After resting for a night Akiko arrived at the training ground in the early morning.
Just like he said before Santa was unable to make it there so he had to practice by himself.
Luckily, Santa made him a list of what to do if he wants to improve certain weaknesses.
Santa identified that Akiko's main weakness was his lack of chakra control.
Because of that, although Akiko knew he needed to focus on other areas, such as hand-to-hand combat, what he needed to do first was improve his chakra control.
"There are still many things that I need to do before he comes back. Maybe I should try the training method that I heard about in my dreams." Akiko said to himself.
"Shadow clone jutsu." Akiko created four clones that looked exactly like him with each one containing one-fifth of his total chakra.
"Okay. I should try to keep this in check since from what I remember fatigue should also be transferred to my body after the clone disappeared." Akiko said.
"You go to my former Jonin teacher and borrow a book from him that contains information about how to increase our chakra. Then read it in our room." He ordered as he pointed at one of the clones.
"Me? Why do I have to do such a boring task?" He complained.
"Fine." But he ultimately agrees.
"You have to meditate for an hour until you disappear," Akiko said as he pointed at another.
"Your task is even more boring than mine." The first clone said to the second, smiling.
"And you have to do water walking exercise," Akiko said as he pointed at the third clone.
"Yes. I got a better one compared to those two." The third clone celebrated.
"Lucky." The first clone said as he looked at the third clone.
"And lastly you should do the tree climbing exercise," Akiko said as he pointed at the fourth clone.
This should be enough. Using two clones to improve my chakra control by making them two different exercises that help you control your chakra better might help me improve it a lot compared to my old self. Akilo thought in his mind.
"And what are you going to do? You can't just expect all of us to work while you slack off." one of the clones stated.
"Of course not. I am going to train my body." Akiko stated.
"Remember you have to stop training as soon as an hour passes. Training too much might cause harm to the main body so don't try to push yourself too hard." The original Akiko warned his clones.
He would have wanted to make them train as much as they could but that would completely drain his chakra and would lead to his death in the worst possible scenario.
And not only that forcing the clones to do a boring task for one hour is possible but he knew that the clones might refuse to follow his orders if he asked for more than that.
After all, despite having the same personality as him the clones still can think independently from him.
He has about one month to train before the next Chunin exam starts so he knew he had to try and make the most out of the time that he had.
******
"My head aches," Akiko said as he lay down on his back in the training ground.
After one hour all of the clones that he created were canceled so the experience and the knowledge that they gained also returned to him alongside some of the leftover chakra.
But just like what he heard the the dream that he had it seems that the fatigue from the clone also comes alongside the benefits that the training offered.
"Thank god it's only four clones. And the training was not very harsh. If that was hundreds of clones' worth of fatigue I might have even lost my consciousness."
Akiko then tries to find out if the training really works.
He realized that he remembered some of the contents from the book that he had read although he wasn't able to remember everything.
"I wondered if I used more than one clone to read the same book would I be able to remember more?" Akiko wondered.
"So that means if I want to utilise this training method I should not split up tasks and just focus on one task," Akiko said.
"With the four clones training alongside my main body, I should be able to achieve progress five times faster compared to what I would be able to accomplish without it," Akiko stated.
It was a shocking discovery. The training method is almost perfect.
It doesn't take much effort since each clone can have its own independent thoughts once created.
Allowing multiple people to train without feeling bored or needing to put too much effort while still being able to achieve the result that someone might have to train longer even if they work harder.
Of course, it still has a weakness. Which is that trying to cram too much while using too many clones can overload the main body.
This method is perfect for Akiko. He does not have to train until he sweats blood when he can train smarter using his clones as long as he can endure a mild headache that comes along with it after every training session as long as he doesn't overtrain.