It's better to be a rebel ninja than to be a Hokage

"Haruno Sakura, the exam begins!"

Haruno Sakura, who has long pink hair, made seals with her hands.

A cloud of smoke suddenly appeared around her, blocking her figure.

And the smoke dissipated in the next moment, and when Haruno Sakura reappeared in front of everyone, there were four identical versions of herself.

This is the technique of clones, one of the three most basic ninjutsu of ninjas, and is known as the "three body techniques" together with the transformation technique and the substitution technique.

Mizuki observed Haruno Sakura's clone, which was exactly the same as the real Sakura in terms of body shape, expression, and movements.

He recorded Haruno Sakura's result on the scoreboard: "Next, Uchiha Sasuke!"

Uchiha Sasuke walked out of the examination queue with his hands in his trouser pockets. He had a grim expression on his face and without saying a word, he directly formed hand seals and performed the clone technique. Judging from the speed of casting the technique, Uchiha Sasuke was faster than Haruno Sakura.

Then, without waiting for Mizuki to speak, Uchiha Sasuke released the clone jutsu himself and returned to his seat.

Such a cool demeanor attracted girls to scream.

After Uchiha Sasuke, Mizuki called a few more students to take the exam.

Naruto just waited quietly for his exam to come.

The art of splitting...

Naruto still remembers that in the original work, in the Three Body Techniques mock test before the real exam, Iruka's question was "Transformation".

When it came to Shuimu, it turned into a clone.

In the two years since he traveled through time, Naruto still disguised himself as someone who was not good at ninjutsu. His clone technique was even worse under disguise than in the original work.

As expected, Mizuki was also planning to use the passing or failing of the graduation exam to induce Naruto to seize the Book of Seales.

It seems that Mizuki, like Naruto, can't wait to get his hands on the Sealed Book...

However, the reason why Naruto pretended to be unskilled in ninjutsu was not just to confuse Mizuki into getting the information about the Book of Seales from him.

It was also to confuse Danzo.

The difficulty in mastering ninjutsu means that Naruto is highly controllable, which is what is taken for granted in the eyes of the higher-ups.

Moreover, compared to the image of a "genius ninja" that makes Danzo afraid, combined with Naruto's original bad attitude towards the village, it is possible that Danzo's little thoughts that were just stopped by the Third Hokage will be activated again in advance.

It’s better to pretend that you are a complete “last-place student” and stay alive to develop.

It is difficult to do things openly, but easy to accomplish things secretly.

Naruto's disguise as being not good at the clone technique allowed him to openly come into contact with the shadow clone technique while he was diligently practicing the clone technique.

……

Although the teachers in the ninja school will only teach some basic ninjutsu that require little chakra and do not require changes in the nature of chakra, such as the Three Lives Technique that is required for ninja school students.

But the school does not prevent students from expanding their own strength. After all, some students in the ninja school are from the ninja clan of Konoha. With the support of their families, their strength is always higher than that of students from ordinary families.

In order to ensure the most basic fairness of teaching resources, the Ninja School will also open the library to all students.

Allow gifted students to learn on their own.

But in most cases, ordinary students in ninja schools basically just learn the Three Body Techniques.

Otherwise, the Ninja School graduation exam wouldn't just be about the Three Body Techniques.

The library contains three types of ninjutsu: ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. There are even ninjutsu that require mastering the changes in chakra properties to use - this is to let students understand the logic of using ninjutsu, so that they can quickly use the corresponding ninjutsu after mastering the changes in chakra properties in the future.

In addition, there is also analysis of basic sealing techniques that ordinary people can access, such as those in the Ninja Tool Scroll.

Naruto didn't find it strange, because among the graduates of the previous ninja school there was a man named Tenten who was good at summoning ninja tools to attack.

But although these techniques are dazzling, they are still low-level and not unique.

This is understandable.

Advanced techniques are simply not something that can be mastered by ninja school students who are not even considered ninjas.

As for the unique techniques - those are the secret techniques of the ninja clan or self-created ninjutsu, which can only be learned through family or master.

As for the Shadow Clone Technique that Naruto needs...

It's in the library too, even on the next page of the Clone Technique.

Its versatility can be seen from this.

It is different from the derivative of the Shadow Clone Technique, the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, which is listed as a forbidden technique and has an A-level learning difficulty.

The Shadow Clone Technique is not some secret ninjutsu.

Almost all ninjas with enough chakra will take the initiative to learn this ninjutsu.

For ninjas who place great value on intelligence, Shadow Clone is a convenient ninjutsu that allows the main body to stay in a safe place while obtaining intelligence.

It can greatly increase the ninja's survival rate when obtaining intelligence.

And Naruto's plan to defect to Konoha was finally implemented after he learned the Shadow Clone Technique.

The Shadow Clone Technique is a B-level ninjutsu invented by the second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.

The ordinary clone technique learned in ninja school creates clones that are purely visual illusions.

The shadow clone of the Shadow Clone Technique is a physical clone with its own consciousness and the ability to attack the enemy, and has a certain ability to withstand attacks.

After the shadow clone is released, the clone's memories and experience will return to the original body.

The special properties of the shadow clone allow ninjas to perform espionage work better.

This means that although the Shadow Clone Technique is a ninjutsu created by the Second Hokage, it is widely spread in the ninja world.

Therefore, when Naruto was learning the Clone Technique, he could easily access the more advanced Shadow Clone Technique.

Not to mention, in the eyes of others, Naruto can't even use the clone jutsu.

So what if he knows how to learn the more advanced Shadow Clone Technique?

……

During these two years, I secretly learned the Shadow Clone technique.

Naruto can increase his original body experience through shadow clone training, and has been practicing privately on how to control the Nine-Tails' chakra.

With the help of the Eight Trigrams Seal, which is already effective in helping Jinchūriki use the excess tailed beast chakra.

After Naruto successfully controlled the Nine-Tails' Chakra, he began to try to master natural energy to enter Sage Mode.

Even without the experience of Toad Oil at Myoboku Mountain and Gama Fukasaku against Sage Mode in the original work.

As long as he knew how to absorb natural energy - that is, to sense the natural energy first - Naruto also mastered the Sage Mode not long ago.

However, although Naruto used the method of meditation in Myoboku Mountain to cultivate the Sage Mode, the effect seemed different.

When he first started absorbing natural energy, Naruto was very careful and absorbed very small amounts of natural energy.

Even so, Naruto failed to absorb natural energy.

When the shadow clone returns to its original body, Naruto will feel unbearable pain.

He thought this was a precursor to frogification, but Naruto disagreed. This was within the range of failure that Naruto could accept - failure to absorb a small amount of natural energy would not cause him to become seriously frogified, nor would it turn him into stone.

But after the pain of failing to absorb natural energy...

Naruto found that no part of his body had turned into a frog, and he had no desire to eat insects...

It's just that there will be a few days when you can't condense chakra, and during this period you won't be able to absorb natural energy.

Good fortune and bad fortune go hand in hand, and Naruto's "tail end" appearance makes him even more formal.

After failing to absorb natural energy several times and only being temporarily unable to condense chakra, Naruto boldly practiced the Sage Mode.

……

But these are secrets that only Naruto himself knows.

In order to prevent Danzo from using the Root organization to monitor, or the Third Hokage from using the telescope technique to discover these secrets.

During these two years, Naruto will only practice Shadow Clone training in school.

This is the rule that Naruto has figured out. Neither Danzo nor the Third Hokage will monitor him in school.

Before officially using Shadow Clone to practice, Naruto had a long experience of "skipping classes".

He would actually skip classes in the village for a while, letting the Hokage's Anbu and Danzo's "Root" who were secretly monitoring him know his whereabouts to "practice what he preached."

Afterwards, I would calculate the time and return to school early to practice the basic escape techniques I saw in the library with my original body.

Normally, there is no need for a student to hide when learning the art of escape.

If the Sandaime and Danzo discovered his strange behavior, they would definitely have a deeper grudge against him because of his status as a Jinchūriki.

Although Naruto prepared some reasons why he was discovered secretly practicing jutsu, he was not sure he could convince Danzo and the Third Hokage, two experienced guys.

The third generation is just indecisive, not stupid.

It is more likely that Danzo will use Naruto's behavior as an excuse to once again seize control of the Nine-Tails from the Third Hokage.

Naruto was gambling a lot on this matter, and he certainly couldn't afford the cost of failure.

But fortunately, Naruto won the bet.

If you win the bet, there is no need to talk about the “possibility of failure” that will never happen again.

It was like a gambler winning a multi-million jackpot, the money was already right in front of him.

Are you still going to argue with him about the possibility of not winning the prize?

No matter how much we argue, they really have won tens of millions in bonuses.

Back to the topic, Naruto first confirmed that Danzo would not spy on the ninja school.

The educational nature of the ninja school is that it is a place that belongs entirely to the Hokage to spread the will of fire.

Students from all families in the village receive education in the school. In order to avoid being accused of interfering in the affairs of the Hokage, Danzo will not place his own forces in the school.

As for the Third Hokage...

In the original work, the third generation used the telescope technique to let the jonin in charge of the class know in advance the behavior of the graduates waiting in the classroom.

Naruto was a little apprehensive about this.

But soon, Naruto also figured out the logic behind the Third Hokage's use of the telescope technique on him.

As long as Naruto is in the village, no rumors related to Naruto will reach the ears of the Third Generation.

The Third Hokage almost never actively uses the telescope technique to monitor Naruto.

The Third Hokage was not like the comments Naruto saw on the Internet in his previous life, saying that he was a conspiracy theorist old man.

His only shortcoming is that as he gets older, he becomes indecisive in dealing with matters big and small.

This resulted in many preventable tragedies, all of which were preempted by the decisive Danzo.

Even so, Naruto used his shadow clones by hiding in the cubicles of the school toilets and practicing during class time.

When lunch break is over, Naruto will release his shadow clone to prevent his training with the shadow clone from being exposed.

Therefore, Naruto actually does not spend much time practicing with his Shadow Clone every day in private.

But even though he practiced quietly like this, his growth rate was still astonishingly fast.

Whenever this happened, Naruto couldn't help but wonder why so many people joked that "Naruto" was "The Ninja of Bloodline Theory".

The benefits of Naruto's Uzumaki clan bloodline and being the reincarnation of Ashura immediately emerged.

All this training over the years was Naruto's preparation to make himself strong enough to defect from Konoha before Danzo attacked him again at some unknown time.

But the most important thing to increase strength is... the Book of Seals.

Whether it is the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique that can further increase one's training progress, or the Eight Trigrams Seal that seals the Nine-Tailed Fox...such forbidden techniques are all in the Book of Seals.

If possible, Naruto wanted to take the Book of Seales completely, rather than being satisfied with just learning the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.

For him, being targeted by Danzo, defecting is the only way to survive.

But before officially defecting, Naruto wants to maximize the benefits of defection!

To achieve this goal, the first step is to make good use of water and wood...

……

"Next, Uzumaki Naruto!"

Mizuki shouted out.

Finally it was Naruto's turn to take the mock exam.

Naruto walked out of the team, stood in front of Mizuki, and formed seals with his hands.

"Oh--"

Looking at Naruto's serious posture of making hand seals, Mizuki stared intently at Naruto's test results.

"The Art of Clone!"

Naruto yelled as smoke appeared and then disappeared.

Naruto, who was full of vigor, only summoned a clone that was lying limply on the ground, half-dead.

Faced with this situation, other students in the classroom laughed at Naruto's poor clone jutsu.

Mizuki also looked at Naruto helplessly: "Naruto, if you continue like this, you won't be able to graduate tomorrow."

Naruto's face flushed red, and for a moment he couldn't even utter a word of rebuttal.

Looking at Naruto's appearance, Mizuki narrowed his eyes and continued:

"Don't you always say that you want to be Hokage? But how can you become Hokage if you can't even graduate from a ninja school and aren't even a ninja?"

Although it was a statement of fact, if one carefully pondered Mizuki's words, one could hear the hidden sarcasm in them.

It really doesn't seem like something a teacher would do.

Naruto's disguise of not being proficient in ninjutsu made Mizuki take the bait...

It's time to start closing the net.

"As for the clone technique... I! I can learn it immediately if I want to!"

Naruto yelled at Mizuki.

But the louder the voice is, the more it sounds to others like empty boasting.

The laughter in the classroom, which had been stopped by Mizuki, started again because of Naruto's own ridiculous words.

Naruto turned around and pointed at the students who were laughing at him and shouted, "One day, I will be the best Hokage in the village!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Naruto rushed out of the classroom, not wanting to stay here for even a second.