5. Personal Growth

Konohagakure no Sato

Year 68​

Totsu​ POV:

Amidst the green field I stood patient as the gentle summer breeze caress my clothes and tousle my hair. But I was lost to the evening caress, however, my focus grasped by my recent creation…jutsu.

Chakra churned in my abdomen, molding and transforming into my preferred shape. I opened my eyes with a snap, and my hands flew into motion to execute the hand seals of the jutsu I had been preparing.

Hitsuji (Ram).

"Doton: Iwa Bunshin no Jutsu!"

The vocalisation was unnecessary, but I wasn't locked in combat thus I indulged. The earth beneath my feet rambled and injected into my feet, streaming out a moment later before transforming into a formation of rocks that swiftly took the shape of a form mirroring my image.

Upon the jutsu's completion, half of my chakra reserves had depleted, drained by the considerable amount of energy I had pumped into it, and my tenketsu burned from such a substantial influx.

A fleeting sense of weakness overcame me, staggering me enough to get me to one knee. As I knelt, the ambient chakra began to rush into my network, emboldened by my finer control.

I was not fond of this feeling, I concluded.

"The performance of this jutsu was pathetic," came a pitched and young voice, urging me to glance up at the frowning face of my first solid Bunshin, which was inspecting its body and the surroundings with a not so enthusiastic look. It was strange to hear my own voice from a mouth not my own.

…at least not truly my own.

It had short, dark grey hair that framed its youthful face. Big, brown eyes conveying a hint of seriousness and a frowning expression that added to its soft charm. The Bunshin was dressed in knee-reaching black shorts and a soft greenish-grey shirt, it exuded an aura of childish determination that made the whole image look rather cute…

My god, this was how I looked like?

Amused, I stood with a steadying stagger…recovering as I made to reply, "It was. I've only recently learned the jutsu, and I wanted to test its limitations quickly. How do you feel?"

It wasn't a lie what my Bunshin said, the Doton jutsu was slow and required a catalyst in the form of earth that gets reabsorbed into the user, momentarily immobilizing them.

A severe disadvantage in combat… But Ōnoki was able to perform it without a catalyst and while also inflight.

It would take some time and effort to reach that level…even more if I wanted fast performance without hand seals.

While many might see my equation to the Third Tsuchikage as arrogant, I was, in fact, fully capable of mastering earth jutsu to that proficiency and in a reduced time, as Earth was my nature.

It wasn't what I had wanted, but it was what I got. Plus I had already mastered its transformation and acquired many of its jutsu. In the same boat was Fire, and a semi-complete mastery in Wind chakra — transforming it still had a lag of half a second and a conscious need for focus.

"I'm unrestrained, except for the fact that I only have access to Earth Chakra, which limits my jutsu options. I may be stronger and more durable than you, but I'm also slower and less versatile," it admitted without much fuss. Its personality was more direct and honest, I noted, but that had been what I was aiming for.

This was good…great, in a fact I could design the personality of my solid Bunshin. It was a simple feature that many lacked…and I had been spoiled by Naruto's excessive usage of Kage Bunshin that I had unconsciously thought personality retainment was a feature in all Bunshin variants…that had been a rude awakening.

Another unfortunate was I couldn't integrate an offensive mechanism upon its defeat like Kakashi could with his Raiton: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, but then again, the base for that was the Kage Bunshin, and I still don't know how to make one, or even if I had the capacity to make one.

Disregarding those thoughts, I brought attention back to my Bunshin.

"Expected. I'm guessing you have access to all my other skills?" He nodded, "then take a stance, I need to truly test just how strong I truly am."

"Any restrictions?" It asked as it complied, mirroring my own stance.

'The arrogance in this one,' I mused with a quirked smile.

"I will refrain from using Ninjutsu outside the Academy Ninpō, you are free to use anything."

"Then come!"

In that fleeting moment, a tacit understanding passed between us, and we silently infused our bodies with an abundance of chakra, pushing past our baser limits. I could feel adrenaline unlock my restricted potential.

——————

Clone POV:

Earth chakra subsumed it, augmenting its overall capabilities and maintaining the enhancements with a steady stream of chakra through its phenomenal handle over the manipulation…

The creator, swift and decisive, made the first move, exploding into motion as he closed the distance to the clone with astonishing speed, reminding it of its lesser status in this bout.

He blurred through the air, launching a cutting kick aimed to end the fight in one decisive strike. It seemed the creator was truly serious about gauging his progress.

Had the spars at Academy not been enough…or the chūnin he so often spied on in their training.

However, they shared battle sense, and the clone was not caught unbalanced. Body reacting without much conscious input, it quickly brought two fingers to its face and let its chakra stir and solidify as one of the refined basic jutsu came to mind converted…

"Doton," it whispered with a jump as the earthen chakra grasped into the ground, "Kawarimi no Jutsu!"

In a flash, a chunk of rock took the clone's place, shattering upon impact with the creator's vacuuming kick. It emerged a second later, unwinded, chakra churning as it went to slot another jutsu, this one unrefined. in its retaliatory counterattack.

Its hands flew into motion and ended with the seal of confrontation, earth chakra moulded in its mouth…

Doton: Iwa Sutoraiki!

A stone pebble shot out with true aim…

But the creator proved a predictor as well, his hands blurring as shuriken and kunai were flung, each with their own target. The kunai deftly deflected the jutsu aside, but the shuriken found no purchase save for the the dismissal of the unmassed illusion.

The clone had substituted itself with a dust clone, a result of conjuring the Academy Bunshin with earth chakra.

Totsu eyes widened…

Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu!

The pebble exploded into a cloud of dust, obstructing vision as the clone shot out from the ground of which it had hidden, appearing within striking range, delivering an aggressive punch towards the creator's ribs. It's attack rippled and parted the air as it vacuumed past it…whistling.

"Gotcha!"

Failure met its expectations as its punch met a soft tap of downward redirection at the hand of its opponent, before it felt a sharp impact erupting from its cheek as its vision shifted.

A…kick?

Its jaw had been cracked…and weakened. The fact was had it been mortal then that attack would have been enough to take it out of the fight.

Realization hit it—it had forgotten that Totsu relied more on his chakra sense than his vision, a countermeasure against Sharingan users with a focus on genjutsu. Vision clouding techniques would do it no favours.

The earthen construct quickly made to counter, separating its captured limb from the rest of its body at the risk of reducing its overall reserves by a sizeable factor.

…and not a moment too soon as a chakra thread guided kunai struck where its head had been.

Seizing the opportunity and the advantage of its lack of nerves, the clone whirled with a hastened reverse roundhouse kick.

…

BOOM!

The shockwave from the impact dispersed the shroud the earth based smoke ball had caused, leaving behind a clear image of the creator having halted the attack with his left palm, as the limb had rushed to protect his right shoulder.

The grip tightened, but the clone was just as decisive. It chose to detach yet another limb, pushing toward the ground to create distance.

Its opponent tossed the crumbling limb to the side, revealing the damage it had inflicted. Two of the creator's fingers were broken. Dislocated.

"You need to consider picking up Iryō Ninjutsu," it said as it shoved its remaining hand to the ground, pulsing its chakra to reconstruct its missing limbs.

Its opponent patiently waited, inspecting his injured hand. "I know, though I don't know how to do so without going through the right channels," he answered with little change in his tone, indicating that his pain tolerance exercises had been successful.

As the clone stood and tested its new limbs, it found them adequate but slightly weaker than the original due to its reduced reserves. It looked at its opponent and suggested, "Then reverse-engineer it like most of the jutsu in your repertoire. I doubt it would be that difficult."

"No, though it will take a long time. I already have plenty of projects, and if I keep adding to the pile, I'd never be done."

That was true. Aside from the sharingan acquisition project, the creator had other ongoing endeavors, like the Sage Juinjutsu seal that would absorb, convert, and balance Natural Energy, injecting it into his network without any severe ramifications. There was also the Chimera Project, which still lacked the Kage Bunshin in its equations. Along with regular training, these left little time in the day for relaxation.

"How is the Sharingan Acquisition project coming along?" The earthen clone inquired.

"The plan has been laid out, and I have already designed a chakra conversion seal. It will try to mimic the Uchiha's unique chakra as much as possible, enough to be able to deactivate and activate the eyes at will," He winced as he rearranged one of his fingers. "Thought to boost the rate of familiarity, I'm going to have to acquire the eyes of an Uchiha with the same blood type as me."

Genetic alteration through blood transfusion? Then again, Madara was able to achieve a similar effect through nonsensical grafting.

"If this works, it could help with your common genetic structure and frail chakra network," it agreed.

Despite the advantages of unmatched chakra sensing and internal chakra manipulation, its creator had a weak genetic structure compared to second or third generation shinobi. His muscles weren't as strong or chakra conductive, and his chakra networks strained easily, limiting his ability to use high-ranked jutsu without losing feeling within his tenketsu, even with his expanded reserves.

This was why the creator had rushed the solid clone project, to find an alternate way to use those jutsu…

"The acquisition of Senninka would also void that weakness. Natural Energy is bound to be better at reinforcing both the body and spirit."

——————

Totsu POV​:

It also had a healing factor, albeit it wasn't as potent as Hashirama's. Another lance of pain shot through my hand as the last finger was relocated into its rightful place.

Blocking the Bunshin's attack head-on had been a foolish move on my part, especially considering it was twice as strong as me. The impact had also fractured my bone, but the constant circulation of chakra through my body kept the damage from fully taking hold, and the unending surge of adrenaline was nullifying my body's natural defiance.

"Though you still need Jūgo or the snake's second version of the Ten no Juin or Chi no Juin," the Bunshin remarked, assuming a stance…

It was time to end this training session.

…I reciprocated in kind, channeling my base chakra into Fire to maximize the power of my strikes and add more speed to my movements.

The Bunshin had been right in its exclusion, I knew better than to be optimistic about Jiraiya using his imperfect Sage Mode anywhere near my vicinity. And even if he did, most of his conversion was done by frogs…toads, mimicry would be nigh-impossible considering how our chakra networks and physiologies differed.

And I wasn't truly fond of Toad Sage Mode…I wouldn't be able to use it to its full potential without Frog Kata.

Redness came to my skin as I shot forth…

—————

Clone POV:

Another kick landed on its solar plexus, sending it tumbling backward towards the trees in the distance. The clone gritted its teeth and didn't allow the momentum to bring it to a stop.

Chakra pulsed and its right hand touched the ground…

Doton: Iwa Funka no Jutsu!

The ground answered its call as rocks started to emerge from the gravel, hindering its opponent's path, who had been heading towards it while also deflecting the shuriken he had flung its way.

Another pulse of chakra activated another sealless jutsu as its earth sense picked up his location—the clone could only sense the earth chakra within its creator.

Doton: Shunshin no Jutsu!

It was a suicide move, using its body and momentum to slam into its opponent… A moment later, it felt impact happen, though it seemed that the creator had sensed its emergence and made to defend…

It didn't matter.

The clone spun, earth chakra enhancing its body as its arm struck him and sent him huddling into the erupted rocks.

"Urgh!"

Blood spurted from its creator's mouth as he crashed in the stone, cracking and felling some of them…for a second it feared it had done too much damage before…

Puff!

…the false creator turned into a log that promptly shattered after the Henge placed on it was expelled.

The clone's eyes widened as realisation came to it, "…then that means—"

Something that was compressed with enough chakra to charge an A-ranked jutsu touched on its back near the core area.

"Sunkei!"

Totsu shouted just below it, his stance a refined mimicry of the Shikodachi!

The deliverance of the attack found its whole body erupting into a thousand pieces just from the power packed into the punch, ending the clone's existence.