Being a rogue ninja is worse than being Hokage.

The fact that Naruto is not proficient in ninjutsu means that he is highly controllable, which is why the higher-ups take him for granted.

Moreover, compared to the image of a "genius ninja" that made Danzo wary, combined with Naruto's original hostile attitude towards the village, Danzo's ulterior motives, which were just stopped by the Third Hokage, might resurface even sooner.

It's better to pretend you're a complete "loser" and just play it safe and develop.

It's hard to do things openly, but easy to do things covertly.

Naruto's feigned inability to master the Shadow Clone Technique allowed him to openly come into contact with it during his diligent practice.

……

Although the teachers at the Ninja Academy only teach some basic ninjutsu that require little chakra and do not require chakra nature transformation, such as the Three Body Technique, which is a required course for Ninja Academy students.

However, the school does not prevent students from developing their own strength. After all, some students in the ninja academy come from Konoha ninja clans. With the support of their clans, their strength is always higher than that of students from ordinary families.

To ensure fairness in basic teaching resources, the Ninja Academy will also open its library to all students.

Let gifted students learn on their own.

In most cases, however, ordinary students at the ninja academy basically only learn the Three Body Techniques.

Otherwise, the graduation exam for the Ninja Academy wouldn't have only included the Three Body Techniques.

The library contains ninjutsu of three categories: ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. It even contains ninjutsu that require mastery of chakra nature transformation to use. This is to help students understand the logic behind the use of ninjutsu so that they can quickly use the corresponding ninjutsu after mastering chakra nature transformation in the future.

In addition, there are analyses of basic sealing techniques that ordinary people can access, such as those found in ninja tool scrolls.

Naruto wasn't surprised; among the previous graduating class of the Ninja Academy was Tenten, who was skilled at summoning ninja tools for attacks.

However, although these techniques are numerous and varied, they are still low-level and lack uniqueness.

That's understandable.

Advanced techniques are simply beyond the reach of ninja academy students who aren't even considered ninjas.

As for unique techniques—those are all ninja clan secret techniques or self-created ninja techniques, which can only be learned through family or apprenticeship.

As for the Shadow Clone Technique that Naruto needs...

The library also has it, even on the next page after the technique of creating clones.

Its versatility is evident from this.

This is different from the Shadow Clone Technique's derivative—the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, which is listed as a forbidden technique and has an A-level learning difficulty.

The Shadow Clone Technique is not a secret ninjutsu.

Almost all ninjas with enough chakra will actively learn this ninjutsu.

For ninjas who highly value intelligence, shadow clones are a convenient ninjutsu that allows the main body to obtain information while remaining in a safe place.

It can greatly increase a ninja's survival rate when gathering intelligence.

Naruto's plan to defect from Konoha was finally put into practice after he learned the Shadow Clone Technique.

The Shadow Clone Technique is a ninjutsu invented by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, and is classified as a B-rank ninjutsu.

The clones created by the ordinary clone technique learned at the ninja academy are merely visual illusions.

The shadow clones created by the Shadow Clone Technique are physical clones with the consciousness of the original body and the ability to attack enemies. They also have a certain degree of resilience.

After the shadow clone is dispelled, the clone's memories and experiences will return to the original body.

The unique properties of shadow clones allow ninjas to better carry out espionage work.

This made the Shadow Clone Technique, although created by the Second Hokage, widely known throughout the ninja world.

That's why Naruto was able to easily access the more advanced Shadow Clone Technique when he was learning the Shadow Clone Technique.

Not to mention, in other people's eyes, Naruto doesn't even know how to use the Shadow Clone Technique.

Even if he knows how to learn a more advanced shadow clone technique, so what?

……

In the two years that he secretly learned the Shadow Clone Technique.

Naruto uses shadow clones to train and increase his own experience, and he secretly practices how to control the Nine-Tails' chakra.

Using the Bagua Seal, which already helps Jinchuriki utilize the overflowing chakra of Tailed Beasts.

After Naruto successfully controlled the Nine-Tails' chakra, he began to try to master natural energy, thereby entering Sage Mode.

Even without the Toad Oil from Mount Myōboku and Fukasaku's experience with Sage Mode from the original work.

Once you know how to absorb natural energy—that is, to sense natural energy first—Naruto, who has been traveling for two years, has recently mastered Sage Mode.

However, although Naruto used the method of meditating in Zen at Mount Myōboku to cultivate Sage Mode, the effect seemed to be different.

At the beginning, Naruto carefully absorbed natural energy in extremely small amounts.

Even so, Naruto still experienced a failure to absorb natural energy.

When the shadow clone returns to the original body, Naruto will feel an unbearable pain.

He thought this was a sign of his transformation into a frog, since his current method of absorbing natural energy was the toad-style training of Mount Myōboku, which was clearly described in the original work.

But Naruto didn't take it seriously. This was within the acceptable range of failure for Naruto—failing to absorb a small amount of natural energy wouldn't cause him to severely transform into a frog, much less turn him into a stone.

But after the pain of failing to absorb natural energy...

Naruto discovered that no part of his body had turned into a frog, and he had no urge to eat insects...

However, there will be a few days when chakra cannot be gathered, and during this period, natural energy cannot be absorbed.

Good fortune and misfortune are intertwined; Naruto's "bottom of the pack" appearance makes him all the more real.

After failing to absorb natural energy several times and only temporarily being unable to condense chakra, Naruto boldly began practicing Sage Mode.

……

But these are secrets that only Naruto knows.

To prevent Danzo from using the Root organization to monitor them, or the Third Hokage from discovering these secrets using his telescope technique.

For the past two years, Naruto has only been training his Shadow Clone Technique at school.

This is a pattern that Naruto discovered: neither Danzo nor the Third Hokage would monitor him while he was at school.

Before he officially began training with Shadow Clone Jutsu, Naruto had a long period of "skipping classes".

He would actually skip school in the village for a while, letting the Hokage's Anbu and Danzo's Root know about his "consistent words and deeds."

Afterwards, I will calculate the time to return to school early and practice the basic escape techniques I saw in the library using my true form.

Normally, a student learning teleportation techniques wouldn't need to hide it.

If the Third Hokage and Danzo discover his strange behavior, they will definitely harbor even deeper resentment towards him because of his status as a Jinchūriki.

Although Naruto had prepared some reasons for being discovered secretly practicing ninjutsu, he wasn't sure he could convince Danzo and the Third Hokage, two cunning old foxes.

The third generation was merely indecisive, not stupid.

Danzo is more likely to use Naruto's actions as a pretext to seize control of the Nine-Tails from the Third Hokage again.

Naruto is taking a huge gamble on this, and he certainly can't afford the consequences of failure.

Fortunately, Naruto won his gamble.

If you win the bet, there's no need to dwell on the "possibility of failure" that won't happen again.

It's like a gambler winning a multi-million dollar jackpot; the money is already in front of him in real time.

Are you going to argue with him about the possibility of not winning the lottery?

No matter how much they argue, they really did receive a multi-million dollar prize.

Getting back to the main point, Naruto first confirmed that Danzo would not be monitoring the Ninja Academy.

The Ninja Academy is an educational institution entirely dedicated to spreading the Will of Fire under the Hokage's leadership.

Students from all the families in the village receive their education at the school. To avoid being accused of interfering in the affairs of the Hokage, Danzo would not place his own influence in the school.

As for the Third Hokage...

In the original story, the Third Hokage used a telescope technique to allow the Jonin in charge of the class to observe the behavior of the graduates waiting in the classroom in advance.

Naruto was somewhat wary of this.

But soon, Naruto figured out the Third Hokage's logic in using the telescope technique on him.

As long as Naruto is in the village, and no rumors about Naruto reach the Third Hokage's ears.

The Third Hokage almost never actively used the telescope technique to monitor Naruto.

The Third Hokage was not like those comments Naruto saw online in his previous life, who called him a conspiracy theorist old man.

His only flaw is that as he gets older, he becomes indecisive in handling everything, big or small.

This led to many tragedies that could have been prevented being preemptively struck by Danzo's swift and decisive actions.

Even so, Naruto always hid his Shadow Clone Technique in the school toilet stalls and trained during class time.

When lunch break is over, Naruto will dispel the shadow clones to prevent his use of them for training from being exposed.

Therefore, Naruto actually didn't spend much time training with Shadow Clones in private each day.

Despite his clandestine cultivation, his growth rate was still astonishingly fast.

At times like this, Naruto couldn't help but wonder why so many people would jokingly call Naruto "Bloodline Theory Ninja".

The benefits of Naruto's Uzumaki clan bloodline and his status as the reincarnation of Ashura immediately emerged.

All this accumulated training was preparation for Naruto to have the strength to defect from Konoha before Danzo could turn against him again at any time.

But the most crucial element for increasing strength is... the Book of Seals.

Whether it's the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique that can further accelerate one's cultivation progress, or the Eight Trigrams Seal that seals the Nine-Tails... such forbidden techniques are all in the Book of Seals.

If he could, Naruto would want to take the Scroll of Seals completely, rather than being satisfied with just learning the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.

Having been targeted by Danzo, defection was his only way to survive.

But before officially defecting, Naruto wanted to maximize the benefits of his defection!

To achieve this goal, the first step is to make good use of SMTH (Shuimu BBS)...

……