Naruto was unaware of the conversation between Hiruzen and Jiraiya in the Hokage Office.
After returning to his apartment, he first took a bath and then sat cross-legged on the bed to start training to increase his Chakra reserves—extracting energy from his cells.
Although his Chakra reserves far exceeded those of ordinary ninjas under the dual buff of the Uzumaki bloodline and the Nine-Tails, Chakra was like savings—no one would ever complain about having too much.
However, Naruto did not train for too long. The essence of Chakra is extracting energy from cells. Training in moderation helps improve extraction efficiency and the reserve limit, but over-training would instead wear down the body.
About an hour later, he opened his eyes.
Just then, he sensed a figure rapidly approaching at extreme speed. Upon activating Negative Emotions Sensing, he felt no hostility from the other party.
The corner of Naruto's lips curved slightly.
A moment later, there was a knock on the apartment door.
Naruto pulled open the door and saw an Anbu wearing a cat mask stand at the doorway, holding out a box. He held the box out to Naruto, his voice flat. "Naruto, this is from Hokage-sama."
"Thank you."
Naruto thanked him and took the box.
Having completed the Hokage's direct order, the Anbu made no further conversation. His outline flickered slightly on the spot, and then he vanished.
Closing the door, Naruto placed the box on the table and opened it. Inside the box lay two tied-up Ninjutsu scrolls.
Naruto unfurled the first scroll.
B-rank Ninjutsu, Wind Release: Vacuum Blade.
Naruto read through it line by line. The core of this Ninjutsu was to gather Wind Chakra onto the blade of a Kunai, utilizing the cutting characteristics of Wind Release to form a sharp Chakra blade.
The principle was not overly complex, but the precision required for Chakra shaping was extremely high. The Wind Chakra had to form a uniform and continuous high-speed vibration layer on the metal surface of the Kunai, any uneven density would cause the blade edge to chip.
This ninjutsu indeed seemed very strong, turning an ordinary Kunai into a weapon capable of tearing through armor, which could neutralize the opponent's defensive ninja tools during close-quarters combat.
But after reading the whole thing, Naruto shook his head slightly.
In the end, the upper limit of the Vacuum Blade was merely adding a Wind Release enchantment to a Kunai. It was not on the same level at all as the late stage Chidori Blade, which could cut through Lightning Release.
However, as a transitional measure, it was sufficient.
Naruto put down the first scroll and opened the second one. This time, his eyebrows raised slightly.
A-rank Ninjutsu, Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.
Naruto read through it line by line, then nodded.
The principle of this Ninjutsu had similarities to the Shadow Clone Technique.
Shadow Clone Technique uses one's own Chakra to form a physical clone of themselves, whereas Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique replicates the physical form of a shuriken or Kunai, instantly splitting one shuriken or Kunai into dozens or even hundreds of physical entities to create a wide-range coverage strike on the target area.
For an average ninja, the biggest hurdle of this technique is that the Shadow Clone Technique itself requires a large amount of Chakra to sustain, and Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique is equivalent to adding another layer of object replication on top of the Shadow Clone, placing even higher demands on Chakra reserves.
Naruto happened not to be lacking in Chakra.
He looked at the two scrolls placed side by side on the table, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips that was hard to define as either satisfied or resigned.
He could only say, as expected of Hiruzen. These two Ninjutsu not only matched his Chakra nature perfectly, but they also did not involve any forbidden techniques or dangerous levels of jutsu.
Vacuum Blade was a B-rank Wind Release basic application, and although Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique was A-rank, it was essentially an extended application of the Shadow Clone Technique.
One provided him with melee enchantment methods, and the other provided him with wide-range attack methods.
More importantly, the learning curve for Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique overlapped highly with the Shadow Clone Technique. As one of the ninjas most proficient in Shadow Clone in all of Konoha, Naruto would find learning this technique easier.
Immediately after, he spread the two scrolls side by side on the low table, and began to read the training methods on them word for word.
The sequence of hand seals, the guidance path of Chakra, the precision requirements for shaping, the essentials of timing for activation...
Every detail was broken down and read several times. From time to time, he would close his eyes to simulate the sequence of hand seals and the flow of Chakra in his mind.
Time flew.
When Naruto had firmly memorized the contents of the two scrolls and rubbed his sore eyes, the edge of the sky outside the window was already glowing with a very faint grey-white.
Yawning, Naruto rolled up the two scrolls, put them back into the box, and then collapsed to sleep.
A few hours later.
Naruto woke up, put the two scrolls into his ninja tool pouch, tidied up, and went out.
He definitely couldn't go to the Waterfall Cave, but when he was overlooking the whole village from Hokage Rock yesterday, he had noticed a place.
Behind Hokage Rock was a forest area surrounded by low hills. The terrain was low-lying, there were no residential houses around, and there was no obvious path leading there, making it very suitable as a temporary site for daytime training.
Naruto jumped rapidly across the rooftops, his yellow hair blown backward by the wind.
When jumping over a corner, his footsteps came to a sudden halt.