Chapter 4: Shadow Clone Jutsu

On the way home, Natsuwari thought about his gains of the day. Actually, there weren't any gains. The current curriculum was probably mainly focused on explaining the history of Konoha. Later, they would gradually guide them to understand chakra, and only after sparking enough interest would they teach how to extract it. However, the textbook had been handed out, so he could study on his own.

As for the Three Body Techniques, in this peaceful era, he couldn't expect to learn them in the first year. The first year's teaching should only involve some theoretical knowledge and physical training. This year was meant for students to accumulate a certain amount of chakra.

Natsuwari looked at the sky. It was still early. The studies here were really relaxed. At this time, his mother's work should not have ended yet.

However, Natsuwari remembered his mother telling him to come home early before he left, so he didn't intend to wander around. Carrying the books that had been handed out, he ran towards home. Although it was only a few kilometers, it could be considered a warm-up. He had to admit that the average physique in the Naruto world was really good.

"I'm home." Natsuwari took out the key, opened the door, and shouted according to the habit his mother had cultivated in him.

Then Natsuwari froze. His mother, who he thought was still at work, was actually there, looking at him with a smile. The table was also filled with a feast of food.

"Welcome back!!"

"Mom, how..." Natsuwari's voice was a little surprised.

"Of course I got off work early. After all, today is Natsuwari's first day of school! Of course I had to come back early." Sana smiled and said.

"Hmm." No matter what, Natsuwari's eyes softened. From the time he was a baby, he had seen how much she had sacrificed for this family. Even though he had already lived a lifetime, he quickly accepted Sana as his new mother.

"But, I'm sorry, little Natsuwari. I can only take leave today. In the future, you'll have to go to and from school alone. Other children have their families to pick them up, but I..." Sana's mood was a little down. Did she not want to pick him up?

"It's okay." Natsuwari looked at his mother, who had inexplicably fallen into self-blame, walked over, and hugged her.

"Ugh... I'm so embarrassed, to have my own child comfort me." Sana gave a wry smile, then forced herself to cheer up and said, "To make it up to little Natsuwari, you can tell mom what you want."

"I don't have anything I particularly want right now." Natsuwari thought for a moment, quite satisfied with his current life, and said.

"Hmm." Sana seemed a little troubled by this, as if she really wanted to do something for her son.

Natsuwari quickly sensed Sana's thoughts. He might as well ask for something.

"Oh, right, the ninja school teacher talked about the history of ninjas today, right? So, does little Natsuwari want to become a ninja?" Sana suddenly realized something and asked with a smile.

"Yes, I want to become the strongest ninja." Natsuwari thought for a moment and didn't hide it.

"Then little Natsuwari can also tell me what kind of ninjutsu you want. Mom has some channels here." Sana's eyes lit up after hearing this and she said.

However, Sana quickly realized something was wrong. Even if she said that, little Natsuwari shouldn't know what ninjutsu existed. But she hadn't used ninjutsu for many years, and she was only a Genin herself, so she didn't know many ninjutsu. Should she ask her former teammates to demonstrate?

"Ninjutsu... what I want now is the Shadow Clone Jutsu." Natsuwari said his most genuine thought after hearing this.

"Huh? Shadow Clone? Why do you want this ninjutsu? This ninjutsu is quite difficult, and most importantly, it's not very useful in combat." Although Sana didn't know how Natsuwari knew about it, she didn't think this ninjutsu was useful.

"Well, there's no particular reason. I saw a Jonin use it before, and it was a solid clone. I really liked it. Whether it's useful or not is another matter. I decided then that if I had the chance, I would definitely learn the Shadow Clone." Natsuwari lied, as he couldn't explain the real reason.

However, regarding Sana saying it wasn't very useful in combat, Natsuwari could only say that he had never thought of using Shadow Clones for combat. That was basically a luxury exclusive to Naruto or the Uzumaki clan.

What Natsuwari needed was only the experience transfer ability of the Shadow Clone. Moreover, the difficulty was also suitable. Although the Shadow Clone was a B-rank ninjutsu, considering that Naruto learned the higher-level Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu in one night, the difficulty of this jutsu might not match its rank.

However, there were reasons for it to be classified as B-rank. The Shadow Clone had high chakra requirements, and only Jonin had enough chakra to use it in combat.

After all, the Shadow Clone evenly divided the user's chakra. However, Natsuwari guessed that this division referred to the amount of chakra extracted at the time, not directly dividing the unrefined physical energy stored in the body.

So, if it wasn't a Jonin using it, how much chakra would a Shadow Clone have? It probably couldn't use any other ninjutsu. A Shadow Clone that dispersed with one hit and could only use Taijutsu, what use did it have in combat?

But Natsuwari never intended to use Shadow Clones for combat. This was his accumulation period, and having one or even two Shadow Clones would be very convenient.

As for whether his body could handle it, Natsuwari didn't plan on using hundreds or thousands of clones like Naruto to train. He planned to start with just one and didn't intend to make the Shadow Clone do any strenuous tasks. He would gradually increase the number later if he felt his body could handle it.

"But, this opportunity is rare. I don't think exchanging it for the Shadow Clone is very useful. Why don't you think about it carefully, little Natsuwari? Or I can find my former teammates to demonstrate some other ninjutsu for you." Sana still didn't want to use the opportunity her husband had saved before he died to exchange for a useless ninjutsu.

Moreover, although this opportunity still existed, the person was gone. If Sana wanted to exchange for something later, she would still have to ask her former teacher for help.

It was so troublesome just for a useless Shadow Clone. Not only was it useless, but it was also a B-rank ninjutsu. The opportunity her husband had left behind was enough, or even more than enough, to exchange for a Shadow Clone. But since he was gone, it basically meant that after exchanging for the Shadow Clone, there would be no chance to exchange for other ninjutsu. Sana really thought that exchanging for a Shadow Clone was not as good as exchanging for several C-rank ninjutsu, which could be exchanged for several!

"Hmm?" Natsuwari blinked. He originally thought that what his mother was referring to was just the ninjutsu left behind by his father, so he just casually mentioned it. But according to this, was there really a chance to obtain the Shadow Clone?

Instantly, Natsuwari's eyes lit up, and he began to fully express to Sana his determination to obtain the Shadow Clone. After Natsuwari pestered her for a long time, Sana finally reluctantly agreed.

"Alright, Shadow Clone it is. As long as you're happy, don't regret it later."

"I definitely, definitely won't regret it! Mom is the best!" Natsuwari couldn't help but cheer.

"Let's eat." Seeing Natsuwari's smile, Sana also smiled. It didn't matter, as long as little Natsuwari was happy, it didn't matter whether he became a powerful ninja or not.

(End of Chapter)