Chương 540: CH_14.10 (540)

Itachi read the document that, if real, was definite proof that the Aburame clan had created a breed of pest that targeted crops rich in chakra so they could profit by selling the solution in the form of their short-lived beetles that couldn't naturally propagate in nature.

"When and where did you get this from?"

"Aburame clan's deep archives." Takuma winked at him as he sat across the desk. Itachi simply gazed at his subordinate.

"Yesterday at Aburame Shigeki's home. He has a little lab beneath his house." Takuma retrieved another document from his leather folder and passed it across the desk. It was a declaration of a monetary award presented to Aburame Shigeki for his work on creating a breed of bugs that solved the pests that threatened the medical and fūinjutsu supply chain that the Hidden Leaf depended on heavily. It didn't take a genius to connect the dots that were practically squished together.

Itachi believed Takuma and that he hadn't faked the document.

"By the First… this affects so many aspects of the Hidden Leaf. What were they thinking?"

"They clearly weren't—or they acutely were and could see the opportunity for greed." Itachi sighed, feeling disgusted not by the fact that Aburame had done something like this, but because he didn't feel surprised by it. How could he be surprised to see the system that allowed Shimura Danzō to gain unprecedented influence and then abuse it was now being used by others in power for their own profit? He clenched the hand in his lap because he was part of that system.

"Then you should also know that we can't use this," Itachi said, but he didn't put the document down. The laws around kekkei genkai and hiden jutsu wouldn't allow even the Hokage to use the document as proof against the Aburame clan.

"Yes, but we can use that to get me permission and proper warrants," Takuma said. It was hidden well, but there was a glint of a predator whose hunger was bubbling with prey in his sight.

"What do you plan to do?" Itachi asked. Takuma was careful and measured as he gathered facts and uncovered more of the truth about whatever matter he was investigating, but once he thought he had the finish line in sight, he became increasingly aggressive to reach it. Itachi had to, on occasion, rein Takuma back. As surprising as that was, it was not new. He found that Takuma's second-in-command in the Police Force regularly had to stop him from going overboard.

"I will focus on Aburame Shigeki," Takuma said.

"It'll raise alarms in the Aburame clan."

"Which is why I'll start with his subordinates and confidants. It's impossible that he did this alone—""—Unless he has access to a team of shadow clones."

"—which he doesn't," Takuma said confidently.

"No one does." Itachi hummed. The shadow clone research Takuma was doing was available to both the Yamanaka and ANBU; it could perhaps be used by someone else. He knew that the Foreign Branch captains would love to have operatives who could do the work of multiple operatives while minimising the risk. But on second thought, he didn't think there was anyone, for lack of a better term, deranged enough out there to use shadow clones as Takuma used them.

"Get information out of them about the whole operation, find the breeding site of the pests, and discover their delivery method. Once we have their methods and physical proof, we can legally get that," Takuma pointed at the breeding research document, "and it'd be over. No matter how much they try to deny it, it'd be undeniable." Itachi thought about it. If this came to pass, it would be huge enough to be the next big thing after ROOT and Shimura Danzō, which had only come to its climax a year ago.

He looked at Takuma, who would once again be in the middle of it all, and he would be the one who would put him up to it.

"Go ahead, but I want daily updates. And control yourself; you are not to go overboard."

"As you wish, boss," Takuma said.

"How's the training with the jinchuriki going?" Takuma shrugged.

"It's coming around. He can be frustratingly unfocused and unbelievably intuitive at the same time. You can't really get a bead on what's going to work on the kid. I got one trick to get him to study, and I'm going to ride it till the final test attempt."

"You think he'll make it? It's only a week away."

"If he doesn't want to be held back a year, he has to," Takuma said.

"It's a B-rank ninjutsu, and he's not even a genin."

"You could've done it."

"… What do you want me to say to that?" Takuma smiled. Itachi didn't talk about his genius; he didn't need to because there was no one who didn't know about the Uchiha prodigy—and even that reputation was fading as he was no longer grouped with young talent of his age group and was instead considered an established shinobi, talked about as one of the Hidden Leaf greats at only seventeen years old.

"If he passes, he will likely be placed on Sasuke's team," Takuma said. The Rookie of the Year was traditionally placed with the worst-performing student.

"They don't get along," Itachi commented without any deeper meaning. Sasuke had often complained about an annoying kid who was always trying to compete with him even if he didn't want to do anything with him.

"Fox is one of the jōnin mentors this year." Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"That's quick," Takuma said, hiding his relief behind an amused smile. He had been so busy with the work that he hadn't actually confirmed if Kakashi would be participating as a potential jōnin mentor.

"It's only been a year since his exit. I expected him to take a longer break." If not for ROOT, Kakashi would've left ANBU a year or two earlier.

"He claimed to be restless at home doing nothing," Itachi said.

"And you believe that?" Itachi shook his head.

"The administration must've been scared that if they gave him time alone, he would let himself rot away. They want him to stay active even if it's teaching a trio of genin."

"Who knows, it may even help him."

"It may."

"Wanna bet on if he ends up teaching Sasuke?"

"I don't bet." ———. Takuma held a creased sheet of paper filled with teaching notes, outlining his strategy for Naruto. It detailed a clear order of topics, the fundamental concepts Naruto needed to master before graduation, and contingency plans—all designed to ensure the boy could produce at least a single, passable shadow clone by his final exam attempt. A week had passed since they started their lessons, and Takuma decided it was finally time for Naruto to attempt the Shadow Clone Jutsu in earnest.

Until now, they had focused strictly on chakra moulding, using the Transformation Jutsu as a baseline for shape transformation. Naruto's proficiency in his " Sexy Jutsu" was top rate; a single glance was all he needed to memorise a target's physical traits and could adjust complex details on the fly with flawless precision.

"Naruto, have you memorised the hand seals?" Takuma asked without looking up. Naruto's ear twitched.

"I know 'em as good as I know ramen ingredients!" He assumed that meant he had them memorised.

"Okay, go ahead and show me once." With great excitement, Naruto weaved the correct hand seals with a level of comfort that showed that he had been practising them. As the final hand seal was signed, Takuma opened his mouth to praise him when white jutsu smoke exploded with a sharp whistle-like sound. He closed his mouth and just blinked as the smoke cleared. Standing in the dirt were two identical, orange-clad boys. Takuma's eyes darted from the boy on the left to the boy on the right.

There was no shimmering distortion or any other telltale signs. He was casting a solid, dark shadow on the dirt. The wind caught the loose fabric of his jacket. It was a perfect, physical copy. Naruto stared at the clone. The clone stared back. Slowly, as if approaching a wild animal, Naruto raised his right hand. The clone mirrored the movement, raising its left hand. They leaned in, their blue eyes wide with awe. They extended their index fingers. The two fingertips met.

Naruto gasped, his eyes widening with a glimmer of joy and something that had been buried deep, forever ignored. For two years, he had been the laughingstock of his class. Every time he tried to manifest a clone, he had produced a dead-weight illusion that earned him nothing but Iruka's pity and his classmates' scorn.

"It's... it's me," Naruto whispered, his voice trembling.

"Yeah," the clone whispered back, a massive, jagged grin breaking across its face.

"It's us, believe it!"

"I DID IT!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs, the sound echoing off the trees.

"I ACTUALLY DID IT!" The original and the clone grabbed each other by the forearms and leapt into the air. They locked arms, spinning around in a frantic, joyous circle, kicking up clouds of dust as they skipped and hollered. Takuma looked over at Iruka in the distance. The teacher had stopped with his jaw slack. Even though he was the one who suggested that Naruto's problem was connected to his chakra reserves, actually seeing him pull off the B-rank, Shadow Clone Jutsu was utterly mind-boggling.

"Hey!" Naruto yelled, skidding to a halt and pointing at his own clone.

"If I can do one... I bet I can do more!"

"Naruto, you should not make more than six—""Shadow Clone Jutsu! Shadow Clone Jutsu! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto slammed his fingers into a continuous string of repeating seals. Smoke erupted across the clearing in a chain reaction. When the smoke cleared this time, the training ground was a sea of orange. By the time he was done, there were a total of eight rambunctious boys in the field.

"Whoa!" one yelled.

"Look at all of us!" another cheered.

"We're awesome!" a third agreed. The clearing descended into absolute, deafening pandemonium. Clones were high-fiving each other, two of them were playfully wrestling in the dirt, and another three had linked arms, skipping in a circle around a thoroughly flummoxed Takuma, singing a jagged, off-key victory song. Takuma rubbed his temples. This Naruto didn't have the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu, but that didn't really seem to be a problem to pop out multiple versions of himself like a cloning assembly line.

"Woah." Naruto, the real one, staggered on his feet, sharply listing side to side in deep imbalance.

"What is—" He grabbed his head and his eyes widened uncomfortably before he fell to the ground.

"I feel so dizzy. The w-world is spinning…" Takuma sighed as he knelt beside him and rubbed his back.

"Relax, you parted with most of your reserves in a very short span. It's a bodily response to force you to stop." He looked at Naruto and the clones. There were seven clones; each clone took half of Naruto's chakra from him, which meant he was currently carrying less than 1% of his reserves. Given it was Naruto, that sub-1% was still substantial, but that didn't change the fact that he probably never used that much chakra ever in his life. Once he got used to it, he could probably make even more.

"Why must you be so reckless?" Takuma sighed. One of the clones broke away from the group, looking at his own hands with a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Hey," the clone muttered to himself.

"If I'm me, and I can make clones… Can I make a clone of me?" The clone eagerly slapped its hands together, forming the cross seal. It squeezed its eyes shut as the jutsu immediately pulled half of the physical and spiritual energies from its body. The energy flared—but the internal feedback loop of a clone trying to divide already divided chakra immediately destabilised its comparatively fragile physical framework. With a loud, cartoonish POP!, the clone instantly exploded into a massive cloud of white smoke.

The sudden noise silenced the clearing. The remaining nine Narutos froze mid-cheer, turning to stare blankly at the drifting smoke where their brother had just been.

"Uh," one of the clones said, scratching the back of his neck nervously as he looked over at Takuma.

"I guess... I guess we shouldn't do that." Takuma nodded but then added, "You shouldn't do that… yet."

"Oh, I feel better," the original said and immediately bounded up to his feet; his hyperactive, energetic self was returning as fast as it had gone away. Takuma stood up.

"The physical and spiritual energies from that clone have returned to your body. You have to be careful, Naruto. The B-rank version of Shadow Clone Jutsu won't kill you, but use it recklessly, and you could put yourself in danger during combat." He ripped the piece of paper in his hand into pieces. The final goal had already been achieved halfway through, but there was still a week left. A glint flashed past Takuma's eyes. He could call this a success and end their lessons, but there was an opportunity to do more.

"You've done well, Naruto. Take the rest of the day off. We will continue tomorrow."

"Huh, we are still training tomorrow?" Naruto asked, surprised with a hint of anticipation.

"Then can you keep teaching me fighting tricks? I want to learn more!"

"Yes, we are still training. You may have created clones, but you're wasting chakra during creation. It'll take time to improve, but we will work on what we can. It'd also be a waste not to have your clones create more clones… And if that's your wish, then yes, I'll teach you more combat tactics."