Born with an adult Soul, years of hard and disciplined training, decent physical talent, the selfless teaching of his parents, and a 'little bit' of a Natural Energy cheat—all these factors had forged Higashino Shin's current formidable strength, leaving his classmates far behind in the dust.
In terms of raw power, he might have already surpassed his father, Higashino Jiro; however, he lacked actual combat experience. If they truly fought without holding back, the outcome would be hard to say.
After all, a Ninja battle is not a competition of mere numerical values.
In regular school sparring matches, Higashino Shin was very restrained. He didn't want to be a Devil King looming over his classmates' heads; he was quite gentle, usually fighting seriously for a while before defeating his opponents.
Fighting with classmates is like being in a relationship; you can't just care about your own feelings. You have to give the other person a sense of participation, making them feel like they could win if they just worked a little harder.
Only then would they go back and train hard to improve their strength. Even a tiny bit of progress might help them survive a future battle.
It was only during battles with Uchiha Shisui that he would let loose a little. That guy's talent was indeed excellent, and his reaction speed was top-tier.
And that was even without having awakened the Sharingan.
Inoue Kuroiwa sensei had perhaps noticed this, so in subsequent matches, he frequently paired the two as opponents so the other students could observe and learn from the sidelines.
Even so, Higashino Shin couldn't use his full strength; the current Shisui was not yet his match.
Although he stood out among the freshmen, it was still within the realm of normalcy.
If he truly showed his full strength, Inoue Kuroiwa might recommend him for early graduation.
Higashino Shin had promised his mother he would stay in school for a few more years. Additionally, he needed time to Cultivate. He was currently at a critical stage in training nature transformation; graduating now would disrupt his plans.
Compared to those kids who dreamed of graduating early to become Ninjas and contribute to the Village, Higashino Shin preferred to spend time on himself.
He was here to experience the exciting and wonderful life of the Ninja World, not to be a model worker.
Time flew by, and about twenty days passed.
One afternoon, it was once again a day for the two of them to spar. While other students were still fighting on the field, Shisui quietly approached Higashino Shin and whispered, "Shin, be careful with your strikes during our fight later."
Higashino Shin was stunned for a moment, then immediately realized: "Don't tell me you're a Shadow Clone?"
Uchiha Shisui nodded. "Yes. The Seniors in the clan think it's unnecessary to spend time at the Ninja Academy and that I should focus on improving my strength under the Family's guidance. But I feel the school is a place to build bonds with everyone, so I still need to come. That's why I learned the Shadow Clone recently."
As he spoke, he seemed to remember something and asked, "Shin, you guessed I was a Clone so quickly. Could it be that you also..."
"What do you think?"
The two smiled at each other, establishing a tacit understanding. Soon, when it was their turn to spar, they fought brilliantly, but they held back their strength whenever their fists or feet hit the other's body.
The spectating classmates watched with rapt fascination, trying to absorb lessons from their battle and secretly thinking about how they would respond if they were in the match. They didn't notice anything wrong at all.
Even Inoue sensei didn't notice.
This put the two Schemers at ease, and in the days that followed, they began their daily routine of slacking off.
---
Inside the training ground near the Higashino residence, it was exceptionally quiet.
It was currently wartime, and the number of Ninjas in the Village had greatly decreased. Since it wasn't school holidays, no students came here to Cultivate; only a few three or four-year-old children who hadn't enrolled yet would occasionally run here to play, though they came and went quickly.
In the woods, three Higashino Shins were silently Cultivating Chakra nature transformation. The original body sat in a tree, while the Clones were nearby.
He would only create three Shadow Clones at a time to assist his training: one went to school, while the other two and the original body buried themselves in research here.
Three was the limit. This was the conclusion he reached after several experiments. Any more, and he wouldn't be able to withstand the danger of the massive influx of memories and experiences hitting his head the moment the Clones were released.
Higashino Shin's Chakra capacity was quite good. Thanks to Natural Energy nourishing his body, at six years old, he had roughly the amount of a standard Jonin. However, he ultimately lacked the freakish recovery of the Uzumaki Physique, and he didn't have two 'big daddies' to help shoulder the side effects.
Furthermore, if there were too many Clones, the Chakra allocated to each would decrease, and they would dissipate before they could sustain a long period of training.
The original body primarily trained in Wind nature transformation; this was the offensive attribute he had planned.
The other two Clones trained in Water and Earth nature transformations. He planned to use these two attributes mainly for defense.
The original body pressed his palms together and quickly spread them; a leaf in his hand had been neatly sliced in two. This was to strengthen the sharp, cutting nature of his Wind attribute.
After finishing, he casually plucked another leaf and repeated the training over and over. Again, the goal was to train until it became a physical instinct, allowing him to switch natures at any time, even without the help of hand seals, completing the nature transformation with just a thought.
In the future, Naruto would be able to do this in just a few days, but that was accomplished by using hundreds or thousands of Shadow Clones to train simultaneously—he was a total beast.
Higashino Shin didn't dare play like that. It took him nearly a year to basically complete it, which showed his talent was still quite good—though the credit certainly belonged to the Natural Energy as well.
The longer his body was modified by Natural Energy, the faster he found his progress in Chakra control and nature training to be.
It was truly a worthy cheat, essentially a versatile power amplifier.
"It seems my mastery over the sharp cutting attribute has reached a considerable level. Next, I should take the next step and find a waterfall to train."
Higashino Shin planned silently in his heart. This method was, naturally, learned from the future Naruto.
After determining his direction, his body moved slightly as he jumped down from the tree, landing on the ground seemingly as light as a feather.
This was another property of Wind attribute Chakra: light and flowing.
This was the Ninja World, where people could fly as freely as birds in the sky. How could Higashino Shin pass up such a magical ability? He dreamed of flying.
A Ninja who could fly was at least three or four stories higher in terms of sheer coolness.
Mū and Ōnoki of Iwagakure achieved this by training the gravity nature of Earth attribute Chakra to the extreme—the so-called Earth Release: Light-Weight Rock Jutsu. Its counterpart was the Earth Release: Added-Weight Rock Jutsu. The Ultra-Light-Weight Rock Jutsu could even stop a massive meteorite summoned by Madara's Tengai Shinsei, which was simply ridiculous.
Meanwhile, Pain's ability to fly relied on the Rinnegan's control over repulsive force—Shinra Tensei.
Higashino Shin was still searching for a direction in his training of the Earth attribute's gravity nature, and he didn't have the 'Ripple Eyes.' If he wanted to fly, he could only put effort into the Wind attribute.
Fortunately, he felt this direction should also be feasible.
Although he couldn't fly yet, by training the light and flowing nature, he could already make his body merge slightly into the wind. When jumping in the air, he could perform some simple maneuvers, and his movement speed had been greatly enhanced.
He walked over to a Clone and saw it holding a lump of soil created with Earth attribute Chakra. It was channeling Chakra into it, constantly increasing the soil's hardness and transforming it into rock.
This was training the heavy and hard nature of the Earth attribute.
There were many Ninjutsu that utilized this property, such as Senior Kakuzu's Earth Spear Jutsu, which could harden any part of the body for integrated offense and defense.
The deeper the mastery of this nature, the stronger the defensive power of the Earth Style Wall, making it harder to destroy.
At the same time, Higashino Shin hoped that while training the heavy and hard nature, he could find a slight lead toward the gravity nature.
The other Clone was training the flexible nature of the Water attribute. This property could enhance the defensive power of the Water Encampment Wall and also control water to shape it into a rope—the Water Whip Jutsu—used to bind people.
This was one of his current training directions: strengthening the properties of his three innate attributes.
In truth, any Chakra nature transformation trained to the extreme provided integrated offense and defense, but he temporarily didn't have enough energy to cover too many attributes and had to be selective.
His other two training directions were, of course, the second stage of Chakra control and Medical Ninjutsu.
As for Natural Energy, that was something for after he fell asleep every night.
If he could continue to Cultivate even while asleep, how could his strength not be formidable? Wasting talent was shameful and would bring retribution; he had already felt this truth deeply in his previous life.
Suddenly, a stream of memories entered his mind; the Clone attending school had finished its task.
Higashino Shin digested the memories and waited a while longer before having the other two Clones release themselves one after another.
The massive influx of training memories hit his head, making it feel a bit swollen, but he quickly adapted.
If three Clones returned simultaneously with a full day's worth of memories and training experience, it would cause him slight dizziness.
This indicated that he could actually withstand the side effects of more Clones, but Higashino Shin didn't want to do that.
The body was the foundation of everything. He couldn't lose the big picture for small gains and leave himself with hidden dangers.