Born with an adult soul, several years of disciplined and diligent training, solid physical talent, his parents' selfless instruction, and the addition of "just a little" natural energy as a boost—together these forged Higashino Makoto's current formidable strength, long since leaving his classmates so far behind that their taillights were nowhere to be seen.
In terms of raw power, he might already have surpassed his father, Higashino Jirō; it was only in actual combat experience that he fell somewhat short. If he were to truly cut loose, the outcome would be hard to say.
After all, ninja combat is not a contest of numbers.
During routine sparring at school, Higashino Makoto was very restrained. After all, he did not want to become some great demon king looming over his classmates' heads. He was quite gentle—he would usually fight seriously for a while before defeating his opponent.
Fighting classmates was like being in a relationship: you could not focus solely on your own feelings. You had to let the other side feel involved, to make them believe that with just a bit more effort, victory was within reach.
Only then would they go back and train harder, improving their strength—so that even if it was just a little progress, perhaps in some future battle it might be enough for them to survive.
It was only when fighting Uchiha Shisui that he would loosen up a bit. This guy's talent was indeed outstanding, with first-rate reaction speed.
And that was without even activating the Sharingan.
Inoue Kuroiwa-sensei may have noticed this issue, so in subsequent matches he often arranged for the two of them to face each other, allowing the other students to observe and learn from the sidelines.
Even so, Higashino Makoto still could not use his full strength. Shisui, as he was now, was still not his match.
Although he stood out among the new students, it was still within reasonable bounds.
If he truly displayed his full strength, Inoue Kuroiwa might recommend that he graduate early.
Higashino Makoto had promised his mother that he would stay at the academy for a few more years. Moreover, he needed time to cultivate his training; he was currently at a critical stage in practicing nature transformation. Graduating now would disrupt his plans.
Compared to those brats who were constantly thinking about graduating as soon as possible to become ninjas and contribute to the village, Higashino Makoto preferred to spend his time on himself.
He had come to experience the ninja world's thrilling, exciting life—not to be a workhorse.
...
About twenty days passed in the blink of an eye.
That afternoon, it was another day for the two of them to spar. At this moment, other classmates were still fighting on the field. Shisui quietly moved closer to Higashino Makoto and said in a low voice, "Makoto, be a bit more careful when you make a move later."
Higashino Makoto froze for a moment, then reacted. "Don't tell me you're a Shadow Clone?"
Uchiha Shisui nodded. "Yes. The seniors in the clan think there's no need to spend time at the ninja academy; I should work hard to improve under the clan's guidance at home. But I think school is a place to build bonds with everyone, so I still have to come. So during this period, I learned the Shadow Clone Technique."
As he spoke, he seemed to recall something, and asked, "Makoto, you figured out so quickly that I'm a clone… could it be that you also…"
"You tell me?"
The two of them looked at each other and smiled, forming an unspoken understanding. Soon, when it was their turn to spar, the two fought brilliantly—but whenever their fists and feet struck the other's body, they would hold back their strength.
The classmates watching were utterly captivated, working hard to draw nourishment from their fight, secretly thinking in their hearts that if one side were themselves, how they should respond. They did not notice any problem at all.
Even Inoue-sensei did not notice.
This put the two of them at ease. In the days that followed, they began their everyday slacking.
...
Inside the training ground near the Higashino family home, it was unusually quiet at the moment.
It was currently wartime, and the number of ninjas in the village had greatly decreased. Moreover, it was not a school vacation period, so no students came here to train. Only some three- or four-year-old children who had not yet enrolled would occasionally run here to play, but they came quickly and left quickly as well.
In the woods, three Higashino Makotos were quietly training in chakra nature transformation. The main body sat on a tree, with the clones nearby.
Right now, he would only split off three Shadow Clones at a time to assist with training: one went to school, while the remaining two, together with the main body, buried themselves here in study.
Three was already the limit—this was the conclusion he had reached after testing several times. If there were more, then when the clones dispelled, the danger of a massive surge of memories and experience slamming into his head all at once was something he could not bear.
Higashino Makoto's chakra reserves were quite good. Thanks to natural energy nourishing his body, at six years old he already had roughly the standard amount for a jōnin. But in the end, he still did not have the absurd recovery ability of an Uzumaki constitution, nor did he have two "big dads" helping him shoulder the side effects.
Moreover, if there were too many clones, the chakra allocated to each one would be reduced as well. They would not be able to sustain training for very long before dispersing.
The main body primarily trained wind-nature transformation—this was the attack attribute he had planned.
The other two clones trained water-nature and earth-nature transformation. For these two attributes, he planned to focus mainly on defense.
The main body brought his hands together in a seal, then quickly spread them apart. The leaf in his hand had already been neatly split into two from the middle—this was training to enhance the sharp, cutting property of his wind nature.
After finishing, he casually plucked another leaf from nearby and repeated the same training, over and over again. As he always said, the goal was to train it into bodily instinct, to reach the point where he could switch natures at any time—no hand seals required—completing the transformation with a single thought.
Later on, Naruto would be able to accomplish this in just a few days, but that was only because he used hundreds or even thousands of Shadow Clones to train simultaneously. It was simply beastlike.
Higashino Makoto did not dare to train like that. It took him nearly a year to basically complete it. This showed that his talent was still quite good—of course, the contribution of natural energy could not be overlooked.
The longer his body was modified by natural energy, the more he discovered that his progress in chakra control and nature training accelerated.
It truly lived up to being his "cheat"—an all-purpose amplifier.
"It seems my control over the sharp cutting attribute has already reached a considerable level. Next comes the next step—time to find a waterfall for training."
Higashino Makoto silently planned in his heart. This method, naturally, was learned from Naruto of the future.
Once he had settled on the direction, his body moved slightly as he leapt down from the tree, landing on the ground in a way that looked light and effortless.
This was another property of wind-nature chakra: light, flowing movement.
This was the ninja world, where people could freely soar through the sky like birds. With such a miraculous ability available, how could Higashino Makoto possibly pass it up? He had dreamed of flying ever since he was a child.
A ninja who could fly was at least three or four levels higher in sheer presence alone.
In Iwagakure, Mū and Ōnoki achieved flight by training the gravity property of earth-nature chakra to the extreme—namely, the Earth Release: Light-Weight Rock Technique. Its opposite was the Earth Release: Heavy-Weight Rock Technique. The Super Light-Weight Rock Technique could even forcibly halt the enormous meteor Madara summoned with Tengai Shinsei—it was simply absurd.
As for Pain, his ability to fly relied on the Rinnegan's control over repulsive force—Shinra Tensei.
At present, Higashino Makoto's training in the gravity property of earth-nature chakra was still at the stage of searching for direction. Without "circle eyes" of his own, if he wanted to fly, he could only put in the work on wind-nature properties.
Fortunately, he felt that this direction should also be viable.
Although he still could not fly, by training the light, flowing property he was already able to achieve a degree of bodily integration with the wind. When leaping through the air, he could perform some simple aerial maneuvers, and his movement speed had been greatly enhanced.
When he went over to the clones, he saw that one of them was holding a lump of earth created with earth-nature chakra in its palm, continuously channeling chakra into it to strengthen its hardness, pushing it toward a stone-like state.
This was training the thick, hard properties of earth-nature chakra.
There were many ninjutsu that made use of this property—for example, Kakuzu's Earth Spear Technique, which could harden any part of the body, combining offense and defense.
The deeper the mastery of this property, the greater the defensive power of techniques like the Earth Flow Wall, making them far harder to destroy.
At the same time, while training the thick, hard properties, Higashino Makoto also hoped to find even a slight sense of direction toward gravity-based properties.
Another clone was training the flexible property of water-nature chakra. This property could enhance the defensive strength of the Water Formation Wall, and it could also control flowing water to change shape into a rope—the Water Whip Technique—used to bind opponents.
This was one of his current training directions: strengthening the properties of his three innate natures.
In fact, if the chakra nature transformation of any element were trained to the extreme, it would be both offensive and defensive. However, he did not have the energy to involve himself with too many elements for the time being, so he could only train selectively.
The other two training directions were, of course, the second stage of chakra control and medical ninjutsu.
As for natural energy, that was something that happened every night after he fell asleep.
Even while asleep he could continue training—how could his strength not grow? Wasting talent was shameful and would invite retribution; this lesson he had already learned deeply in his previous life.
Suddenly, a stream of memories flowed into his mind—this was the clone attending school completing its task.
Higashino Makoto processed the memories, waited a bit longer, and then successively dismissed the other two clones.
The surge of training memories pounding into his head made it feel slightly swollen, but he quickly adapted.
If three clones were to return at the same time carrying a full day's worth of memories and training experience, it would cause him mild dizziness.
This showed that he could actually withstand the side effects produced by more clones—but Higashino Makoto did not want to do that.
The body was the foundation of everything. He could not sacrifice the greater for the lesser and leave hidden problems for himself.
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