My Techniques are a bit off

"Hiss~"

Steam rose faintly as Ami moved her hand slightly on Link's vest. She glanced briefly at Iris, who was diligently slicing leaves, and then at Link, who had returned with two rabbits, their purpose unknown.

She exhaled softly and continued releasing chakra to dry her leader's vest.

Come to think of it, this felt a little strange. The image of a ninja she had in mind wasn't supposed to be like this—more like a human dryer…

Was this training, perhaps? Well, if the boss demanded it, it was probably for her own good.

Abandoning further thoughts, she focused earnestly on removing the moisture from the vest.

"Excellent, labor force! Make my vest dry!"

Link glanced at Ami working diligently and nodded in satisfaction. He then turned his attention to the two rabbits. "It's you," he muttered, selecting the sturdier one, pinning it down with his foot while tying up the other with a rope and setting it aside for later.

Gathering chakra, forming seals, releasing—

Shadow Clone Technique: Success!

The shadow in his vision rippled once more. He lifted his foot, allowing the rabbit to scramble up and dart away. With a thought, the rabbit's shadow separated from its body.

"Huh?" Switching the target from a plant to an animal, he noticed something interesting. The lively rabbit, which had been trying to flee, suddenly collapsed, legs outstretched weakly as it gasped for breath.

Moments later, the rabbit got back up and tried to run again. However, a small hand quickly grabbed it, thoroughly inspecting it from top to bottom.

"After the shadow separates, the body feels exhausted. Could it be…"

Link had a vague hypothesis. The rabbit was struggling with noticeably less vigor, clearly drained of energy.

He tied up the now-shadowless rabbit and placed it next to its companion, then shifted his attention to the shadow.

The flat, two-dimensional rabbit shadow, upon his command, ran toward him across the ground at roughly the same speed the rabbit had tried to escape.

The sight was incredibly unsettling.

Have you ever seen one of those flipbooks where a character appears to move as you rapidly turn the pages? The rabbit shadow's movements in its two-dimensional state resembled that—jerky, frame-by-frame, and unnaturally fast yet seemingly "dropping frames."

It was thoroughly uncomfortable to watch.

Link directed the shadow to run around, finding it increasingly bizarre. In the sunny clearing, a swift-moving, glitchy black shadow darted about—a sight better suited to a Lovecraftian horror set.

With a thought, he commanded the rabbit shadow to stand up. It transformed into a pitch-black, three-dimensional rabbit crouching on the ground, mimicking the original rabbit's posture and habits.

"Let's test its attack power."

Under his command, the shadow rabbit dashed toward the same tree he'd experimented on yesterday and slammed into it.

Thud!

The trunk emitted a dull sound. It felt no different from what a normal rabbit's collision with a tree would produce.

The only difference was that the shadow rabbit didn't get dizzy. Instead, it prepared for another reckless charge.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

The strange and repetitive noise quickly caught his teammates' attention. When they saw the eerie shadow rabbit, both were visibly shocked.

There was no need to hide this. The technique would inevitably be used in front of his teammates someday, so Link hadn't gone out of his way to experiment in secret.

After about ten collisions, the shadow rabbit suddenly froze mid-run, collapsed into a shadow on the ground, and then dissolved into black specks, disappearing entirely.

The original rabbit's shadow reappeared in front of it.

"Interesting."

Link's eyes lit up. He seemed to have an inkling of one of the uses of this technique.

Gathering chakra again, dividing it evenly, forming seals, releasing—

This time, his target was his own shadow.

A brief second passed before the shadow at his feet stepped forward and stood upright.

Facing him was a completely black replica of himself, like looking at a colorless, distorted mirror.

"My shadow feels deeply connected to me, as though it's an extension of my body…"

"Whoa!" Iris exclaimed in awe.

Ami quickly shushed him.

Ignoring his teammates, Link controlled the shadow to take a step forward, then run, leap onto a tree, perform backflips, front flips, ninja runs, and more. After completing a series of movements, a look of understanding appeared on his face.

His stamina was being consumed!

The shadow's existence, standing, running, and performing any action consumed his stamina—just as if he were moving himself. This meant that the shadow's interaction with the physical world drained his physical energy, and once it was depleted, the shadow would return to a non-interactive state.

"No, wait."

Link quickly realized something else. His shadow seemed subtly different from the rabbit's shadow.

He turned to look at the tied-up rabbit. Despite being restrained, it clearly hadn't completely run out of stamina and even seemed to have recovered a little.

"When I separate someone else's shadow, it drains their stamina and energy significantly. In other words…"

"I can steal stamina from others when I split their shadow."

Link came to a preliminary conclusion. As for how much stamina was drained, recalling the shadow clone's characteristic of evenly dividing chakra, he reasoned it might also divide stamina evenly.

The reason he hadn't felt his stamina being consumed was likely because it wasn't his own—it was taken from the other target. Once the target's stamina was depleted, the technique would automatically end.

"Let's try again." He dismissed the shadow, aware that keeping it active continuously drained his stamina. Though minimal, conserving energy was still wise.

However, there was still no chakra return. It seemed this modified shadow clone technique completely lacked the return process.

One instance wasn't enough to prove anything. He needed more experiments to validate his findings. For now, he'd use rabbits to ensure the technique was harmless to living beings. Afterward, he'd ideally find two willing human subjects—not too old, not too chakra-rich…

Gathering chakra, dividing it evenly, forming seals, releasing—

Bang! The shadow clone technique failed.

Apparently, he'd overestimated his chakra reserves. With excessive stamina consumption, he couldn't balance the chakra distribution, resulting in failure.

"This technique definitely does more than just drain stamina. There must be other undiscovered effects…"

"Does damaging the original affect the shadow? What are the shadow's limits? Can shadows interact with each other?"

Pondering these questions, Link sat on a nearby rock to rest.

The development of this shadow clone variation seemed far more intriguing than the Earth Release: Hiding like a Mole technique.