Naruto: From Novice to Grave

Early morning, in a medium-sized training ground somewhere in Konoha, two Higashinos stood facing each other.

Suddenly, one of the long-haired Higashino Makoto reached for his ninja tool pouch at his lower back with both hands, and with a flick of his wrist, several shuriken shot towards the other Higashino Makoto at lightning speed.

The shuriken was extremely fast, striking the target straight ahead without any arc, unlike the flashy techniques of the Uchiha clan.

Higashino Makoto, on the defensive, held a kunai in his left hand, knocking the sword away amidst a series of clanging sounds. He then drew a black ironwood dagger from his back with his right hand and began to fight the long-haired Higashino Makoto who charged at him.

Both sides attacked at lightning speed, each strike aimed at vital points, but both were blocked by their respective opponents. Their positions were constantly shifting, from fighting on the ground to fighting in the trees, and then back down to the ground.

In an instant, figures moved like phantoms, dust filled the air, and swords flew wildly from Ku Wu's hand, clanging incessantly.

Suddenly, the long-haired Higashino Makoto kicked his opponent away, and as the opponent retreated, he quickly shot out four kunai from the left and right sides.

With his long hair flowing, Higashino Makoto quickly formed hand seals.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough"

As a gust of wind neutralized the attack, it also blew kunai back at the opponent.

Short-haired Higashino Makoto originally intended to use Earth Release: Earth Wall Technique to block the ninjutsu as usual, but this time he didn't want to do that. Instead, he unleashed chakra in his legs, dodged the ninjutsu at high speed, and instantly appeared behind his opponent, stabbing the long-haired Higashino Makoto in the back.

"Bang!" The other party exploded into a cloud of white mist.

With a muffled groan, the short-haired Higashino Makoto knelt on one knee, his left hand instinctively touching his stomach. There was no injury there, but a sharp, real pain shot through him.

Both are Makoto Higashino, except one is a shadow clone. To distinguish them, the shadow clone uses a transformation technique to make himself look like he has long hair.

Shadow Clone Technique is a very magical ninjutsu that can create one or more physical clones out of thin air using chakra. Almost no one in the ninja world can distinguish them, not even Kaguya Otsutsuki.

The drawback is that it cannot withstand blunt force impacts exceeding a certain force, as well as slashing and stabbing injuries from ordinary sharp weapons.

At the same time, it will distribute its chakra evenly according to the number of shadow clones, and before disappearing, it will transmit the pain of injury along with the experience and memories back to the original body.

Originally a good ninjutsu for gathering intelligence and confusing the enemy, it should be used with caution by ninjas who lack chakra, or whose willpower is not strong enough and who cannot endure the pain. Otherwise, it may just be a death sentence.

This is still the Shadow Clone Technique, which can only create a small number of physical clones. If it were the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, an ordinary ninja would likely kill themselves if they used it.

It's listed as a forbidden technique for a reason, because it's not something an ordinary ninja can handle.

Why is Naruto the only one who dares to do this? Because he has the bloodline of the Uzumaki clan, and most importantly, he has at least two fathers to help him withstand the backlash.

Nine-Lama: "???"

Ashura: "???"

Since learning the Shadow Clone Technique, Higashino Makoto has been using his superior chakra control to gradually try to create shadow clones with less chakra, making them less likely to divide his chakra evenly and more practical.

On the other hand, he also fights against his clone from time to time to train his combat skills and reaction speed, while also training his pain tolerance threshold. So when he strikes, he is really ruthless, always aiming for vital points.

Unfortunately, since the clone is oneself, the fighting habits of each other are too familiar. Apart from training the speed of nerve reaction, the actual combat experience gained is very little.

But the pain that returned was no less.

----------

After gathering up the scattered ninja tools, Higashino Makoto sat atop the tallest tree, took a sip of the nutritional water prepared by Higashino Megumi, and then looked at the seemingly unchanged Konoha Village in the distance, pondering the direction of future training.

More than a year has passed in the blink of an eye. He is now over 5 years old and has grown much taller.

The situation in the ninja world is becoming increasingly tense. After celebrating his fifth birthday, his father, Higashino Jiro, once again took over a duty mission to guard the border.

Her mother, Higashino Megumi, works at the hospital.

Over the past year, the four members of the Higashino group have occasionally traveled together, exchanging training experiences and honing their wilderness survival skills.

However, since the start of the new semester, Hayate Gekko officially enrolled, and Shisui Uchiha, due to his outstanding talent, began to receive guidance from the clan's ninjas along with other promising young members, rarely having the opportunity to go out.

Even Uzuki Yugao is no exception.

The adults in the ninja world are well aware of the situation. War could break out at any time, and the more intelligent clans have begun to strengthen the training of their descendants, hoping that they can survive the war.

Although everyone talks about relying on the team and trusting their comrades, as ninjas, they all understand that if it comes to the final stage, their own strength is the best way to save their lives.

In just over a year, Shinya Higashino learned the basic Three Body Techniques, the general Body Flicker Technique, the basic Konoha-ryu swordsmanship, as well as several ninjutsu, genjutsu, and shadow clone techniques.

These ninjutsu include: Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, Earth Release: Heart Decapitation Technique, Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall, Water Release: Water Formation Wall, and Genjutsu: This Is Not the Place Technique.

These ninjutsu are all common, with the highest level being only B-rank. The Higashino family are just commoner ninjas, and even after three generations, they don't have any high-level ninjutsu that exceed B-rank. They also don't have a unique swordsmanship system like the Gekko or Uzuki clans.

With Higashino's current precise control over chakra, learning it wouldn't be difficult. His body is also becoming stronger day by day due to absorbing white natural energy, and his chakra reserves are quite abundant, so he won't be offline after using a few C-rank ninjutsu.

Of course, the highest-level ninjutsu he currently possesses is the A-rank Rasengan. After all, it is the only jutsu in the original work that details its principles and training methods. How could he not copy it to live up to his identity as a transmigrator?

However, up to now, Higashino has discovered a problem.

Whether it's the Rasengan that can't be used for the time being, or other ninjutsu, he feels they don't quite fit his envisioned fighting style. The reason is simple: they're too inefficient.

Among the three series of Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu, Ninjutsu is the most gorgeous and represents what most children dream of being a ninja.

Who wouldn't want to use a dazzling and powerful ninjutsu to eliminate the enemy, enjoy the adoration of their comrades, become the Hokage, marry a beautiful and wealthy woman, and reach the pinnacle of life?

But the reality is that ninjutsu consumes the most chakra. With the pitiful amount of chakra that ordinary civilian ninjas have, they are really not suitable for playing the ninjutsu turret style. They should just obediently cast a ninjutsu to provide support, and then stand aside and throw shuriken and kunai. That is their way of fighting for the rest of their lives.

Higashino has a natural way of cultivating energy, and he is certain that as his training progresses, he will never lack chakra. However, he still looks down on ninjutsu.

Unless you use a massive amount of chakra to increase the attack range of a ninjutsu and achieve a sweeping effect, it's generally very difficult for a ninjutsu to hit anyone. Ninjas usually use it to launch surprise attacks or force enemies to reposition.

The mighty Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique was reduced to a merciful technique, with hardly anyone being burned to death throughout the entire series.

Is it because ninjutsu is weak? No, most ninjas are high in attack but low in defense. Even a Kage-level ninja would die if hit by a Great Fireball without any defense. The main reason is that ninjas are too fast and can easily dodge, which makes ninjutsu seem inefficient.

It has been a thousand years since the emergence of ninjas. What has killed ninjas the most? It is the inconspicuous metal weapons such as ninja swords, shuriken, and kunai.

Compared to using hand seals to kill an enemy with ninjutsu, killing them with a kunai is obviously faster and saves more chakra.

Higashino Makoto envisioned his path as one of extremely fast and powerful physical techniques. He believed that with the continuous modification of his body by natural energy, his body would be stronger than anyone else's.

Then, in conjunction with this physical technique, develop attack methods that can be launched instantly using ninja swords or hidden weapons to increase one's killing efficiency.

In his mind, something like sword energy from martial arts novels from his previous life would suit him better.

And coincidentally, the ninja world does have these attack methods.

A typical example is the Wind Release: Vacuum Sword used by the Jonin of Hakuryuu Mountain later on, and the Wind Release shuriken or Wind Release kunai that Danzo Nabekage imbued with wind-style chakra.

Danzo could even directly form a sword using Wind Release chakra. Although the old man was a bit ruthless, it has to be said that in the entire Hidden Leaf Village, there were very few people who could surpass him in terms of Wind Release proficiency.

Fortunately, Higashino did possess wind-style chakra, saving him a lot of time from having to cultivate the wind-style nature first.

With this in mind, the direction of my future cultivation became clear.

We should spend all our time training in the nature of chakra, learning from but not being bound by the footsteps of our predecessors, and developing our own fighting techniques.

Based on his continuous study of chakra theory and the information from his previous life, he believed it was definitely feasible.

Of course, this doesn't mean you shouldn't learn ninjutsu. On the contrary, just like learning precise chakra control first makes learning ordinary ninjutsu much easier, mastering nature transformation to a high level makes learning the corresponding advanced ninjutsu exceptionally easy.

Sharpening your axe won't delay your wood-chopping work.

In addition, medical ninjutsu is also essential, as it is a very practical series of ninjutsu that will allow him to further deepen his control over chakra.

After thinking it over, Shinya Higashino regained his strength and immediately put on the heavy weighted equipment again to begin his physical training.

Now, there are twice as many metal strips inserted into load-bearing equipment as there were a year ago.