Chapter 23: Who is the real one?

Words : 1696 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

Chapter 23 - Who is the real one? Ren woke up at his usual time, his body clock already conditioned to his rigorous schedule. The day proceeded as normal—morning training, academy classes, and afternoon training. But throughout the day, he couldn't stop himself from randomly grinning. At one point, Eiji gave him a weird look and muttered, "Did you finally lose it, Speedo?" Ren just laughed again, not bothering to explain. By evening, he rushed home early, excitement clear on his face as he entered the basement. This was it. Although his entire body itched to try the jutsu immediately, Ren forced himself to calm down. The Shadow Clone Jutsu was something every Naruto fan knew how to perform—Ren included. But this wasn't an anime or a fanfiction. This was reality. He wasn't going to be arrogant and assume that what he thought he knew was enough. Shadow Clones didn't just split chakra—they split the mind as well. Messing it up could be disastrous. With that thought in mind, he unrolled the scroll and carefully read through every detail. Unlike basic clones, Shadow Clones were fully physical copies of the user. They shared the same clothing, appearance, and even damage as the original. Chakra was split evenly among all clones, meaning making too many could lead to chakra depletion or even death. Clones were capable of independent thought but were still linked to the original. Memories and experiences from the clone would return to the original upon dispersal. Ren read each line carefully, committing the information to memory. Finally, he reached the hand seal. Ram. That was all that was needed. Ren stood up, took a deep breath, and performed the seal. Poof! A puff of smoke appeared beside him, revealing a Shadow Clone. However, something was off. The clone was slightly deformed and pale, its chakra unstable. It wasn't as bad as Naruto's clones in the anime, but it was still far from perfect. Ren dispersed the clone, feeling his chakra return to him. A tiny fraction of his chakra was missing, but it wasn't enough to affect him. "Alright, not bad for a first try. Let's do it again." Ren repeated the process several times, adjusting his chakra flow each time. The clones gradually improved, becoming more solid, more stable. Finally, after several attempts, it happened. With another poof, an identical version of himself stood beside him. It was perfect. Same face, same height, same clothes. The clone stretched its arms, looking at its hands before glancing at Ren. "Well, that didn't take long." Ren grinned. He had finally done it. The Shadow Clone Jutsu was now his. Ren took out a cloth strip from his bag and tied it over his eyes, blocking his vision completely. Holding a kunai in his hand, he handed it to his Shadow Clone and gave a simple instruction. "Do something with it, then dispel yourself." The clone nodded, taking the kunai and moving around the room. Even though Ren couldn't see, he focused entirely on the subtle shifts in the air, the faintest sounds of movement. A moment later, there was a poof as the clone disappeared. Ren removed the cloth, stood up, and without hesitation, walked directly to the table and retrieved the kunai. A grin formed on his face. "Even though I couldn't see, I now have the memory of the clone hiding the kunai behind the table. That confirms it—memory transfer works perfectly." With this, he could finally train even more efficiently. The implications were massive. Even though Shadow Clones didn't return physical feedback, they could still be used to train ninjutsu, chakra control, and even theoretical knowledge. At this point, Ren's biggest priority was physical training. In the past three weeks, although his strength had continued to increase, it was nowhere near as fast as before. The early gains had slowed, which was expected, but now that he could use a Shadow Clone, he could dedicate more time to pushing his limits. "If I can maintain a clone for long durations, I'll be able to train twice as much." It was the perfect tool to maximize his progress. As he thought about his next steps, Ren's eyes drifted toward his Mastery Panel. [SHADOW CLONE JUTSU - 10% (BASIC)] He frowned slightly. "Why does Shadow Clone have its own mastery?" All elemental jutsu were grouped under their respective elemental mastery. All supplementary jutsu, like the Academy Three and Body Flicker, were categorized under Chakra Control Mastery. Yet somehow, Shadow Clone Jutsu stood alone. He had no idea why. Asking the System was pointless—it never gave him straight answers when it came to mastery mechanics. He decided to let it go for now. The important thing wasn't understanding why the system worked the way it did. The important thing was increasing his mastery and pushing his limits. Ren squared off against his Shadow Clone, engaging in a brief spar to test its combat capabilities. The results were exactly what he expected. Their strength was identical, their reaction speeds were the same, and there was no noticeable difference between them. Ren had effectively created a second version of himself. After the spar, he sat down to recover and noticed something interesting—his chakra was slowly regenerating. A question formed in his mind. "If I don't dispel the clone, and it isn't forced to dispel... can it be maintained indefinitely?" At first, the idea seemed too good to be true. But after some thought, he shook his head. "No, that's not possible. The clone also needs chakra to sustain itself. The longer it exists, the more chakra it must consume. And any actions it performs will also drain chakra." This meant there was a limit to how long a clone could remain active. He decided to test it. Ren gave his Shadow Clone a task—to continue practicing the Leaf Splitting Exercise while he slept. If his theory was correct, the clone would eventually run out of chakra and dispel itself. When Ren woke up, he felt something new in his mind—memories from his clone. His Shadow Clone had lasted exactly two hours before dispelling. And more importantly, he had gained slight progress in his Leaf Splitting training. As he sat up, a system message appeared. [CHAKRA CONTROL MASTERY +1%] [CHAKRA CONTROL MASTERY - 56% (INTERMEDIATE)] [WIND STYLE MASTERY +1%] [WIND STYLE MASTERY - 28% (BEGINNER)] Ren's eyes narrowed. "So the knowledge and experience my clones gain directly convert into mastery percentages." If this was true, then this jutsu was even more broken than he had imagined. He could grind mastery endlessly, provided he had enough chakra to sustain clones. But before he could get too excited, another thought entered his mind. "What about the original drawback of the Shadow Clone Jutsu?" In the anime, it was said people would suffer severe migraines when dispelling too many clones at once. If that drawback still existed, it meant there was a limit to how much information he could absorb at once. But if it didn't... A grin spread across his face. "Then I can abuse this so bad." With that thought, he got up from his bed and made another clone. Ren created another Shadow Clone, but this time he didn't need to give it any instructions. The previous night's training had already set the task in place, so as soon as the clone appeared, it automatically began practicing the Leaf Splitting Exercise without needing to be reminded. Ren was very happy using the shadow clones, "I can now progress in two things at once without even thinking about it." It was only Leaf Splitting for now, but soon, he would expand the range of his clone's training. His next step was clear get more E-rank jutsu from the library so that his clone could continuously train different techniques. Ask his father for higher-rank Wind and Earth jutsu to expand his offensive capabilities and focus on perfecting each jutsu to the point where they were combat-ready, rather than just memorized techniques. With Shadow Clones, he could dedicate as much time as he wanted to perfecting every jutsu in his arsenal. The possibilities were endless. After around two hours, the clone dispelled on its own. As Ren checked his mastery panel, something immediately caught his eye. [CHAKRA CONTROL MASTERY - 56.09%] [WIND STYLE MASTERY - 28.20%] For the first time ever, he saw fractional increases in his mastery percentage. This meant that every small action performed by his clones contributed to mastery gain, even if it was just a tiny amount. Then, something else happened— A stream of information flowed into his mind. Not only did he remember everything the clone had done, but... There was no headache. No mental strain. Nothing. Ren's eyes narrowed as he realized what this meant. "Wait... why am I not feeling anything? Shouldn't there be at least some strain from memory overload?" Then, a hypothesis formed in his mind. "The System is intercepting the clone's memories first... converting them into mastery percentages... and then transferring them to me instantly." This meant that his brain never directly handled the massive information load removing any risk of mental backlash thus he had no limit on how much knowledge he could absorb from clones. As soon as he finished processing this thought, a System notification rang. [INT +1] Ren's eyes widened, then his grin stretched from ear to ear. "I was right!" This wasn't just useful—it was game-breaking. In the original Naruto world, using too many Shadow Clones caused crippling migraines due to information overload. But for Ren? There was no limit. There was no penalty. He could abuse this technique endlessly without consequence. He laughed out loud as he ran forward, his heart pounding with excitement. "This is amazing!" With Shadow Clones, the System, and his own intelligence, his growth was about to become unstoppable. {A/N:- Not going with the evil system cliche here so rest easy} {COMMENT WHAT YOU THINK. DO IT}

Chapter 23: Who is the real one?

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