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Haori and Kushina's first meeting was finally over.
Becoming Kushina's student actually had an implicit meaning: it meant that if Kushina became the team leader, it would be very difficult for Haori to go to the front lines. That was his own judgement.
And he already knew that Kushina only had one student. It was impossible to form a four-person battle team, which was obviously not what you do before going to the front lines.
After all, Uzumaki Kushina was the Nine-Tailed Fox Jinchūriki. If the Nine-Tails could be perfectly controlled by the Jinchūriki, it would definitely be a powerful force, but Konoha's higher-ups couldn't send the Nine-Tailed Fox Jinchūriki to the battlefield.
The reason was simple: first, even though Kushina was from the Uzumaki clan, the Nine-Tails was different from other tailed beasts. She couldn't perfectly control it. Second, and this was more important, Konoha couldn't afford to lose the Nine-Tails.
Once the Nine-Tailed Fox Jinchūriki appeared on the front lines, the enemy would definitely try to kill her no matter what. For the enemy, a target like that was a clear, must-destroy objective.
As Haori had predicted, while other teams were sent to the frontlines after a little regrouping, Kushina remained in the village. She showed no sign of moving, and Haori didn't even need to do any of those basic tasks. He only had three things to do: (1) learn jutsu from Kushina, (2) watch Kushina do all kinds of research, and (3) form a duo with Kushina to bully boys and girls in Konoha.
(ShitT9: Lmao dude)
In fact, the day after Haori became Kushina's student, without even needing to ask, Kushina was already eager to start teaching him jutsu.
Because she wanted Haori to surpass Kakashi as quickly as possible. Her student surpassing Minato's student – wasn't that the same as her surpassing Minato?
Kushina subconsciously saw Haori as a plaything, and Haori did indeed play the role of a toy. But Haori didn't realize that he had become Kushina's mood stabilizer.
"So what jutsu should I teach you first?" Kushina muttered to herself, a little troubled.
"Four-Symbols Sealing…" Of course, that was just Haori's inner monologue. He couldn't possibly say that answer out loud. Let alone that it was an S-rank forbidden jutsu, if Kushina asked how he knew about this technique, he wouldn't be able to answer.
How could a student who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy know the name of a forbidden, secret technique of the Uzumaki clan?
He couldn't answer, so he couldn't say that.
Kushina could definitely use Four-Symbols Sealing, but it was obviously impossible to teach a forbidden technique so easily. Furthermore, she didn't think Haori was ready to learn Four-Symbols Sealing, the highest level of sealing technique. And the jutsu she would teach Haori, as for seal techniques... she wasn't planning on teaching him those for now.
The difficulty of learning seal techniques was much higher than that of learning normal jutsu. The complexity required the learner to have a deep understanding of the technique's formula itself.
Generally speaking, the difficulty of learning A-rank sealing techniques was basically the same as, or even greater than, that of S-rank jutsu. An S-rank like Four-Symbols Sealing might be impossible to learn in a lifetime for someone without the talent.
"I've got it. Let's start with Shadow Clone Technique, a jutsu with extreme practicality." Kushina's eyes lit up immediately. She had thought of that jutsu.
Shadow Clone Technique is a B-rank jutsu. Based on Kushina's judgment of Haori's current chakra levels and control, he should have no problem learning it.
After all, he could create an A-rank jutsu on his own.
"Shadow Clone Technique it is. I'll teach you the hand seals first..." Kushina started teaching him without even asking Haori's opinion.
Of course, Haori didn't have any reason not to learn Shadow Clone Technique, a jutsu with such high practicality.
Shadow Clone Technique has only one "ram" hand seal. It's one of the basic twelve hand seals. Any Ninja Academy graduate would know that, but Kushina showed the hand seal to Haori first, and then explained the chakra flow during hand seal formation.
She even demonstrated it herself, and two identical red-haired witches appeared in front of Haori.
Haori nodded, indicating that he understood, and immediately began to try. The difficulty of this technique wasn't too hard for someone like Haori with a mind like his.
He didn't rush to form hand seals. Instead, following Kushina's instructions, he first made his chakra flow through the designated pathways until he was familiar with the pathways for the Shadow Clone Technique. Then he started forming hand seals.
Kushina nodded. She saw what Haori was doing. It made her very approving. He didn't practice blindly. Instead, he started by becoming familiar with the chakra flow. This fully demonstrated that her student was quite mature.
While forming the hand seals, Haori's chakra flowed in coordination with the hand seals. Then, this not-so-difficult B-rank jutsu was successful on the first try.
Another identical version of himself appeared before him. Haori felt that his chakra had instantly been reduced to half of its normal level. That was one of the downsides of all kinds of clone techniques. It split the user's chakra evenly among every clone.
Haori immediately released the Shadow Clone Technique. Then, the part of the chakra that wasn't consumed by the clone immediately returned to his main body.
"Shadow Clone Technique, success... Let's start practicing the next jutsu, Teacher Kushina."
"Start the next one now? You just learned Shadow Clone Technique. Don't you want to practice it a bit?" Kushina wasn't surprised that Haori was able to master Shadow Clone Technique so quickly. What surprised her was that he actually wanted to start practicing the next jutsu immediately.
Even though she wanted to compare herself to Minato, Haori's behavior seemed a bit too hasty.
"Practice? I don't need to, Teacher Kushina. I've reached max proficiency the moment I learned this jutsu." To prove that he wasn't lying, Haori formed hand seals again, and another clone appeared in front of him.
Kushina: "…"
This was the power of talent. If it came to brain capacity and learning ability, Haori wasn't afraid of anyone in the Naruto world, not even Madara or Hashirama.
(ShixT9: Damn dude calm your t1ts)
Kushina felt like something was wrong, but Haori had indeed mastered this B-rank jutsu. So, with a mix of relief, surprise, and helplessness, she started teaching Haori a new jutsu.
Although she had previously said that she wanted to compete with Minato for the position of Hokage, she had actually given up on that kind of competition, or she had surrendered.
First, Minato Namikaze was simply too outstanding.
Second, she was the Nine-Tailed Fox Jinchūriki. This was the biggest obstacle to becoming Hokage.
But seeing is believing. After witnessing Haori's learning ability, she was finally convinced that her student could definitely surpass Minato's student.
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Hey there ShixT9 again, 10 Chapters in, if you like my shitty translation drop a comment or even send power stones ^-^