Orochimaru's Guidance (Part Two)

Shuichi knew that although the original story showed battles, training, and daily life, in reality, ninjas spent most of their time on missions—mostly traveling and gathering intelligence.

For instance, Genin like them would soon enter a busy period of taking missions after graduation.

That left even less time for training. If they exhausted too much stamina during missions, their training schedule would have to be pushed back further.

Those with average talent might take a long time just to learn a jutsu they had acquired, and there was no guarantee of how effective it would be. And if they unfortunately encountered a shinobi war, the chances of death were truly far too high.

After Orochimaru explained the key points of the Shadow Clone, Shuichi realized that Naruto's exclusive Cheat/System had been custom-made by his parents at the cost of their lives. No one else in the shinobi world could replicate it.

First, the tailed beast Fuinjutsu had to be advanced enough for the tailed beast's Chakra to continuously restore the Jinchuriki's stamina without leaking so much that they went berserk.

Second, only because the Jinchuriki's soul was integrated with the tailed beast could the mental shock caused by Shadow Clone losses be transferred onto the tailed beast.

So no matter how much Chakra someone had, they would not use Shadow Clones to accelerate their training.

For those without much Chakra, Shadow Clones could only be used for intelligence gathering and probing opponents in battle. Taking the main body's tolerance into account, they would only create one at a time.

"Hard work can change one's fate has become a joke." Shuichi realized that in reality, hard work could only help someone reach their limit a little faster. Which ninja with a strong will could not persist through massive amounts of training?

Taijutsu could still be trained, but the amount of time one could spend cultivating ninjutsu was basically fixed from birth—unless they drained their lifespan to squeeze out their potential.

The Ninja Academy's selection system was not flawed at all. Konoha possessed the foundations of the top clans from the Warring States era, and they were rarely wrong when judging a person's limits and potential for growth.

Luckily, I didn't transmigrate into someone already past graduation. Those transmigrators with system cheats would be even more likely to draw Konoha's attention if they became adults. After all, every ninja village would definitely be curious about something that could break the rules of common sense. Shuichi secretly counted himself fortunate.

"Teacher, you should have guessed what I wanted to ask next. It's about Nature Transformation and ninjutsu." Shuichi felt a little embarrassed, but his desire to learn ninjutsu was obvious.

"Heh heh. To be honest, I was a little surprised you didn't ask right away." Orochimaru knew this was a topic they were bound to discuss today.

As he spoke, he took out a palm-sized slip of paper from his Jonin Vest. "This is Chakra Paper. It can test every person's Chakra nature. Just inject your Chakra into it."

Taking the Chakra Paper, Shuichi was curious about what his own nature would be. Naturally, he hoped for as many as possible, so he could save plenty of time in the future.

After extracting his Chakra, he directly injected it into the paper. The paper quickly split into two halves. Then, the left half became completely soaked, while one part of the right half began to wrinkle and the other started to crumble.

"Wind, Water, Lightning, and Earth—you directly possess four natures? What excellent talent." As if unable to help himself, Orochimaru once again ran his tongue around his lips.

Shuichi was surprised as well, but he was still delighted. Although it was a little awkward to call himself an inheritor of the Will of Fire while being the only one without Fire Release, being able to cultivate four Nature Transformations directly meant he would have many methods available in the future.

"Looks like you're quite lucky. You can directly use all three ninjutsu your father left behind. My natures are Fire, Earth, and Wind. Among yours, Wind Release is the most prominent, followed by Water, Earth, and Lightning."

"Today, I'll teach you how to cultivate Wind and Earth Nature Transformations. As for Water and Lightning, you'll have to figure those out yourself later." After comparing it with his original plan, Orochimaru did not hesitate much.

Today, he had gained a deeper understanding of Shuichi. Teaching a genius like this only required imparting the knowledge and explaining a few key points. Letting them explore the rest themselves would improve them more than a teacher's detailed explanations.

Shuichi was still excited that he could finally learn ninjutsu, but after recalling the original story, he did have a few questions. So he did not rush to ask about Nature Transformation.

"Teacher, I have two more questions for you today. One is about the Substitution Technique. Is there a more practical version of it for battles between high-level ninjas?

"And I've seen many ninjas use the Body Flicker Technique to move. How should that jutsu be used in battle? Wouldn't someone who could cast the Body Flicker Technique repeatedly be extremely formidable?"

Orochimaru was quite surprised. Few children of this age noticed the details of battles between high-level ninjas, yet Shuichi always spotted them.

Orochimaru became even more satisfied with Shuichi. He did not mind postponing the ninjutsu lesson and instead began explaining in great detail.

"You're right. The Substitution Technique taught at the Ninja Academy is one basic form. Its purpose is to help students build a foundation. What it trains is the ability to imbue Chakra into other objects."

"In battles between Jonin, there is no distinction like the Ninja Academy's Clone Technique and Substitution Technique, because that distinction was specifically created for teaching."

"In actual combat, what we use can be called either an Attribute Clone or an Attribute Substitution."

"Take me as an example. I usually prefer to use an Earth Clone, which is also an Earth Substitution. The process involves channeling Chakra into earth I create while concealing my main body in advance."

"And I can also tell you how some powerful ninjas use this technique effectively. Take Teacher Sarutobi and me, for example. After forming hand signs and releasing a ninjutsu, we both like to immediately continue with the hand signs for an Earth Clone."

"When our ninjutsu attacks the enemy, it is difficult for them to notice that we have immediately followed up with the Earth Clone hand signs, because the ninjutsu blocks their view."

"Then, even if they want to counterattack, their attention is drawn by the ninjutsu, and what they see will be the Earth Clone we left behind. If they are deceived and truly close in to attack the Earth Clone, they will be walking into danger. Our real body will be nearby, ready to deliver a fatal blow."

Hearing this tactic, Shuichi immediately thought of the future battle between Orochimaru and the Third Hokage during the Konoha Crush Plan in the original story.

So they both liked to leave behind a clone right after releasing a visually conspicuous ninjutsu, using it to draw the opponent's attention.

At the same time, using an Earth Clone to deceive an opponent placed high demands on casting speed. The faster it was cast, the stronger the effect.

When the gap between two sides was obvious, the stronger side could defeat the weaker one at very little cost.

Just like Orochimaru against Mitarashi Anko—he used the gap in their ability to cast ninjutsu and defeated Anko, a Special Jonin, with just one Earth Clone. An ordinary Jonin would probably need a great deal of time to defeat Anko and could not do so as effortlessly as Orochimaru.

"So this is why the basics are so important. The gap between a ninja qualified to become a Kage and an ordinary Jonin is also widened through such small details.

"All these fundamental abilities can be traced back to the Chakra Refining Technique and the Three Basic Ninjutsu Techniques taught at the Ninja Academy." Shuichi realized that such a teaching system was indeed the crystallization of the shinobi world's wisdom over many years. It could not be underestimated.

Even experts at the Kage level would not dare claim perfection in these fundamentals. There was no strongest—only stronger.