With Raijin back into his house, he went to his study table and got his books and papers out of his backpack. As he placed them on his desk, he sat on a small wooden chair and began to read the Jutsu Instructions he had copied from the E-ranked Clone Technique.
"Interesting… So these clones are intangible copies from the caster."
Reading through the first paragraphs, Raijin discovered that the basic clone technique was often used to distract opponents instead of harming them with direct punches. This Jutsu had various uses such as running away from enemies and being an overall hindrance to senses.
Raijin couldn't help but sigh, "Well, there goes down the drain my plan to train Taijutsu with them."
After an initial disappointment, Raijin continued to read through all the copied text until the very end. After that, he left his seat and stood up in the middle of his bedroom.
With a solemn look, he lifted his hands to his torso's level. 'Let me see… I think the hand seals' sequence was Ram → Snake → Tiger, right?', adjusting his foothold, he remembered the hand seals' order.
poof
A white smoke emerged by his side. After a few seconds, a small humanoid bipedal creature surged into it with shockingly pale skin and a slender body.
Looking at his first clone, Raijin frowned. "I think I've used too little chakra…"
With a Ram hand seal, he dispelled the clone and tried it again, but now with a larger amount of chakra reserved for the task. However, despite the initial insight, the result remained the same — a defective clone was created. He had poured too much chakra.
"I think I need to find the right range of chakra to pour into this Jutsu. Certainly, my chakra control and reserves shouldn't be a problem since I already should have Genin reserves and very good chakra control."
Raijin realized the only thing keeping him from getting the perfect clone was the amount of chakra he used. So, he started to do it by trial and error. After ten or so tries, he finally got the hang of it.
A carbon copy of Raijin was in front of him, with both the original and the clone doing a stare-off contest. After analyzing the clone and seeing that it wasn't a defective one, he approached it carefully.
As he extended his hand to try touching his clone's shoulders, his fingers passed through the body, without feeling the touch of any tissue. Backing off, Raijin lamented. "What a pity… It really is as the instruction described it -– An intangible clone with no substance."
Looking at it, the value he had put on the clone started to die down. With a dejected look, he was on his way to make a Ram hand seal to dispel the clone.
'Wait… What if…?'
Ram → Snake → Tiger
poof
A new clone appeared by his side. With his intentions clear, the clone walked up to the first clone and extended his hand to touch his shoulders, doing the same movement Raijin had done previously.
Hopeful, Raijin observed the action with intent. As his clone's hand approached the other's shoulder, a small smile gradually appeared on his face.
His clone hand had not passed through the other's body.
"It touched his shoulder!"
Surprised, Raijin had realized that while a real body couldn't come in contact with a basic clone's body, his own clones could do that.
Approaching them, Raijin ensured the clone was in contact with the other by making them shake hands and fist-bumping. After confirming, he then dispelled both and sat on the cushion of his bed with his hand holding his chin.
"While I can't train with them directly, I can watch them sparring… If I do that, I can at least spot my biggest flaws in combat since they also have my own mindset."
As he looked to the ceiling, he exhaled. "Well, that's better than training alone, I guess… And with them not using that much chakra either, I can summon a bunch of clones at once.
But still, I don't know any Taijutsu style right now.", as soon as he said that, his head turned to the study desk. "That's one way to solve it, then.". Leaving his bed, he went to the table once again and picked up the Taijutsu theory book he had taken from the library.
As he began to read into it, he realized the book talked about the traditional Taijutsu style taught in the Academy. Recalling his past world, Raijin correlated the style to be a mix of three martial arts: Boxing, Muay Thai, and Taekwondo.
Despite not having trained in his past life, Raijin was a fan of martial arts — a fact that made him able to correlate the styles. So, with the familiarity and past conditioning of his body, he quickly grasped the main ideals and styles of the Academy taijutsu.
'Next time I go on the Training grounds, I will make some clones battle between themselves to observe their fight. Maybe I can get some insight on my bad habits and whatnot.'
After his reading session, he went to the other two Jutsu Manuals of the same nature. He picked up the E-ranked Tranquil Breath and Enhanced Focus Techniques and began to read each of them in succession.
While still in the library, he realized the techniques had the same underlying principle, so he chose to study them together.
"Oh… So the effect of each Jutsu will last depending on the amount of chakra that I use to activate it."
As he finished his reading session, he went to the middle of his room and did the hand seals for the Tranquil Breath Technique. As he did it, he suddenly felt that his heart and overall senses had come to a halt and calmed themselves to a spooky stable rate. After a few seconds, though, he broke out of it.
'Holy… That was something that I didn't expect.'
Raijin was surprised to be hit by such a soothing wave. However, he quickly recovered and went to test the Enhanced Focus Technique since he had done the other on his first try.
Feeling an extremely focused feeling, Raijin felt that he was in the so-called Zone, something that seldom happened to him. With a slight widening of his eyes and a lift of his eyebrows, he broke out of it after a few seconds as well.
'Oh my god… That was so cool! This will probably be my best resource to study any material while I still don't have the Shadow Clone Technique to zap my way through everything.'
A little anxious, Raijin tried it again. However, he had put way more chakra into it, an action that depleted half of his chakra reserves. As he felt the focused state come back to him, he promptly directed himself to his study table once again and began to read the Henge and Voice-disguising technique.
After twenty or so minutes, he realized that his reading speed had been amped up threefold and his comprehension rate was almost too good to be true. As he finished reading those techniques, the chakra he reserved for the Enhanced Focus Technique was completely used up, so he broke out of his focused state.
'This is too addicting… It's a pity I can't be doing this all the time since it consumes too much chakra for so much time.'
After his monologue, he recalled the Henge and the Voice-disguising technique in his mind. Standing up and going to a mirror, he imagined the figure of Hiruzen Sarutobi and tried to transform his facial and body features into him.
However, after making the hand seals and molding his chakra, he failed to turn himself into the Third Hokage. His height had gone up and his face had changed, but despite that, he still looked very awkward with a bunch of wrinkles and a large pointy nose.
After a dozen tries, he realized that his goal was too far off to start with.
'I think I have to start with someone that has the same height and age as me… That would be easier and more manageable to do than to turn myself into a full-grown adult.'
Making the hand seals once more, he decided to transform himself into one of his past colleagues from the orphanage. As he underwent the transformation, his facial features and height fluctuated a lot less than before. The outcome, while still not perfect and in need of some rework, was acceptable.
"And now, the Voice-disguising technique."
Still transformed, he made the hand seals to turn his voice into his colleague's. As he spoke, his voice sounded a lot like the boy he had impersonated — a fact that proved his new mastery of the technique.
Dispelling his Jutsu, he turned to the study desk and picked up the theory books on anatomy and bukijutsu. Raijin decided he wouldn't do any Jutsu training that day anymore since his chakra reserves were almost fully depleted and he still had to assimilate all the knowledge he gained.
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A/N:
Hey, guys! It's been some time since I didn't upload.
I had some private matters to take care of during this time. Things are quite difficult out here.
Despite not guaranteeing daily uploads, I will try to upload three times a week from now on. (I'm still making some changes to the plotline, researching and brainstorming a lot about things). Allow me to bring forth my very best to this story, which I will most definitely not give up on.
Cheers! And, as always, back to work. Peace!