Chapter 29: Mastering E-Rank and D-Rank Wind Release Jutsu
After several test attempts on nearby trees, he came to an important conclusion:
"Although the wind chakra infused in the sphere will explode, that's not what causes the primary damage. The real damage comes from the compressed wind itself, which becomes lethal after the explosion. The wind creates numerous cutting slashes, some of which can be very deep."
Kaito tried injecting more chakra to enhance the explosion's power, but it didn't work as intended because the Air Bullet couldn't travel as fast or as far with the extra weight.
Even if he increased the amount of wind to maintain the optimal chakra-to-wind ratio, the sphere became too cumbersome and lost its effective speed.
He sighed, thinking:
"Upgrading it directly is a very complex challenge. However, I should change my perspective. Perhaps I should try combining this technique with the Wind Clone. If a Wind Clone could detonate itself using this jutsu's principle, it would become a devastating suicide attack."
His practice of the Air Bullets technique lasted for a full week.
After the first day, Kaito stopped trying to improve the individual bullet's power and instead focused on increasing both the formation speed and launch speed.
His goal was to be able to continuously launch these exploding projectiles without significant delay between shots.
This way, although it wouldn't be an immediately fatal technique, it would still cause considerable cumulative damage to opponents who couldn't dodge or block these bullets effectively.
It could potentially lead to defeat through excessive blood loss and exhaustion. However, he was still far from achieving that level of proficiency.
On the second day of the new week, he began learning the Wind Pushing Technique. The fundamental principle was to gather wind chakra in his hand and release it explosively in one direction.
That burst would exert an opposite reactive force on him, causing him to move rapidly in the opposite direction. This technique could be used to quickly change direction during combat.
However, in terms of pure ground-based movement, this technique was far inferior to the Body Flicker Jutsu.
Its primary advantage was that when the user's feet were not planted on the ground, this jutsu would be extremely convenient for aerial maneuvering and mid-air directional changes.
Due to his intensive training over the past month, creating a controlled wind burst was relatively easy. The real challenge was controlling the precise amount and direction of his movement.
In addition, his footwork also required significant adjustment. To use this technique effectively, his stance had to be very light and flexible, allowing himself to be propelled smoothly by the burst.
Although Kaito could control the power of the wind burst itself, the actual force transmitted back to his body would vary significantly depending on how firmly his feet were planted. This proved very difficult to master.
On the third day of training, he successfully developed two practical strategies to work around this problem.
The first method was to jump slightly in the direction he wanted to go, and then use the wind burst to propel himself there with additional speed.
The second method was to release the burst and then instantly lift his feet completely off the ground, allowing the force to push him away.
However, his control over the second method was still quite lacking. This often caused him to flip several times uncontrollably in the air, which could be extremely dangerous in actual combat if an enemy pursued and continued their attack while he was vulnerable.
He trained for six intensive days to improve his control over this technique, after which he felt satisfied with his progress.
After dinner that night, he decided to sit down and thoroughly assess his current capabilities. He thought to himself:
"In these thirty-two days of summer vacation, I've learned five E-rank Wind Release jutsu and five D-rank Wind Release techniques! Combined with the three basic Academy jutsu, Body Flicker Jutsu, and Shadow Clone Jutsu, I now have a total of fifteen techniques in my arsenal."
He further analyzed his jutsu repertoire and came to several conclusions:
"My Wind Clone makes the ordinary Academy Clone Jutsu completely redundant. I should abandon its use entirely. The Wind Breathing Technique also no longer needs continued practice; it can already sufficiently mask footsteps and scent, and in actual combat situations, Great Breakthrough is far more useful."
Thirteen jutsu remained relevant. Although Kaito had learned them all, when it came to truly mastering a technique to its full potential, he had probably only completely mastered one—the Body Flicker Jutsu, which he had spent ten full months perfecting.
Next, Kaito would focus on mastering these Wind Release techniques more thoroughly. Especially learning to cast them without hand seals.
Although the Body Flicker Jutsu had taken ten months to master completely, if he learned anything during this intensive month, it was either that his Wind Release affinity was exceptionally high or that these particular Wind Release techniques were relatively simple to learn. So achieving true mastery shouldn't take nearly as long.
Kaito could also upgrade his Substitution Jutsu by replacing the substitution target with his Wind Clone instead of nearby logs or other objects.
In addition, he could experiment with combining Wind Clone and Air Bullets—creating explosive suicide clones.
Similarly, he could also try using Body Flicker Jutsu and Wind Pushing Technique simultaneously. If he could master changing direction freely during Body Flicker, it would become an extraordinarily lethal combat technique.
Moreover, Kaito also needed to learn how to properly infuse his weapons with Wind chakra for enhanced cutting power.
After considering these training goals, Kaito decided to think about how to obtain C-rank jutsu. He pondered:
"I'm not sure if I can quickly obtain access to C-rank and B-rank techniques. I could ask Genshu-sensei, but even if I succeeded, I don't think he would provide more than 2 or 3 jutsu. And that would definitely attract considerable attention."
Kaito felt he could potentially ask the Hokage for permission to access the higher-level sections of the Library after the third-year final exams.
But he wasn't certain if Hiruzen would agree, and even if he did, Kaito's presence in those restricted sections would likely be monitored closely.
If they observed him studying those advanced techniques, they might assign someone to monitor Kaito's activities outside the Academy as well.
That would mean Kaito could no longer secretly train techniques as freely as he did now.
If they sent someone sufficiently skilled to monitor him—someone whose presence Kaito couldn't detect with his sensory abilities—it would mean his true capabilities would soon be known to both Hiruzen and Danzo.
He sighed, thinking:
"Forget it, it's safer to remain cautious. There's no need to take such a significant risk. If I completely master all my current techniques and also learn various Earth Release jutsu, and still can't develop my skills further, then I can consider early graduation as an option."
Over the past year, he had thought extensively about the possibility of early graduation. His analysis was:
"Originally, I thought early graduation would attract excessive attention. Perhaps that's still true in Naruto's generation. But currently, early graduation seems to be actively supported and even encouraged by the instructors."
"Over the past two years, many students have graduated in their fourth or fifth year of Academy. Some have even graduated after completing only their third year. I suspect the village desperately wants new shinobi to join the active ranks as quickly as possible. That's probably why early graduation is being encouraged now. However, if someone graduated at six or seven years old, it would still attract enormous attention and scrutiny."
During this summer vacation, Kaito had devoted almost all his energy to ninjutsu training.
His daily routine consisted of physical exercises in the morning, then intensive ninjutsu training throughout the day. When his chakra was depleted, he would meditate to recover or practice shuriken throwing; everything else was secondary.
Kaito decided to continue practicing Wind Release techniques during the final week of vacation. At the same time, he would begin additional combat training.
He started attempting to hit his Wind Clones with shuriken to improve his accuracy against moving targets.
However, he didn't know whether to feel disappointed about his shuriken skills or impressed by the speed and evasive ability of his clones, because he didn't successfully hit his Wind Clone even once during the first day! But his accuracy did improve very rapidly with this challenging practice method.
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[+10 Reviews = +1 Extra Chapter]
If you enjoyed this chapter, leave a Review!
P*atreon/DarkFoxx (advanced chapters)