16 Return To The Grind 7

The next morning, Daiki, as usual found himself in training ground sixty-nine. After finishing through his initial work out and healing himself up with the Mystical Palm Jutsu, getting them gains instantly, he got around to the next part of his training.

Ninjutsu.

Usually, for the last little while, he'd been working on his lightning chakra generation and manipulation. But, he'd put that on hold yesterday, for a little bit.

Because he finally had the excuse he needed, to work on a jutsu that would for sure make his training, at least in the learning sense of things, go much faster.

Taking a deep breath and focusing, Daiki crossed his fingers in a familiar hand seal. It was a bit odd, it wasn't one of the normal twelve hand seals, at best, it could pass for a modified Ox-seal.

But, it did help him focus on the physical aspect of his chakra more. Which on of itself, was interesting, and made a lot of sense.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he declared.

He felt chunk of his chakra be expended as he focused on the technique.

But, not half.

There was a puff of smoke and an identical copy of himself appeared at his side. Yet, there were glaring discrepancies.

For example, his clone was pale, and sweaty, looking ill.

"You…you got the ratio wrong again." the clone said haggardly.

"I know." Daiki sighed, and cancelled the technique. The clone disappeared in a chunk of smoke, and he felt the chakra used to create it, return to him.

Or rather, about three quarters of it.

He was beginning to see why this technique was a lesser form of a Kinjutsu, a forbidden technique. Getting the ratio down was actually quite tough, on top of that, doing it wrong, meant much of the chakra used would go to waste, leaving the clone formed wrong, and ensure the user got less chakra back upon the clone being dispelled.

…With that failure, he'd lost roughly, a thirteenth of his total chakra capacity. Which might not seem like a lot, but it was, when it only gave him so little chances to get the technique down before he had to rest and recover his chakra again.

Still, that was a better attempt than the last few, before he'd given up last night and returned home to rest.

And he was learning a lot through trial and error. For instance, he initially thought, that clones would have the same chakra capacity as him, lower chakra to begin with, but more or less, like a half empty tank. Basically, like one could put their hand in, and feel space that wasn't filled with water or whatever.

Maybe a bucket would have been a better analogy?

Either way, that was not the case. The clone was a complete copy of him, right down to the chakra. The thing was though? The clones 'tank', while a perfect copy for the most part, was a fraction of the size. Meaning, a shadow clone of him, would never have the same max chakra output that he did.

Especially since, his chakra coils, would refill while the clones were still active. Hell, the clones could apparently regenerate chakra as well, just like him.

Shadow Clone Jutsu was so fucking busted, without even getting into the memory transfer aspect of things.

Bringing his hands together again, Daiki was about to attempt the jutsu once more, before he frowned and paused.

He could feel someone coming.

He might not be a sensor-ninja, but his general senses weren't bad either.

He looked over his shoulder, just as a familiar high collared, dark haired Uchiha made his way into the training ground.

Sasuke eyed the training ground idly for a moment, before making his way over to Daiki, "Your training ground is a chore to get to." he grunted.

"Exactly why I picked it, I don't have a family compound to train in so people don't disturb me." Daiki retorted, turning around to face the boy.

Sasuke pursed his lips, before nodded, "Sound logic," he replied, "I imagine two idiots not bothering you constantly also helps with training, wish I could say the same."

"You're not wrong," Daiki agreed, "Honestly, as big a help a jonin-sensei would be to my training, having to have those two former teammates of mine along as well, would make my progress slower than it is now I'm sure, I'm better off really."

Hell, not getting a jonin-sensei leading to his current situation, was probably the best thing that ever happened to him.

"It's easy to see, with how much stronger you've gotten," Sasuke nodded, "Wish I could say the same."

"Well, Naruto's not dead weight at least, unlike Ami and Suzuki were, they were pathetic." Daiki pointed out.

Sasuke snorted, "I notice you didn't mention Sakura not being dead weight." he responded.

That was because he couldn't. Sakura, had talent, for sure, but she didn't apply it, and without Tsunade personally training her, she really had no right being on a team with Sasuke and Naruto, they were absolute monsters in the making without even taking into account Ashura and Indra.

"Well, she's good eye candy at least," he settled on replying with, hiding a wince, "And she'd drop to her knees for you at a word, I'm almost jealous."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him, before scoffing, "And have her think we're fated to be together forever or some other girlish fantasy nonsense?" there was pure derision in his voice, "No thank you. She already gets in the way of me getting stronger enough, I don't need her getting any other crazy ideas. You want to fuck Sakura? Feel free, hell, I'll wish you luck, maybe then she'll stop bothering me about this dating tripe."

Well, wow. He knew Sasuke wasn't a fan of Sakura early on, but he didn't think he'd full on express his, more or less blessing for another dude to fuck her just to keep her away from him.

"You know, you never expressed interest in any other girls at the academy," Daiki hummed, "You realise, you're gonna need to bang some girls to revive your clan, right?"

"Women, not girls," Sasuke surprised him by correcting him promptly, "Weak, useless deadweight, I have no interest in them being the mother of my children and the future matriarch of my clan. Besides, that goal is secondary, and something that can be taken away at any moment, unless I accomplish my main goal."

"Killing your brother?" Daiki nodded in understanding.

"Yesss," Sasuke hissed, his eyes onyx eyes flashing red briefly, "You're a lot smarter than my teammates, beyond Kakashi, those other two have no idea what I'm after."

Daiki shrugged, "Naruto can't understand it, he'd try, but he won't be able to understand it, because he hasn't experienced anything like that," he reasoned, "And Sakura has deluded herself into believing she's in love with you, when she knows jack all about you."

A brief chuckle left Sasuke, "Funny, you sound like you do though." he pointed out.

"A bit," he nodded in response, "I'm an orphan. But I did know my parents for a little while, or at least my mother. My father was killed by the Kyuubi during its attack, and my mother was eaten away by its corrosive chakra for a few years before dying."

"I suppose you can understand a bit then," Sasuke agreed, "Though, you at least have the solace of knowing the one who murdered your family is dead and gone now."

Daiki chuckled, "You'd think so, huh?" he hummed, but said nothing else on the matter.

It was funny, before he basically became a fusion of two people, he originally despised the Kyuubi, hating it for making him live life of an orphan. But, perspective really was key.

And he found he couldn't hate Kurama. Not only was he mind controlled into the attack, he'd been sealed away, for nearly an entire century, used and abused by humans, he couldn't blame the fox for attacking humans on sight and trying to kill them when the Sharingan hypnosis was broken.

They lapsed into a silence that hung in the air. It was only broken by Sasuke giving a cough and reaching into his pocket, withdrawing a small scroll, "Here, by the way, as we agreed on," the boy handed it over to him, "I've written down all the instructions you'll need to learn the fireball jutsu."

"Oh, right, thanks," Daiki blinked, accepting it, before looking Sasuke in the eye, "You're a lot more civil than you were yesterday."

Sasuke smirked, "You proved you were worth my time," he responded simply, "You're strong."

Daiki grinned proudly, "And getting stronger and stronger every damn day." he agreed.

"Next time, I'll win." Sasuke vowed.

"We'll see," Daiki actually found he was quite eager for another spar with him, "By the way, on the matter of Sakura, while I wouldn't mind a tumble with her, she's way too high maintenance for my liking, you can keep her."

"How generous of you," the dark haired Uchiha replied, voice dry and rolling his eyes, "Well, maybe pigs will learn to fly and I'll be able to foist her off on Naruto, along with that Yamanaka annoyance, unlikely, but I can dream."

Snorting, the Uchiha heir gave him a nod, bidding him goodbye, and walked away, leaving Daiki behind.

He watched his fellow genin leave, eyes fixated on his back, "…Huh, did I just become friends with that guy?" he wondered.