Onwards to the next element, Lightning Release.
Shiki's learning on this element was threefold.
Nearly all long range lightning attack needs Shiki had, could be fulfilled by his Lightning Release: Discharge, the boy merely had to train it to a sufficiently high level.
The only ranged lightning jutsu he learned beyond that was Lightning Release: Heavenly Formation Lightning which was essentially a higher powered version of his Discharge, being able to release powerful lightning from the user and manipulate it to strike from multiple directions.
In addition, the jutsu could also summon and manipulate lightning from storm clouds and other such external sources, something which Discharge could not do.
It was a useful jutsu in case the cheaper Discharge lacked sufficient firepower to be sure but, more importantly, its manipulation of external lightning opened the gates for more complex jutsu in the future and combined extremely well with Nirvana Art: Elemental's Weather Control.
For close range lightning jutsu, Shiki immediately thought of the Chidori and its variants Chidori Sharp Spear and Chidori Senbon.
There was also Chidori Stream but Discharge could already do the same and a lot more so it was unnecessary to develop this variation.
Kukyo: Seven Senses was even better than the Sharingan at maintaining a higher awareness of his surroundings at high speeds so it negated the weakness of Chidori, not to mention its variants that did not even need the Sharingan to be used effectively.
'With a bit of inspiration from the Raikage Style Hell Stab that Zee demonstrated by running it through my chest, I might be able to make it even stronger than the original version of the jutsu.' Was one thought Shiki had in regards to the Chidori.
Finally, there were Shiki's self enhancement type abilities, for this, the path could not be more obvious.
Training Lightning Release: Activation until his body met the requirements and then shift to Lightning Release: Chakra Mode.
To be honest, Shiki was far more interested in the former jutsu.
Chakra Modes, while powerful, severely limited the user as well, namely, while in use, they limited one to a single element.
This is not a problem for most as chakra mode users tend to be extremely specialized in their element but for Shiki, it was a massive disadvantage.
That said, learning and mastering it could still prove useful in assisting the development of Dragon Aspect but Lightning Release: Activation, while a magnitude less powerful, lacked such stifling restrictions.
And, if one mastered it to a sufficient level, it was even possible to direct the activation, guiding it towards increasing certain aspects of one's physiology more so than others such as speed, strength or toughness.
In fact, in one of his sensory forays into Konoha, Shiki had managed to catch Hatake Sakumo training, he used a jutsu he called Lightning Release: Acceleration, its nature was extremely similar to Activation, only completely specialized in speed.
*
Then there was the last of the five basic elemental releases, Wind Release.
This was an area where Shiki did not go as wild as he would have liked.
The boy's more outlandish ideas required an extreme mastery of WInd Nature Transformation that he still lacked so he could only leave most of them for the future.
That said, there was still plenty to do, split into two major tasks, one of jutsu development and another of learning some already well established jutsu, something which Shiki did for all basic elements.
Starting with the latter task, the boy endeavoured to learn the Vacuum series of wind jutsu, which could also be called the Danzo series after its most prolific user.
Wind Release: Vacuum Blade which added wind to an armament in order to increase its range and cutting power, turning kunai into wind swords and greatly increase the power and radius of shuriken;
Wind Release: Vacuum Bomb which created a powerful sphere of wind that exploded with great force;
Wind Release: Vacuum Bullets which launched a barrage of wind bullets, capable of punching holes through targets and even cutting them open through glancing hits.
Wind Release: Vacuum Wave which releases a single wave of compressed cutting wind, with moderate power but wide range.
And finally, Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves, an enhanced version of the previous jutsu that stacked several Vacuum Waves to greatly increase their power.
As for the jutsu development task which Shiki assigned to his close, it was to evolve Wind Release: Gale Palm into a similarly versatile, but more powerful jutsu.
The end result was what Shiki called Wind Release: Gale Harness.
Gale Palm could be used in one of three ways with each activation.
The user could send out a directed blast of compressed air, an omnidirectional blast of wind with both offensive and defensive utility or they could shroud themselves with wind to increase their speed and agility.
Gale Harness could not only do these three things at a greater power level, a single activation was sufficient to accomplish all three, multiple times.
The initial effect was similar to the self enhancement use of Gale Palm, cloaking the user in WInd to boost their speed and agility, but it did not end there.
The wind was gathered in much greater amounts and super-compressed, forming an armor of hyper-dense air with significant defensive capabilities, the massive amount of chakra infused into the air allowed light to bend unnaturally, concealing the user's form.
The chakra cost for forming this armor was significant but maintaining it was extremely cost efficient, barely even making a dent in a Regular Jonin's chakra pool.
Then, without even having to expend extra chakra, part of the compressed air can be released for instantaneous attacks, a huge short term boost of speed, mid air maneuvering, etc.
By releasing it all at once, the jutsu would be rendered inactive in exchange for a single massive attack or boost using the entirety of the chakra infused into the technique.
However, so long as some of the Gale Harness' wind remained, all it took was a little more chakra to be fed into it and it would start replenishing the spent air shockingly efficiently.
This made up the last of Shiki's forays into the basic elemental releases and what occupied the first hundred shadow clone group.
*
Moving on to another hundred strong group, there was the one tasked with perfecting the various Jutsu Shiki had already learned, possibly evolving them or just mastering them if that proved impossible for the time being.
Thirsty of these clones would dedicate themselves to the boy's jutsu in general but there were to other sub-groups with more specific tasks.
Fifty of the clones were entirely dedicated to the development of Dragon Aspect with Dragon Slumber as a secondary focus, both being evolutions as well as derivatives from Shiki's original, Nirvana Art: Dragon Heart.
The remaining twenty of the original hundred were to research and try to improve Yin-Yang Surge, one of the boy's more recently developed jutsu.
This group of clones, despite being similarly sized to the others, carried extremely vital tasks and due to the difficult nature of these important endeavours, Shiki did not actually expect much in the short term except for perhaps the group working on the more general techniques.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -