Chapter 34: Minato's Chakra Nature

"Bang!"

In Training Ground Seven, with a soft sound, Jiraiya's shadow clone disappeared before Minato's eyes. Before Minato could even smile, he immediately sat down on the spot.

"Whew, as expected of Master."

Minato had been entangled with Jiraiya's shadow clone for a long time. Even in the end, he didn't dispel it but merely depleted its chakra. Minato himself had almost used up his own chakra too.

Swish!

Jiraiya's real body immediately appeared before Minato and extended his hand.

Minato took the hand and used it to pull himself up.

"Just one year and you're already monstrous, kid." Jiraiya sighed. A year ago, his shadow clone could have handled Minato with just taijutsu. But the reason it ran out of chakra was because it had used ninjutsu too.

Even so, Minato evaded all those ninjutsu flawlessly with his Body Flicker Technique.

Although the shadow clone's ninjutsu speed and quality couldn't compare to Jiraiya himself, it was enough to see how astonishingly fast his disciple had grown.

And Minato had developed exactly in the direction Jiraiya envisioned, which made Jiraiya's face show a proud expression.

"It's all thanks to Master's guidance. If I was on my own, who knows how long it would take to reach this level," Minato said.

For a year, the master had only made him do the simplest basic training. Yet the fruits of this seemingly simple training were fully displayed today. With just his physical speed now, Minato could evade large-scale C-rank ninjutsu without stress and counter-attack.

Although he didn't know many ninjutsu yet, it didn't affect his growth in strength.

"Hehe," Jiraiya chuckled lightly at this.

"Master, will we still do basic exercises today?" Minato asked next.

Seeing his face full of fighting spirit, Jiraiya smiled slightly, then ruffled his hair and said, "You brat, you're getting a bit arrogant. Have you forgotten what I said before?"

Hearing this, Minato laughed a bit embarrassedly. In his state of severe chakra depletion, he wasn't suited for further training. 

Seeing his reaction, Jiraiya said, "Since you could even defeat my shadow clone, from today onwards I'll teach you ninjutsu."

A year ago, he didn't teach Minato ninjutsu not just because he felt Minato couldn't grasp the timing for releasing it yet, but also because even for basic C-rank ninjutsu, Minato's chakra reserves were inadequate.

By having Minato do basic training, it wasn't solely to solidify his physical fundamentals, but also to increase his chakra reserves.

Chakra was the combination of physical and spiritual energy, so the stronger one's physique, the larger their chakra reserves would grow.

And now Minato's chakra reserves had surprisingly reached chunin levels, something Jiraiya hadn't expected.

Even at his age, Jiraiya's own chakra reserves had been a bit smaller.

It wasn't arrogance - among Konoha's jonin today, no one had larger reserves than him.

It seemed Minato, like himself, was innately gifted to become a powerful shinobi despite not coming from a prestigious clan.

Hearing his master would teach him ninjutsu, Minato's eyes gradually brightened, though he wasn't overly ecstatic.

Through Jiraiya's training, he had truly felt that so-called shinobi didn't necessarily need to master many ninjutsu to become stronger.

Finding a direction suited for oneself was most important.

"The basic ninjutsu concepts, I believe you've already learned plenty at the Ninja Academy. Now I'll tell you some key points about learning ninjutsu," Jiraiya said.

"First, excluding niche ninjutsu, mainstream ones correspond to the five chakra natures: Wind, Fire, Lightning, Earth, and Water. To learn ninjutsu, you need to first understand which of these chakra natures you possess, so you can progress more effectively - it's the same principle as choosing a direction suited to your strengths."

Minato had a basic understanding of this from his teacher Kunio.

Only by learning ninjutsu of one's own chakra nature could the techniques be more powerful, while also consuming much less chakra compared to those without that nature.

The reason the Uchiha clan excelled at Fire Release was because nearly all its members possessed the "Fire" chakra nature.

Jiraiya then produced several pieces of paper made from chakra-absorbing trees. He handed one to Minato and said, "This paper can test each person's chakra nature. Just channel your chakra into it."

"Ah, this is chakra paper, right?" Minato took the paper.

"Seems your theoretical knowledge is quite solid too," Jiraiya smiled. Indeed, during his observation period before taking Minato as a disciple, this child loved reading books.

Although action was most crucial for shinobi, theoretical knowledge still played a role, albeit not Jiraiya's strong suit.

Minato then channeled his remaining chakra into the paper, focusing his full attention on it.

The paper first crumpled, then surprisingly split directly in half, as cleanly as if cut, and finally, flames even burned up, turning the split paper into two halves.

Minato was a bit puzzled, not understanding what these phenomena represented. But when he looked up, he saw a hint of surprise in his master's eyes.

"You actually manifested all your chakra natures directly," Jiraiya muttered, then told Minato, "You have three chakra natures: Lightning, Wind and Fire."

As he spoke, Jiraiya's tone clearly showed some shock. Although it was uncommon for a shinobi to have two or three chakra natures simultaneously, Minato had only been under Jiraiya's tutelage for a year and had not formally trained in chakra control.

Yet he could directly manifest all three of his natures - this was quite astonishing. 

However, recalling that Minato had even self-taught the Body Flicker Technique, Jiraiya gradually accepted it.

This disciple of his was simply a born shinobi genius.

Minato himself didn't fully grasp the significance of manifesting three natures at once.

Ordinarily, even elite jonin would typically only have two natures after dedicated training!

As for the matter of chakra reserves, Jiraiya didn't need to explain - everyone could probably guess Minato's situation.

(End of chapter)