"Heh heh!" Uzumaki Naruto rubbed the back of his head and grinned.
"In that case, as a celebration for officially becoming a ninja, how about I teach you a jutsu?" Kaede Kitahara said. "Have you ever tested what your chakra nature is?"
"Not yet." Naruto looked confused. He vaguely remembered their teacher mentioning chakra attributes in class, but he couldn't recall the details.
Kaede pressed a hand to his forehead, helpless. Of course he already knew Naruto was Wind Release, but as an ordinary Chunin who'd had almost no contact with Naruto before, he shouldn't know that.
So he pretended to ask, then went upstairs to grab a piece of Chakra Induction Paper and handed it to Naruto.
"If it burns, that means fire. If it gets cut, that's wind. If it wrinkles, that's lightning. If it gets damp, that's water. And if it crumbles apart, that's earth. Yours split cleanly, so you're a Wind Release ninja," Kaede explained.
"Oh, so that's how it works." Naruto nodded in sudden realization.
Kaede could only sigh. What exactly were they teaching at the academy these days? Then again, given how the big clans blocked so much curriculum, it wasn't like the school could offer much besides basic knowledge and the Three Basic Techniques.
"Watch closely. Wind Release, Great Breakthrough!"
Kaede shouted, his hands flashing through seals. A massive gust blasted from his mouth, sweeping across the entire courtyard.
Naruto's clones, which had filled the yard a moment earlier, vanished without a trace.
Kaede had held back the power on purpose, so nothing in the courtyard was damaged.
"Whoa, that's amazing!" Naruto was stunned. He'd never seen a jutsu like that before.
At the academy, students only got to learn the Three Basic Techniques. Anything more reliable had to be taught by their Chunin or Jonin squad leader. Otherwise, they had to earn mission credit to exchange for jutsu.
Just look at the Twelve from the original story. Sakura, coming from a normal family, didn't know a single real jutsu. But the rest—except Naruto—each had their own specialty. Their jutsu were powerful too. The only reason they couldn't match someone like Amakusa Ryuji was because they were still young. Their bodies and chakra reserves weren't fully grown yet.
Otherwise, they weren't lacking in anything.
Neji Hyuga was the standout. After one year of internship, he'd probably already surpassed the average elite Jonin.
Three years later, when Naruto returned to the village, Neji had already risen to Jonin.
That was the gap between civilians and ninja clans. Some clans even had Kekkei Genkai. Their secret techniques were on a whole different level.
Even among commoners, there was a difference between families with ninja experience and those without. Kaede Kitahara was from a civilian family, but his late father had been a Chunin. Even a regular Chunin could pass down chakra refinement methods and a few Wind Release jutsu.
That alone let Kaede consistently stay ahead of the other two in his three-man squad. His natural talent hadn't been better than Amakusa Ryuji's, but he'd always been a step ahead.
"Kaede!"
Fangko Kitahara's voice thundered from the living room.
"Are you testing jutsu in the house again?"
Kaede couldn't help but give a wry smile. He really had tried to keep it under control. But he wasn't the same as before. Back then, his Great Breakthrough barely covered any distance and had weak power.
Now, even when he held back, the jutsu still covered the entire courtyard.
"Mom, I didn't damage anything," Kaede called back.
Then he turned to Naruto. "It's not convenient to practice here. Come on, let's head to a nearby training field."
Konoha was a militarized fortress. Aside from the clans' private training grounds, there were plenty of public training fields for any ninja to use.
There was one not far from the Kitahara house. Kaede grabbed Naruto and sped off. They arrived in no time.
"Bro Kaede, your Body Flicker Technique is awesome," Naruto said with genuine awe.
Kaede had half a mind to tell Naruto to practice basics, but he let it go. Naruto was a Rasengan user. His path wasn't the kind of careful, chakra-saving style normal ninjas had to follow.
And honestly, by the later arcs, everyone was basically an alien throwing hands anyway. Basics barely mattered.
"Just practice more. Here, watch the hand seals and how to move your chakra," Kaede said, starting to teach Naruto Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.
Naruto tried, but it didn't go well. His chakra was still being disrupted by the Nine-Tails, and that problem hadn't been resolved yet.
And Kaede, let alone having the kind of eye power Uchiha Sasuke would have three years later—strong enough to step directly into Naruto's spiritual world and crush the Nine-Tails' illusions—even if Kaede did have that ability, he wouldn't dare use it.
Naruto was too sensitive to chakra signatures. Just now, he'd already sensed several chakra sources nearby. They were likely the Anbu who usually watched over him.
"Right, since you know Multi Shadow Clone, I'll teach you something. You can use it to train. With multiple clones learning at once, your training speed shoots up like crazy," Kaede said.
When a clone disappears, all its memories and fatigue return to the original.
If you create multiple clones at once, it's basically several people training together.
This wasn't a secret. It was practically common knowledge. But only Naruto could truly use it because Shadow Clones divided chakra evenly.
Say the Third Hokage made a hundred Shadow Clones like Naruto. Every clone would end up with only a tiny sliver of chakra.
But Naruto was different. He had chakra reserves hundreds of times larger than Hatake Kakashi. Even split a hundred ways, each clone still had Kakashi-level chakra.
If Kakashi ever learned that, he'd probably cry.
And that wasn't even counting the Nine-Tails chakra inside Naruto—an overwhelming, near-infinite reservoir, practically a living chakra battery.
Plus there was Naruto's insane chakra recovery rate, another completely unreasonable advantage.