Chapter 29: Uncertain future

Since they had nothing left to do, they went back to their house and decided to start training after two hours.

Kaida just realized that he was in big trouble. Since they will be graduating from the academy this early, Root or Danzo may take an interest in them and try to recruit them.

Yes, the Root—a crazy organization controlled solely by Danzo. They have to do anything he says, even if they know it's suicidal, and they even have a seal on them so they can never betray him. Well, if someone is in Root, it can be said that they are FUCKED UP.

At first, he was sure that Hiruzen would protect them since the village was in dire need of ninjas and all, but now if Danzo tries a little harder, Hiruzen may give two orphan ninjas to him, as he has a soft spot for Danzo.

But then a spark emerged in Kaida's eyes. He was not just some random orphan; he had Uchiha blood in him. The Uchiha are strict about the secrets of their kekkei genkai; the Sharingan is their closely guarded secret. Even though the chances of him unlocking a Sharingan are low, it's still possible. So, he's pretty sure he's safe until the Uchiha massacre.

That means he has roughly six years to build his strength to the point where he doesn't have to worry about Danzo or Root. But this leads to another major problem: if they try to kill all the Uchiha after six years, he may be their target.

This means he has to be strong enough to at least escape from someone of Itachi's caliber.

After sorting out his current problems in his mind, he began meditating and formed a plan to effectively use the week while staying low-key.

(A.N: Don't worry, he won't be like, "Even though I'm powerful, I should hide my powers." No, it's just that he won't go around flaunting his growth and power :-) )

…

After two hours, they started their training for the Shadow Clone Jutsu, though only Kaida was able to train properly.

Yomi was not able to make shadow clones easily; she had to wait some time after making one shadow clone to rest.

If we go by Hiruzen's way of evaluating chakra, she has 15 units of chakra and uses 11 units to make a shadow clone.

This sudden use of a massive portion of her chakra is taxing for her mind and body.

Even when her chakra returns after the clone disperses and she gets 7 units back, the mental strain remains, so she can't continuously practice this jutsu. She still decides to practice and try to reduce the chakra cost of the Jutsu.

Kaida, on the other hand, can make two shadow clones and, after some time, even a third.

After making the third clone, Kaida noticed something: you recover the chakra you lost after making a shadow clone.

But there is a certain amount that you can't recover until the clone disperses. Also, there is a maximum number of clones you can make at a time, as it also depends on your mental capacity, not just chakra.

(A.N: THIS IS MY THEORY: EVEN AFTER PERFORMING SHADOW CLONE JUTSU, YOU WILL RECOVER SOME CHAKRA.

SO, WHAT WILL STOP YOU FROM BECOMING A SHADOW CLONE-MAKING FACTORY?

YES, IT ALSO DEPENDS ON YOUR MENTAL CAPACITY. SO, THE MORE CHAKRA YOU HAVE, THE MORE YOUR MENTAL CAPACITY, AND THE MORE CLONES YOU CAN MAKE.

ALSO, CLONES LOSE SOME CHAKRA OVER TIME, SO AFTER A WHILE, THEY WILL AUTOMATICALLY DISPERSE.

Since this clone is too OP, I decided to nerf it down a little :-p)

…

For two days, they only trained in the Shadow Clone Jutsu.

They didn't just keep performing the jutsu; rather, after performing it, they and their clones would sit and try to come up with ways to reduce the chakra usage of the Jutsu.

Kaida had the upper hand since he had four brains thinking for him compared to Yomi, who only had two.

But since it wasn't a competition, Kaida and Yomi shared their findings from time to time. Because of this, they were somehow able to reduce the cost of the Shadow Clone Jutsu to 9 units of chakra. Sadly, Kaida and Yomi's max number of clones didn't increase.

Yomi, however, was still happy that they were training like this.

They decided to focus mainly on the Shadow Clone Jutsu and put a hold on chakra control exercises, though they still did physical exercises as they had already decided not to stop doing that. Being physically fit was very important for a ninja.

It also helps increase chakra reserves, so physical exercise is constant. But now that they don't have to go to the academy, they have sufficient time to practice the Jutsu.

They even decided to stop eating out and just eat nutrition bars for a week, focusing solely on their jutsu training. By investing nearly 28 hours in Shadow Clone Jutsu training, they were able to achieve something that would have taken them months.

When Hiruzen said they could perform this jutsu with just 6-7 units of chakra, he was talking about Jonin who have years of experience and training.

…

On the morning of the third day:

"Yomi, I think the max number of clones somehow depends on the size of your chakra reserves. So, if we want to increase the max number of clones we can make, we should work on increasing our chakra reserves," Kaida said.

"Hmm, I think so too, and I'm in dire need of increasing my chakra reserves.

But that means we have to focus on learning boring stuff now. Well, since it's important, let's do it," Yomi said with great reluctance.

But the main reason she wanted to increase her chakra reserves was so that she could always stay with Kaida.

*****

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:-)