Both Iris and Ami had already met the basic requirements to perform ninjutsu.

  Over the past six months of training, their chakra reserves and physical stamina had improved signifitly.

  Most genin and in relied heavily ohree Basic Teiques and taijutsu, but mastering a few ninjutsu to serve as trump cards was crucial. This was why Link shared his uanding and experiences with them iail.

  Training in nature transformation wasn’t particurly difficult but required painstaking effort. Essentially, it involved repeatedly honing the natural properties of one’s chakra. By stantly using one’s chakra with its iure—whether it be wind, fire, or another element—ninjas would eventually internalize the feeling of nature transformation.

  Ohey could grasp this, bining it with shape transformation would lead to the creation of fully formed ninjutsu.

  For example, when Kakashi trained Naruto in wind nature transformation, he mentiohat ordinary people might take six months just to cut a leaf, with the entire process spanning several years.

  However, fies and those with cheats like Naruto, it was a different story.

  Naruto, using his shadow es, mastered leaf-cutting in two days. Sasuke, training under Orochimaru, learhe full range of lightning nature transformations—including advanced applications like body activation—in just a few days.

  That said, even without ih knowledge of nature transformation, one could still use basijutsu. Since elemental affinities were innate, Naruto’s chakra naturally cut leaves, and Sasuke’s chakra ily produced fmes. This gave them an advantage when learning elemental jutsu.

  However, mastering more advaninjutsu, improving effid power, or eveieiques, required systematic training in nature transformation. This kind of training also served as an excellent way to refine chakra trol.

  Unfortunately, such training was beyond the capabilities of most academy students—or even genio their limited chakra reserves and trol abilities. It was typically reserved for in, who had the time, resources, and access to a variety of elemental jutsu.

  Link hoped his teammates could go further, so he bined his knowledge from his past life with his current ninja training. After systematically anizing his insights, he passed them on to Iris and Ami, ying the foundation for their progress.

  While a month of training might not yield immediate results, he was fident that with persistehey would grow much stronger.

  By now, Link wasn’t even sure whether he was helping them out of a sense of duty enuine care. Either way, he didn’t resist the se.

  And that was enough for him.

  "Alright, they’re taken care of. Now it’s time for my training," Link muttered after lecturing his teammates for what felt like hours. His jaw was sore.

  “Let’s see what Ensui-sensei gave me.”

  He unrolled the scroll, his eyes sing the text.

  It was encoded in a cipher—a standard practice for ninja training materials. The academy had covered basic cryptography, and Link had seen it often during k missions. The vilge even had a dedicated Cipher Division and a specialized library for codes.

  After deg the message, his eyes widened.

  "Shadow e Jutsu?!"

  Rubbing his face, Link excimed, “A B-rank teique… a standard jutsu for jonin? This is definitely a treasure.”

  It riceless gift.

  “Boom!”

  Another puff of white smoke dissipated.

  “Failed again...” Link sighed, slumping to the ground in exhaustion. It was his third failed attempt at the Shadow e Jutsu.

  Despite its ubiquity in the manga, the Shadow e Jutsu was undeniably a B-rank teique for a reason. Its difficulty was on par with other jonin-level jutsu.

  Even in the Konoha Crush Arc, Orochimaru tauhe Third Hokage for not using shadow es. The real reason?

  “It’s not that he won’t use them—he ’t. His chakra isn’t what it used to be… Shadow es require evenly dividing one’s chakra, and even the slightest mistake leads to wasted energy… He’s too old for this.”

  While the jutsu didn’t e much chakra to cast, the requirement to evenly split one’s chakra made it extremely taxing. For most ninjas, this meant losing half their chakra in an instant, which was a signifit drain (though some exceptioed).

  Evehird Hokage worried about wasting chakra due to a slight miscalcution, undersg the teique’s plexity.

  Link’s chakra trol was impressive, but by jonin standards, it was average at best. pared to masters like the Hokage or Orochimaru, his trol left much to be desired. Unsurprisingly, the Shadow e Jutsu proved to be a signifit hurdle.

  The crux of the difficulty y in perfectly dividing fluctuating chakra levels. If the division was even slightly off, the jutsu would fail.

  Ironically, less intelligent ninjas, relying on instind decisive a, often had a higher success rate. In trast, those proo overthinking—like Link—tele.

  “The Shadow e Jutsu might be more uhan I thought...”

  As Lied and recovered his strength, a thought struck him.

  Most jutsu allowed for flexibility in chakra usage. As long as the steps were correct, minor variations in chakra amounts didn’t matter. But the Shadow e Jutsu demanded absolute precision, forcibly ing half of the user’s total chakra.

  This specificity hi a potentially uure.

  “Shadow… e… body…” Link pohe literal meaning of the jutsu’s name. Could it actually separate one’s shadow from their body?

  Such a possibility felt absurd. He couldn’t imagine how separating shadows would work or ractical use it might have. However, if true, it could pletely ter teiques like the Nara ’s Shadow Imitation Jutsu.

  “A termeasure for Nara teiques? That’s… oddly fitting, sidering who gave me this scroll.”

  The thought amused him briefly before he dismissed it. “Alright, let’s try again.”

  Link stood up, gathered his remaining chakra, carefully divided it, formed the seals, and cast the jutsu.

  This time, there was no puff of smoke. Instead, he felt a strange sensation.

  He looked down and realized his shadow was rippling unnaturally, as though disected from him. At the edges where the shadow met his body, faint distortions danced like heatwaves.

  “Did I… just separate my shadow?”