly checking over Karin for any traps he sealed Kino's body in a scroll. "We need to leave now."
His voice snapped me out of my thoughts and the clone rushed over to hand off Karin to me. Then we were off at my maximum speed in the standard diamond formation. It hadn't been more than 2 hours before Ichi started signing.
Being followed.
How many?
Sense two. Confirm?
Confirmed.
Skill?
Jonin at least.
How proceed?
Yon hang back.
San support.
Ni take right.
I take left. Confirm?
Confirmed.
We stopped running as Ichi and Ni broke formation to run back towards the approaching enemy. San followed behind both of them but allowed them to pull further and further ahead. As for myself I stayed right where I was. I had no desire to battle a jonin today.
You know it is kind of funny but I've never actually seen two highly experienced ninja try to kill each other. The only other times I've been near the action I had to focus on my own battle but now I was at a 'safe' enough distance away to simply watch the fight. All it did was simply reaffirm my belief that I was simply outmatched as I was right now.
I couldn't even see them move as all five of them danced an intricate pattern of death. Metal clashed against metal, the forest burned as huge infernos spewed from their bodies, the earth groaned as it was split apart and shattered, and even the sky grew dark as clouds formed to rain lightning down upon the fighting. As suddenly and violently as the fighting had started it ended. I felt Ni's chakra flare and call me towards the battlefield.
I ran through the battlefield past the burning fires and to the epicenter of the fight. Ichi was on the ground being tended to by Ni for what looked like a series of cuts along his chest. San was in the process of shoving his dislocated arm back into the socket and with a grunt of pain and a pop it was back in. San looked over to me before he started speaking. "Put out the fires with your water jutsu." I nodded and awkwardly made a water clone to hold Karin while I did so. A few minutes later and all of the fires were out and Ichi was sitting up although he seemed to be having some difficulty moving.
"We need to get back to Konoha." Ichi stated as he pushed himself to his feet. He looked over at me. "Set the pace." I nodded and picked up Karin who had begun to fuss in my clone's arms. Going at my maximum speed we ran back to Konoha although along the way Karin had started to cry. Thankfully the walls of Konoha were in sight when she did so and nothing came of it.
We proceeded through the gate and back into the base where Ichi dropped me off at the medical portion of the base along with Karin. "Wait here until they're done and tell the doctors to do the full works." I nodded and went into the door. The room looked like something you would see in a modern day laboratory with vials everywhere and stressed people making notes on clipboards. One of them noticed me holding Karin standing in the doorway and motioned me over.
"What is it?" His tone of voice made him seem like he was annoyed.
"I was told to tell you to give the full works to one Karin Uzumaki. Also would you have something to feed her I think she's hungry?" She was also quite the screamer until Ichi had done something to dampen her voice.
"Uzumaki?" His voice had changed to an excited tone and he motioned to one of his aides. The aide returned with a bottle of milk which he gave to me. What do they just expect me to feed her? That's a lot of trust to give a 4 year old. "Bring her over here and hold onto her while I get some things." The doctor wandered off shouting at various people to bring him things and I sat down on the bed while Karin happily sucked on the bottle of milk.
He came back over after a few minutes of shouting. "Alright just hold her while I work." He uncovered Karins foot and his hand glowed green. I could see a bit of blood being drawn from her foot yet she didn't seem to notice anything and kept sucking on the bottle. The blood formed into a small sphere which he carefully set into a waiting vial which was taken away and set into a machine.
The next few hours progressed in a similar fashion with the doctor carefully monitoring every single thing that could possibly be done. They had even had a Yamanka come in and check for any implanted suggestions that would make her a sleeper agent. Nothing was found to suggest that she was anything other than a normal baby and she was given the all clear. For some reason I couldn't fathom no one seemed in a big hurry to actually take Karin away from me and when they were done clearing her I was just dismissed to go back to my room… with Karin.
Oh, well it's not like it was that much of a deal. She had gone to sleep sometime during the exams and was still sleeping when I got to my room and started writing my report. Once I was finished I left a clone with her and turned it in to the mission desk.
Ding! Task complete. Gained 500xp and 8,000ryo.
I got back to my room just in time to see Karin crying and my clone trying to comfort her like I had done for Mito. As soon as I entered the room and took her from my clone she stopped though. My eyes narrowed at that. That was odd and in the ninja world odd can mean bad things. Shrugging off my thoughts I let her play with my fingers as I sat on my bed. Not really sure why they gave me one but the thought was nice. That was how Saiko found me an hour later and I could almost see the cloud gather over her head at the sight of me.
"Brat, why do you have a baby?"
"Well when a mother and father-" I had to dodge several kunai aimed at my head.
"I'm going to kill Jiraiya. Now tell me the truth." I nodded and told her how my last mission had went. "That still doesn't explain why you still have her."
I shrug at that. "I don't know why either. No one tried to take her from me and just left me to deal with it. Am I supposed to take her to Kushina or something? She's an Uzumaki so I thought I should." She let out a long drawn out sigh.
"Alright stay here and let me go sort this out." As she left I heard her mutter. "What were those idiots thinking just leaving Shiro with a baby?" She flickered out of the room and I settled back in for a wait. A half hour later she came back and motioned me to follow.
"I found out what's going on. Apparently you are supposed to go see if Kushina wants to adopt Karin into her family and if that fails she will be sent to an orphanage." Oh, no chance of the second thing happening then. It still doesn't answer why I was left with her though so I asked about it.
She let out a grunt. "It was something stupid about how you're connected to the Uzumaki clan so you should bear the responsibility until they know about Karin." That does sound kind of stupid. We arrived at Kushina's house and knocked on the door. Karin started to fuss again as the door opened to reveal Kushina holding Mito. I could see her start at seeing a baby held in my arms.
"Shiro, why do you have a baby?" I started rocking Karin as her fussing increased.
"It's a long story can I tell you inside." She seemed to shake herself mental and then welcomed us in. We all went in and sat down on the couches while I told my story. At the end of it Kushina was looking down at Karin with hope in her eyes.
"Are they sure she's an Uzumaki?" I nod at that.
"They did the blood work and it came back positive for a member of the Uzumaki clan. I was apparently told to come here and offer you the chance to adopt Karin into your family." I saw her bite her lip and then look down at Mito.
"I would love nothing more than to adopt her right now but I can't without even letting Minato know about it. Could I hold her though?" I handed her over and she squirmed a bit in Kushina's arm while Mito looked on from Kushina's other arm. Red eyes met blue eyes as they both caught sight of each other and Karin settled down. Their impromptu stare off was interrupted by the door opening and Kushina getting a wide smile. With a twinkle in her eye she rose up from the couch to go greet Minato.
"Honey look I had another baby."
"What!?" Her laughter rang out from the doorway and that's when I knew that they were going to add a new addition to their household.
Name: Shiro
Age: 4 year - 0 months
Title: Rookie Root Shinobi
LVL: 14 - 8% to next LVL
HP: 710/710
Chakra: 23,593/23,593
Elemental Affinity: Water
STR: 80(88)
VIT: 71
END: 78
DEX: 94(103.4)
INT: 102(106)
WIS: 80(83.2)
LCK: 15
Points: 8
Money: 81,852
New Skills
Chakra Scalpels( Active(60(48)/min)) LVL 1 – 0%
A blue glow of chakra surrounds your hands and a small blade is projected from your fingertips. This technique is primarily used in surgeries but can also be used in a more offensive capacity as well.
Decreases casting time by 5%
Beginner Mystical Palms (A Rank Active(200(160)/min)) LVL 1 – 0%
This technique can be used to diagnosis and cure superficial wounds at this level. At higher levels user's can heal major wounds and later life threatening ones.
Heals yourself 10HP/min
Heals others superficial wounds.
Decreases casting time by 5%
Shadow Clone Jutsu (B Rank Active(Varies)) LVL 1 – 12 %
This technique creates copies of the user that are corporeal instead of illusions. The user's chakra is evenly distributed among all the clones that are created giving each one a fraction of the user's overall power. The user receives memories from the clone when it disperses and each clone is able to use techniques and skills that the user knows.
Decreases casting time by 5%