Water Mirror Technique and Clone Technique

After refining his chakra for a while, Hui formed hand seals and created a clone. Looking at the clone before him, Hui thought with a surge of excitement.

"My clones naturally possess the ninjutsu I know. If I could create a clone of my opponent, wouldn't I also obtain a perfect copy? Is this the principle behind the Water Mirror Technique?"

For the first time, Hui felt the allure of theory. However, he was immediately stumped. The theory seemed sound, but actually creating a clone of an opponent presented too many insurmountable problems.

Forget it, he would tackle the problems one by one; first, he needed to solve how to acquire an opponent's chakra. But the problem was, there was no one in the house right now except for him and his father.

Just as he thought of this, a calico cat jumped onto the kitchen counter.

"Meow, Hui, you big meanie, you didn't call me for dinner. I want to eat grilled fish." The calico cat rubbed its head against Hui's arm.

He turned to look at the cat. That's right, ninja beasts have chakra too. He picked up the cat with both hands.

"Amber! Please, you must do me a favor. Once it's done, I'll grill three more fish for you, paired with my father's secret sauce, how about that?"

"Meow meow meow, your hands are oily, put me down!" After escaping from Hui's grasp, Amber's eyes lit up at the mention of the promised food.

"It's a deal, don't you dare go back on your word, meow."

Two and a half hours later. One human and one cat, hands and paws submerged in the same basin of water. From a distance, the scene looked indescribably bizarre.

"Meow, how much longer? It's almost 12 o'clock. This cat needs to sleep." Amber's complaint came once again.

"Almost there, almost there. I've already figured it out; this time it definitely won't fail."

"Meow meow, you've said that for the 17th time already. You've eaten through my entire stock of Military Ration Pills."

Just as Amber finished speaking, Hui brought his hands together and began to form seals.

"Clone Technique!" Hui shouted.

"Meow, don't be so loud, it's already late." Amber pulled its paws out of the water and was licking them, but when it looked up, it saw something that terrified it to the core.

A figure the size of Hui, resembling Amber, stood on its hind legs. Its eyes were devoid of any life, like a large taxidermied feline specimen.

Amber's fur stood on end, and it instantly bristled. A sharp, feline screech echoed throughout the room.

"Meow! What did you do with my chakra? What is this thing? My clone?"

Hui soothed Amber and turned to look at his "masterpiece."

After many attempts, he had roughly figured out the solution to some of the problems.

First, according to existing theory, to create a clone of an opponent, one must be able to control the opponent's chakra. Directly acquired chakra carries a very strong aggression, and even with Amber's cooperation, Hui still couldn't use it normally.

But this conclusion wasn't absolute; it was a matter of quantity. Hui could indeed control a very small amount of external chakra.

However, this tiny amount of chakra wasn't enough to support the release of a complete [Clone Technique]. But through experimentation, Hui found that if he used all the external chakra for the very first seal and then supplemented it with his own chakra for the subsequent ones, he obtained the lifeless "masterpiece" before him.

In other words, does the true [Water Mirror Technique] require the use of external chakra at a specific moment?

Hui immediately felt a headache coming on. How many more attempts would this take? Could he really develop it in one night?

At this moment, Chuanhe came out of his studio and asked, "What's wrong? Making such a racket in the middle of the night."

Then he saw the "standing Amber" in the room and was immediately surprised.

"Did you make this, Hui?" Chuanhe turned to look at Hui.

"Yes, I'm sorry, Father, I've disappointed you." Hui lowered his head and fell silent.

After a moment of silence, Chuanhe said, "It's quite good; you have far exceeded my expectations. I originally thought it would be impressive enough if you could just discover the similarities between the [Clone Technique] and the [Water Mirror Technique]. But now... well, let's not talk about that. How far have you researched?"

Hui, who had been feeling very dejected, immediately became excited again upon hearing his father's words and explained his findings.

"Meow, you two can chat all you want, but can you please dispel this thing first? I want to sleep! And Hui, don't forget my 5 fish."

Hui awkwardly dispelled the clone that neither he nor Amber could control.

He suddenly felt something was off, and just as he was about to argue with Amber, the cat saw the annoying thing finally disappear and strutted out of the room.

Seeing this, Hui had to give up; there were more important things now.

"Father, where is the problem with this technique?" Hui asked.

"The problem isn't with you. Because you haven't learned the solid-body clone technique, you have this question. The [Water Mirror Technique] is inherently developed based on the [Water Clone Technique]."

"To be able to achieve this level using the basic Clone Technique, you can be called a genius." Chuanhe's unreserved praise made Hui feel a bit embarrassed.

"So, Father, will you teach me the solid-body clone technique now?" Hui looked at his father with anticipation.

"No. It's not that I don't want to teach you, but the solid-body clone technique can cause mental damage; it is not suitable for you to learn right now." Chuanhe shook his head in refusal, but then he saw the look of disappointment in Hui's eyes.

Seeing that look, Chuanhe made a decision. He walked into his studio, took out a ninjutsu scroll, and handed it to Hui.

Under Hui's expectant gaze, Chuanhe said, "This is the [Shadow Clone Technique]. I know you are very smart, Hui, and you learn any technique quickly. But with this technique, you can only create one clone at the start."

"Yes! Father, I will definitely work hard!" Hui took the ninjutsu scroll and said solemnly.

"Alright, now I will briefly explain the release and usage of the Shadow Clone Technique to you."

Although it was already past 12 o'clock, neither of them felt sleepy as they exchanged knowledge about ninjutsu.

Chuanhe looked at the clock and said, "It's getting late, Hui. Let's stop here for today. After you wake up from your sleep, I will give you a lesson—a lesson about chakra."

"You thought about the development of the [Water Mirror Technique]; do you still think theoretical thinking is unimportant?"

"No, Father, I believe in you very much now," Hui said earnestly.

Through his father's explanation, even Hui, who had just started school, was inspired with quite a few ideas—something Iruka-sensei at school could not achieve.

The Uchiha clan had always looked down on his father for being a commoner. Every time Hui encountered clansmen making disparaging remarks, he would step up and teach them a lesson.

Hui didn't think there was anything wrong with his father being a commoner. Because of the existence of [Fire Style: Flame Explosion Technique] and the [Flame Explosion Talisman], he was a famous ninja throughout Konoha. Those ignorant clansmen didn't know where they got the nerve to gossip behind his back.

Lying in bed, Hui was unexpectedly suffering from insomnia. Thinking about the vastly different understanding of ninjutsu he had gained today, he was full of anticipation for tomorrow. Oh, perhaps it should be called today now.