"Focus. Remember to divide all your chakras in half." Santa said to Akiko.
"Shadow clone jutsu," Akiko yelled out as a clone that looked exactly like him appeared near him.
However, it immediately disappeared.
"Rest for a minute. Then try again." Santa said to Akiko.
"You are failing to perform this jutsu because you are not spitting exactly half of your chakra. If you don't put enough of your chakra into this jutsu it will keep failing." Santa said to Akiko again.
Akiko tried to gather Chakra again then he used the hand signs and started to try splitting his chakra exactly in half to create a shadow clone again.
"Remember you are creating a shadow clone. Not a clone that you learned how to use in the academy." Santa warned again.
"Shadow clone jutsu." Akiko then tried again.
It failed. He rested for a while and tried again, over and over again.
He was given enough time to rest during his attempts in order not to fully exhaust his Chakra.
With trial and error and input from an experienced Jonin like Santa, after a few hours, he was finally able to create a shadow clone that exactly possessed half the amount of chakra that he possessed.
"It took a while but it seems that you are finally able to pull it off," Santa said to Akiko.
"Shadow clones unlike real clones are not just illusions but also able to interact with their surroundings. They can also think independently of the users. Although the personality is the same as their user." Santa explained.
"And the experience, fatuguie, information, and even the leftover chakra that have not been used by that shadow clone will be returned to the user if they are destroyed or released by the user. This is why they are mainly used for information gathering missions." Santa explained.
"And the shadow clones are extremely fragile can can easily be destroyed, you can improve the durability of a shadow clone if you can master the jutsu completely," Santa said as he punched the clone that Akiko just created.
It was immediately destroyed and transformed back into smoke.
Akiko seems a bit shocked that something that takes him hours' worth of practice was easily destroyed by Santa.
"Do you feel your chakra returning to you?" Santa asked Akiko.
"I think so," Akiko replied.
"Then we can finally move on to our next training topic." He said.
Then Santa and Akiko tried a few tests.
Like how many clones was Akiko able to create before his Chakra started running low?
How long can he maintain the clones?
From those tests, both Akiko and Santa learned the exact limit of Akiko's shadow clone jutsu.
He was able to create four clones before depleting most of his chakra.
And he was able to maintain the clone for at least a few hours but the more clones he uses the time he was able to maintain was also reduced by a significant margin.
Using four clones simultaneously only allows him to maintin the clones for less than an hour before most of his chakra runs out.
Santa then looked at the sky and realized that it was already late as the sun was starting to set.
"Then before I start teaching you how to use Body Flicker I want you to do the things that are on this scroll for a few days. I have to go on a mission so I won't be able to train you for a while." Santa said as he handed a scroll to Akiko.
"Try reading it. And ask me what you didn't understand from the scroll. I won't be able to explain it to you after I set off from the village." Santa asked.
The tasks on the scrolls include things such as workout instructions, how many times a day Akiko should meditate, and what he should eat to help replenish his chakra much more efficiently, so on and so forth.
All of them are written in detail and are straightforward so Akiko was able to understand what Santa asked him clearly.
And he even wrote down what tasks can help him with which area that he needs to improve.
For example, meditation and exercise can help Akiko with his mental and physical conditions.
Both of which are needed to increase the amount of Chakra his body can produce which helps him use more ninjutsu and taijutsu.
"And also try to control your chakra better. The reason our shadow clone training took a few days is that your chakra control is lacking."
"I have already written down what you can do to control your chakra better in the scroll so as long as you follow those instructions you should be fine," Santa said.
"You can take the scroll with you and try to do all the tasks that are written in the scroll before I come back."
"Remember if you really want to go far in the exam you have to follow all the training plans that I laid out. Even then you will only have a small chance of passing the exam." Santa warned Akiko again.
Akiko nodded as he listened to all the advice that Santa gave him.
He was a Jonin which means he is one of the important assets of both the Konoha and his own clan because of that he is very busy.
Akiko knows that Santa would not be able to spend a lot of time training him so he knew that he had to make the most out of this small training time that he was able to spare.
*****
That night when Akiko slept early since he was exhaused from the training he did with Santa.
While he was sleeping he had a weird dream.
"If you and a clone do the same training you can accomplish the same amount of results in half the time."
"The more clones you use the more effective your training will be. If you have ten clones your training will be ten times faster. A hundred clones will speed up the training over time."
He heard a voice in his head.
"And the experience, fatuguie, information, and even the leftover chakra that have not been used by that shadow clone will be returned to the user if they are destroyed or released by the user. This is why they are mainly used for information gathering missions."
He also recalled the information that Santa gave him during the day.