Naruto: From Novice to Grave

Born with the soul of an adult, years of rigorous and disciplined training, excellent physical talent, selfless guidance from his parents, and a 'little bit' of natural energy boost, have created Higashino Makoto's current formidable strength, leaving his classmates far behind.

In terms of raw skill, he may have surpassed his father, Higashino Jiro, but he lacks practical experience. If he really goes all out, the outcome is hard to predict.

After all, ninja battles are not a contest of numbers.

In regular school matches, Higashino was quite restrained. After all, he didn't want to be a big demon king looming over his classmates. He was still very gentle and would usually fight seriously for a while before defeating his opponent.

Fighting with classmates is like being in a relationship. You can't just think about your own feelings; you have to make others feel involved and that they can win if they try a little harder.

That way they can go back and train hard to improve their strength. Even a little progress might help them survive in a future battle.

Only in his battle with Uchiha Shisui would he unleash his full power; this guy's talent was indeed outstanding, and his reaction speed was first-rate.

This is without activating the Sharingan.

Perhaps Inoue Kuroiwa noticed this problem, so in subsequent matches, he often arranged for the two to be opponents, so that other students could observe and learn from them.

Even so, Higashino Shin couldn't use his full strength; Shisui was still no match for him.

Although she stands out among the freshmen, it's still considered normal.

If he truly demonstrates his abilities, perhaps Inoue Kuroiwa would recommend him for early graduation.

Higashino Makoto had promised his mother that he would stay at school for a few more years. In addition, he also needed time to cultivate, as he was currently in a critical period of transformation in his cultivation. Graduation would disrupt his plans.

Compared to those kids who dream of graduating quickly and becoming ninjas to contribute to the village, Higashino Makoto prefers to spend his time on himself.

He came here to experience the exciting and thrilling life in the ninja world, not to be a workaholic.

About 20 days passed in the blink of an eye.

That afternoon, it was time for the two to fight again. There were other classmates fighting in the arena. Shisui quietly approached Higashino Makoto and whispered, "Makoto, be careful when you fight later."

Higashino was stunned for a moment, then realized: "Could this be a shadow clone?"

Uchiha Shisui nodded: "Yes, the seniors in the clan believe that we don't need to spend time in the Ninja Academy. We should work hard to improve our strength under the guidance of the clan. But I think that the school is a place to build bonds with everyone, so I still have to come. So during this time, I have been learning Shadow Clone Technique."

As he spoke, he seemed to remember something and asked, "Really, you guessed I was a clone so quickly, could it be that you also...?"

What do you think?

The two exchanged a smile, establishing a tacit understanding. Soon, it was their turn to fight. They fought spectacularly, but both held back their punches and kicks when they landed on each other's bodies.

The students watching were completely absorbed, trying to learn from their battle and secretly thinking about how they would react if they were on one of the sides, without noticing anything amiss.

Even Inoue-sensei didn't notice.

This put the two older brothers at ease, and they began to coast along in their daily routine from then on.

----------

The training ground near the Higashino family's residence was unusually quiet at this moment.

It's wartime now, so the number of ninjas in the village has decreased significantly. Also, it's not school break time, so no students come here to train. Only some three- or four-year-old children who haven't started school occasionally come here to play, but they come and go quickly.

In the woods, three Higashino Makoto were silently practicing chakra nature transformation, with the main body sitting in a tree and the clones nearby.

He now only creates three shadow clones at a time to assist in his cultivation. One of them goes to school, while the other two, along with his main body, stay here to bury themselves in research.

Three is already the limit. This is the conclusion he reached after several experiments. Any more than that, and he would not be able to withstand the danger of a large number of memories and experiences flooding his mind when he dispelled the clones.

Higashino's chakra reserves were quite good. Thanks to the nourishment of natural energy, he had almost the level of a standard Jonin by the age of six. However, he still didn't have the abnormal recovery ability of the Uzumaki physique, nor did he have two powerful fathers to help him bear the side effects.

Furthermore, if you create too many clones, each clone will receive less chakra, and they will dissipate before they can sustain their training for very long.

His main focus is on cultivating wind attribute transformations, which is the attack attribute he plans to use.

The other two clones cultivate water and earth attribute transformations, which he plans to focus on for defense.

The main body clasped its hands together, then quickly opened them, revealing that the leaf in its hands had been neatly split in two, thus enhancing the sharp cutting nature of its wind attribute.

After finishing, he casually picked a leaf from beside him and repeated the practice over and over again. He still said that he had to cultivate until it became a bodily instinct, to the point where he could switch properties at any time, without even needing hand seals. With just a thought, he could complete the change of properties.

Naruto was able to do it in just a few days because he used hundreds or thousands of shadow clones to train at the same time; it was practically animalistic.

Higashino wouldn't dare to play around like that. It took him almost a year to basically complete it, which shows that he has quite a bit of talent. Of course, the natural energy also played a significant role.

The longer his body was transformed by natural energy, the faster he found that his control over chakra and his cultivation of its nature progressed.

It truly lives up to its reputation as a cheat code; it's practically an all-powerful amplifier.

"It seems that I have reached a considerable level of mastery over the sharp cutting attribute. The next step is to find a waterfall to train in."

Higashino Shin silently planned his path to fame, a method he naturally learned from Naruto later on.

After determining the direction, he moved his body slightly, jumped down from the tree, and landed on the ground seemingly lightly.

This is another property of wind-style chakra: light and fluid.

This is the ninja world, where people can fly freely in the sky like birds. How could Higashino possibly let go of such a magical ability? He dreams of flying all the time.

A ninja who can fly is at least three or four levels more prestigious.

Mu and Onoki of Iwagakure achieved this by mastering the gravity properties of Earth Release chakra to their limit, a technique known as Earth Release: Light-Heavy Rock Technique, and the opposite is Earth Release: Heavy Rock Technique. The Super Light-Heavy Rock Technique could even stop the giant meteor summoned by Madara using the Heavenly Meteor, which is simply outrageous.

Pain's ability to fly relies on the Rinnegan's control of repulsive force—Shinra Tensei.

Higashino Makoto is currently still searching for a direction in his training of the Earth attribute's gravity properties. Since he doesn't have the Circle Eyes, if he wants to fly, he can only focus on the Wind attribute properties.

Fortunately, he felt that this direction should be feasible.

Although he cannot fly yet, through cultivating the nature of lightness and fluidity, he has already been able to integrate his body into the wind to some extent. When jumping in the air, he can perform some simple maneuvers, and his movement speed has also been greatly enhanced.

Upon arriving at the location of the clone, they discovered that one of his hands was holding a lump of earth he had created using earth-style chakra. He then channeled chakra into the lump, continuously increasing its hardness and causing it to transform into rock.

This is cultivating the heavy and hard properties of the earth element.

There are many ninjutsu that utilize this property, such as Kakuzu's Earth Spear Technique, which can harden any part of the body, combining offense and defense.

The deeper one's understanding of this property, the stronger the defensive power of the earth flow wall will be, and the less likely it will be to be destroyed.

At the same time, Higashino Shinya also hopes to find a direction in terms of gravity properties while cultivating the properties of heaviness and hardness.

Another clone is cultivating the flexible nature of water, which can enhance the defensive power of the water array wall and also control the water flow to form a rope, namely the Water Whip Technique, used to bind people.

This is one of the directions he is currently cultivating: strengthening the properties of his three attributes.

In fact, any chakra nature transformation, when mastered to its fullest potential, becomes a combination of offense and defense. However, he doesn't have the energy to delve into too many attributes for the time being, so he can only selectively cultivate them.

The other two training directions are, of course, the second stage of chakra control and medical ninjutsu.

As for natural energy, that's something that happens after you fall asleep each night.

He could even continue cultivating while asleep, so how could his strength not be strong? Wasting talent is shameful and will have consequences; he had deeply felt this principle in his previous life.

Suddenly, a memory flooded my mind; it was my alter ego from school who had finished its mission.

After processing his memories, Higashino Makoto waited a while before allowing the other two clones to deactivate themselves.

The overwhelming amount of cultivation memories flooded his head, making him feel a little swollen, but he quickly adapted.

If three clones returned simultaneously with a day's worth of memories and cultivation experience, it would cause him to experience slight dizziness.

This shows that he could actually withstand the side effects of creating more clones, but Higashino Makoto didn't want to do that.

Health is the foundation of everything; one cannot sacrifice the greater good for the sake of the lesser good, leaving oneself with hidden dangers.