Dix was totally flabbergasted.
"For the love of all that is holy in this world, what the heck is this doing here?!" he accidentally said out loud, but fortunately nobody noticed him. These archives were hardly ever used.
*God damn, I thought these were forbidden! Oh wait... Naruto was using the 'Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu', while this is without 'multiple'. As I know the only difference between them is the number of clones summoned... What the heck? That simple difference means that has to be branded as forbidden while this one is in a library? Oh well, now as I think about it, actually every jonin, and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM IN ANY VILLAGE can use this technique... So this must mean its really common, just like other lower level jutsus... Well, better for me... And here I thought I'm going to have to steal the forbidden scroll from the Third. Lucky me I suppose... Well, actually, if I don't manage to convince him to let me learn some other high level techniques I need that are forbidden, then I'll have to steal it anyway. Whatever, this will help me out a lot though.*
As previously mentioned most low level techniques have close to zero actual value, only genins use them and even those only use them to build their foundation and train their chakra usage. No wonder they are usually assigned on missions like chasing cats instead of assassinating someone. Also the grade of a jutsu is not an indicator for their strength or rarity, more like their complexity and how hard it is to master them. Following this thought if we look a bit closer we can see that literally EVERY SINGLE jonin and even some chuunin level ninja can use this technique, only problem is that its hard to use for anyone that isn't a jinchuuriki or Kisame.
As Dix searched the bookshelves a bit more, he found a few better scrolls, but nothing like the B-rank Shadow Clone Jutsu, at best a few not very useful C-rank ones. This one was the only one.
*It's like some divine intervention to help my quest or something...*
At this thought he shuddered a bit as his mind wandered back to the circumstances regarding his rebirth. He didn't want to think like this, so he just tried to believe in his luck for now. He quickly engraved the jutsu into his brain, because he wasn't allowed take out any of these from the library. Then he made his way out of the building, eager to jump right into training his newly acquired jutsus. As he was leaving everyone silently stood out of his way, but when he was already a fair distance away he heard that the clerk and some visitor talk about him with his heightened senses.
"Well, would you look at that... He is interested in becoming a ninja... Not too dedicated as I see." said one of them.
"Probably the demon inside him is enticing him to kill people. Why can he just walk around like that? We should lock him up..." came the exhausting answer.
Dix could perfectly hear them, but those people couldn't have known, and he didn't show any sign of it either. He just shook his head, threw out another mental 'idiots', as he kept going towards the village gates. He was stared at once again as he exited, just like any other day. He even enjoyed it a bit, but once again, he didn't show any sign of that and just kept walking. He didn't want to draw attention yet, there will be plenty of that later on.
When he left the village it was still before noon, so the sun was already way up, but there was still a lot of time until he had to return. He decided he would get some food first. He usually hunts his own food, as he is more than capable to do so. Mostly rabbits and other small animals easily fell prey to his superhuman capabilities, even though he is still just 4 years old. Sometimes he tried to go for larger game, like boars or deer that live in the forest which is all around the village. He never had any problems, but he still felt like its a waste to kill big animals just for fun, because there was no way he could eat a whole boar while also he couldn't process and sell it or preserve it either.
So after a fulfilling lunch of rabbit flesh roasted over open fire, he dived head-first into the training.
First he had to learn the E rank Clone Technique, as this was one of the most basic ones taught at the academy and this was something like a prerequisite to learning the Shadow Clone Technique... even though Naruto failed at the former for years and easily learned the latter in a matter of hours which is... An interesting turn of events in the anime.
Anyway, Dix started the training and got the gist of it in a few hours. He had to successfully release his chakra and form it into a shape he wanted to make. Getting the chakra out of his body was very easy, he did it a few times, even used raw chakra to blow up some smaller animals during his hunts. So getting the chakra out was easy, but he actually had to envision something he wanted the chakra to become and then with a clear imagine in mind he had to control it to take shape. This was pretty hard and he never had to do something like this before. But once again his boosted brain helped him out. The memory and processing power upgrade allowed his mind to get a clear image in a few tries. Then he had to actually form the chakra which was also a hard nut to crack. In the first few tries the shape he made was barely human. Then some tries later it was mostly human-like but barely looked like him.
He practiced for hours, and he was able to keep trying and constantly train for such a long time, simply because he never runs out of chakra. Also, as long as he has enough chakra his body keeps on going on turbo mode and barely gets tired. The chakra filled organs and muscles get almost instantly revitalized and energized.
After around five hours, he finally finished the practice with a clone that closely resembled him, only with some tiny details not matching up perfectly. He didn't have time to fix those, as he had to rush back to the village to not get closed out for the night. After another round of awkward staring when entering and when exiting the next morning, Dix could get back into the action right away. While he was at home he contemplated on this matter a bit and came up with different ideas to guide and shape his chakra better. He couldn't actually try them out at the orphanage, because then he risked being spotted or noticed in any way, which he wanted to avoid.
The new ideas proved to be quite good and soon Dix was staring at a perfect reflection of Naruto.. Well, himself. The experience was a bit bizarre but he just put it to the back of his mind and rushed on to the best and most important technique he has to learn. The one on the top of his priority list. Yes, yes, obviously the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
When Naruto learned it in a few hours while he hid away after stealing the scroll from the Third he made it look really easy. Extremely easy. Actually the theoretical knowledge required to be able to use this technique is seriously next level. Dix felt like he was being fucked over when he had seen the scrolls, and even though he had his doubts, the instructions and the details clearly indicated that this really is the shadow clone jutsu and not some prank. It was something akin to a joke how Naruto was able to master this in hours.
*Fuck this! There is seriously no way Naruto had the necessary knowledge to pull this off, and even though I have everything I need already, I'm sure this will take days, or even weeks to properly learn. Fucking plot shields and divine interventions. Actually... I suppose I had some of the latter myself so... I shouldn't be complaining but... Still... Fuck... It...*
What was required to whip up a shadow clone was the knowledge of how the user's chakra system works perfectly, including the knowledge of the exact placement of every single tenketsu points. Yes, all of the 361 tenketsu points. Also the user, besides knowing where these are, had to build up a working chakra system over them. This is way closer to actually cloning one's self compared to the E-rank Clone Jutsu. That only summons a shadow with no chakra whatsoever, only some to keep the image operational and clear to some extent. A shadow clone on the other hand had a chakra system to hold and circulate chakra, even use it trough jutsus or so. Also they had consciousness of their own and would behave the same way the user usually does, which is another problem on its own. And the connection between the user and the clones was not even mentioned yet. If the user were to disperse the clone without an active connection previously built between them then upon cancellation of the jutsu the clone would just turn to nothing and the chakra would disperse into nothingness, together with the knowledge and experiences of the clone. So there has to be a connection between the user and the clone which needed another butt-load of work and practice.
Dix had a hard time taking all of this in back when he was sitting in the library trying to memorize everything. He had to strain his brain to the limit. He actually had to memorize every single step and even some pointers that were included in the scroll. Basically all of the knowledge was there in his mind, he just had to practice all of them while closely following the instructions. Well, easier said than done.