'I wonder how many more leaves I need to stick to myself before I'm considered a plant.' I wondered, adding what seemed to be the hundredth leaf to my body.

If a random civilian saw me, they'd have guessed that I was descended from a long line of bushes and foliage; I imagined that if I collapsed on a green field I'd almost blend in.

There were leaves attached to my chest, back, stomach, shoulders, neck, arms and thighs; yet as you went down my knees, the leaves grew less and less frequent, ending with my feet being bare.

I had cursed Naruto's stupid Shadow Clone cheat at least a thousand times by this point, it was simply unfair. I call hax.

I had to remind myself that I was only 6 and had time to grow, I promised myself that when I learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu, I'd abuse the hell out of it to get this wasted time back.

Regardless of my complaints, I wasn't unhappy with my progress, it's just that I find myself too irritable at times, especially today, just one night's rest away from when I could get my hands on some Jutsu. Hours until I can wield ninja magic… I'm fiending over here.

It had already been halfway through the second year and if I present my work now, I can continue staying in my same class while progressing to third-year studies, I had waited a week past the halfway mark to not make my learning of the subjects suspicious. I couldn't help it if Jinbei somehow knew, but at the very least I wasn't in danger of skipping a grade.

Hearing the click of the clock signifying that the hour was up, I relaxed my Chakra and allowed it to flow freely, causing a hurricane of leaves to crash onto my bed. I quickly gathered them up and wrapped them in a towel I placed under my bed, right next to another one which had an assortment of dried twigs and branches hidden in it.

I had come across a realisation when I tried to burn leaves using a matchstick that I had snuck away from Tomo, the leaves I used were bright green and healthy; as a result, they were much harder to catch on fire. It was only after spotting a few dried leaves on my way to the Academy that I had a genius idea.

When I thought of using kindling as a method to practice my nature transformation I damn near hugged myself, it was that out-of-the-box thinking that made me as awesome as I was; yeah, I'm touting myself quite a bit but after being surrounded by a bunch of kids and a grumpy granny it's hard to not be a little confident.

Don't worry, I didn't get too arrogant; my anxiety kept me grounded. Nightmares of Madara with a horn sticking out of his head persisted and gave me a reality check whenever I got too cocky. A particularly disturbing one was when Orochimaru joined the Uchiha… that snake freak was even more disgusting in my nightmares.

I was half tempted to continue with nature transformation training but I pushed those thoughts aside, I could manage to start a few sparks or a little smoke but I wouldn't make any significant progress tonight.

'Aoki. Shut up. Sleep.' I commanded my mind, banishing useless thoughts to hurry sleep along.

Tomorrow, I would tell Jinbei about my progress.

Tomorrow, I would finally progress.

Tomorrow, I would learn Jutsu!

------

*RINNGGG!*

The bell chimed, all the students around me were relieved to hear it go off but none were as appreciative of it as me.

School was over.

I locked eyes with Jinbei as soon as I heard the bell ring and kept them locked on him while the rest of the class filtered out, some of the 'gang' tried to get my attention but I shooed them off; Jinbei must've noticed my call for his attention as he also stayed back.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I finished it," I declared, pulling out a stack of books from my bag and dropping them on my desk with a thunk.

Jinbei sensei repeated the same things from last time, how I'd have to be tested on my knowledge and how I wouldn't be able to move up a year since we're already halfway through, I nodded along, eager to hasten the process.

I followed him to his office where he took out another stack of books, this one was much smaller than the second-year stack but atop the books were a few cheap-looking scrolls.

It was clear that they were mass-produced and weren't that high quality but my eyes were glued to them, Jinbei noticed it and gave me a rare smile.

"Jutsu's can be dangerous so it's always best to try them first alongside someone who's experienced in their use. I know that you can stick a leaf for over half an hour so these Jutsu shouldn't cause you much trouble, but if they do, come find me," he said, handing me the stack. I nodded and all but busted down his door, shoving the books in my bag, and placing the scrolls on top so as not to damage them.

Our class had Chakra training sessions where we'd do the leaf exercise all together, I didn't pay it much attention and managed to hold it on for the entire session almost every time, there was no need to be competitive, in terms of Chakra training I had far surpassed the kids in my class.

Sasuke had flat-out refused to teach me Jutsu until it was covered in my class, this was especially annoying considering he learnt it in his second year. I gave up on being taught Jutsus by the baldie but even requests as simple as watching him do them by himself were rejected.

Stingy.

I half suspected that this was due to me beating him in almost all the spars we did but I didn't say anything. I figured I'd give Sasuke some more time to hold that over me until I started learning Jutsus seriously.

His stubbornness had decreased by a lot however, apparently, one kid he knew had graduated over the holidays and Sasuke had only learned of it when the kid didn't show up for class.

Since then he's begun brawling with me again, it was good to test myself against older students; physical drills with my classmates ended in an easy win almost all the time.

As for who the kid was, Sasuke didn't give me a name but I could guess who it was. He was someone close enough to Sasuke's age for his name to spread throughout the Academy as a genius when he graduated.

The Uchihas in my class were especially prideful the day the news broke.

'Whatever, that's for later.' I thought, throwing useless thoughts away and entering the house, Sasuke wasn't home so I bolted into my room after offering a short greeting to Tomo and the kids.

I slammed the door behind me and opened my bag, unfurling the scroll and greedily observing its contents, in my excitement I grabbed the first scroll available without much thought; in it were the instructions to complete the Clone Jutsu.

'Cool… this is so cool…' It was hard to not fanboy over the scroll in my hands, but the allure of ninja magic kept me focused.

'Hmm… interesting.' I thought, reading through the scroll, this information was invaluable.

'So there are two different types of Chakra manipulation' I realised, understanding the contents of the scroll a bit more, it seems that I had a very limited understanding of the usage of Chakra beforehand.

Jutsus come about from moulding the central source of Chakra within you, this place acts almost like your heart and is the nexus for where Chakra circulates

'So when I stick leaves to myself, I'm manipulating the circulation... not the actual well of Chakra' I realised.

'Manipulating the circulation can help increase the ninja's ability to mould the well of Chakra within themselves and perform Jutsu, but is not a substitute for it… this explains why characters like Rock Lee can walk on water but not perform any Jutsus, they're two very different types of Chakra control…' I thought as the pieces started coming together.

I always thought that the leaf-sticking exercise not being taught in Naruto's Academy class was a bit of a plot hole, but this new information made it make more sense. To perform the Jutsus needed to graduate from the academy, that exercise simply wasn't necessary.

My class learning it is probably a remnant of the war efforts taken by the Academy, something not entirely necessary but helpful for students who are being thrown into war after graduating; it must've been phased out sometime between Naruto's generation and mine.

I faintly remembered the pain that came from me pulling on the well of Chakra I had. Instead of ripping apart the well as I had before, Jutsus would work by almost "poking and prodding" around the well, manipulating it to be as I desired.

With a newfound respect for the difficulty of Jutsus, I placed the scroll flat on my bed and readied myself to follow the hand signs, thankfully there were illustrations for the hand seals alongside the instructions.

'So fingers like this… and uh… that!'

I wasn't used to forming hand seals so I practised them for a while, for some reason this felt embarrassing. Maybe it was the memories of my past self attempting hand seals when watching the anime haunting me, can't believe I'm still a victim of that cringe even in the next life.

'Next seal… hm…' my fingers seem to almost get tangled up the first few times.

'That's almost it…' However, slowly but surely, I got better.

'Now all together.' I decided to try out the Jutsu, perhaps some more practice would do me good but I couldn't help it.

'Tiger, Boar, Ox… and Dog!' I formed the seals, moulding my Chakra as the scroll described in unison with my shifting fingers.

*POOMF!*