A Strange Effect
"My ninjutsu is off by a significant margin, like, nine out of ten."
Lin Ke sat back on the bed, a strange expression on his face as he pondered.
It had been—well, two minutes since he first performed ninjutsu. His Clone Jutsu, due to his own limited Chakra, only lasted for about ten seconds.
When the Clone Jutsu ended, regardless of where the body parts were, everything would return to the head's location with a poof.
So, he had ended up face-planting on the ground the moment the Clone Jutsu ended. Thinking about it now, his neck felt a bit sore from the awkward position.
According to the scroll, the Clone Jutsu used Chakra to create an illusion identical to oneself to confuse the opponent.
Hand seals, Chakra flow—he had followed everything written on the scroll to the letter. He had read it over and over for four or five years; there was no way he could have misremembered it.
But… why was it so off? Lin Ke scratched his head, feeling his brain cells dying in droves from this inexplicable thinking.
"It's not like there are no benefits," he muttered, looking down at his intact fingernails. If his memory was correct, his fingernails should have broken and bled when they hit the ground earlier.
But now, even the pain felt like an illusion.
He rubbed his fingers, feeling a strange phantom pain, and began to refine Chakra and form the hand seals again—
That strange sensation washed over him once more.
"As long as I relax even a little, my body will fall apart." Lin Ke quickly grasped the feeling and discovered the secret of his 'Clone Jutsu'.
After releasing it, his limbs, head, and torso were physically separated. It was only by focusing intently that he held them together. If he relaxed even slightly or lost focus, the parts would simply fall off.
"*Swish!*"
He waved his left arm around with his right hand. Not bad, it felt quite handy. Especially after clenching his left fist, he felt like his attack range had increased by an arm's length! An inch longer is an inch stronger! "*Poof!*"
Smoke rose, the Clone Jutsu ended, and Lin Ke reassembled himself. He pondered for a moment, then sat back on the bed. With his physical condition, having just reached the standard for Chakra refinement, he could barely manage two consecutive Clone Jutsus. If he used more Chakra at once…
He tried to refine more Chakra and continued to form the hand seals.
Feeling his body parts about to fall apart again, he pulled out a kunai and slashed his arm, drawing blood.
Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds…
One minute!
"*Poof!*"
"Haa~" Lin Ke took a deep breath, panting slightly. Not bad. If he kept using the Clone Jutsu, he could last five minutes before collapsing from exhaustion.
"But, the most important thing is—"
He looked at his bronze-colored arm, where the cut should have been, but there was no trace of it, and even the blood was gone.
"The biggest advantage of this literal Clone Jutsu is probably that it can erase wounds when it's canceled."
Lin Ke was a little excited. It didn't matter that the Clone Jutsu had become strange; the important thing was that it was powerful. It seemed like a small-scale Izanagi, at least able to erase cuts directly.
"Wait, I think I'm in trouble."
He was happy, happy, and then he suddenly realized the key point.
If the Clone Jutsu he released was this kind of thing, how was he going to enter the Ninja Academy?
Lin Ke covered his face, his mood complex and indescribable.
After a while, he calmed down and consoled himself, "Maybe this is my cheat. Maybe I can develop some other, more powerful uses. I can use other ninjutsu to get into the academy. One Clone Jutsu isn't everything…"
"…"
Then he had a subtle premonition. If even the correctly performed Clone Jutsu was like this, the other ninjutsu probably wouldn't be any better.
Lin Ke took a deep breath, his eyes moving down to the second ninjutsu listed—
Transformation Jutsu.
Among the Three Body Technique, the Clone Jutsu was the simplest, using Chakra to create a non-corporeal afterimage. Even among the basic ninjutsu, it was the easiest, with almost no difficulty. Even if one was self-taught, without any guidance, they could use it after some time of experimentation.
The Transformation Jutsu was only slightly more difficult than the Clone Jutsu, so it was placed second in the scroll. Its effect was no longer purely illusory but involved some changes to the body.
After all, the Clone Jutsu could only create an illusion of oneself, while the Transformation Jutsu could genuinely disguise oneself as someone else, changing height, weight, voice, and even transforming into animals, plants, or weapons. A simple illusion couldn't do that.
But it's only on the level of disguise and deception, not involving too much physical change. The parts simulated with Chakra are more significant, so it's one of the lowest-difficulty Ninjutsu.
"What should I transform into..."
Lin Ke thought, contrasting with the Clone Jutsu, which only requires creating an illusion of oneself, the Transformation Jutsu requires more thought and preparation.
The Three Body Technique has no difficulty in its release. To be precise, releasing it isn't difficult, but success depends entirely on oneself.
The fact that the Genin certification exam and the Ninja Academy graduation exam both use the successful release of the simplest Clone Jutsu as the standard shows Konoha's attitude towards Genin.
As long as you can successfully release the lowest-level, simplest Ninjutsu, you're a Genin.
Because the missions that Genin can take don't include the presence of other Ninja. D-rank missions like picking up trash, finding lost cats and dogs, helping with planting and harvesting... do these missions require earth-shattering Ninjutsu? Being able to successfully release Ninjutsu means that one's physical fitness meets the standard. Whether strong or weak among Ninja, they are definitely qualified as labor.
"I'll transform into the old man, my dead dad."
Lin Ke thought for a moment, confirming the direction of his transformation. He recalled his father's appearance, height, and the vest he often wore in his mind...
Extract Chakra, form hand seals.
Nothing happened.
"Strange." This time, he carefully observed the flow of Chakra. At the moment of releasing the Ninjutsu, the Chakra extracted for the release was directly consumed out of thin air.
Where it went and how it operated were completely unknown, purely a black box, but theoretically, it should have been released.
Even a failed Transformation Jutsu should change the surface of the body, so why did nothing happen? Could it be—
Lin Ke pondered for a moment, following the earlier idea with the Clone Jutsu, looked at his palm, and thought of transforming into a long sword. The next second, his arm began to deform, and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a cold, gleaming long sword.
The connection between the sword hilt guard and the shoulder was seamless, as if they were naturally connected.
After trying a few more times, for about thirty seconds, the Ninjutsu effect disappeared, and he returned to normal.
"I knew it..."
He sighed deeply. Transformation Jutsu, Transformation Jutsu, it really is for transforming the body. The head can't be changed at all.
The Substitution Jutsu is probably similar.
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