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The first year at the Ninja Academy.
It consisted mostly of learning basic theory and practical training to develop the body. Originally, it did not cover ninjutsu or genjutsu at all, and taijutsu training merely laid the groundwork. The children who could attend the Ninja Academy were all prospective ninja capable of molding chakra. In other words, children who could not mold chakra were weeded out during enrollment and had no chance of getting into the academy.
Only a small number of these children came from ninja families.
Before they ever entered the academy,
almost all of them had already successfully molded their own chakra and begun training under Chunin or even Jonin from their clans. They had also started learning their clans' secret techniques as soon as they molded chakra. According to conventional wisdom, these children would be better off training at home than at the academy. However, ever since the Second Hokage established the academy system, all children of the appropriate age from Konoha's ninja clans had been sent to the Ninja Academy at five or six years old. This included the children of the two great clans, the Uchiha and the Hyuga, not to mention those from smaller and mid-sized clans.
The children's training
naturally did not require too much attention from their academy teachers.
By convention, the Ninja Academy had practically only trained civilian ninja and a portion of the clan-born ninja who were not favored with resources and had fallen behind.
Their differing natural abilities
and different upbringings
directly resulted in a vastly different dynamic at the academy.
The most obvious difference was this:
while almost all the children from ninja families had molded chakra and started training in earnest, the civilian children who had just entered the academy could only begin by studying theory. Those with ninja parents had it easier. Even if their parents were only ordinary Chunin, they could quickly absorb and understand what they learned through simple exposure at home. The hardest cases were the civilian children with no foundation at all. Their first year was the most important. They had to understand the nature of a ninja and what chakra was. Most importantly, they had to learn how to mold chakra and how to use it once they had done so.
Of the three kinds of techniques used by ninja—
ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu—
taijutsu was naturally the easiest to pick up.
Until the children could properly understand what chakra was,
or, rather, until they could freely control and use the chakra inside their bodies,
they had to put off learning ninjutsu and genjutsu.
That included the Three Body Technique, the most basic of ninjutsu.
Naruto had only been at the academy for a little over a year, so there was no way he could have learned any ninjutsu or genjutsu as part of the curriculum. But that posed no difficulty for him. In this life, he was even more well-behaved and clever than in the original story. Iruka had always seen him as a cheerful, bright, intelligent, and levelheaded child.
At first, when Naruto asked Iruka one day during a break from the academy to teach him the Three Body Technique ahead of schedule, Iruka had hesitated a little. But then he considered Naruto's talent as a ninja, which was no less than that of the children from ninja families. (At this point, Naruto was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, a fact that should have been known to all the ninja in the village. But his identity as the orphan of the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, should only have been known to the Konoha High Command and the village's truly elite Jonin.)
Besides, the Three Body Technique was indeed the most basic of ninjutsu.
Teaching it to Naruto early did not seem like a particularly big problem.
After considering all this,
when Naruto asked him a second time,
Iruka went along with it and taught Naruto the Hand Seals for the Three Body Technique, along with a few basic pointers.
Then, just as in the original story, something strange happened.
The Transformation Technique and Substitution Technique—
Naruto had practically learned them as soon as he tried.
The only issue was how skilled he was at them.
But that was not important. With enough practice, Naruto was confident he could master the Transformation Technique and Substitution Technique even more perfectly.
But the Clone Technique was another matter entirely.
In the original story, Naruto had never managed to pass the graduation exam, even after several attempts. In this life, he still could not learn the technique properly. No, it was not a matter of learning it properly or not. He simply could not get the hang of it at all.
He was following Iruka's instructions to the letter.
Neither the Hand Seals nor the way he channeled his chakra
seemed to have any problems at all.
And yet, something still went wrong.
It had been a full three months since Iruka first taught him the Three Body Technique.
As for the Substitution Technique and Transformation Technique,
he had mastered both within a single day.
After that, he had only worked on improving his speed and efficiency.
But the Clone Technique—
he still could not use it properly.
This had thrown Naruto's training plan for the past few months completely off course. According to his original plan, he was supposed to spend the next while further strengthening his body and then see if he could wheedle one or two ninjutsu or genjutsu techniques out of Iruka ahead of time.
After all, Iruka was a Chunin. He might not know any A- or B-rank ninjutsu or genjutsu, but surely he knew at least one or two C-rank techniques.
But plans could not keep up with changes.
Getting stuck on the Clone Technique
had also brought out Naruto's stubborn streak.
He refused to believe he couldn't master the Clone Technique. Even if it seemed like a technique with no practical use, he believed that since the Three Body Technique was called the most basic ninjutsu for ninja, he ought to master it.
And today, his morning had been taken up by his usual taijutsu training.
In the afternoon,
after finishing lunch,
Naruto planned to practice the Three Body Technique.
He spent a little time reviewing the first two techniques, especially the Substitution Technique. (To Naruto, the Substitution Technique was the most practical of the Three Body techniques. It was useful for getting the timing and speed right, as well as creating the necessary distraction, and could still be used even in Kage Level battles.)
For the rest of the time,
Naruto focused his training on the Clone Technique.
"Clone Technique!"
"Poof!"
A burst of white smoke appeared out of nowhere.
When it cleared,
Naruto was left standing in the middle of the clearing.
Beside him lay two lumps of some unknown creature. They looked a tiny bit like Naruto, but were really just sprawled on the ground. They even seemed to twitch a little, making them look utterly disgusting and grotesque.
Naruto stared at the two strange lumps, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.
"Release!"
With a soft sigh,
Naruto formed the Hand Seals again and released the Clone Technique.
"Poof."
With a soft sound,
the two unidentifiable lumps disappeared.
"What exactly is going wrong?"
Naruto sat cross-legged on the ground.
He had failed for the Nth time today.
The order of the Hand Seals.
The way he channeled his chakra.
This was the most basic of ninjutsu, a very simple technique.
He had done everything in the right order.
So why wasn't it working?