Ninjutsu Basics

"Alright, Shiran, the first couple of things we need to focus on for the use of chakra and ninjutsu are: 1) How to build up your chakra reserves, 2) Chakra control, and 3) Hand seals. These three things will stick with you throughout your entirety of being a ninja."

I nodded while taking this information in and storing it for reference at a later time. 'This seems like it's going to be a theory-based lesson today.'

"The first thing we will talk about today is how to build up your chakra reserves. Sit in the lotus position and start to meditate. Once you get into a good state, you want to circulate your chakra constantly. The trick is to not let it sit still for more than a couple of seconds, at most. This will get tiring, and you'll start to run out of chakra, but it is the best at increasing your chakra capacity."

I sat in the lotus position to start to extract my chakra from my core and started to do it. After about half an hour, I started to feel physically tired, and my chakra capacity was at around half. After another 20 minutes, I was about to run out of chakra when my dad stopped me.

"Alright, so you will do that every day. Although we Uzumaki are naturally born with much higher reserves, we still have to train up our chakra to an amount that a ninja won't run out of. The second thing is where most Uzumaki struggle because of our large chakra capacity. While chakra control can get very monotonous and tiring, it is the most fundamental part of being a ninja. It helps us release a jutsu of much higher potency for the same amount of chakra.

There are a multitude of chakra control exercises, but the three most well-known are the leaf sticking exercise, wall walking exercise, and water walking exercise. Anything else beyond that is mostly used for our medical ninjas and also ninjas who feel they need the extra training and want to go that extra mile.

You will start on the leaf-sticking exercise once you regain a majority of your chakra. To do the leaf-sticking exercise, you have to channel your chakra into the part of your body you want to stick the leaf onto. If the leaf falls off, it means that you aren't using enough chakra, while if the leaf gets expelled off your body, it means that you're using too much chakra."

Sitting there, I found myself nodding along with what my dad was telling me, trying to absorb all that I could from a man who'd been a ninja his whole life.

"The same rules apply to wall-walking. If you use too little, you'll fall off; if you use too much, you'll be launched from the wall. The obvious difference would be the amount of chakra it takes to stick a human body to a wall instead of a leaf to a human body.

Water walking is a little different because you have to constantly adjust the amount of chakra you put out of your feet to match the current and waves that constantly change out on the ocean or even on a river and lake.

The last thing that we have to talk about is hand signs and molding chakra within your body to get the desired effect. There are 12 basic hand seals that help streamline the use of jutsu. These include 'Bird, Boar, Dog, Dragon, Hare, Horse, Monkey, Ox, Ram, Rat, Snake, and Tiger'. Each of these hand signs helps to channel your chakra through certain pathways in the body and also mold it at the same time so that you can expel a jutsu with the desired effect.

If someone practices or is inclined to a certain jutsu, they can cut down the hand signs to around 1 to 3 but never 0. The reason for that is that no matter if you remember the correct pathway and molding style, you always need to get the chakra to move first, and the only way to do that is by making a hand seal." My dad finished speaking, looking at me to see if I got all of that or if I needed something to be repeated.

"Ok, that all makes sense for the most part. If I can get good enough, I could possibly get my jutsus down to only 1-3 hand signs. At the same time, I need to get my chakra control as precise as possible, especially if I were to go down the ninjutsu path instead of having a focus on taijutsu or kenjutsu."

Nodding, my dad smiled and said, "Good, I'm glad I don't have to repeat anything to you. Now we can get onto the good stuff from now on. Shiran, I'm going to teach you your first couple of jutsus, and I'm also going to give you a challenge that I want to see you complete. The jutsus I will teach you are the Substitution, Transformation, and the Clone techniques.

These are the academy's basic jutsus they'll teach you, but since you're too talented to be held back by the academy's standards, I'm going to show you how to do them, and then I want you to master them. The challenge I will give you is to master the first and second steps of chakra control and then master these jutsus all within 4 days. If you can do it, then I will teach you a brand new jutsu that will help you in your journey of getting stronger."

My eyes practically burst into flames thinking about what the jutsu could be. Maybe it's a nature transformation that I can practice and master. Maybe it's the shadow clone technique that could boost my training speed by a lot, possibly the body flicker if I'm lucky enough. There are so many options on the table; I have to get all of this mastered in even less time if possible. Maybe I can ask for another technique if I master it in less time.

"One last thing, Shiran. Are you aware of the rite of passage jutsus of the various clans of the village?"

"Hmmm, I'm vaguely aware of what they are. Could you explain a little further?"

"Well, in the Yuki clan, you're not considered a real clansman until you can do the Ripple Rite. A water-release jutsu that creates a 4-meter wave in a body of water. The Uchiha clan of the Leaf has something similar where they have to produce a fireball before they're considered true clansmen. Just like them, we have a rite of passage as well called 'The Crimson Spiral Seal.'

This seal is something that comes out a little different for each clan member. They all have the general spiral shape and color of the Uzumaki clan symbol, but they might be a shade lighter/darker, thinner/thicker, there might be words written in the symbol, etc. The purpose of this seal is to pour and seal all your emotions, thoughts, hopes, and wonders of the world into a seal. Making this seal helps every Uzumaki understand the inner workings of seals and sets their path of mastery for the art. Until you truly know how to make this seal,

 you won't be able to understand how the sealing arts work."

I started to get lost in thought. 'How am I supposed to make something from scratch that I don't have any kind of previous knowledge about, and what if I can't do it? Will I ever be able to fully wrap my head around the art of sealing?'

My dad was watching the gears turn in my head while I tried to sort out my thoughts. He offered no other words to me, but there was an unspoken promise of help if I needed it. 'Who wants to go through life accepting others' help and relying on others all the time though? If I can't figure something as simple as a rite of passage seal out, how will I ever make my own seals and jutsus?'

My eyes firmed up as I looked at my dad and told him with unwavering conviction, "I will figure out how to do it."

My dad's face, still stoic, showed a hint of pride at the fact that I didn't ask for any help, even if it was right in front of me.