Naruto: Kage of Kages

“You already have a very good grasp of the practical basics so we’ll be focusing on theory first.” Mito told Shiki.

‘If the approach is too theory heavy, most children can’t keep their focus but I doubt that will happen with this child.’

In fact, looking at his seemingly normal expression, the Uzumaki matriarch could almost see excitement oozing out of his shiny clear, violet eyes.

‘Truly . . . The gift that keeps on giving.’ Mito thought, Shiki showing more and more sides of himself that provoked her curiosity.

At this point, she was committed to unraveling the mystery of this child she felt was like a gift from the world for a weary old woman like her.

‘That sounds all kinds of wrong-’ A deep voice sounded within the redhead’s mind which she quickly cut off before it could say anything meaningful.

Moving to a nice looking eastern style room, the lesson started with Mito summoning a handful of scrolls from a hidden storage, Shiki presumed as the Uzumaki matriarch showed no visible seal that could have contained them.

“Let us start nice and simple with the fundamentals of chakra.” The redhead declared.

“I’m sure you know it already but chakra is a fusion of an individual’s physical and spiritual energy, a concept all shinobi are familiar with.”

“Physical energy can be interpreted as stamina or even lifeforce while spiritual energy refers to mental energy. The former being raisable through physical training while the latter experiences growth mostly through life experiences, though meditation and introspection can also help.”

“Due to this, moulding large amounts of chakra leaves a shinobi both physically and mentally exhausted.” Mito continued as Shki quietly listened.

“Another way of looking at it is the concept of Yang energy corresponding to the physical body and Yin energy corresponding to the spirit. As all jutsu are based on chakra, they necessarily use both of these energies.”

Shiki lifted up his hand as if asking to speak in class and Mito stopped talking, Shiki immediately realizing she was giving him the go ahead to talk without any actual prompting being required.

“I heard they are Yang release and Yin release jutsu though?” He inquired.

Internally, he was liking the direction of this study very much as the topic seemed to touch, even if lightly, on his fan-theory of Yin-Yang.

“You are indeed correct.” Mito nodded.

“However, the true meaning of the Yin and Yang styles is that such jutsu use chakra moulded while very heavily favoring one of the energies. The jutsu all use chakra so inevitably, both Yang and Yin energies are required but for those styles in particular, the ratio is very extreme.”

With the Uzumaki matriarch’s clear explanation, Shiki was enlightened.

“What about elemental jutsu then?” He further inquired.

Mito once again nodded with a smile of acknowledgement.

“You can see it like so, taijutsu heavily favors yang energy with minimal Yin energy while genjutsu is the opposite, heavily favoring Yin energy with the bare minimum of Yang. Most ninjutsu on the other hand is far more balanced though it can still favor one or the other, only not as extremely.”

“Most elemental ninjutsu falls in this well-balanced category though I’ll explain these intricacies in more detail when we get there.’ The Uzumaki matriarch declared.

Shiki shivered in excitement.

‘My Yin-Yang Theory could be proven true under these parameters but I should leave that for later. Fundamentals first.’ He thought, reminding himself to stay focused on the lesson at hand.

Understanding that Shiki had no further questions, Mito continued, once again surprised by the boy’s curiosity and great intuition in regards to Chakra Theory that resulted in highly pertinent questions.

‘Though if I consider his propensity for experimenting it is not that surprising. I suppose his interest lies not only in practical experimentation but in the theory that makes said experiments work as they do.’ She internally nodded in appreciation.

“Moving on . . .”

*

In the following days, Mito taught Shiki the proper way to mold chakra while taking into account the ratio of yin to yang.

While shinobi generally did this by feel and instinct which led them to specialize in jutsu that went better with their natural tendencies in this process, if one could intentionally control said process, learning jutsu for which one had little natural affinity would become much easier.

It also increased efficiency. By molding chakra in the exact ratio required for a particular jutsu, none would be wasted before chakra control even came into play for the activation of the jutsu itself.

Shiki also learned the proper way to circulate chakra throughout his body, the characteristics of the chakra network, how to take advantage of them to increase speed, power and efficiency in use of chakra, etc.

It was truly an eye opener for him. A lot of theory and research was put into discovering the ideal way to circulate, mold and expel chakra as well as the ideal forms of jutsu activation.

After all that research was done, ways to teach these methods in a more intuitive and natural manner were created as most shinobi lacked the kind of mind required for the pure theory.

Mito decided to teach the actual theory to Shiki however, she believed this kind of thing was precisely what he wanted and would benefit most from.

And the boy wasted no time proving her right.

He took the theory he learned and used it to fix all of the minor errors he had made in his intuitive chakra use, making his molding nearly perfect while his control reached a much higher level.

Not even a week passed and Shiki was already progressing much both in terms of understanding and actual ability. Enough so that even Mito who had watched him training alone for a while was quite surprised.

‘The speed at which he improves with basic guidance is truly monstrous. Explaining why things work the way they do and not just how it is taught to most shinobi also seemed to yield much better results.’ The Uzumaki matriarch pondered on her teaching experience.

But after all that theory and fundamental practices, it was finally time to start learning some jutsu.

*

“Now that you have learned and comprehended the basics of chakra itself, the time has come to apply them in some basic jutsu” Mito declared, marking the beginning of their first jutsu learning session.

Shiki nodded with a calm face but he was beaming with excitement, a contrast that Mito found childishly adorable.

‘Look at him trying to keep a calm and mature front.’ She internally chuckled.

Of course the boy was excited. After all, not only would he finally be learning actual jutsu, this also marked the point where he was free to experiment on his own, once he learned these basic entry jutsu.

“Now, the basic jutsu all shinobi are required to learn barring a few exceptions are the Clone Jutsu, the Transformation Jutsu and the Substitution Jutsu.” The Uzumaki matriarch continued.

“Now tell me, why do you think these are the required basic jutsu?” She asked her little student.

Shiki tilted his head, pondering a bit on the response.

“Well . . . I suppose the Substitution Jutsu is a life saving technique useful even in high level shinobi combat and the basics of it are within the reach of almost every prospective shinobi so it makes sense to make it a basic requirement for all to learn.” He said.

“You are correct but there is a deeper meaning.” Mito informed.

“The Substitution Jutsu is the technique of dodging an attack at high speed while leaving something behind to take the hit and create the illusion of one being hit in order to fool the attacker.” The redhead continued.

“The thing left behind can be an object, living being, often disguised through the transformation jutsu as an extra layer of deception or even various types of clones but the core part of the high speed dodge is achieved through the Body Flicker Jutsu.”

“So the true three basic jutsu would be Clone, Transformation and Body Flicker. Taking that into account, what do you suppose is the deeper meaning I spoke of?” Mito once again questioned.

This time Shiki gave it some deeper thought.

‘The answer most definitely lies in earlier lessons.’ He pondered, that was how he had been taught up until now after all.

“Hmm . . .”

Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind.

+++++

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