At dawn, in a medium-sized training ground somewhere within Konohagakure, two Higashino Makoto stood facing each other.
Suddenly, one of the long-haired Higashino Makoto reached both hands to the ninja tool pouch at his lower back and flicked them forward. Several shuriken shot toward the other Higashino Makoto at high speed.
The shuriken were extremely fast, flying straight toward the target in a direct line, without any arc—unlike the flashy techniques of the Uchiha clan.
The defending Higashino Makoto held a kunai in a reverse grip in his left hand and, amid a series of clanging sounds, knocked the shuriken away. With his right hand, he drew the black ironwood short blade from his back and engaged the charging long-haired Higashino Makoto in close combat.
Both sides attacked at extremely high speed, every strike aimed at vital points, yet each was blocked in turn. Their positions shifted constantly—from fighting on the ground to battling in the trees, and then from the trees back down to the ground.
For a moment, their figures moved like phantoms. Dust filled the air, kunai and shuriken flew everywhere, and the clashing sounds rang out without pause.
Suddenly, the long-haired Higashino Makoto kicked his opponent away. As the other was sent flying back, he swiftly hurled four kunai from both the left and right sides.
The long-haired Higashino Makoto rapidly formed hand seals with both hands.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough."
A violent gust of wind neutralized the attack and even blew the kunai back toward his opponent.
The short-haired Higashino Makoto had originally intended to block the ninjutsu as usual with an Earth Flow Wall technique, but this time he chose not to. Instead, he erupted chakra through his legs, dodged the ninjutsu at high speed, and simultaneously used the Body Flicker Technique to appear behind his opponent, thrusting his blade into the long-haired Higashino Makoto's back.
Bang!
The opponent exploded into a mass of white smoke.
The short-haired Higashino Makoto let out a muffled grunt and dropped to one knee. His left hand subconsciously touched his abdomen. There was no wound there, yet a sharp and vividly real pain surged through him.
Both of them were Higashino Makoto; the difference was that one of them was a Shadow Clone. To distinguish himself, the Shadow Clone had also used the Transformation Technique to change his appearance into that of the long-haired version.
The Shadow Clone Technique was an extremely wondrous ninjutsu. It used chakra to create one or more physical clones out of nothing, and in the shinobi world almost no one could tell them apart—not even Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.
The drawback is that they cannot withstand blunt impacts beyond a certain level of force, nor can they endure the chopping and stabbing of ordinary sharp weapons.
At the same time, the user's chakra is evenly divided according to the number of Shadow Clones, and before disappearing, they will also transmit the pain of their injuries—along with the experience and memories—back to the original body.
It was originally a very useful ninjutsu for scouting intelligence and confusing enemies, but ninjas with insufficient chakra, or whose will is not tough enough to endure severe pain, should use it with caution. If things go wrong, it can end up being a straight-up throw.
And this is still just the Shadow Clone Technique, which can only create a small number of physical clones. If it were the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, an ordinary ninja might end up killing himself just by using it.
It was classified as a forbidden technique for a reason—because it really isn't something an ordinary ninja can afford to play with.
Why is Naruto the only one who dares to play like this? Because he has the Uzumaki clan bloodline, and most importantly, he has at least two "dads" helping him bear the backlash.
Kurama: "???"
Asura: "???"
Ever since Higashino Makoto learned the Shadow Clone Technique, on one hand he relied on his superb chakra control and slowly tried using less chakra to create Shadow Clones, so that they would no longer evenly divide his chakra, making it more practical.
On the other hand, he would also spar with his clones from time to time, training his real combat ability and reaction speed. At the same time, he was also training his pain tolerance threshold—so when he struck, he struck for real, always thrusting at vital points.
Unfortunately, the clone was himself; both sides were far too familiar with each other's habits. Aside from training neural reaction speed, the actual combat experience gained was very limited.
But the pain that came back was not reduced at all.
After gathering up the ninja tools scattered all over the place, Higashino Makoto sat at the very top of a large tree. He took his cup and drank a sip of the nutrient water Higashino Megumi had mixed, then looked toward the distant Konohagakure, which seemed to have no changes, and thought about the direction of his training going forward.
Without realizing it, more than a year had already passed. He was now over five years old, and he had grown quite a bit taller.
The situation in the shinobi world was growing tenser by the day. After celebrating his fifth birthday with him, his father, Higashino Jirō, rotated once again to the border to carry out a garrison assignment.
His mother, Higashino Megumi, worked at the hospital as usual.
Over the course of the year, the four-person Higashino Makoto group would occasionally go out to have fun together, while also exchanging training experience and honing their wilderness survival skills.
However, ever since the new term began, Gekkō Hayate officially enrolled, and Uchiha Shisui, due to his outstanding talent, also began receiving guidance from clan ninjas together with other promising peers from his clan, leaving them with few opportunities to go out.
Even Uzuki Yugao was no exception.
The adults of the shinobi world saw the situation very clearly. No one knew when war would formally break out, and any family with even a bit of foresight had begun strengthening the training of their younger generation, hoping they would be able to survive once war came.
Although everyone talked about relying on the team and trusting one's comrades, as ninjas they all understood that, if things truly reached the final moment, one's own strength was the best means of staying alive.
Over the course of this year and more, Higashino Makoto had also learned the basic Three Techniques, the commonly used Body Flicker Technique, basic Konoha-style kenjutsu, as well as several ninjutsu, genjutsu, and the Shadow Clone Technique.
These ninjutsu included: Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu, Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall, Water Release: Water Formation Wall, and Genjutsu: This Place Is Not Real Technique.
All of these ninjutsu were common ones. Even the highest among them was only B-rank. The Higashino family were merely civilian ninjas; even with accumulation over three generations, they had no high-level techniques above B-rank, much less something like the Gekkō or Uzuki clans, who had already begun to form swordsmanship lineages with their own distinct characteristics.
With Higashino Makoto's current level of precise chakra control, learning these techniques posed no real difficulty. His body had also grown steadily stronger due to daily absorption of white natural energy, and his chakra reserves were quite abundant—at the very least, he would not be forced out of action just from using a few C-rank techniques.
Of course, the highest-level technique he currently mastered was the A-rank Rasengan. After all, this was the only technique in the original work that clearly laid out both its principles and training method. If he did not copy it, how could he be worthy of his status as a transmigrator?
However, up to this point, Higashino Makoto had discovered a problem.
Whether it was the Rasengan, which he could not yet bring out for use, or other ninjutsu, he felt that they did not quite match the combat style he had envisioned. The reason was simple: the efficiency was too low.
Among the three systems of ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, ninjutsu was the most flashy, and it was also what most children imagined a ninja should be like.
Who would not want to wipe out enemies with a single dazzling and powerful ninjutsu, enjoy the admiration of companions, ascend to the seat of Hokage, marry a fair, rich, and beautiful partner, and reach the peak of life?
But the reality was that ninjutsu consumed the most chakra. With the pitiful chakra reserves of an ordinary civilian ninja, it truly was not suitable to play the "ninjutsu turret" style. Casting a ninjutsu or two to provide support, then standing to the side throwing shuriken and kunai, was the way they would fight for their entire lives.
Higashino Makoto had an innate method for training in the use of natural energy. He could be certain that, as his training deepened day by day, he would not lack chakra in the future. Even so, he still held some disdain for ninjutsu.
Unless one poured in a massive amount of chakra to greatly expand a ninjutsu's attack range and achieve an area-clearing effect, ordinary ninjutsu were really difficult to land hits with. Most of the time, they were simply tools ninjas used for ambushes or to force opponents to reposition.
The dignified Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique had instead degenerated into a technique of mercy—throughout its entire use, one rarely saw it burn more than a handful of people to death.
Is ninjutsu not powerful? No. Ninjas are generally high offense and low defense; even a Kage-level ninja, if struck head-on by a Great Fireball without any defense, would still die. The main issue is that ninjas move too fast and can easily dodge, which is what makes ninjutsu seem inefficient.
From the emergence of ninjas to the present, a thousand years have already passed. What has killed the most ninjas? Ninja blades, shuriken, and kunai—those unassuming metal weapons.
Compared to forming hand seals to cast ninjutsu to kill an enemy, stabbing someone to death with a kunai is obviously faster and far more chakra-efficient.
The path Higashino Makoto envisioned for himself should be one of extremely fast and powerful taijutsu. Because natural energy continuously remodeled his body, he believed his physique would eventually surpass anyone else's.
Then, in coordination with this taijutsu, he would develop instantaneous attack methods delivered through ninja blades or concealed weapons, increasing his lethality.
In his conception, techniques resembling the blade-projecting strikes described in fantasy novels from his previous life suited him better.
And, conveniently enough, such attack methods did exist in the shinobi world.
A typical example was the Wind Release: Vacuum Sword, as well as the Wind Release shuriken and Wind Release kunai used by Root leader Danzō, all of which involved attaching wind-nature chakra to weapons.
Danzō could even directly form a sword out of Wind Release chakra. Although that old bastard was dark in more ways than one, it had to be said that, in the entirety of Konoha, there were really not many people who could surpass him in Wind Release attainment.
Coincidentally, Higashino Makoto possessed wind-nature chakra, saving him the considerable time it would otherwise take to first train in wind-nature transformation.
Thinking it through this way, the direction of his next stage of training became clear.
He should devote his time to training chakra nature transformation, drawing lessons from his predecessors without being bound by their footsteps, and develop a combat style that truly belonged to him.
With the chakra theory foundation he had been continuously studying, combined with knowledge from his previous life, he believed this was certainly feasible.
Of course, this was not to say that he would not learn ninjutsu. On the contrary, just as mastering precise chakra control made learning ordinary ninjutsu easy, once nature transformation was trained to a high level, going back to learn corresponding high-level ninjutsu would also become exceptionally effortless.
In addition to all this, medical ninjutsu could not be neglected either. It was an extremely practical series of techniques and would also deepen his chakra control even further.
After finishing his deliberations, Higashino Makoto had also recovered his stamina. He immediately put on the heavy weighted equipment again and began physical training.
Now, the metal bars inserted into the weighted gear were twice as many as they had been a year ago.
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