4 On with the wind
A new day had begun, and Naruto was getting ready to head down for breakfast.
While pulling on his clothes, he took a moment to reflect on yesterday's progress. He could already feel a noticeable improvement in his chakra control.
Now, his mind turned to his wind manipulation. Yesterday, he and his clones had only managed to cut the leaves halfway through. Today, his goal was to split those leaves completely in half—and then move straight onto cutting solid stone.
As he was plotting out his training regimen, his stomach let out a loud, demanding growl.
"Looks like training will have to wait a bit. First, let's go and get some breakfast," he muttered to himself, heading out the door.
It's a good thing the inn's diner is right downstairs, he thought as he walked down the corridor. The food here is actually pretty decent.
Stepping into the diner, Naruto approached the guy at the front counter.
"Hey there! I'd like to have the breakfast meal. How much is it?" Naruto asked.
"Sir, that will be 200 ryo," the guy replied.
"Got it." Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out his green frog wallet to count out the money.
After paying, Naruto took a seat at one of the tables and waited a few minutes for his breakfast to arrive.
...
Soon after, Naruto was back in the very same clearing he had used the day before.
Just like yesterday, he divided his clones into specialized teams: one batch was assigned to practice the one-handed Rasengan, another was tasked with the leaf-cutting exercise, and the remaining clones lined up to spar with him.
As Naruto clashed with his sparring partners, he tried to incorporate various martial arts techniques he remembered from his previous life—pulling moves from different action anime, UFC, and MMA.
While some of these real-world techniques were highly effective in certain instances, the sheer unpredictability of his clones' chaotic attacks made them incredibly difficult to counter. More than once, a clone would throw a completely wild, nonsensical punch that threw him entirely off balance.
However, after several intense exchanges, Naruto began to anticipate their movements. Perhaps it was because they were ultimately reflections of his own mind, or perhaps because each defeated clone returned its muscle memory to him, but he was starting to clearly see the gaps in his own stance.
...
By noon, Naruto stood alone in the clearing, panting lightly. He had successfully defeated every single one of his sparring clones, and his taijutsu felt significantly sharper.
At this rate, he realized, just a few more solid sparring sessions and he could actually begin forging a unique combat style of his own.
To some, the idea of inventing his own style might have sounded like too much. But with the original Naruto's deeply ingrained battle instincts combined with his own extensive knowledge of anime fights and professional UFC matches, he knew he had the tools to make it happen.
It was going to take an immense amount of work, but if he wanted to get strong, he would get it done.
While Naruto had been focused on sparring, the clones assigned to the leaf-cutting exercise had finally succeeded, splitting their leaves perfectly down the middle.
Wasting no time, Naruto dismissed them, absorbed their progress, and immediately summoned a new batch of clones to begin the rock-cutting phase. By now, they were already closing in on mastering that step, too.
Shadow clones truly were a miracle. But as he looked ahead, a major roadblock loomed: there was no waterfall nearby. And according to the original series, cutting a waterfall was the vital final step to mastering wind chakra nature transformation.
He briefly considered asking Jiraiya for help, but immediately discarded the idea. How was he supposed to explain how he already knew about elemental chakra training? Giving away his future knowledge was a massive risk. But at the same time, he couldn't just slip away from his mentor—Jiraiya was his ultimate shield against the dangerous S-rank threats lurking in the world.
…..
Ultimately, Naruto decided to put the waterfall training on hold for now.
Even without completing that final step, he could still practice coating his hands and weapons in wind-natured chakra to drastically boost his cutting power and damage output.
As he began walking back toward the inn, he weighed his options. He desperately needed high-level guidance, but he really only had three paths to choose from.
The first was to just ask Jiraiya anyway, finding a way to get training advice without giving away his future knowledge of elemental chakra. The second was to summon the toads of Mount Myoboku to see if they could guide him or point him toward a proper training ground. And the last, most insane option was to tamper with the Nine-Tails' seal, ripping it open just enough to trigger the residual chakra of his father, Minato Namikaze—and maybe even call Kushina there so she could knock some sense into his dad.
With these heavy choices weighing on his mind, he reached the inn, ready to make a decision.
TO BE CONTINUE