This Kid Is Terrifying

This Kid Is Terrifying

"Let's try it on this tree..."

Rather than rashly sending out his shadow, Lin Ke chose a large tree not far away.

Once he had selected his target, the strange vision swiftly vanished. The tree's shadow on the ground bubbled a few times before going still.

"This feels incredibly strange."

He could clearly sense the shadow he had split off. He could even perceive it with his mind as though controlling a stand—

The next second, the thought of connecting to the shadow arose, and the tree's shadow abruptly rose from its two-dimensional plane, transforming into a three-dimensional black tree.

It was covered in profound darkness. The trunk, leaves, and shadow were exactly alike. Even when the wind blew, its leaves did not move. Many of its details seemed lightly pixelated, as if someone had taken a photograph of the tree's shadow and printed it into a three-dimensional model using pitch-black steel.

It looked rather terrifying this way.

It looked extremely similar to a real tree, but any normal person could tell at a glance that it definitely was not one. What kind of tree had no shadow and leaves that never moved?

"Whoosh!" Lin Ke threw a Shuriken. With a thud, it embedded itself in the shadow tree. The sound and depth of penetration seemed identical to striking a real tree.

This thing apparently could not move. Maybe that was because it came from a tree? He stepped forward and pulled out his Shuriken. The wound it had made in the shadow tree quickly closed up. Looking at the original tree, he saw no wound, which meant damage could not be transferred from the shadow to the original. He reached out and touched the shadow tree.

"It feels no different from an ordinary tree..."

"Can it turn back into a shadow?"

As soon as the thought formed in Lin Ke's mind, the shadow tree collapsed back into the ground from every direction. It looked as though it had instantly turned into countless masses of black water that fell after losing their support, returning to the shape of a shadow.

Yet it was still separate from the actual tree. More strangely, not only had its existence caused no noticeable drain, but even the entire process of turning from two dimensions into three, as well as healing the puncture wound, did not seem to consume anything.

"Just like a normal Shadow Clone, it took away half my chakra..."

Lin Ke frowned at the tree shadow, feeling that this technique still held many undiscovered mysteries. But—

"Time to eat." Lin Ke rubbed his stomach. The chakra being split evenly several times in a row by Shadow Clones had exhausted him, and he was starving again.

This was the perfect chance to test how long the shadow could exist separately from its original.

With that in mind, he dragged his tired body and joined Yuan Wei and Xia, who were diligently training their nature transformations, for ramen. He was too lazy to go home and cook. Just thinking about buying groceries on the way back, returning home to cook alone, eat alone, then wash the pots, bowls, and utensils alone...

Cooking itself was fine. Sometimes, making food he liked was even enjoyable. But washing pots, bowls, and utensils was nothing but tedious.

Yuan Wei and Xia had also exhausted themselves after releasing chakra all afternoon. None of the three wanted to talk on the way. As soon as they sat down at Ichiraku Ramen, Lin Ke noticed a familiar gaze fixed on his green vest.

Before he could see who was looking at him, he instinctively puffed out his chest and raised his head. Then he discovered it was Uzumaki Naruto.

The destined child's eyes were filled with shock as he stared at the vest, providing plenty of emotional satisfaction.

Thinking of how this peerless genius, two years younger than himself, had advanced so rapidly and would surely seize the Hokage seat one day, he inwardly thought, This kid is terrifying. He must not be allowed to live...

Well, Lin Ke had been providing Uzumaki Naruto's inner monologue the whole time. Then he raised a hand in greeting and began ordering food.

After the three of them slurped down their ramen and ate their fill, they each went home. He washed his dirty clothes and hung them out to dry, sorted and packed up the trash in his room so he could throw it out the next morning.

There was no entertainment left after that. For him, after a day of training or completing a mission, even if a hearty meal had restored much of his strength, the fatigue simply would not go away.

Thinking of fatigue made him focus on the original Shadow Clone Technique, which fed back exhaustion and memories. Who knew how Uzumaki Naruto endured dozens or even hundreds of times that fatigue? Lin Ke felt exhausted after just one day of hard training, so tired that when he got home, he wanted to do nothing but sleep.—He slept until the next day.

"It still hasn't dispersed." As soon as Lin Ke got up, he discovered that he could still faintly connect to the tree shadow he had split off. It had not dispersed after an entire night. Its endurance was rather frightening.

Even if it held half his chakra, half of his chakra was not much to begin with.

After casually eating some breakfast, he put on his still slightly damp vest and headed to the Seventh Training Ground. The tree shadow was still quietly waiting in its original spot, standing out sharply from the other shadows cast in different directions.

"Ugh, why is my chakra earth instead of fire..."

Lin Ke irritably tugged at his slightly damp turtleneck collar. Yesterday, he had been glad that the high collar had blocked the dust created by the Earth Dragon, but today, he hated the damp fabric clinging to his neck.

When fire-nature chakra was released, its outward manifestation was burning. If the output frequency was controlled properly, it was quite useful for drying clothes.

The outward manifestation of his earth chakra was breaking apart. Both the original Double Suicide Decapitation Technique and Earth Dragon Concealment Technique made use of earth-nature chakra's ability to break apart soil, allowing the user to hide underground.

Since the Training Grounds were not locked anyway, he simply took off his vest and seriously began studying the tree shadow he had split off.

Lin Ke made the tree shadow stand up again, then continuously damaged it.

Cutting, tearing, breaking...

Conclusion: when damaged, the tree shadow possessed a certain degree of recovery ability. When its body was cut apart, the detached fragments of black matter quickly dissipated and could not regenerate.

When more than sixty percent of it was destroyed, the tree shadow reverted to two dimensions and could not return to a three-dimensional state for a long time.

As for how long, he had no idea. No matter what he did now, he could not make the shadow stand up again.

The original tree was unaffected in any way. No matter what happened to the shadow, it seemed completely incapable of affecting the original, yet the original did not grow a new shadow either.

Since the tree shadow could not stand and could not move, Lin Ke simply dispelled the technique. The tree shadow immediately shrank back beneath the tree, and its missing portions quickly recovered under the sunlight.

It was as though nothing had happened.

According to the manga, any chakra a Shadow Clone had not used up should return once it was dispelled. Yet he could not sense his chakra returning at all. It had simply been consumed.

"There must be more to it than just this. Half my chakra, even if it isn't much..."

"Let's try splitting off an animal's shadow next."