Forbidden Techniques for Free

The patrol ninjas' footsteps gradually faded into the distance.

Naruto clung to the outer wall of the Hokage Building, glanced down at the paint bucket in his arms, then looked toward the direction Mizuki had left.

There really was something wrong.

What normal teacher would volunteer to lure patrol ninjas away for a student?

The more Mizuki helped, the more certain Naruto became that Cangyue had been right.

"Since you want me to go in, I'll go take a look."

Naruto climbed up the wall and soon reached a half-open window.

He poked his head inside and watched for a moment. Once he was sure the corridor was empty, he swung himself through.

The paint bucket swayed slightly as his feet touched the floor.

Naruto hurriedly reached out to steady it.

"That was close."

Leaving footprints on the floor before I've even found the Scroll of Seals would be way too obvious.

But on second thought, he had never intended to hide his identity tonight anyway.

Guess it wouldn't make much difference.

Carrying the paint bucket, Naruto followed the route Mizuki had given him.

The farther he went, the quieter his surroundings became.

The Hokage Building was not unguarded; the commotion Mizuki had caused had simply drawn most of the guards' attention.

Naruto used his wall-walking ability to slip past the remaining guards.

In the past, he would have had to rely on the Transformation Technique and pranks to draw attention away if he wanted to sneak in here.

Now things were different.

Walls, pillars, and even ceilings had all become paths he could walk on.

A squad of ninjas passed the far end of the corridor.

Naruto immediately concentrated chakra in the soles of his feet, ran up the wall onto the ceiling, and hung upside down behind a beam.

Only after the squad had left did he drop silently back to the floor.

Naruto looked down at his feet, unable to suppress his grin.

Dream Training really worked!

Before, he probably would have been caught the moment he climbed through the window.

A short while later, Naruto stopped in front of a closed wooden door.

He looked both ways, then took out the simple tools Mizuki had given him.

The lock was not complicated.

After just a few attempts, it gave a faint click.

Click.

Naruto pushed the wooden door open and immediately spotted the enormous scroll sitting in the center of the room.

The scroll stood taller than a person, securely bound with sealing bands, with several conspicuous characters written across its front.

The Scroll of Seals.

"It really is here."

Naruto did not rush to touch it. First, he set the paint bucket on the floor.

Cangyue had told him.

The more obvious, the better.

Naruto lifted the lid, loaded his brush with paint, and stood by the wall, sweeping his arm across it.

Soon, a huge spiral appeared on the wall.

Beside it were a steaming bowl of Ichiraku Ramen and a portrait of Naruto wearing goggles and grinning broadly.

When he finished, Naruto stepped back twice and carefully examined his work.

Still feels like something's missing.

If I only leave a portrait, what if someone pretends they can't figure it out?

Naruto dipped his brush in the paint again and wrote a line of enormous letters in the most conspicuous spot on the wall.

"Naruto Uzumaki is borrowing this scroll for one night. I'll return it tomorrow morning!"

He thought for a moment, then added another line underneath.

"Recommended by Teacher Mizuki!"

Now that's clear.

Naruto nodded in satisfaction.

If every scroll thief left their name like this, think how much trouble it would save Konoha's guards.

He put down the brush, wrapped both arms around the Scroll of Seals, and heaved it upward.

"So heavy!"

The scroll was even heavier than it looked.

It took Naruto some effort to get it onto his back.

Before leaving, he glanced back at the graffiti on the wall and decided pictures alone were not quite enough insurance.

So he took several prank stickers he had drawn himself from his pocket and stuck them all around the scroll stand.

Every sticker showed Naruto's face, with a thumbs-up beside it.

Only after finishing all that did he leave the room with the scroll on his back.

A few minutes later, two masked ANBU landed silently outside the door.

One examined the lock while the other pushed the door open and entered.

The moment they saw the wall, both fell silent.

A huge spiral.

Ichiraku Ramen.

Naruto's face.

And those two lines of writing, so large they might as well have been written on Hokage Rock.

The two ANBU had carried out plenty of missions in Konoha and dealt with numerous infiltrations.

But this was the first time they had seen someone steal a classified scroll and, instead of erasing the evidence, leave behind his name, his portrait, and even a clearly identified recommender.

"Is this... a provocation?"

One of them asked hesitantly.

The other stared at the wall for a few seconds.

"Doesn't look like it."

If it really was a provocation, it was far too childish.

If it was an attempt to frame someone, it was far too deliberate.

Naruto Uzumaki did indeed like pranks, and he had left similar graffiti on Hokage Rock.

But precisely because of that, there was no way he could be unaware that these things would lead everyone straight to him.

Besides, he had even left Mizuki's name.

"Report to Lord Hokage immediately."

"I'll track him."

As soon as the words fell, one ANBU vanished from the room.

The other crouched down to examine the footprints Naruto had left.

There were no signs of panic.

Nor were there any scuff marks from a hurried escape.

This did not look like a theft scene at all.

It looked more as though someone had openly come to pick something up.

Inside the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at the copy of the graffiti delivered by the ANBU, saying nothing for a long while.

The ANBU standing before his desk kept his head lowered, waiting for orders.

"Have you confirmed that this is Naruto's handwriting?"

"We've compared it with the graffiti he previously left on Hokage Rock. It's largely consistent."

Hiruzen Sarutobi picked up the copy.

"Naruto Uzumaki is borrowing this scroll for one night. I'll return it tomorrow morning."

Underneath, it also said that Mizuki had recommended it.

Hiruzen Sarutobi set the paper down, his brows knitting slightly.

He knew Naruto all too well.

The boy loved pranks and often broke school rules, but deep down, he had always yearned for the village's recognition.

An ordinary prank was one thing.

Stealing the Scroll of Seals was something else entirely.

No matter how much trouble Naruto caused, he would not cross that line for no reason.

Besides, he had written his name so large and even clearly specified when he would return it.

This wasn't theft.

It was more like a letter deliberately left for us to read.

"Where was Mizuki tonight?"

"He temporarily changed the nearby patrol routes, claiming he had spotted a suspicious individual."

The office fell silent.

The doubt in Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes gradually gave way to understanding.

Mizuki drew the patrols away.

Naruto took the scroll.

And Mizuki's name was left at the scene.

Whatever Naruto's reason for cooperating, there was clearly more to this incident than met the eye.

"Where is Naruto now?"

"He has entered the woods to the east."

The ANBU paused briefly.

"Should we recover the Scroll of Seals immediately?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi raised his hands and formed hand seals.

The crystal ball on his desk glimmered faintly, and an image of the woods gradually appeared.

Naruto was moving swiftly through the trees with the enormous scroll on his back.

Besides the scroll, he was also carrying a lunch box.

At the sight, the corner of Hiruzen Sarutobi's mouth twitched.

Stealing the village's most important forbidden technique scroll, and he still remembered to bring a late-night snack.

That absurd approach instinctively reminded him of another boy.

Kambara Sogetsu.

Naruto and Cangyue had been particularly close lately.

The blatantly obvious trail Naruto had left this time might not have been mere recklessness.

Hiruzen Sarutobi considered it for a moment, then gave his orders.

"Do not alert Naruto."

The ANBU raised his head.

"But the Scroll of Seals..."

"Seal off the surrounding area."

Hiruzen Sarutobi watched Naruto in the crystal ball.

"Unless there is a risk of the scroll leaving Konoha, remain hidden for now."

"I'd like to see who truly wants to take it."

The ANBU lowered his head in acknowledgment.

"Yes."

In the woods, Naruto had no idea that the Hokage was already watching him.

He found a clearing and set the Scroll of Seals heavily on the ground.

Thud!

Even the ground trembled slightly.

Naruto rolled his aching shoulders, then opened the meal Cangyue had prepared.

The aroma of fish soup immediately wafted out.

"Eat first, or study first?"

Naruto looked at the food, then at the Scroll of Seals.

After hesitating for a moment, he gritted his teeth and closed the lunch box.

"I'll learn the Shadow Clone first!"

Naruto undid the sealing bands and pulled the scroll open with all his strength.

Dense writing and technique formulas filled his vision.

After reading just a few lines, his head began to throb.

"What does any of this even mean?"

Naruto scratched his head and kept searching farther down.

Soon, a conspicuous ninjutsu name came into view.

Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.

"Found it!"

Naruto lay over the scroll, reading the training instructions word by word.

The Multiple Shadow Clone Technique was different from the ordinary Clone Technique.

Rather than intangible illusions, it created physical clones capable of fighting, thinking, and acting independently.

Once the clones dispersed, their experiences and memories would return to the original.

Naruto's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

It was just as Cangyue had said.

He immediately walked to the middle of the clearing and formed hand seals.

Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof!

Clouds of white smoke burst out one after another.

In the blink of an eye, the entire clearing was packed with Narutos.

On the branches.

Beside the rocks.

In the bushes.

Figures in orange jackets were everywhere.

They looked at one another.

After a brief silence, the woods erupted into an uproar.

"It worked!"

"I'm real!"

"You're stepping on my foot!"

"Who's sitting on my head?"

"Where's the late-night snack? Didn't someone say there'd be food?"

The original Naruto stood in the middle of the crowd, stunned at first, then threw back his head and laughed.

"This is the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"

Dozens of Narutos laughed along with him.

Their voices shook leaves loose from the nearby trees.

The ANBU hiding in the shadows raised a hand to his mask.

He had been ordered to watch Naruto and had expected to rescue him if the forbidden technique went out of control.

Instead, Naruto had created far more shadow clones than an ordinary ninja could withstand on his very first attempt.

That amount of chakra was simply absurd.

The ANBU soon discovered that something even more absurd was still to come.

Naruto jumped onto a rock and clapped his hands hard.

"Everyone, quiet!"

Dozens of shadow clones shut their mouths at once.

"Time to assign tasks!"

"Team one, keep practicing the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique and figure out the most stable way to distribute chakra!"

A group of Narutos immediately ran to the edge of the clearing.

"Team two, copy down the jutsu farther along!"

Another group of Narutos pulled paper and pens from their ninja tool pouches.

"Everyone else, split up and read the scroll. Each of you gets one section!"

"If you see a jutsu that suits me, tell the original right away!"

The shadow clones answered in a thunderous chorus.

"Got it!"

The next moment, dozens of Narutos swarmed the Scroll of Seals.

Some crouched to the left of the scroll.

Some lay to its right.

Some simply lifted a section of the scroll beside them and held it above their heads to read.

The once-quiet woods had become an incredibly noisy makeshift reading room in an instant.

"This part is sealing jutsu. Can anyone understand it?"

"Secret Wood Release techniques? Wood? That doesn't sound strong at all. Skip it."

"What kind of jutsu is this? Why does someone die after using it?"

"Idiot, we can't just practice anything. Copy it down first!"

"We're out of paper!"

"Use the back of the map Teacher Mizuki gave us!"

The hidden observer fell utterly silent.

An ordinary ninja learning a forbidden technique often needed to study it repeatedly and experiment, sometimes spending months mastering it.

Naruto, however, took advantage of his sheer number of shadow clones to divide up the entire Scroll of Seals for study.

Most absurd of all, the original wasn't even reading.

He sat on the rock, opened his lunch box, and took a sip of fish soup.

"Delicious!"

The shadow clones beside him immediately crowded closer.

"Why does only the original get to eat?"

"Yeah! We're working too!"

"Go read!"

The original Naruto shielded his lunch box.

"Once you disperse, you'll know what it tastes like anyway!"

The shadow clones froze.

That seemed to make a lot of sense.

Yet something about it still felt wrong.

In the end, a few shadow clones assigned to keep watch managed to snatch half a fish from the original.

In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi watched the scene through his crystal ball, his pipe lingering in his hand without reaching his lips.

He wasn't surprised that Naruto had learned the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.

With that child's chakra reserves, this forbidden technique suited him better than the ordinary Clone Technique in the first place.

What truly left Hiruzen Sarutobi silent was the way Naruto used his shadow clones.

Reading separately.

Taking notes separately.

Then dispersing and gathering all their experience back into the original.

The method wasn't complicated.

Nor was it unheard of in Konoha.

The problem was that ordinary ninja simply couldn't withstand that kind of drain.

Shadow clones divided chakra equally, and the more one created, the greater the danger.

Even among Jonin, few dared to create dozens of shadow clones just to read faster.

Yet Naruto had done it.

And judging by his appearance, he showed no obvious fatigue, only excitement.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's gaze passed over the shadow clones and settled on the lunch box in Naruto's hands.

"Did Cangyue teach him this too?"

The ANBU standing beside him couldn't answer.

All he knew was that nothing Naruto had done tonight seemed spontaneous.

Leaving graffiti.

Exposing himself.

Using shadow clones to split up the reading.

Every step looked like mischief, yet each had a clear purpose.

Most notably, he had turned a dangerous scroll theft into bait, using the village leadership to draw out the person behind it.

That way of doing things made it increasingly difficult for Hiruzen Sarutobi to believe Naruto was acting alone.

He rubbed his brow.

The question now was no longer whether to stop Naruto from learning forbidden techniques.

It was that, unless someone stopped him soon, the child might actually read the Scroll of Seals from beginning to end.

[Valor Points +30]

Cangyue wasn't there, yet his arrangements had once again influenced the Third Hokage and the ANBU.

In the woods, Naruto remained completely unaware of this.

He had just finished the last mouthful of fish soup when a shadow clone suddenly leaped up from behind the scroll.

The shadow clone held the scroll up in both hands, his face flushed with excitement.

"Original!"

"The Flying Thunder God Technique left by the Fourth Hokage is here!"