“Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!”

  Rin threw a single shuriken into the air, then swiftly formed a hand seal. In an instant, that lone shuriken split into dozens, clinking and cttering as they embedded themselves deep into the wooden target ahead.

  “Yes! Miketsuki, I did it!”

  This secluded grove sat on the outskirts of Training Ground Eight in Konoha—an ideal spot Miketsuki had painstakingly located by scanning the vilge perimeter multiple times with his Six Eyes.

  Hardly anyone ever passed through here. A stream ran zily by, and it was… totally not the perfect pce for a romantic rendezvous (strike that)—it was simply the perfect spot for ninja training.

  Miketsuki walked over to the target where Rin’s shuriken had nded, inspecting the depth of their impact. He nodded in approval.

  “Good force, solid replication. Well done, Rin—you’ve fully mastered this jutsu.”

  Now then, what kind of training task should he assign her next? Miketsuki began to ponder.

  Since joining Miketsuki’s training regime, Rin had already mastered basic chakra control exercises like tree climbing and water walking. As for ninjutsu, he’d taught her both the Shadow Clone Jutsu and the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.

  Right now, Rin was leagues ahead of her peers—even those from major cns. You could call her a genius at this point.

  Well… in the world of Naruto, “genius” was a bit of an overused word.

  While Miketsuki was lost in thought, Rin, blushing lightly from the praise, csped her hands behind her back and rocked on her toes.

  “Hehe, it’s all thanks to you, Miketsuki.”

  To be fair, she wasn’t wrong.

  Rin already had decent chakra control, but strength like hers at this age wasn’t something hard work alone could achieve. Effort was important, yes—but what really helped was the “tiny little cheat” Miketsuki had quietly granted her.

  Thanks to his Six Eyes, Miketsuki possessed unparalleled chakra control precision. When in physical contact with someone—and as long as they didn’t resist—he could enter their chakra system and manually guide its flow.

  And Rin never resisted him.

  So during their training, Miketsuki had frequently helped her fine-tune her chakra pathways by directly influencing them. This shortcut had supercharged her learning speed.

  Back to the point—Rin’s chakra nature was Fire and Water. Fire was easy enough. The secret stash of jutsu left behind by Kenjin included a good number of Fire-style techniques, and Miketsuki himself had an affinity for Fire, so teaching it was no issue.

  But Water-style… that was trickier. Miketsuki thought about it but couldn’t recall any solid sources for decent Water-style ninjutsu. For now, Fire would have to do.

  “Rin, your next training mission is going to be even harder. So don’t get too cocky just yet.”

  “Got it, Miketsuki-sensei!”

  “Excellent. Then, your next objective is…”

  Miketsuki plucked a leaf from the nearby tree, pinched it between his fingers, and without warning, a sudden burst of fme consumed it, reducing it to ash in a blink.

  “...this.”

  “Whaaaat?”

  Rin blinked her big, round eyes, awestruck. Then, eager as ever, she leaned forward.

  “How did you do that, Miketsuki? You didn’t even use hand signs, but the leaf still burst into fmes! I need to know!”

  Oh no. Oh no. That face… too cute. Miketsuki, the eternally-single old virgin, felt his poor maiden heart take a critical hit. No matter how long they’d been training together, he still couldn’t fully brace himself for Rin’s unintentional adorableness.

  “Ahem.”

  He cleared his throat, trying to reassemble his sensei face.

  “This is called Chakra Nature Transformation. It’s an advanced chakra manipution technique—even jonin might not fully master it.”

  “That’s amazing!” Rin never failed to provide emotional support in the form of sincere enthusiasm.

  “When you learn to apply nature transformation to your chakra, you can fuse it with your jutsu like this.”

  Miketsuki was a man of action. He believed that a demonstration spoke louder than any lecture.

  He pulled a shuriken from the ninja tool pouch Rin had gifted him. Slowing his movements so she could follow, he threw the shuriken forward and instantly performed hand seals. A stream of fire erupted from his mouth, catching up to and coating the flying shuriken mid-air.

  But he wasn’t done yet.

  With another quick set of seals, Miketsuki cast the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique, duplicating the fming shuriken into a dozen more.

  Boom!

  Upon impact, the shuriken didn’t just pierce the target—they triggered a chain of small fiery explosions.

  “This is Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Cw Crimson, enhanced with chakra nature transformation.”

  “A normal Phoenix Fire Cw Crimson just coats the shuriken with fire to boost range and damage slightly. But it won’t explode like this on impact.”

  To be honest, Miketsuki could have cloned even more shuriken, but this was just a demo. No need to go overboard.

  “But… couldn’t you just throw a bunch of shuriken from the start?” Rin asked, tilting her head. “That way, you wouldn’t need to use the Shadow Clone Technique, and you’d save chakra, right?”

  Smart girl. Miketsuki had anticipated this question.

  “You’re right. But nature transformation is delicate—coating even one shuriken with fire chakra is already very difficult. Using the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique reduces that burden. It’s a clever combo technique.”

  “Also, there’s a limit to how many shuriken a person can throw on their own. Once your chakra reserves grow, using shuriken shadow clones will massively boost this technique’s power. That’s when it really shines.”

  (You’ve reached the end of this chapter—click next page for even more exciting developments!)

  Of course, Miketsuki had another reason he didn’t mention: shuriken were expensive. Especially in wartime.

  Those fire-chakra-coated shuriken? One-use. The fmes dulled their edges and ruined their killing power.

  In training, sure, you could recycle them. But on the battlefield? Without shadow clones, you’d be tossing shuriken like confetti.

  Efficient, yes. Affordable? Absolutely not. Miketsuki was no sugar mommy—he couldn’t afford to burn through tools like that.

  In the manga, the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique varied wildly depending on the user. Some used giant Fūma shuriken, others used kunai.

  But there were really two categories: the basic version, and the version used by Namikaze Minato.

  In the Lost Tower movie, Minato’s version of the technique packed massive firepower. If others were shooting pistols, Minato was unching floating artillery.

  Miketsuki suspected Minato had integrated Wind Chakra Nature Transformation into the technique. That would expin why his shuriken shadow clones were on a completely different level.

  So Miketsuki began experimenting with different chakra types on different ninja tools—and found real results. Turns out, chakra nature compatibility mattered when fusing it to physical weapons.

  Miketsuki’s natural chakra elements were Fire, Wind, and Lightning. Fire chakra worked best on rge, ft tools like shuriken. Wind and Lightning, meanwhile, were better suited for kunai and senbon.

  What could he say? The guy really did have a knack for research.