"Just as you'd expect from a cheat-level jutsu—this thing works like a charm." After receiving the Shadow Clone's memories, Gu Qi exclaimed from the bottom of his heart.
Gu Qi regretted it a little. If he'd known Shadow Clones were this useful, he would've learned the jutsu sooner.
Still, it wasn't too late. Now that he understood how powerful Shadow Clones were, Gu Qi decided to make a new training plan.
After taking care of the three dogs' daily wash and feeding, Gu Qi returned to his desk to work out his new schedule.
After thinking it over for a while, Gu Qi realized there was a problem. At this stage, aside from studying and training in ninjutsu, there didn't seem to be anything else for his Shadow Clone to do.
Since that was the case, Gu Qi tossed his pen aside and went to bed.
The next morning, after washing up and having breakfast, he created a Shadow Clone.
"Stay home today and study and train. Got it?" Gu Qi said.
"Oh, got it."
Once he saw that the clone had received its orders, Gu Qi called over the three dogs and began another day of morning exercises.
By noon, Gu Qi dragged his exhausted body home, carrying the three utterly spent Ninja Dogs on his back.
To his speechless disbelief, the Shadow Clone was lounging about, drinking tea and eating snacks while studying its textbooks.
The sight made Gu Qi's blood boil.
He immediately dispelled the Shadow Clone. After receiving its infuriating memories, he went to eat lunch.
After a short nap, Gu Qi created another Shadow Clone and assigned it to study, then headed to the backyard to continue practicing the second stage of the Rasengan.
But as the days passed, Gu Qi grew despondent when he realized he was stuck on the second stage of the Rasengan and couldn't make any progress.
The discovery hit him hard.
After dinner, Gu Qi closed the Ninja Tool Shop for once and went out for a stroll.
He hadn't gone out in a long time because of his training. On top of that, he'd now hit a bottleneck while learning the Rasengan, which only made him more frustrated.
So today, Gu Qi took a rare break and went for a walk with the three little Ninja Dogs.
As he looked at the brightly lit streets, Gu Qi bought some tri-colored Dumplings from a dumpling shop and some snacks for the dogs, then wandered around at random.
As he walked, Gu Qi found himself at the gates of the Hyuga Clan once more.
"Uh!" Seeing the familiar gates, Gu Qi couldn't help feeling awkward. He hadn't realized he was getting further and further down the road to becoming a lolicon.
He looked around and, after confirming there were no familiar faces nearby, breathed a sigh of relief.
"Wait, I haven't done anything wrong. Why am I feeling guilty?" With that thought, Gu Qi stood up straight, ready to sneak away.
"G-Gu Qi, is that you?" Just as Gu Qi was about to leave, a voice called out to him.
"Huh? The little girl from the Hyuga Branch Family? What a coincidence! Ha, haha." Gu Qi laughed guiltily.
"G-Gu Qi, w-what are you doing here?" the girl asked shyly.
"Uh, I was just wandering around and ended up here. Here, here—let me treat you to some Dumplings."
Gu Qi handed her the Dumplings he'd bought earlier.
"Th-thank you." The girl took them and happily started eating.
"By the way, have the kids from the Hyuga Main Family been bullying you? If they have, tell me and I'll teach them a lesson."
Gu Qi had always had a bad habit. Whenever he met someone he liked or felt close to, he'd talk their ear off.
That habit had kept him single his entire life in his previous life.
After all, no girl liked finding that she couldn't get a word in while chatting with a guy.
Luckily, this little girl seemed very shy and didn't mind Gu Qi's chatter at all.
"Let me tell you, I've been practicing a really powerful ninjutsu lately. The Fourth Hokage created it. Once I've learned it, I'll show you!"
"Gu Qi, you're amazing. I wish I could be as amazing as you," the girl murmured softly.
But her voice was too quiet, and Gu Qi was talking nonstop, so he didn't hear her at all.
"It's getting late! I should head back. You should go home soon too, or your family will worry." Gu Qi stood up and waved goodbye to the little girl.
"Goodbye, Gu Qi," the girl said, shyly waving as she bid him farewell.
"I can't believe I forgot to ask her name again." As he walked along, Gu Qi suddenly berated himself.
But then Gu Qi decided it didn't really matter. What difference did her name make?
"Ah, I guess I'll have to wait for Kakashi to come back and ask him what he thinks." After once again running out of chakra without breaking the ball, Gu Qi lay on the ground with a sigh.
He'd already lost count of how many times he'd failed.
Ever since hitting this bottleneck, he'd made no progress at all for a whole half month.
"Yo, Gu Qi! Miss me again?" Just like always, Kakashi suddenly showed up whenever Gu Qi mentioned him.
"Yo, Kakashi, you're just in time." Gu Qi jumped in surprise, but when he saw it was Kakashi, he couldn't help smiling.
"Uh? Is this good news or bad news?" Seeing Gu Qi grin, Kakashi immediately grew wary and put some distance between them.
"Not bad news!" Gu Qi chuckled.
Kakashi sighed. "Then I guess it's not good news."
"Come on, it's about training." Gu Qi stopped teasing him.
"You should've said so! What is it? Need advice from the genius ninja Kakashi?" Kakashi asked with a smug grin.
"..."
Gu Qi thought it over. Never mind. He couldn't beat Kakashi, and besides, he needed his help.
Gu Qi took out a ball. "Here's the thing. I've finished the first stage of the Rasengan, but I'm stuck on the second, and I don't know why."
Gu Qi felt he'd done the second stage very well, but for some reason, the ball still wouldn't burst.
"Oh?" Kakashi was surprised. He hadn't expected Gu Qi to reach the second stage so quickly.
Kakashi lifted the patch over his left eye, revealing his Sharingan. "Show me what you're doing."
"Okay."
Gu Qi gripped the ball in both hands and began pouring chakra into it.
"Hm? So that's how you're doing it?" Kakashi hadn't expected Gu Qi to use both hands to overcome the difficulty of shaping chakra with one.
"Ah, I see."
Kakashi stopped Gu Qi, then covered his Sharingan again. "I know what the problem is."
"Really?" Gu Qi hadn't expected Kakashi to figure it out so quickly.
Kakashi nodded. "The problem is your chakra!"
"What do you mean?" Gu Qi asked, confused.
Kakashi explained, "You're actually doing very well. The main problem is that you don't have enough chakra to bring out the Rasengan's full power."
Gu Qi suddenly understood. No wonder the ball showed no sign of breaking, even when he poured all his chakra into it at once.
So the problem was that he didn't have enough chakra.
"Then what should I do?" Gu Qi asked, troubled.
Kakashi thought for a moment. "Go straight to the third stage and work on concentrating your chakra."
"Huh?"
Kakashi said, "What you need to do now is learn the jutsu, not chase after greater power. Once you've mastered it, you'll be able to unleash its full power when you're older and have enough chakra."
Gu Qi understood. He didn't actually need to bring out that much power yet.
After all, he was still too small, and if he could only use the jutsu once, it would be completely useless.
If he ran into an enemy and used up his ability to fight with a single Rasengan, what would be the point?
"I understand."
Since that was the case, Gu Qi ignored Kakashi and began training in the third stage.
Seeing this, Kakashi smiled and left without a sound.
The challenge of the third stage was to compress and concentrate the chakra while maintaining its rotation and power.
It was like an explosion: only when a large amount of energy was released suddenly in an enclosed space could it cause an explosion.
If the Rasengan couldn't be compressed into a very small sphere, the chakra would scatter in all directions, making it impossible to concentrate the force at one point and inflict the greatest damage.
There was nothing to use as a reference for this stage of training. Gu Qi would have to work hard and figure it out himself.
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