Of the three Nature Transformations he had already mastered—Wind, Earth, and Water—his mastery of Wind and Earth was roughly equal, with Earth even being slightly better.
The highest-ranking ninjutsu Shuichi could use were the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique and Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld, both A-rank.
The Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique required extremely strong Chakra control. Since Shuichi had been training in that area ever since Ninja Academy, he had unexpectedly met the requirements to learn it when he became Orochimaru's student.
This A-rank ninjutsu, with moderate consumption and outstanding power, was one of Shuichi's main offensive techniques.
Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld, meanwhile, was the only A-rank elemental ninjutsu Shuichi had mastered. It required both decent Chakra Shape Transformation and Nature Transformation; neither needed to reach an extreme level, but it tested one's ability to combine them. Shuichi happened to meet the standard in both areas.
Of course, its power was still far behind Jiraiya's in the future. Jiraiya could cover an area as large as Manda's entire body, while Shuichi could only cover roughly the area of two snake heads.
This was related to his age. After all, he was only seven years old. No matter how gifted he was, he could not overcome the physical differences, because a child's meridians system could not compare to an adult's.
His current mastery of Shape Transformation was close to the level needed to train the Rasengan, but he was still a little short. Even if he reached that level in the next few years, he probably would not train it.
First, the Rasengan consumed an astonishing amount of Chakra, making it unsuitable for his fighting style.
Second was the limitation of his body's meridians system. The Rasengan required an extremely high Chakra output, putting great strain on his