Chapter 477: A New Path for Naruto
For the next half an hour, Naruto kept trying to climb the tree and consistently kept falling to the ground. Thanks to Fujin's clone, the ground was quite soft. So Naruto was barely hurt, if at all.
Fujin's clone looked at Naruto and thought, 'I had initially planned to teach Naruto the four basic Wind jutsus to get some inspiration from him for the Wind Domain. After all, he is very unconventional and usually comes up with crazy ideas.
That said, my Wind Domain is more or less ready now. Jounins won't have any chance of survival if they enter my Wind Domain. Elite Jounins will struggle as well and are very unlikely to survive. Only if they have excellent defense and are able to move instinctively, they will be able to survive. Only rank S ninjas are difficult to kill. But once I manage to integrate Vacuum Blade jutsu into my Wind Domain, they won't be able to rest easy either.
As such, there is no longer much need to push Naruto in this direction. That said, there is no harm in doing so either. Maybe he'll give me a surprise. Even if that isn't the case, it'll be interesting to see how Naruto does with this technique at his disposal.'
Fujin had been very careful while teaching Naruto. Unlike others, he knew how scary Naruto's potential was. If he trained Naruto seriously, the majority of the plot would have changed completely. However, within limits, Fujin was curious to see how Naruto would grow when he had a few more options.
After all, until Naruto met Jiraiya, his jutsu repertoire was extremely pathetic. He only knew the Transformation jutsu, Substitution jutsu and the Shadow Clone jutsu. The only thing he could do was leverage his vast chakra reserves, spam the Shadow Clone jutsu and use ordinary Taijutsu along with shurikens and kunai. Only after he learnt the summoning jutsu and the Rasengan, did he gain more variety. However, even that was extremely limited.
By comparison, Fujin knew close to a hundred jutsus. And, he was still far inferior in this aspect when compared to the likes of Orochimaru, Hiruzen or Kakashi. While knowing more jutsus didn't mean that they used all the jutsus or that all jutsus would be strong, it allowed them to choose the jutsus that suited them the most.
In addition, there could be circumstances where a particular jutsu or a particular element was extremely effective. In such instances, having a range of jutsus was extremely effective. Naruto, despite his insane chakra reserves, didn't have this advantage until the very end.
After Naruto fell for the umpteenth time, Fujin's clone said, "That's enough for today. You can keep practising this later on. Come here."
Naruto immediately got up and rushed towards Fujin's clone. While he was interested in climbing on the tree, he was more interested in knowing what new technique Fujin wanted to teach him again.
Fujin's clone said, "Naruto, display the four jutsus I taught you so far."
Naruto was confused, but he did so without any questions. He weaved a few hand signs and pushed his right palm forward. A gentle breeze was released from his palm.
He grabbed a few wooden shurikens and threw them into the air and quickly made a few hand seals. He was able to change their direction 40 degrees to the right and once again changed it 20 degrees to the left before the shurikens collided with a tree.
He then displayed Wind Levitation jutsu by making a few leaves and small stones levitate and then used Wind Retrieving jutsu to pull some leaves towards himself and catch a couple of them.
He looked at Fujin's clone with a proud expression and said, "I told you I'll master them, believe it!"
Fujin's clone nodded and said, "You did well. However, these are only the basics. You should continue practicing them, but practice them in these ways."
Naruto was confused. Fujin's clone instructed, "Place a few wooden shurikens around 5 meters away."
Naruto followed his instruction and returned to his side. Fujin's clone said, "Now use the Wind Levitation jutsu and make them float."
Naruto weaved hand signs and shouted, "Wind Levitation jutsu"
Immediately, the 6 wooden shurikens began levitating a couple of feet above the ground. Fujin's clone instructed, "Now use the Gale jutsu exactly on the shurikens. Force them to move forward like you have thrown them."
Naruto began weaving the hand signs for the Gale jutsu. However, by the time he had completed them, the shurikens dropped to the ground. Naruto complained, "That is very difficult. How can I keep them floating if I have to weave hand signs for Gale jutsu?"
Fujin's clone replied, "With the training of course. Watch."
For the sake of showing it to Naruto, Fujin's clone weaved hand signs while saying, "From here onwards, you should practice these jutsus until you can do this. First, use the Wind Levitation jutsu to make the shurikens float in the air."
The shurikens on the ground began levitating once again. Fujin's clone quickly used the Gale jutsu and blew the shurikens away and said, "Then use the Gale jutsu to make the shurikens fly away at a fast speed and control them with the Projectile Control jutsu."
He quickly changed the hand seals and then began using the Projectile Control jutsu to control the path of the wooden shurikens. Finally, he changed hand seals one last time and caused the wooden shurikens to fly back towards him. He grabbed the shurikens and added, "And lastly, use the Wind Retrieving jutsu to grab the shurikens."
Naruto watched with astonishment as Fujin flawlessly switched between the four jutsus. However, remembering what he had seen Fujin do with the wind previously, Naruto wasn't that surprised anymore. He still exclaimed, "That was so cool!"
Fujin's clone said, "From here onwards, you'll do three things. The first is to try and climb the tree without using your hands. That'll improve your chakra control and allow you to move more freely during a fight. As for the Wind jutsus I just showed you, you'll divide them into two parts.
The first part is using Wind Levitation and Gale jutsus one after another. And the second is using Projectile Control jutsu and Wind Retrieving jutsu one after another. Once you are able to do those jutsus in pairs, you can try doing all four together at the same time like I did. You can even change the order in which you use them if you feel that it would make the combination stronger."
Training just one thing would be boring and monotonous. Hence, Fujin's clone decided to give three training routines to Naruto. Naruto immediately nodded. He couldn't wait to try using all 4 jutsus at the same time! Fujin's clone added, "In order to progress faster, you have to follow another rule from now on. While pranking others, you are not allowed to use just one of these four jutsus. Instead, you have to use at least two of them one after the other."
Naruto nodded and said, "Alright. I'll prank everyone with two jutsus, believe it!"
Fujin's clone chuckled and said, "Go easy while pranking civilians. If you are pranking your teachers, then it's fine to go all out. If they aren't a challenge, you can even try using your pranks on Lord Hokage. If you can prank him successfully, then you would have made a huge progress towards your goal."
The clone had a gentle smile on his face. Naruto's eyes sparkled and said, "Alright, I'll do that!"
The clone laughed in his mind while thinking, 'I haven't messed with Hiruzen much in the last three months. I am not sure if I'll get many opportunities in the future. It's time I pass the baton to Naruto. Can't let the poor old man feel lonely.'
The clone added, "You can leave and train by yourself, Naruto. I'll be a bit busy and will be heading out of the village soon. Master walking up the tree by the time I return. I'll teach you another cool trick when I return."
Naruto was even more excited. He thanked Fujin and left. As Naruto left, the clone analyzed, 'Though these four basic jutsus won't increase his strength considerably, if he manages to use these four jutsus simultaneously at will, then his control over the Wind will go far beyond what a Genin, or perhaps even a Chunin can have. It forms the perfect base to learn the more complicated Wind jutsus easily in the future. It'll be interesting to see how h…'
The clone suddenly received a set of memories. A grin appeared on his face as he thought, 'It's about damn time!'
The clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Inside his basement, Fujin received the same memories as well. For the first time in 3 days, he stopped training the Flying Thunder God jutsu for a reason other than running out of chakra!