If It Comes to That, It Will Be Tricky

At the same time, a wave of painful "memory" flooded into Hibari's mind, and a trace of almost imperceptible fatigue washed over his body.

"Looks like this one is a real Shadow Clone, nothing special about it..." the special Shadow Clone stroked his chin, saying thoughtfully.

"You bastard," Hibari glared at him, snapping, "you're clearly just retaliating for that 'stab' I gave you earlier, aren't you?"

The two Hibaris had basically figured out the mechanics of this mutation by now. They simply sat down under the shade of a tree and began to discuss it.

"As it stands, I'm an exception," the Shadow Clone spoke first, "basically an 'independent' second you."

"And as long as I've split you off, a second exception won't appear," Hibari nodded, continuing, "once my chakra recovers, I should be able to use the Shadow Clone Technique normally... Multiple Shadow Clone Technique should work too, though I haven't tried it yet."

"But it's still troublesome," the Shadow Clone's voice deepened, "when I'm not around, it's dangerous for you to use this technique; your chakra will hit rock bottom in an instant..."

"And there's no telling if things will change in the future," Hibari thought for a moment, "if only I could choose whether the first one I split off is you or a normal clone, that would be perfect."

"Hmm," the Shadow Clone replied, "but before that, it's not like there's no way to cope... or rather, to hide this flaw for the time being."

"Exactly," Hibari glanced at him and suddenly smiled, "you can recover your own energy, so you don't need me to maintain you.

As long as you don't waste all your chakra at once, you can exist indefinitely. In that case, I can use Shadow Clone and Multiple Shadow Clone as I please."

"Right. But there's a second method..." the Shadow Clone lowered his voice, "the Yin Seal."

Hibari had long wanted to swindle the Yin Seal technique from his grandmother Mito.

But grandmother Mito felt that since this technique acted upon one's own body, the risks were not small, so she didn't teach him directly, instead letting Tobirama make the call.

Once Tobirama felt Hibari was qualified to learn it, she would teach him.

It was much like the situation with the Shadow Clone just now. A ninja would slowly recover chakra over time, but there was a limit to this recovery. Everyone's constitution and age were different, and their chakra capacity varied, but there was always a ceiling.

Once the energy in the body was full, it would stop recovering.

However, the Yin Seal itself had no offensive power; its brilliance lay in opening a "warehouse" inside the body. This technique could create a sealing space within the body, specifically for hoarding chakra.

Of course, the size of the warehouse depended on the practitioner's ability; those with great strength naturally had an ocean of storage.

When a battle began and the seal was released, the previously stored chakra would pour into the body, maxing out one's stamina.

In the future, the one who would truly play this technique to its peak was Hibari's precious little sister, Tsunade, who was still running around all day with Hashirama.

Once little Tsunade grew up and came into her own, she would be able to perform Creation Rebirth by relying on the massive amount of chakra stored in the Yin Seal. The effect was simply incredible; for a short time, she would be like an immortal, which was quite overbearing.

Therefore, if Hibari could really get his hands on the Yin Seal, he could indeed bypass the current trouble with the Shadow Clone. For instance, in actual combat, he could call out the special clone first, then instantly release the Yin Seal to let his chakra recover rapidly.

This way, he wouldn't have to worry about the awkward situation of being drained and collapsing.

"The Yin Seal, huh..." Hibari smacked his lips, "I can't learn this technique right now, but it's certainly a good line of thought."

After saying this, he turned to look at the Shadow Clone and continued, "But all of that will have to be pondered later. For now, let's verify that final step."

The Shadow Clone nodded upon hearing this: "Right, let's do it."

Hibari had accidentally "created himself" using the Shadow Clone Technique, and while it was quite useful, there was one crucial point that had to be tested—could this Shadow Clone, which they guessed had mutated due to the influence of the Human-Human Fruit, be dispelled normally!

If it could be dispelled, then everything was fine; but if it couldn't, the trouble would be huge. Hibari might have to do it himself and "send himself away."

After all, the Shadow Clone looked no different from Hibari, but there had to be a clear distinction between master and subordinate. If the ninjutsu could be dispelled, naturally Hibari was the master; but if it couldn't... although Hibari felt the possibility was low, he still muttered to himself, could this bastard turn the tables? If it really came to that, it would be tricky.

Hibari glanced at the Shadow Clone, his gaze steady. He held up two fingers together and whispered: "Release!"

Before the sound had even faded, a soft "poof" was heard. The "self" that had been sitting right in front of him disappeared in the blink of an eye.

At the same time, a vast amount of chakra instantly surged back into Hibari's body, filling him to the brim. Hibari was delighted, the corners of his mouth curling upward.

"It seems that even if it really is a mutation caused by a 'Devil Fruit' ability from another world, it still can't escape the rules here." He laughed to himself, "At the end of the day, it's just a rather special clone technique."

Just as he finished speaking, the memory of the pain from the stab on his shoulder blade surged up, accompanied by a sense of fatigue.

"The side effect is still there, huh..." Hibari muttered with some resignation.

Although this "Creation of Self Technique" had many flaws, the benefits were obvious. First, as long as he was well-prepared, Hibari could turn any fight into a two-on-one, and no one could say he was cheating—after all, that was his own clone; if you're capable, go make one yourself?

Secondly, the special Shadow Clone could exist for a long time. As long as Hibari didn't actively dispel the technique, and the clone didn't waste all his chakra or get taken out by someone else, he wouldn't disappear.

This way, Hibari could have him do many things. For example, the two of them could study together and train together; wouldn't that be like taking a double-experience pill?

"But it's best not to talk about this mutation casually," Hibari pondered, "after all, it's not easy to explain..."

He paused and then muttered to himself, "Of course, I really do need to find a way to turn this uncontrollable thing into something controllable.

If I could really decide for myself when to use a normal Shadow Clone and when to use the 'Creation of Self Technique', that would be perfect."

Thinking of this, Hibari's eyes lit up, and he suddenly became excited: "If I open a separate path for this clone technique and develop it into a true 'Secret Technique: Self-Manifestation Style', wouldn't the current problems be solved?

But the name of the ninjutsu needs to sound cool, maybe something like 'Secret Technique: Self-Manifestation Style'..."

Hibari felt that although he couldn't communicate directly with the Devil Fruit ability in his body, he could guess most of it. This Shadow Clone Technique was like an irregular channel that allowed the fruit's ability to squeeze in and take effect.

The reason it was called irregular was that using it through the Shadow Clone Technique caused a lot of trouble.

But what if Hibari created a "formal path" specifically for it? In that case, wouldn't the Shadow Clone Technique be able to function freely?

This way, once the dedicated path was paved, the Devil Fruit ability in his body would likely no longer unreasonably squeeze into the path of the Shadow Clone. After all, that was good for no one, and Hibari was in a symbiotic relationship with it anyway; besides, Hibari was the rightful master.

"I never really thought about it before, but besides giving me some vitality and chakra, what else could this Human-Human Fruit be good for," Hibari stroked his chin and muttered in a low voice, "so I never really thought about it seriously.

Looking at it now, my golden finger... might have huge potential! Of course, I don't mean anything like the 'ability users can't swim' kind of pitfall, but I need to study this ability properly! At the very least, I have to make it listen to me!"

A Devil Fruit, if you don't put in the effort to develop it, is just an instinct.

Take Luffy from One Piece, for example; he struggled for many years before he got that Rubber-Rubber Fruit to be obedient, stretching when he wanted to and changing when he said so, instead of just flopping around and having his skin drag on the ground at every turn.

Hibari had always thought that since he was already a human, what kind of tricks could the Human-Human Fruit develop?

So he hadn't put his heart into it and just used it by instinct. But now, thinking back, there might really be some hidden benefits he hadn't seen.

By the time Hibari finished tidying up the room, pondered the Shadow Clone, and dealt with this whole series of events, the entire afternoon was almost over. The sun outside was beginning to sink.

"Time flies," Hibari glanced at the sky and smiled, "I can't believe I spent this long pondering a technique... let's call it a day."

Before his voice had even faded, he suddenly caught sight of a small head peeking out from behind the pine tree at the courtyard entrance, looking toward his side.

As soon as Hibari's gaze swept over, that small head "whooshed" back behind the tree.

Although it retracted quickly, Hibari recognized who it was at a glance.

"Tsunade!" he immediately raised his voice, "You little girl, you dare to come back?!"

As soon as he shouted, a dull thud came from behind the tree, as if someone had landed on their bottom.

Hibari couldn't help but chuckle. When little Tsunade saw him laughing, she hurriedly scrambled up using her hands and feet, patted the dust off her bottom, and ran toward him on her short legs, "thump, thump, thump."

"Brother Hibari!" she hugged Hibari's waist and looked up, asking, "What are you doing?"

"What am I doing?" Hibari put on a stern face, "Aren't I waiting to catch you? Tell me, what bad thing did you do today?"

Little Tsunade's eyes darted around, and she immediately put on an innocent face: "I didn't do anything bad... I've been with Great-Grandfather all day."

"It's precisely because you're with Hashirama that you dare to be so reckless!" Hibari glared at her, "You wouldn't have the guts otherwise! Confess!"

Usually, although little Tsunade was mischievous, she didn't have the nerve to swipe a million ryo from Hibari. Even when she had swiped three hundred ryo before, she had walked into the room openly to take it; Hibari had been sleeping in the room at the time and hadn't paid much attention when he felt her come in.

Unlike this time, she had actually learned to be bad from Hashirama, sneaking in to take it while he wasn't there.

Scolded by Hibari, little Tsunade pouted and said aggrievedly: "I was just listening to the Hokage..."

Before Hibari could continue his anger, she hurriedly took out a few banknotes from her small cloth pouch and handed them over sneakily: "These... these are what I secretly hid when Great-Grandfather wasn't looking! I was just thinking of coming back to return them to you..."

Hibari took them and glanced at them; they added up to less than one hundred thousand ryo. This amount of money wasn't even enough for Orochimaru to buy books once.