Shadow Clone Applications (2)

"...The original is actually covering for the weaker Shadow Clones." The two Anbu watching exchanged speechless looks. No matter how they looked at it, this situation seemed impossible to solve. "Then perhaps..." One of them had just begun to say something when he realized Kakashi was already acting.

He took out ninja tools and hurled them at the two clones. This time, Shuichi had carefully calculated his Shadow Clones' Chakra reserves. They had inherited the original body's reactions, enough to evade the attack.

Seeing that the ninja tools had no effect, Kakashi launched another jutsu. "Lightning Style: Earth Run!"

"BOOM!" When the clone saw the jutsu racing toward it, it immediately dispelled itself. It truly could not dodge the jutsu. But in this exchange of Chakra, Shuichi lost nothing; Kakashi had undoubtedly expended more.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Another Shadow Clone appeared, once more filling the gap.

"Long-range attacks can work, but they consume even more Chakra. What should he do?" Shuichi's response crushed the ideas that had just formed in the two Anbu's minds.

Next came Kakashi's painful stretch. Shuriken began striking his body. Their power was indeed limited, but the wounds they left were not shallow. Even a small amount of bleeding greatly affected his Combat Power.

Even when he wielded his blade against Shuichi, he had already fallen into a disadvantage. Shuichi's rhythm of punches and kicks appeared twice as fast as Kakashi's. Their exchange now was as different from the opening clash as heaven and earth.

Before long, seeing that Kakashi was already at the end of his strength, the two Shadow Clones stopped harassing him from behind. The three Shuichis attacked in unison from different directions.

"It's over, Kakashi." Kakashi's Short Sword was knocked from his hand and fell to the ground. After taking two heavy punches to the stomach, he was pinned to the ground by Shuichi.

"Damn it. Why didn't you use any other jutsu? I don't believe you don't know any Nature Transformation jutsu." Kakashi was somewhat unwilling to accept it.

Judging by Shuichi's condition after the battle, there had been no need to drag things out for so long. If he had used offensive jutsu midway through, Kakashi would have fallen much sooner.

"A ninja should achieve the greatest results at the smallest cost. If you use jutsu without restraint on the battlefield in the future, you'll be in danger if you unexpectedly encounter a second wave of enemies."

"Besides, although this was a fight where we gave it our all, we're still comrades from the same village. No matter what, there was never any killing intent." After saying that, Shuichi ignored Kakashi's reaction and formed the Reconciliation Seal.

When he saw Kakashi hesitating, he directly grabbed his hand and forcibly completed the Reconciliation Seal.

"Haha! What a splendid battle! Shuichi, your use of Shadow Clones truly astonishes me." Seeing that the battle had ended, the Third Hokage emerged with the Anbu.

"Kakashi, there's no need to be discouraged either. The gap between you isn't large. It's only that in this battle, you were far behind Shuichi in terms of intelligence. I believe you'll catch up soon enough." Although Kakashi had lost, the Third Hokage knew he was a genius with enormous potential and did not forget to comfort him.

"Lord Hokage, you came personally?" "Lord Hokage!" Both Shuichi and Kakashi were somewhat surprised. The Third Hokage had been observing their battle all along.

"You are both among the village's finest young people. When Shuichi told me about this duel, even this old man became curious. In truth, the trip was more than worthwhile." Sarutobi Hiruzen felt that Konoha had worthy successors.

"If I'm not mistaken, Shuichi, you designed this Shadow Clone tactic beforehand, didn't you?" It seemed the Third Hokage knew that the two Anbu beside him and Kakashi were all curious, so he proactively steered the conversation toward the earlier battle.

"Yes. Kakashi becoming a Chunin not long ago proves that his Combat Power is exceptional. Considering the physical disadvantages of our age, his fighting style must primarily rely on refined swordsmanship."

"Though we haven't fought often, he surely knew that if he wanted to deal with me, he had to bring out the power of both his jutsu and swordsmanship."

"After the opening, although the Body Flicker Technique I used wasn't particularly fast, it still revealed information to him. It would be difficult for his jutsu attacks to hit me directly, and he was at a disadvantage in stamina. He also had no idea what jutsu I had yet to use."

"So from the very beginning, his only path to defeating me was to close in with swordsmanship. Once that was clear, making the appropriate arrangements wasn't difficult." Shuichi explained his thinking to them.

"Then why did you still choose close combat first? Wouldn't it have been enough to start using jutsu right away?" Hearing this, Kakashi could not help asking.

"For one thing, both of us had plenty of stamina at the start. Your jutsu couldn't hit me, and my jutsu would likewise have had a hard time hitting you. It would only have wasted Chakra."

"Of course, the more important reason was that I knew the gap between us wasn't great. As long as I didn't make a mistake, there was no way you could defeat me in a short time. That gave me the leisure to arrange the Shadow Clone tactic." Shuichi said.

"If I'm not mistaken, your Shadow Clones don't just have this one fixed use, do they? You would make corresponding changes depending on the opponent." After hearing Shuichi's explanation, the Third Hokage voiced his guess.

"That's right. I'll consider how to use Shadow Clones depending on the opponent. In some situations, I may not use Shadow Clones at all. This is only one kind of tactic."

"This time, against Kakashi, it was because after exchanging blows with him at close range, I successfully gathered the information I wanted. Then I could establish the core of this tactic. The key was for the Shadow Clones to harass him while the original body provided cover." Shuichi revealed the most important point of his tactic.

"So that's how it is. Most people would have their Shadow Clones fight on the front line while their original body hid somewhere safe, thereby avoiding danger to their lives."

"But after testing and confirming that Kakashi could not quickly threaten you, you instead put your original body at the very front, while the Shadow Clones pulled as much of his attention as possible from the side, allowing your stamina advantage to show itself." The Third Hokage stated Shuichi's purpose.

By doing the opposite of what was expected, he prevented Kakashi from finding the flaw at once. By the time Kakashi tried every possible way to break the tactic, his stamina had already fallen completely into a disadvantage.

"That's right. However, no arrangement in this world is flawless. If Kakashi had immediately made up his mind to create a Shadow Clone with considerable Combat Power, then this tactic of mine might not have worked."

"But in that case, he would have consumed a great deal of Chakra as well, and I would have responded in another way. For example, I could also send out a Shadow Clone to interfere, while the original body hid behind and cast jutsu."

Of course, Shuichi did not mention that this tactic required absolute confidence in one's own ninja abilities. Once the three Shadow Clones failed to coordinate, its effectiveness would instead be greatly reduced.

The reason Shuichi had been able to defeat Kakashi so easily was also because his overall strength was slightly superior to Kakashi's, allowing him to pull off such astonishing three-in-one coordination.

Even if someone could create clones more easily like Naruto, with the original body at the front, it would already be good enough if the clones did not get in the way. Achieving the effect Shuichi did would be very difficult.