Having completed the enrollment procedures yesterday, Neji arrived at the Ninja Academy early this morning to attend the opening ceremony. There were roughly one hundred and sixty or seventy students in Neji's year, divided into four classes. Neji was assigned to Class One. Thanks to his outstanding entrance assessment results, he was undeniably a top student—though that was with him holding back. Otherwise, he would not have been merely a top student, but a monster.
The opening ceremony was just as tedious and boring as the rumors claimed. The Third Hokage stood on the podium, delivering a speech about the Will of Fire that had the surrounding students fired up. Neji, however, was growing sleepy and had to force himself to stay alert so he would not seem out of place. More than that, he did not want to leave a bad impression on the Third Hokage.
Because his chakra had been insufficient before, he had never practiced the Shadow Clone Technique, making it impossible for him to learn the Ninjutsu known in Naruto as the ultimate cheat technique. It seemed he would have to arrange time to study it once he got home. Otherwise, coming here in the blazing heat to listen to these meaningless speeches was truly awkward enough, and having to put on an expression that said he completely agreed with them was even more unbearable.
The first day of school passed amid Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's speech and the class introductions—plain and unadorned, tedious and flavorless!
It was worth mentioning that Rock Lee and Tenten had, as expected, also been assigned to Class One. Tenten naturally needed no explanation; her talent in every category was quite good. Rock Lee making it into Class One was indeed thought-provoking, but it had nothing to do with Neji, and he could not be bothered to look into it.
As soon as he returned home, Neji opened the Ninjutsu scroll his father had left him and found the Shadow Clone Technique. Shadow Clone was a B-rank Ninjutsu. In principle, only veteran Chunin or Jonin and above could practice it, but Neji possessed terrifying chakra control.
The hand seals for Shadow Clone were: Ox–Dog–Dragon–Rat–Dog–Boar–Snake–Tiger. There were eight seals in total, along with the chakra flow corresponding to each one. Even among B-rank Ninjutsu, this technique was considered relatively difficult to master.
Neji first familiarized himself with the hand signs for every seal, then slowly guided his chakra according to the corresponding flow paths. Finally, he shouted in an embarrassingly dramatic fashion, "Shadow Clone Technique!"
Then there was no then! Nothing appeared.
He was too slow to form a complete chakra flow, causing the Ninjutsu to fail! That was perfectly normal. Succeeding on the first try would have been abnormal.
After trying several times, Neji became familiar with the hand seals and their corresponding chakra flows. He sped up, coordinated the proper chakra flow, and once again shouted in an embarrassingly dramatic fashion, "Shadow Clone Technique!"
"Bang..." Accompanied by a cloud of smoke, another him appeared at his side. The Shadow Clone Technique had succeeded, and at the same time, half the chakra in his body was depleted.
Facing a Shadow Clone that looked exactly like himself was truly a strange feeling. The clone also possessed thoughts and an independent personality, and after dispersing, it could send its memories back to the original body. Such a setting was extremely unreasonable, yet it existed right before his eyes. No matter how many doubts Neji had, the principle that existence itself was reasonable stood before him, so he could only set aside his questions for now and seek opportunities to solve the mystery later.
While training, Neji had also established a unit of measurement for chakra, mischievously using "Ka" as the unit. Naturally, "1 Ka" here did not mean Kakashi's amount of chakra, but rather the amount required to cast a basic Clone Technique. At present, Neji had around 20 Ka of chakra, barely meeting the standard of a Genin.
To clarify, having 1 Ka of chakra did not mean one could definitely cast a Ninjutsu that consumed 1 Ka of chakra. On the contrary, if one had only 1 Ka of chakra and insisted on casting a 1 Ka Ninjutsu, then either the technique would fail and cause backlash, or it would succeed by force, draining all chakra from the body and resulting in death!
Generally speaking, having 5 Ka of chakra to cast a 1 Ka Ninjutsu was more suitable. With only 4 Ka, one needed to be a ninja with fairly strong chakra control to cast a 1 Ka Ninjutsu. With only 3 Ka, one needed exceptionally strong chakra control. As for having only 2 Ka or 1 Ka, only forbidden techniques or techniques that guaranteed death upon activation could be used. As the saying went, squeeze out every last bit of your potential, then go bravely to your death!
At present, Neji's limit was six Shadow Clones. Any more than that would require paying a certain price.
Leaving the Shadow Clone standing motionless nearby, Neji wanted to test how long it could remain. He recovered his chakra beside it, and before long, he had fully recovered, eaten dinner, and studied some basic knowledge. The Shadow Clone, which had likewise been studying basic knowledge nearby, dispersed with a bang after exhausting its chakra. A stream of memories suddenly appeared in Neji's mind. The newly gained memories were not particularly numerous, but the impact made Neji feel slightly dizzy. After resting briefly, he adapted.
It seemed that having transmigrated souls had strengthened both his soul and mind, improving his ability to withstand the impact of memories. However, because his chakra reserves were still low, a Shadow Clone with 10 Ka of chakra could remain for at most five hours—and that was only if it did not move or use Ninjutsu. Otherwise, it would last even less time.
Sigh! It looks like my plan to have Shadow Clones attend school for me is ruined for the time being. They can't last long enough! Neji silently thought.
He could only continue playing the role of an elementary school student himself, obediently listening to the teacher's lessons. The feeling was indescribably bittersweet.
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