Clone Jutsu

A/N: These are regular clones, not shadow clones just to be clear. Regular Clones are a lower rank jutsu. 

Sasuke came running towards Eiji for the fourth time that week as if he hadn't seen him for a decade.

"Up! Up!" Sasuke demanded, raising his hands and looking towards his older cousin.

Crouching down, Eiji said, "Fine! Just this once!" in a fake annoyed tone. He lifted Sasuke up above his shoulder and walked around the room. Sasuke, who was fed up with going slow, started tugging at Eiji's hair, urging him to go faster.

"Go, go, go!" the small boy yelled in excitement.

'He really thinks I'm some sort of horse, huh…?'

"Don't pull your cousin's hair, Sasuke!" Mikoto scolded.

Sasuke let go of Eiji's hair and crossed his arms, furrowing his brow. "Hmph! This is boring!" he complained. Eiji chuckled; he enjoyed spending time with his younger cousin.

Tapping Sasuke's nose, Eiji said, "Why don't you go on your brother's shoulders then?" Eiji got close to Itachi and pretended as if he was about to hand Sasuke over.

"No!! Too small!!" Sasuke exclaimed, on the verge of tears. Eiji erupted into laughter, and so did Mikoto.

"Hear that, Itachi?" Eiji joked.

Itachi sighed and smiled. "You don't like my shoulder, Sasuke?" he asked.

Sasuke shook his head aggressively, making his answer very clear. Not caring for Sasuke's opinion, Itachi took Sasuke off Eiji's shoulder and lifted him up high, tickling him. Eiji made a faint smile and made his way over to his uncle, who was sitting down drinking his tea in silence.

"Uncle, I'd like to talk to you about something private. Can we talk in another room?" Eiji requested.

Fugaku peered into Eiji's eyes and noticed how determined they were. "Alright," Fugaku simply said, standing up and leading the way to his room.

Fugaku had changed. He was no longer the uncle Eiji knew. Entering the room and closing the door behind him, Eiji began, "I believe this discrimination we're facing was carefully curated. The way these rumors spread. They're unnatural! It's like everywhere I go, everyone believes the clan is responsible for—"

Fugaku's eyes widened. He was astonished that a child of Eiji's age had the ability to figure these things out. "I know… We know," Fugaku interrupted.

"Then what're we meant to—" Eiji continued.

"You're not supposed to worry about these sorts of things. Let the adults take care of it. Also, I'm sure you're a smart kid and haven't done this, but don't speak about this out in the open," Fugaku cut in.

Closing the curtains, the clan-head stated, "Once you become a genin, you can become involved in our affairs. That rank is a mark of competence and maturity. For now, stay out of things and don't dig around. You'll only make things worse." Fugaku commanded with a stern expression.

Eiji nodded, and his uncle patted him on the shoulder, opening the curtains. "I'll put my life on the line to protect each and every member of our clan," Fugaku reassured.

"Eiji, we've got to go," Itachi said, entering the room. Eiji followed Itachi, waved at the family, and left the house.

"Itachi, I won't be going to the academy today. I only came to speak to Uncle Fugaku," Eiji revealed.

Itachi was indifferent to the news and only replied, "Ok," and walked off.

'He's never going to change, is he? Well, I guess he did sacrifice social skills in order to get stronger; after all, he's somehow able to keep up with me.'

Alone in front of Itachi's home, Eiji decided to get a move on and start training; however, he needed to bring the clone technique scroll and the chakra control book along with him in order to get started.

'Looks like I'll have to sneak home.'

To save time, Eiji rushed home, snuck through his room window, and picked up the books, heading to the training grounds. Reaching his location fairly quickly, Eiji wasted no time. He opened the scroll and started reading.

An hour of analyzing the scroll passed, and Eiji had understood the basic gist of it.

'So these are afterimages that aren't actually real and cannot be touched. In other words, it's like an illusion. The hand signs are Ram, Snake, and Tiger. Let's test it out.'

Keeping focused, Eiji weaved the hand signs, but nothing appeared. Eiji slumped to the ground and pondered what he did wrong.

'I did everything perfectly. What's the reason for it not working?'

From his peripheral vision, Eiji saw something move. Turning to see what it was, he realized it was another being that looked exactly like him.

'It worked!'

Standing up, he got closer to the clone and ran his hand through it. "Whoa. It isn't exactly like my father's clone, but at least I'm one step closer," he said under his breath.

Dispelling the clone, Eiji sat back down and continued reading the chakra control book from where he had previously left off.

He sat there for hours reading the book until he had reached almost halfway. Getting tired of reading, Eiji decided to recap the most important part of what he had just learned. More specifically, the more advanced method of improving his chakra control.

'The book mentions that Tree Climbing Practice is a method to improve my chakra control. Apparently, I need to use a fixed amount of chakra that isn't too little or too much in order for my feet to remain stuck to the tree. I'll start off slow.'

Locating the nearest tree that was big enough, Eiji approached it and laid on his back, placing his feet on the trunk. He gradually gathered his chakra to his feet, increasing the amount until he could feel his feet stick to the trunk. Eiji spent an hour memorizing the amount of chakra required to keep his feet stuck on the trunk.

'Ok, now I just need to walk up the tree, using the same amount of chakra. Shouldn't be too hard from here.'

Confident in his ability to climb the tree, Eiji stood up and placed his foot on the tree, sticking it on. He then did the same with his other foot. Eiji felt slightly sick from being tilted horizontally.

'This isn't as easy as I thought. If I hold on, I think I'll get used to it...'

He proceeded as planned and began scaling the tree one step at a time. The more time he spent stuck to the tree, the more the doubt of falling disappeared. Eiji started to move around as he pleased, his fear of falling severely diminished.

'This is kind of fun—'

Thud! Eiji dropped to the ground. He had been excessively optimistic in his own abilities, to the point he had begun doing movements he couldn't support with his chakra control. Holding his arm in pain, Eiji groaned, rolling over to alleviate pressure from his arm.

'I got too cocky... It's not all bad though. I've made a significant amount of progress.'

"You hurt?" a familiar voice asked, rushing over. It was Shisui, and he had a slight look of concern on his face.

"What were you even doing?" Shisui questioned, inspecting Eiji's arm. Itachi appeared by Shisui's side, looking at Eiji, confused. Against giving off the impression that he was weak, Eiji stood up, brushing the dust off his arm.

"I'm completely fine. Don't worry about it," Eiji answered.

Shisui got up and clapped his hands. "That's great. We can do the sparring match in that case!"

"Sparring?" Eiji wondered aloud.

"You and Itachi will be having a spar. I want to see how much improvement you've both made and give you some pointers on how to improve," Shisui explained.

'I've been wondering who's stronger between us lately... It wouldn't hurt to find out. Although, I'd bet on myself any day of the week.'

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If we get to 70 powerstones by next Monday, you'll get a double release on that day. Support with powerstones if you enjoy the story.