Chapter 11: The Substitution Technique

Chapter 11: The Substitution Technique

Although Ishiro's behavior at the school was strange, it didn't cause much of a stir. On the other hand, his peaceful job at the Barrier Class turned out to be a bit unexpected.

It turns out that Ishiro sparked curiosity among the people in the Barrier Class. Even though everyone was busy, many found various excuses to visit the archive room, and a significant number even timed their visits to coincide with Ishiro's shifts in order to exchange books. So, instead of the quiet study time he had imagined, half of Ishiro's time was taken up by copying books.

However, there was a silver lining. Thanks to all this attention, Ishiro quickly became familiar with the internal structure and various task assignments of the Barrier Class.

As one of the village's core departments, the Barrier Class had a massive structure. The division Ishiro was part of, the Sealing Division, worked alongside the Sensory Division, the Runes Division, and a combat division that wasn't technically part of the Barrier Class but had long been stationed there.

Excluding the combat division, each of the other divisions had dozens to hundreds of members during peacetime. These departments were at the same level as others like the Medical Division, the Interrogation Division, the Anbu, the Ninja Academy, the Patrol Division, the Administrative Department, and the Logistics Department. Unlike the Hidden Leaf, Iwagakure didn't have a ROOT or a dedicated Guard Division.

However, when war broke out, these departments would be disbanded and their personnel assigned to various combat teams to strengthen the specialized talent of those units. So, the current Barrier Class was far smaller than it would be during wartime, with only about 100 members, who were split into three shifts. Among them, the Sensory Division had the most people, while the Sealing and Runes Divisions were much smaller.

The daily work of the Sealing Division revolved around two major aspects: one was regularly checking and reinforcing the various seals around the village, such as those on the cabinets in the archive room, which could only be accessed with special permissions. The other major task, which Ishiro hadn't anticipated, was the creation of Storage Scrolls.

Storage Scrolls were consumables—not used up after just one use, but they couldn't be used for long periods and were expensive. Therefore, each village had ninjas responsible for making them. The Runes Division also had an important job of creating various talismans, like the commonly used Explosion Talismans.

Up until now, Ishiro hadn't used either of these, simply because he couldn't afford them.

The first book on the list provided by Bunji was related to the creation of Storage Scrolls.

For the next month, Ishiro copied over thirty books. Though it was tiring, it earned him around seventy contribution points. While not much, for a person barely getting by, Ishiro was quite satisfied with the result.

One of the clear benefits of his powerful spiritual energy was that learning new knowledge came easily. So, in just a month, Ishiro managed to finish reading all the books on his list, which surprised Bunji.

Bunji tested Ishiro's understanding and was impressed by his grasp of the material, noting that Ishiro didn't just understand the content but also provided valuable insights. This was a bit unexpected, so after some thought, Bunji decided not to assign Ishiro more standard tasks but instead gave him an even longer list of books to study.

Ishiro didn't rush. He had been focusing on practicing the Three Techniques lately, and his progress was impressive. He had already learned the Clone Technique and Substitution Technique, but he wasn't yet proficient. The casting process was slow, and the success rate was still low. Moreover, he had to concentrate fully to perform them.

The biggest issue was that the hand seals were too slow. In one-on-one combat, his techniques weren't fast enough to be practical. For instance, the Transformation and Clone Techniques took over three seconds to perform. If the Substitution Technique was pre-prepared with a wooden substitute, it could be cast in about three seconds. But if Ishiro had to use surrounding objects as substitutes, it would take over seven seconds. In that time, Tatsuya's shuriken would have already struck.

Given this, Ishiro focused his training not just on physical conditioning, but on improving his proficiency with the Three Techniques.

The practice of the Three Techniques was split into two parts: one was hand seal practice. As one of the few ninjutsu Ishiro knew, practicing hand seals with actual usage was far more effective than simply practicing sequences. Additionally, now that hand seals were accompanied by chakra manipulation, Ishiro was hesitant to attempt altering the sequence.

After much consideration, Ishiro decided to focus on the most practical technique for combat—the Substitution Technique. As one of the basic Three Techniques, it used very little chakra and was commonly used by ninjas to avoid attacks.

However, the Substitution Technique had several limitations. First, it required nearby objects of suitable size and weight. If the objects were too large or heavy, the technique would be slower and consume more chakra—making it less efficient than the Body Flicker Technique. If the object was too small or light, it wouldn't take on the user's shape properly.

Furthermore, the technique required connecting the user's chakra with the substitute, which meant it couldn't be prepared too far in advance. If prepared too early, maintaining the chakra connection would prevent the ninja from fighting. If prepared too late, the technique would fail entirely.

Finally, chakra outside the body was easy to detect. Since the Substitution Technique was one of the most common techniques, most ninjas were prepared for it. Achieving a surprise effect was, therefore, quite difficult.

Despite these shortcomings, the technique had significant advantages. The most obvious one was that it was simple and easy to learn. As one of the entry-level techniques, the Substitution Technique was a D-rank ninjutsu—there was nothing simpler.

Over the next few months, Ishiro practiced using the Substitution Technique in various environments. By the end of three months, he was able to successfully perform the technique 100% of the time under normal circumstances, completing the process using nearby wood or branches in about five seconds.

Then Ishiro had a sudden idea: instead of using wood, he'd try using something that most people wouldn't think of—water. Compared to stones, water had a lower density and consumed far less chakra. Most importantly, it would be unexpected. Since the Substitution Technique could switch the ninja's position with the substitute, using water would allow a ninja to hide in or escape through it.

It had been about five months since Ishiro's chakra had first reached the level needed for the Transformation Technique. Since then, his chakra reserves had grown significantly. To simplify things, Ishiro decided to label his chakra level for one D-rank technique as 1D. Now, his chakra had increased from 1D to around 1.7D.

Thanks to his training in chakra control, Ishiro could now use only about 0.8D of chakra to perform the Substitution Technique. However, his proficiency with the Clone and Transformation Techniques hadn't improved much, and they still required over 0.9D of chakra.

Moreover, Ishiro's greatest advantage, his spiritual energy, was growing as well. The most significant result of this was that he had become the only ninja in his class capable of practicing chakra extraction while in combat.

Now, at just over five years old—almost six—Ishiro had barely reached the standard for the Shinobi Selection Exam in peacetime. In his past life, Kakashi graduated at five, and Ishiro joked that he could have done the same. To sum up Ishiro's mindset: as Naruto once said, "I'm doing great!"

Of course, this was just Ishiro's self-satisfaction. The test Kakashi faced for graduation was far more challenging than simply mastering the Three Techniques. And although Ishiro's proficiency with the Three Techniques was impressive, it was largely due to his chakra control abilities. His chakra reserves and physical fitness were still far behind other elite peers.

For example, Shouhara, the muscle-bound yet simple-minded guy, currently had at least 7D worth of chakra, and his physical strength was many times greater than Ishiro's. Don't be surprised—this gap in physical fitness between them was widening.

This disparity was despairing, particularly when it came to taijutsu. If Ishiro and Tanaka faced off, they would have completed their hand seals at the same time, but Ishiro wouldn't even have started his technique before Tanaka's fist was already at his face.

Though Shouhara and Tanaka's taijutsu far exceeded Ishiro's, Shouhara was still learning the Three Techniques, and couldn't yet perform them successfully. Tanaka was slightly better off—she had already mastered the Transformation Technique. At present, seven or eight students in Ishiro's class had successfully performed the Three Techniques, but only Ikura, Ishiro, and Meiko had learned all three, with Ishiro being the first to master all three before Meiko.

As for Ikura, his abilities were now beyond the comprehension of anyone in class. His physical fitness, chakra reserves, and chakra control far exceeded everyone else's. In sparring, no one could make him use his full strength. He was famous as the village's most talented ninja.

Sometimes, Ishiro wondered: given Ikura's displayed talent, he was probably not much weaker than Kakashi. Why had no one ever heard of him? Did he pass away young, or was he neglected?

But that was a question Ishiro couldn't answer now. Instead of wasting energy thinking about it, he focused on improving his Substitution Technique.

How could he use water as a substitute? Water had no fixed shape and was highly fluid, making it difficult to use in the Substitution Technique.

After some thought, Ishiro decided to solve the shape problem first. He would use water from a bucket for practice, which would eliminate the impact of water's fluidity. If this worked, he could move on to the next step.

The idea was good, but the reality was harsh. Ishiro specifically selected a bucket of water similar in size to the wooden substitute. After filling the bucket, he began establishing a chakra connection with the water.

This part went smoothly, but when it came time to swap positions, problems arose. Although he could achieve the swap, the water couldn't take on his form after the transfer.

Had he succeeded?

In terms of evading an attack, it was successful. But the core of the Substitution Technique was to briefly confuse the enemy by using the substitute to switch places, which had failed.

One of the key advantages of the Substitution Technique was that it allowed the ninja to launch a surprise attack while the enemy focused on the substitute. To achieve this, Ishiro had to solve the problem of shaping the water substitute.