Chapter 51: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu

Fifteen days have passed since Toru's training began, in that time, the boy learned many things regarding taijutsu.

The first thing is that speed is not everything when fighting, but also strength and strategy, these are things that Toru already knew, however he was executing them badly, he also learned to defend himself from far distance jutsu. But there was something that bothered Toru a little, and it is that strange taijutsu of Yamato, Mokuton.

Toru could not understand the main fundamentals of that jutsu, it was as if Yamato was born with that ability, but thinking back, isn't that jutsu from the first Hokage?

(I should do more research on that)

Shrugging his shoulders, Toru sat on a rock, waiting for his sensei to arrive. It wasn't long before the man arrived.

"Good morning, Yamato-sensei."

Bowing slightly, Toru lowered his head and greeted his master, Yamato did the same.

"Good morning, looks like Hanabi won't be coming."

Sighing in relief, Yamato put his hands together and from the ground roots came out and formed a chair, he was a bit stressed after all, having Hanabi interrupting training was a bit overwhelming, so he came up with the wonderful idea of having that girl train alongside Toru.

Surprisingly the method worked, moreover, Hanabi demonstrated superb skills, easily surpassing Hinata. Now Yamato understood his student a little, a girl who underestimates her own abilities can't get very far, even worse, she was defeated by someone of her own blood, so it must be difficult for her.

"Let's not waste time, let's start with the next phase of this training."

"Ninjutsu, right?"

"Exactly."

Crossing his arms, Yamato began to mentalize this training. There were different types of jutsu he could teach his student, but most had to do with his own jutsu, namely Mokuton.

The truth is that this phase was not very well thought out, in fact, Yamato thought that he could not teach him any ninjutsu, but an idea came to his mind.

"Sensei?"

Realizing the situation Yamato was in, Toru bowed his head slightly in confusion. Since he was going to train his ninjutsu, Toru wanted to ask him to teach him how to create shadow clones, i.e. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

When Toru saw Naruto use that jutsu, he was quite surprised, since a jutsu like that expended large amounts of chakra, this left him a lot to think about, but a second later he came to the quick conclusion that Naruto could use Kage Bunshin no Jutsu many times due to the Kyubi's chakra lodged in his body.

"Sorry, I was thinking about some things."

"I understand..."

Closing his eyes, Toru sighed. He was supposed to train and learn ninjutsu in this phase, however, he didn't want to show his ninjutsu unless necessary. Moreover, Toru wanted to use ninjutsu in case he faced Gaara in the last exam. But what Yamato said next was something that made Toru feel a little relieved.

"The first ninjutsu I will teach you will be... Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

Hearing his teacher's words, Toru felt that I am was very timely of him, it even made him want to laugh. Learning this jutsu will make things a lot easier, so Toru stood to gain a lot from learning this jutsu.

"In order for you to learn this jutsu, you must know the basics of ninjutsu, starting with Bunshin no Jutsu. This jutsu creates intangible copies of the user's body, that is, the copies are just specters of the ninja's body. Unlike the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, which creates solid copies of the user's body, but that's not all, this jutsu allows the copies to think for themselves, and when they disappear, all the information collected by the clones goes directly to the user's mind. This is a Jounin level jutsu, so it will always be difficult to learn."

Nodding, Toru understood everything. Shadow clones are not just simple copies of the user, they are solid clones capable of physically attacking. It is a Jounin level jutsu that requires a high chakra cost due to the fact that the same chakra is distributed in the clones, giving them the ability to perform ninjutsu.

"So, you're ready for this torture I call training?"

Reaching out and clenching his fist, Yamato looked his student in the eyes. Toru sighed before extending his hand, colliding fists with his teacher.

"I know different meanings of the word 'torture', and I can say that this training has no such meaning."

With a strange look of gloomy eyes, Toru looked at Yamato, in response to this, the man chuckled, sometimes Toru could become too interesting, as what goes on in this boy's head is still a mystery to the people around him.

-Konohagakure Hospital-

The morning breeze came in through the window, caressing Hinata's face.

"So it's today, huh..."

Sitting next to her was Ino, who was looking at the scenery through the window. This girl looked strangely happy, as if something very good had happened to her, even if it had been thirteen days since that event.

"You can finally get out of here."

Looking at Hinata with a smile, Ino took her teammate's hands, somehow Hinata looked sad.

"Am I weak, am I a failure?"

Remembering her confrontation against Neji, Hinata clenched the sheets tightly as she tried to keep the tears from spilling out of the corners of her eyes.

"What are you saying so suddenly? You're a hell of a lot stronger than me!"

Trying to cheer Hinata up, Ino sighed. It's more than obvious that Hinata is much stronger than Ino, but what Neji said during the preliminaries was true, Hinata always feels inferior to the others, she is too kind and always tries to stay out of conflicts.

"But I... even though I said I would change the way I am, I... I'm still weak."

Looking at Ino's hands, a tear fell. Her weakness could cause problems for the team in the future, Hinata didn't know how to handle this by herself, everything is very difficult if Toru is gone.

But these words made Ino feel angry. So she gave Hinata a small slap on her forehead.

"It hurts..."

"I'm sorry, did I hit you too hard?"

Hinata touched her forehead in pain, Ino hadn't hit her that hard, but because most of her chakra ducts were still blocked clogged, her body was more sensitive to pain.

"Ha~ Hinata, listen well because I'm only going to say it once."

When Hinata heard Ino, she couldn't help but be curious.

"Hinata is like a white rose in winter."

"A rose?"

Hearing Hinata's question, Ino looked at the sky through the window, stretched out her hand as if reaching for the sun and smiled.

"No matter how many storms and how much cold you go through, you can always bloom when summer comes. That's why Hinata is like a white rose that has yet to bloom."

After listening to Ino, Hinata somehow felt relieved. These words have saved her from this abyss full of darkness, just like Toru's words.

"That's why you shouldn't hurry, sooner or later, Hinata will bloom as a beautiful white rose."

Smiling, Hinata realized many things. Her teammates are always looking out for her, especially Toru, who didn't hesitate to throw himself into the battle arena to prevent Neji from hitting his teammate.

She had been thinking about things for too long, she always does, that's why she always ends up having thoughts about her own personal shortcomings.

"Sorry for the interruption."

Entering the place, a beautiful sky blue haired nurse approached the two girls as she apologized by bowing her head slightly.

"The hospital has given confirmation that Hyuga patient Hinata can now return home. Mind you, she must not make any sudden movements, as doing so may damage the chakra ducts that were clogged during her battle."

At first glance, the nurse looked a bit clumsy, as everything she said was being read from a small sheet of paper in her hand. She also had her glasses misplaced, in addition to having dark circles under her eyes and her hair developed.

"That's good, then we can go now, Hinata!"

Holding out her hand, Ino looked at Hinata, who reached out her hand, intertwining her fingers with Ino's.

"Yes... friend?"

With a small smile, Hinata's face was a little flushed, this seemed very cute to Ino, so much so that it even made her want to hug her.

"Of course, Hinata. Although I thought we were already friends from before, didn't you think so?"

"Huh?"

Until now, Hinata thought that Ino didn't consider her her friend, but with this she felt embarrassed, since in this team, the only person she could call a friend was Toru, although she didn't know how Toru looked at her either.

-In a forest on the outskirts of Konoha-

"Hah... Hah..."

Breathing heavily, beads of sweat ran down Toru's face. It had been a few hours since the training to learn the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu began, but so far, there had been no progress, the jutsu always failed, leaving sad and depressing deformed clones in sight.

(This is more than I can bear, each clone takes a great deal of my chakra. I've already created forty clones, but they all failed, they don't give the result I want. How did Naruto learn Kage Bunshin?)

Up to this point, Toru couldn't understand how Naruto managed to learn such a complicated jutsu. Although there was no way for Toru to know, but Naruto stole a scroll full of forbidden jutsu, from which he learned Kage Bunshin.

"If you continue this way, you won't be able to create the clones. You must make sure you are doing the hand positions properly. You must also calculate the amount of chakra you give each clone, it's not as easy as Naruto makes it look."

Yamato was right, learning this jutsu without the help of the scroll was torture. Naruto was lucky enough to have the scroll in his hands, which made it easy for him to learn the jutsu in a single night, but with Toru it was different, as Yamato only taught him the manual seals that had to be used in order to innovate a clone.

"Hah... Hah... I don't think I can finish... the jutsu today, it's too much, my chakra is depleting too fast."

Squinting, Yamato understood that this jutsu required a large amount of chakra, but he never thought that Toru would advance so fast with only forty clones.

The first clone was a Chibi version of Toru. The second was a more similar clone, but it was missing one arm and both legs, the jutsu invocation continued until it reached clone number forty, this clone was very similar to Toru, but somehow it was missing both eyes.

"Hm... How about trying to shorten the hand seals?"

As if these words were a salvation, Toru crossed his fingers forming a cross, stared straight ahead and then....

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

As he said these words, a large cloud of smoke appeared, when the smoke dissipated an identical copy of Toru could be seen.

Seeing the original Toru, the clone raised his thumb in victory.

"We made it!"

Looking at Yamato, the clone and Toru spoke in unison. Yamato got up from his seat right away to make sure there was no jutsu failure, to his surprise, the jutsu was successfully executed, it was amazing to see the perfect clone in front of his eyes.

(Then the problem was in the hand positions... I think I made a mistake when I taught him the seals. Ha~ I won't say I was wrong, my image as a sensei would be ruined.)

Shrugging his shoulders, Yamato accepted his own mistake. He had taught the wrong seals to his student, that was a shame for a Jounin, but everyone can make mistakes, so he decided to keep this as a secret to take to his grave.

After that, the clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke, at the same time Toru fell to the ground.

"Sensei, I ran out of chakra."

With an emotionless face, Toru looked up at the sky, the sun had already passed its highest point, which meant that it was already past 1 p.m.

"Then get some rest, we'll resume training when you regain some chakra."

After saying that, Yamato returned to his wooden seat and observed Toru. That kid has a great future ahead of him. He is talented, strong and above all, too smart.

"You want to go get something to eat, I'll pay."

Rising once again, Yamato approached Toru, who responded with a slight nod of his head.

Ninjutsu training has only just begun.