Ninjutsu and Chakra Control Training

They first went to the Hokage Building and picked up two D-rank missions.

One was weeding the vegetable fields east of the village—three mu of land. The three of them bent over for nearly two hours before they finished.

The second was helping the old man at the general store north of the village move goods. They ran back and forth from the unloading point to the warehouse more than a dozen times, leaving even Minato panting for breath.

Jiraiya sat beneath the shade of a tree and watched them work the entire time, occasionally offering a few comments.

"Minato, your center of gravity was leaning to the right when you carried those boxes!"

"Zhili, when you unloaded that just now, you used your waist instead of your arms!"

"Mirai... Mirai, you worked pretty fast. Keep it up!"

"Don't slack off! This is physical training! Do your best!"

Mirai silently finished carrying the crates, wiped away his sweat, and felt like he'd been subjected to workplace manipulation.

That afternoon, the missions were finally completed.

Jiraiya tossed the tools aside, dusted off his hands, and beckoned the three over. "Alright, alright, that's enough manual labor for today. Come over here—I've got something good to show you."

The three immediately perked up and hurried over.

Jiraiya took several scrolls from his robes, laid them out in a row on the grass, and nodded toward Minato.

"Minato, your chakra natures are lightning, wind, and fire. From the perspective of team coordination, I suggest you start with Wind Release. This is Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, and this is Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique. They're basic, but practical."

Minato's eyes lit up as he accepted the scrolls with both hands. "Thank you, Jiraiya-sensei!"

Jiraiya picked up the second scroll and handed it to Zhili. "Zhili, you have dual lightning and fire natures. But the Uchiha Clan has plenty of Fire Release techniques passed down through the family, so I won't show off before an expert.

"This is Lightning Release: Earth Walk. In close combat, it lets you conduct lightning chakra through the ground. It suits your fighting style."

Zhili accepted the scroll, opened it, read two lines, and nodded almost imperceptibly. "...Thank you."

"Mm! In the future, you can use Fire Release more often and coordinate with Minato's Wind Release. The results can be greater than one plus one."

"There are elemental counters between Ninjutsu, but there are also ways for them to complement each other. The key is using them flexibly."

Faced with Jiraiya's instruction, Minato and Zhili nodded together. "Yes!"

Mirai also glanced at the Ninjutsu in Zhili's hands. Lightning Release: Earth Walk wasn't anything particularly impressive.

It reminded him of the lightning-style Ninjutsu Kakashi had created in the original story—Chidori!

And its advanced versions, Lightning Cutter and Chidori Stream.

Combined with the Sharingan, their power was terrifying.

Mirai rubbed his chin. Perhaps he could find an opportunity to develop that set of lightning techniques and give them to Zhili?

The only problem was that he didn't have the Sharingan's absurd dynamic vision, so he was a little worried he wouldn't be able to control them.

While he was lost in thought, Jiraiya picked up the third scroll and waved it toward Mirai.

"As for you, Mirai, you have all five chakra natures. I honestly don't know what I should give you first. Practice this for now—Shadow Clone Jutsu. Although it's only B-rank, it should combine quite well with your Adamantine Sealing Chains."

Mirai snapped back to attention, his eyes lighting up.

He immediately took the scroll and opened it for a look.

It really was the Shadow Clone Jutsu!

This was good stuff. It might not be as absurd as the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu, but its backlash was much smaller too!

It was an excellent Ninjutsu for researching techniques, developing new jutsu, and slacking off.

Although he already knew Adamantine Sealing Chains and Sealing Jutsu, he had barely touched any proper Ninjutsu apart from the Three Body Technique. This technique was exactly what he needed to fill the gap.

"Thank you, Jiraiya-sensei!" He closed the scroll.

Jiraiya stood and brushed the grass clippings from himself. "No rush. Take your time practicing.

"Starting tomorrow, I'll set aside time every day to guide each of you individually. I've already spoken with the old man about missions. From now on, you'll take at most one D-rank mission a day."

The three kids each nodded and put their scrolls away.

Jiraiya then looked toward the three trees ahead of them, which were roughly the same height.

"Do you know what else you need, besides having enough chakra, if you want to release as much Ninjutsu as possible?"

Minato and Zhili looked thoughtful. Mirai followed Jiraiya's gaze, saw the three trees, and immediately understood.

Looks like Jiraiya-sensei is going to teach us tree climbing?

But he chose not to expose it and quietly waited for Jiraiya's instruction.

"Jiraiya-sensei," Minato said with a serious expression, "I think we also need sufficiently precise chakra control!"

Approval flashed through Jiraiya's eyes. "Minato, not bad. You're right."

"So besides practicing Ninjutsu and refining chakra, you also need to learn how to control chakra."

Zhili pondered for a moment. "Then how do we learn to control chakra?"

She recalled using the Great Fireball Technique. She really hadn't known how much chakra to put into it, so every time she poured in as much as possible, wasting quite a lot.

"Good question! I'll teach you your first chakra control lesson today: tree climbing!"

"Tree climbing?"

"That's right! But not normal tree climbing—like this!"

Jiraiya stood up and walked over to a tree.

Then, without pausing, he continued stepping upward along the tree.

The soles of his feet clung firmly to the trunk. His entire body was turned ninety degrees sideways as he walked up the straight trunk as though he were on level ground!

Even though Mirai had seen scenes in the original story where ninjas walked on straight tree trunks or stood on water, he still couldn't help crying out with Minato and the others.

"Jiraiya-sensei is amazing!"

"Hahahaha!" Jiraiya laughed heartily. "Start practicing the tree-climbing technique now! Attach chakra to the soles of your feet and control the amount and timing of your output!"

"Once you succeed, I'll teach you the second stage!"

"Yes!" After agreeing, the three kids eagerly walked over to their respective trees.

Mirai tried attaching chakra to the soles of his feet and immediately felt that something was different.

He stepped onto the trunk, and sure enough, his foot stuck firmly to it!

But if he wanted to lift it and take another step, he needed precise control. With one mistake, the adhesion beneath Mirai's foot vanished, and he fell from the tree.

Fortunately, his sense of balance was good. He didn't fall over and landed steadily on his feet.

This tree climbing seemed less simple than he'd imagined.

Mirai turned to glance at Minato Namikaze and Izumi Uchiha.

The two had made some progress, but they were about the same as him.

He understood now. Although Jiraiya-sensei hadn't said it, the difficulty of chakra control was inversely proportional to the amount of chakra one possessed.

The greater the amount, the harder it was to control!

In the original story, Sakura had reached the top on her first attempt at tree climbing and even felt smug about it. That kind of thing wasn't happening in their team.

Because both Minato and Zhili had quite a lot of chakra.

And as for himself, there was no need to mention it. After reconciling with the Nine-Tails, he could use the Nine-Tails' chakra whenever he wanted. By his estimate, he had at least several hundred Kakashis' worth of chakra.

What unit was a Kakashi? Naturally, it referred to the amount of chakra possessed by a mature Kakashi!

Never mind whether Kakashi had even been born yet—the unit for measuring chakra had to be the Kakashi!

Just as two and a half years absolutely had to equal one kun year!

Mirai thought about all sorts of nonsense as he continued practicing tree climbing.