My Techniques are a bit off

"Let's try it with this big tree…"

Link didn't recklessly split off his shadow but instead chose a large tree not far away.

Once the target was confirmed, the strange perspective quickly vanished. The shadow of the tree on the ground bubbled like boiling water for a moment before settling down.

"This feels quite strange."

He could clearly sense the shadow he had split off, even manipulating it with his consciousness like a doppelgänger.

In the next moment, the thought of connecting with the shadow arose in his mind, and the tree's shadow suddenly rose upright from a two-dimensional plane, transforming into a three-dimensional black tree.

Its entire form was shrouded in profound darkness, with the trunk, leaves, and even the shadow identical to the original tree. However, the leaves didn't sway in the wind, and many details appeared slightly pixelated, as if someone had taken a photo of the shadow and used pitch-black steel to print it into a 3D model.

Looking at it this way was somewhat eerie.

It bore a striking resemblance to the real tree, but any normal person could tell at a glance that it wasn't a real tree—what kind of tree has no shadow, and leaves that don't move?

"Whoosh!" Link threw a shuriken, which embedded itself in the shadowy tree with a dull thud. The sound and the depth of penetration were almost identical to those of a real tree.

This thing seemed immobile, possibly because it originated from a tree?

He walked up and pulled out his shuriken, watching as the wound in the shadow tree quickly healed. A glance at the original tree showed no damage, meaning the injuries inflicted on the shadow didn't transfer to the original. He reached out to touch the shadow.

"It feels just like an ordinary tree…"

"Can it return to being a shadow?"

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, the shadow tree collapsed back into the ground in all directions, like a mass of black liquid losing its shape and reforming into a flat shadow.

However, it remained separate from the original tree. Strangely, there was no sense of energy being consumed during the process of transforming from two-dimensional to three-dimensional or even healing the shadow's wounds.

"Just like a normal shadow clone, it took half of my chakra…"

Frowning at the shadow tree, Link felt that this technique held many unknowns yet to be discovered, but—

"It's time to eat." He patted his stomach, exhausted from several uses of shadow cloning, which had left him ravenous.

This was a perfect opportunity to test how long the shadow could exist independently from its original.

With that thought, he dragged his tired body to join his teammates, who were practicing nature transformation, for a meal of ramen. He was too lazy to cook at home, dreading the thought of grocery shopping, cooking alone, and then washing up afterward.

Cooking wasn't too bad—making food he liked could sometimes be fun—but washing the dishes was pure drudgery.

Iris and Ami were also exhausted from spending the afternoon releasing chakra. The three of them walked silently to Ichiraku Ramen. The moment they sat down, Link noticed a familiar gaze fixed on his green vest.

Before he could see who it was, he instinctively straightened up, only to discover it was Naruto Uzumaki.

The child of destiny's gaze was full of shock, providing a significant boost to Link's self-esteem.

"The thought of a prodigy two years younger than me advancing so quickly and potentially taking the Hokage's position someday... terrifying. This kid must not be allowed to grow unchecked..."

Internally, Link narrated the scene as he observed Naruto, then waved and greeted him before ordering his food.

The three of them slurped their ramen, ate their fill, and went home. Link washed and hung up his dirty clothes, sorted the garbage in his room, and prepared to dispose of it in the morning.

There wasn't much left for entertainment. For him, after a day of training or missions, even if a good meal restored some physical strength, the fatigue never fully went away.

Speaking of fatigue, the original shadow clone technique's drawback of reflecting exhaustion and memories had always puzzled him. How did Naruto endure dozens or even hundreds of times the fatigue? Link himself felt drained after just one day of training, to the point where he wanted to collapse into bed.

…

The Next Morning

"It hasn't dissipated yet."

Upon waking, Link noticed he could still faintly connect to the shadow tree he had split off—it had lasted all night without disappearing. Its durability was quite impressive.

Even though it consumed half of his chakra, that wasn't much to begin with.

After a quick breakfast, he put on his slightly damp vest and returned to Training Ground Seven. The shadow tree was still standing quietly in its original spot, contrasting sharply with the other shadows around it.

"Ugh, why is my chakra earth-based instead of fire…"

Frustrated, Link tugged at the high-neck collar of his slightly damp vest. Just yesterday, he had appreciated how it protected him from dust during a fight, but today, the damp fabric sticking to his neck was unbearable.

Fire chakra manifests as burning when released. Controlling the output frequency would make it perfect for drying clothes.

His earth chakra, on the other hand, manifested as fragmentation. Techniques like the original Headhunter Jutsu and Earth Release: Hiding like a Mole Technique were all based on the earth attribute's ability to break apart soil for subterranean movement.

Since the training grounds weren't locked, Link decided to take off his vest and seriously study the shadow tree.

He made it stand upright again and began experimenting with various methods to destroy it.

Cutting, tearing, breaking...

He concluded that while the shadow tree had a certain degree of self-healing, detached fragments would quickly dissipate and couldn't regenerate.

When more than 60% of it was destroyed, the shadow tree would revert to a two-dimensional state and remain unable to regain its three-dimensional form for a long time.

As for how long, he wasn't sure yet. For now, no matter what he did, he couldn't make the shadow tree stand again.

The original tree was unaffected by any of this. No matter what happened to the shadow, it had no impact on the tree. However, the tree didn't grow a new shadow either.

Since the shadow tree couldn't stand and couldn't move, Link simply dismissed the technique. The shadow shrank back to the base of the original tree, and the missing portions were quickly restored under sunlight.

It was as if nothing had happened.

According to the manga, when a shadow clone is dismissed, any unused chakra should return to the user. But no matter how Link tried, he couldn't feel his chakra returning. It was simply consumed.

"There's definitely more to this technique. Half my chakra—little as it is—should have more potential…"

"Let's try splitting an animal's shadow next."

~~~

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