When Poor, Tactical Infiltration; When Rich, Firepower Saturation!

"Intelligence?"

Uchiha Shingen pondered these two words.

Seeing this, Jiraiya did not play coy and continued, "Exactly, intelligence."

"Just now when you made your move, how much did you know about my intelligence?"

"What are my commonly used techniques? What is my combat style? Do I have any fatal flaws in battle?"

"If you had known I possessed the Earth Style: Earth Wall, and that the one outside was merely a Shadow Clone, would you have employed the same tactics?"

"You wouldn't have!"

Jiraiya shook his head.

Counting this time, Uchiha Shingen had attacked twice, both times using underhanded tactics that hid secondary moves within his techniques.

This was a man who had engraved tactics into his very instincts.

Once he obtained intelligence, the first thing his brain would do was figure out how to use it against his opponent.

"Given your personality, you would likely have set traps specifically targeting the Earth Style: Earth Wall and the Shadow Clone."

Uchiha Shingen did not respond; he followed Jiraiya's line of reasoning and soon realized that what Jiraiya said was indeed the truth.

If he had known the intelligence beforehand, he would never have adopted such a suicidal tactic!

Recalling the scene just now, Uchiha Shingen also felt a lingering fear.

If his opponent hadn't been Jiraiya, and this hadn't been a test but a real battle, he would have been dead the moment he was subdued.

While this suicidal tactic was efficient, the consequences of failure were fatal.

However, as his thoughts deepened, Uchiha Shingen also discovered something amiss.

Battles that required such deep thinking and extensive maneuvering to win usually occurred when both sides were evenly matched, or at least not when one side was being unilaterally crushed.

Once the gap in strength between two sides reached a certain point, the room for maneuvering would be compressed indefinitely until it became completely unbalanced.

Since that was the case...

"Then why shouldn't I seize complete control of the initiative before the battle even begins?!"

"It is difficult to weaken an opponent's strength in advance, but increasing one's own advantages is something that can be actively controlled."

"Tactical maneuvering is nowhere near as practical as overwhelming firepower!"

"If my Great Fireball were ten or a hundred times larger, even if an old geezer like Jiraiya hid underground, I could melt him along with it."

The term "old geezer" made Jiraiya's eyelid twitch violently, but he held his tongue.

He listened to Uchiha Shingen's words, nodding and then shaking his head.

"That is true in theory."

"If one's firepower output is strong enough, it can indeed compress the opponent's room for maneuvering to near zero."

"But humans are not Tailed Beasts after all; both our physical bodies and our Chakra reserves have limits. It is simply impossible to cast Ninjutsu without restriction."

"Countering moves with moves and engaging in Ninjutsu strategy is the proper path."

Uchiha Shingen nodded perfunctorily, but he was secretly overjoyed.

It was true that normal people had limits, but sorry, I have cheats.

Currently, Uchiha Shingen's Chakra was only at level four, roughly equivalent to the Chakra volume of a Special Jonin.

Compared to his overall combat power at the Jonin level, it was still a bit of a drag.

In this regard, one could only say that the Three-Tomoe Sharingan was still a bit too overpowered.

But as long as he signed in for long enough, he could raise his Chakra to a superhuman level relying solely on attribute points.

By then, no matter what tactics or special abilities you have, I will just focus on firepower coverage and saturation strikes, blasting everything in my line of sight to smithereens!

Thinking of this, Uchiha Shingen made his decision: he would raise the priority of his Chakra by one level.

Next would be the Sharingan and mastery of various elemental releases.

The former was the foundation of the Uchiha, and according to the clan head Fugaku, there was even the possibility of further evolution in the future.

The latter would ensure that under any circumstances, his ammunition would never run dry and his firepower would remain abundant.

Once these two were secured, the next step would be the "bullets" to deal with various opponents—that is, Ninjutsu of various attributes.

However, his top priority right now was still the Shadow Clone Technique!

After their brief exchange, Jiraiya already had a rough understanding of Uchiha Shingen's level.

To be honest, he was outstanding in every aspect.

Even compared to Minato, the gap was not that significant.

However, what truly made Minato exceptional was his inhumanly powerful nerve reflex speed, which was sufficient to perfectly master the Flying Thunder God.

Coupled with the Rasengan he developed himself, the combination of the two was enough to form a dimensionality-reduction strike against the vast majority of ninjas in the shinobi world.

In the following days.

Uchiha Shingen's life suddenly became busy.

During the day, he clocked in and slacked off as usual, discussing ideas for new books with Jiraiya, and as soon as he got off work, he would follow Jiraiya to the Forest of Death for secret special training.

For a disciple he valued, Jiraiya did not hold back anything.

From the application of Chakra to Fire Release, to Taijutsu, and even the combat experience accumulated over decades, he taught everything he knew.

Once he became serious, Uchiha Shingen was like a sponge, greedily absorbing every nutrient beneficial to himself.

Originally, he had only relied on his Kekkei Genkai to barely squeeze into the Jonin level of combat power, but in other aspects, he had shortcomings compared to conventional Jonin.

But after this period of cram-style teaching by Jiraiya, his shortcomings grew at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Although other abilities on his panel had not changed significantly for the time being, he had developed a new nature transformation of Chakra.

That was Earth Release.

A few days later.

Outside Konoha, in the sea of trees.

Uchiha Shingen finished a day of training, lay on his back on the ground, and gasped for air, feeling that every part of his body was in pain.

Although the results of the training were gratifying, it would be even better if he could skip the process and get the results directly.

"That hypothesis from before, I can try it now!"

Uchiha Shingen forced his tired body up, quickly formed hand seals with both hands, and shouted softly:

"Shadow Clone Technique!"

Poof!

Poof!

A burst of white smoke exploded beside Uchiha Shingen, and two Shadow Clones exactly like him stood on his left and right sides.

As a conventional ninjutsu for Jonin, the principle of the Shadow Clone Technique was not complicated.

Uchiha Shingen had not spent much effort to master it completely during this period.

However, it was only after he could maintain the Shadow Clones for a long time that he decided to test whether his hypothesis was feasible.

Uchiha Shingen turned his head to look at his two clones, nodded with satisfaction, and ordered:

"You are Little Left, you are responsible for practicing Taijutsu, and you are Little Right, you go practice Sword Leap Flame!"

"Understood~"

"Leave it to me!"

The two clones patted their chests and walked to an open space in the distance, immediately preparing to start training.

It really works?

Uchiha Shingen's eyes lit up. He had originally just treated it as a test, but he didn't expect the clones to be so obedient?!

Wouldn't he be able to return to his carefree days of clocking in and slacking off in the future?!

"Wait a minute!"

Shadow Clone Little Left stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Uchiha Shingen:

"Why are we the ones suffering and training, while you can sit back and relax and slack off happily?! I don't agree to this arrangement!"

"I don't agree either!"