Chapter – 5 Learning the First Jutsu

"Let's see…" muttered the young Uchiha as he put a Shuriken on the empty sealing Scroll spread on the wooden study table. The scroll was given to him by Yūgao this morning, and after transferring all the stuff he brought from the Uchiha Compound, he decided to learn the sealing Jutsu, this would be his first Jutsu.

Of course, Sealing Jutsu wouldn't be 'Uchiha Sasuke's' first Jutsu, after all, the boy has already learned Fireball Jutsu prior to the Uchiha Genocide, but that was Sasuke from before, the current version is a fusion of Sasuke and the assassin, he is Sasuke, but he is not 'Sasuke,' and as Sasuke, Sealing Jutsu is technically the first Jutsu he is about to learn.

Recalling the Hand Signs Yūgao had used while demonstrating the Sealing Jutsu, Sasuke slowly repeated them, Tiger – Rat – Dog – Boar – Bird, then he slammed his left hand (dominant hand) on the scroll. Sasuke felt his Chakra being expended as the Shuriken placed on the Scroll turned into white smoke and tried to enter inside the Scroll, 'Success?' he wondered in amazement, however, it didn't go as he expected, the white smoke collided with the Scroll but failed to enter inside, as a result, it transformed back into the Shuriken.

'Ugh, that's what I get for raising the flag!' thought Sasuke with a pout as he shook his head and once again placed the Shuriken on the Sealing Scroll ready to perform the Sealing Jutsu.

It made sense that he did not succeed in his first attempt, after all, Chakra and Jutsu are somewhat of a foreign concept for him, and adapting and learning these things would naturally take a few attempts. This is also one of the reasons why he started with a very low-level Jutsu. Almost everyone (all the Chunins and above, as well as quite a few Genins) in this world should know the basic Sealing Jutsu, therefore, Sasuke also believes that he should be able to master this Jutsu without much difficulty, and since he is only trying to seal a Shuriken inside, so the Chakra consumption shouldn't be too high either.

With that in mind, Sasuke once again weaved the hand signs, only this time, he also closed his eyes and tried to feel the flow of Chakra through his Chakra Pathway System (Chakra Network) as he performed the sealing Jutsu, Tiger – Rat – Dog – Boar – Bird, and then slammed his hand on the scroll, 'Sealing Jutsu!'

Once again the Shuriken turned into white smoke and tried to enter inside the Sealing Scroll, and unlike the previous attempt it started to enter inside, looking at half of the smoke that went inside the scroll, Sasuke smiled, 'This time I won't jinx it…' just as he had such a thought, it stopped, and the rest of the smoke which had entered inside also came out and transformed back into the Shuriken.

'Ugh, why this time? I didn't raise the flag this time…' mumbled Sasuke with a pout as he once again put the Shuriken in the assigned spot and weaved the hand sign, Tiger – Rat – Dog – Boar – Bird, and slammed his left hand on the ground, 'Sealing Jutsu!'

The Shuriken once again turned into white smoke and tried to enter inside the scroll. Sasuke nervously watched the white smoke, 'Come on… work, if I can't even perform such a simple Jutsu in my third attempt, then what kind of Genius am I? Itachi could probably perform this Jutsu just as he had come out of Kaa-san's womb! It has to be a success this time…' he thought as the smoke slowly entered inside the sealing scroll and disappeared as the Kanji symbol of Shuriken appeared on the sealing scroll.

'It worked?' thought Sasuke in surprise as a small smile of accomplishment crept on his lips. 

Immediately, he retrieved another Shuriken from his Shinobi bag and placed it on the place next to the previous Shuriken, then once again he performed the hand signs, Tiger – Rat – Dog – Boar – Bird then slammed his left hand on the scroll. Just like the last time, the second Shuriken also turned into white smoke, and without any problems or surprises, it entered the Scroll, and then the Kanji symbol for Shuriken appeared next to the previous symbol.

Sasuke's smile widened, and he thought to himself, 'Good, I've got the hand of it, I think,' then he took out a dozen Shuriken from his Shinobi bag and tried to seal them inside the Sealing Scroll one by one.

He failed to seal the dozen Shurikens in a dozen attempts, it took him fifteen attempts to successfully seal the dozen Shurikens inside the sealing Scroll, but by the time he sealed the last Shuriken, he was confident that he could perform sealing Jutsu one object at a time without any problem.

"Step 1 is completed…" muttered Sasuke, then his eyes became sharper, and he decided to move on to the next step, "Now it's time for step 2… the Unsealing Jutsu!"

The hand signs for the unsealing Jutsu are the same as those of the Summoning Jutsu, the reason for this coincidence is that the things that are stored inside the Sealing Scrolls using the Sealing Jutsu are summoned out of the Sealing Scrolls using the Summoning Jutsu, therefore, the Unsealing Jutsu and Summoning Jutsu are somewhat similar, the only difference being that for the summoning Jutsu only the creatures that have a summoning contract with the summoner are summoned, meanwhile, for the unsealing Jutsu only the things stored inside the sealing scroll at the person's disposal are summoned/unsealed.

With that in mind, Sasuke weaved the hand signs, Boar – Dog – Bird – Monkey – Ram, and slammed his left hand on the sealing scroll, and without any problem, the first Shuriken that he had sealed inside the scroll was unsealed. The Kanji symbol turned into white smoke, and it exited the scroll then it took the form of the Shuriken on top of the Sealing Scroll.

"Alright, that's a success…" nodded Sasuke as he went on to unseal the remaining Shurikens one by one. Unlike when he sealed them, this time, without any problem, he managed to unseal them. There were no wasted attempts and each attempt resulted in one Shuriken being unsealed.

'With that, the Sealing and Unsealing Jutsu have been learned,' thought Sasuke as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. He wouldn't say that he has mastered this Jutsu yet since there are several levels and variances to these two Jutsu such as sealing and unsealing multiple objects at the same time, sealing and unsealing living things, sealing and unsealing other Jutsus, sealing and unsealing Chakra and so much more, but, in a sense, he has learned this Jutsu and can master it with practice.

Naturally, Sasuke doesn't intend to go Tenten's route, that would be foolish of him, but, mastering the Sealing and Unsealing Jutsu wouldn't be useless, he might be able to do a lot of cool and useful things in the future as he figures out his things.

"Well, time for a short break, I guess?" muttered Sasuke as he got up from the chair and went to the kitchen. 

Having used some Chakra while performing the sealing and unsealing Jutsu numerous times, Sasuke felt a little drained, it wasn't to the extent that he did not have any Chakra reserves remaining, he still had enough juice to be able to do the same amount of work he has done earlier at least two to three times more, and would still have enough Juice for more, after all, even as a child 'Sasuke' could perform the Rank-C 'Fireball Jutsu' without any Chakra problems, but… he did feel a little drained at the moment.

"I see… as I consume Chakra, I will grow physically and mentally somewhat tired," he muttered, somewhat understanding his current physical condition, and nodded to himself, "It's nothing that a short break and a meal can't resolve."

…

After lunch and rest, Sasuke got back to the study with a scroll in his hand, it was the scroll of a Rank-B Jutsu, that being the Shadow Clone Jutsu. 

Undoubtedly, the Shadow Clone Jutsu is one of the two most useful Jutsu, with the most useful Jutsu being the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu, but the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu is a little risky for the current Sasuke. It's not that he cannot perform the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu, he can, and would probably be able to create a dozen or so Shadow Clones, but the Chakra distribution would be too small, and they wouldn't last long for more than a minute. If by chance he were to run out of Chakra because of this problem, he would end up dying, so Sasuke did not want to take that risk and limit himself to a single Shadow Clone for the time being.

Now as for why the Shadow Clone Jutsu is the most useful? Certainly, it can act as a body double and can be used for reconnaissance and other similar stuff, but the most useful part comes from its ability to transfer back the memories and experience that it gains during its lifetime back to the used once it's released.

In the canon, Naruto managed to complete many years' worth of training in a matter of a few days and succeeded in creating a Rank-S Ninjutsu, therefore, Shadow Clone Jutsu is without a doubt the most useful ninjutsu there is!

Sasuke has nearly five years until the final round of the Chunin exams, before that he has to get strong enough to be able to kill Sarutobi Hiruzen, otherwise, that life will be taken away by Orochimaru, he doesn't want that… that damned Sandaime Hokage must die in his hands, it cannot be Orochimaru… moreover, once he kills the Hokage, he would be in a serious pinch. The least he would have to be worried about would be becoming a rouge-nin, and the most would be a siege of the entire Konohagakure which would most definitely include the likes of Jiraiya, Hatake Kakashi, and Might Guy.

He understands that five years is nearly not enough for him to reach that level considering his current strength, but with the help of Shadow Clones, it becomes possible. If he and a Shadow Clone work together and train, he would gain ten years' worth of strength within just five years, if he were to work together and train with two Shadow Clones, he would gain fifteen years' worth of strength within just five years, and this experience would continue to increase the more Shadow Clones he uses, therefore, Shadow Clone Jutsu is his go-to approach, but there's also a problem… along with the experience, fatigue also comes to the body once the Shadow Clone is resolved.

Unlike Naruto, or any other Senju or Uzumaki for that matter, the Uchiha are not known for their strong physique. The Uchiha have superior mental strength, while the Senju and the Uzumaki excel in physical strength and Chakra, therefore, Sasuke doesn't have a very resilient body, and unlike Naruto, he certainly does not have the Nine-tails inside him to constantly heal him of his injury and fatigue, so he understand that he cannot use too many for training probably one or two at most, otherwise, his body would be overloaded with fatigue that it wouldn't be able to recover from and it would collapse because of overexertion.

'For now, let's go with one shadow Clone…' thought Sasuke as he unfolded the scroll and read the description of the Jutsu.

"I see… so before learning the Shadow Clone Jutsu, I should also master the Clone Jutsu to gain a little experience of this sort of Jutsu, the Chakra Flow is… I see, it's this way… and the hand signs are… hmm, understood, and there's also a need for the mental image, huh? Got it," nodded Sasuke to himself.

Unlike the Shadow Clone Jutsu, the Clone Jutsu is only a Rank-E ninjutsu since it only creates a few afterimages, and mastering it is also one of the three prerequisites for graduating from the Konoha Ninja Academy, therefore, almost everyone saves for a few people are able to use this Jutsu by the time they graduate from the Konoha Ninja Academy. 

Sasuke does not have any intention of graduating in advance but learning this Jutsu can also help him get a step closer to the Shadow Clone Jutsu, therefore, it's better for him to learn it.

After putting down the scroll, Sasuke stood up and got ready. He prepared a clear mental image of his physical appearance in his mind while weaving the hand signs, Ram – Snake – Tiger, and used the technique, 'Clone Jutsu!'

Poof!

White smoke appeared beside him as an entity appeared beside him. The entity had neither mass nor weight, it was just a hologram sort of existence, and it looked like the litt– "Uh oh, I ended up imagining my appearance from my previous life…" muttered Sasuke with a helpless chuckle as he quickly dispelled the Clone Jutsu, and once again used it… this time making sure that he imagines his current self.

Ram – Snake – Tiger, 'Clone Jutsu!' Instantly, there was a poof of smoke, and as the white smoke cleared an entity nearly identical to his current self appeared beside him. Only nearly identical because there were a few small discrepancies between his current self and the Clone, but those are just some small details, since he already understands the flow of Chakra within the Chakra Pathway while performing this Jutsu, a few more attempts with a clearer picture in mind would make the Clone Jutsu perfect.

…

Three hours later

Ram – Snake – Tiger, 'Multiple Clone Jutsu!'

Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof!

There were several 'poofs' of white smoke as dozens of entities appeared in the apartment. Each clone looked identical to the original body, there was no difference in their appearance, it was as if dozens of Sasuke had appeared in the room, however, when he walked closer to one of the Clones and waved his hand, his hand easily passed through the entity, meaning it was not an entity, just a hologram… in other words, just a Genjutsu.

That's correct, Clone Jutsu actually falls under the Genjutsu branch. While most Genjutsu follow the mechanism of controlling the target's chakra flow and making them fall under Genjutsu, Clone Jutsu follows a different mechanism, it creates a hologram/mirage of the user that everyone is able to see. In fact, Hōzuki Gengetsu also uses a similar Jutsu using his Giant Clam summon to create a wide area mirage, and as far as Sasuke thinks, even that mysterious Body Flicker Technique used by Shisui to create all those entities also implements the Clone Jutsu to a certain extent.

Regardless, the Clone Jutsu has been mastered, now it's finally time for him to learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu, but before that, he needs a small snack break in order to recover Chakra and relax for a while.

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