Chapter 42: Ninjutsu Combat Training
So the Shadow Clone activated the Mud Wall it had already prepared underground.
It channeled more chakra into the earthen barrier, making it larger and more durable.
The Air Bullet collided with the mud wall and exploded violently.
The fierce wind chakra eroded the barrier's surface but couldn't penetrate completely through.
When Kaito saw the earthen shield emerge from the ground, he had already prepared two larger Air Bullets and used Body Flicker to reposition to a better firing angle.
Before the mud wall was even fully raised, he had already closed the distance to approximately ten meters from the Shadow Clone.
Due to the barrier blocking its view, the Shadow Clone didn't see Kaito use Body Flicker to appear beside it.
But when it finally spotted Kaito so dangerously close, it immediately launched several wooden shuriken at him.
Kaito saw two shuriken flying toward him and thought:
"I don't want to take those hits directly."
So he launched one Air Bullet to intercept and destroy the shuriken, then fired a second Air Bullet directly at the Shadow Clone.
However, the Shadow Clone used Body Flicker to escape, and Kaito immediately pursued.
For the next full minute, they engaged in an intense high-speed chase, both using Body Flicker repeatedly at extremely high speeds, trying to strike each other with Air Bullets, shuriken, or kunai.
However, neither combatant succeeded in landing a decisive hit.
Soon, the Shadow Clone identified an opportunity. It surrounded Kaito with six airborne shuriken and launched several Air Bullets blocking the only escape route. Kaito thought quickly:
"This is bad—a normal evasion would be too dangerous. I'll go underground instead."
He immediately used Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage to dive underground.
However, recalling the Shadow Clone's previous predicament when it tried this tactic, he didn't attempt to close distance while underground. Instead, he constantly monitored the Shadow Clone's position with his sensory abilities and prepared a counter-jutsu.
He thought strategically:
"I need to create a distraction now to safely emerge from underground."
He began gathering chakra for Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.
The instant his head broke through the surface, he saw the Shadow Clone launch two Air Bullets at him while simultaneously manipulating six shuriken with Projectile Control.
However, Kaito unleashed Great Breakthrough, creating a powerful wind blast that nullified all these attacks completely.
The Shadow Clone itself was caught within the technique's blast radius and escaped underground using Subterranean Voyage.
Kaito tracked his Shadow Clone's underground movement, thinking:
"I suspect it'll employ a similar strategy to what I just used. I wonder if I can somehow interfere with underground movement."
He positioned himself directly above where the Shadow Clone was tunneling and struck the ground hard with a chakra-enhanced punch.
The earth cracked slightly from the impact, and the Shadow Clone underground felt the tremor from the punch, but it caused no actual damage to the clone.
Kaito thought with frustration:
"Damn it, that was completely ineffective! I'm still nowhere near Tsunade's level of devastating physical strikes."
He used Body Flicker to reposition on a nearby tree branch, prepared two Air Bullets, and readied himself to use Body Flicker again if needed.
As he waited for his Shadow Clone to surface, he thought analytically:
"I really need to learn techniques to force opponents out of the ground. I can think of the Earth Release technique Kitsuchi used, and perhaps flooding underground areas with water to restrict oxygen circulation."
Meanwhile, the Shadow Clone was also strategizing underground:
"That was far too close! If my original body were physically stronger, that punch would have dispersed me instantly. What should I do now? I can sense that my original body has prepared Air Bullets and is waiting for me to emerge. I don't think the Mud Wall will be effective this time."
While still monitoring the situation, it noticed something surprising:
"Wait, I can still breathe down here? So that's it—the ground cracks caused by that punch allowed air to seep in underground. This is actually quite disadvantageous for the original body."
"Also, I never realized that Shadow Clones also require breathing, which is quite surprising. I wonder if Tobirama could have created a Shadow Clone variant that doesn't need to breathe, or if he deliberately added this physiological requirement to increase authenticity during infiltration missions."
"If it's the latter case, then I need to find some method to eliminate the Shadow Clone's breathing requirement entirely. That way, clones could remain underground for hours without surfacing!"
"Anyway, I don't have time pressure now, so I'll simply wait here underground until I can develop a better strategy. After all, the original body doesn't have effective methods for dealing with opponents hiding underground either."
Meanwhile, Kaito continued waiting on the tree branch for the Shadow Clone to surface. After waiting for five full minutes, he thought impatiently:
"Does the Shadow Clone not need to breathe? Surely those cracks I created can provide adequate air circulation underground, right? I really can't do anything about this stalemate. Only Swamp of the Underworld has a chance of working, but its area of effect is too limited to be reliably effective. I wonder if my Shadow Clone has developed some clever strategy, or if it's just deliberately wasting time."
He continued monitoring the Shadow Clone's position for another five minutes, finally couldn't tolerate the standoff anymore, and forcibly dispersed the Shadow Clone.
After receiving the Shadow Clone's accumulated memories, he exclaimed about its patient underground waiting:
"That's definitely my Shadow Clone alright. I remember playing a game called 'Counter-Strike' in my previous life. My team and the enemy were fighting, and within 5 minutes, all my teammates died, leaving 2 enemies alive. They thought they had won, but then realized there was still one more player to eliminate. Those poor players tried to find me for five straight minutes! Finally, when they entered the room where I was camping, I successfully eliminated them both!"
Kaito began analyzing the entire sparring session thoroughly:
"Disregarding that anticlimactic ending, this training went quite productively. However, it was predominantly a mid-range engagement. Offensive techniques used were Great Breakthrough and Air Bullets, battlefield control employed Projectile Control, defense utilized Mud Wall, and evasion relied on Body Flicker and Subterranean Voyage."
"Wind Clone is another technique that could have been deployed, but we didn't use it since it would have caused tactical confusion. Other jutsu also didn't play significant roles in this particular battle."
In fact, Kaito genuinely wanted to close distance for close-quarters combat, but his Shadow Clone's strategy was specifically avoiding melee range, since it would disperse from any solid hit.
So Kaito couldn't effectively utilize taijutsu or kenjutsu, nor did opportunities arise to employ Wind Pushing Technique.
With his current skill level, it was essentially impossible to successfully cast genjutsu during such high-speed combat.
The most concerning tactical weakness was definitely underground combat capability.
Against subterranean opponents, Kaito had no better counter-strategy than going underground himself.
But fundamentally, Kaito wasn't particularly skilled at underground combat tactics, making this very disadvantageous for him.
And striking the ground to crack it open was remarkably foolish, as it actually provided underground enemies with better air access!
Beyond that issue, Kaito also needed to strengthen his offensive capabilities.
Kaito believed he could potentially penetrate the mud wall with a real chakra-enhanced kunai, but he obviously couldn't accomplish that with wooden practice kunai. His current offensive jutsu couldn't break through the defense either.
Additionally, Kaito needed to use Body Flicker more strategically. Both he and his Shadow Clone sometimes flickered excessive distances. This unnecessarily reset the battle's momentum.
He needed to develop the ability to estimate optimal Body Flicker distances instinctively so he could immediately maintain offensive pressure.
Kaito concluded this would require extensive sparring practice to truly master.
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