Chapter 5 - Fathers Teachings

Konohagakure - 31st Year of Founding, Late Summer

Uchiha Clan Grounds, Former Patriarch's Manse

Setsuna eventually made his way outside, looking haggard, wearing the same outfit as yesterday. When he approached Izuna, he reached into a pouch by his waist, and withdrew two small slips of blank paper, and handed one of them to his son.

"This is chakra paper. By channelling chakra in it, it tells someone's chakra affinity. If you have fire it will burn, tear in half if wind, crinkle if lightning, crumble to dust if earth and soak wet if water.

In general, every person's chakra has an affinity towards one of the five basic nature transformations. Originally the five great nations received their names from the fact the vast majority of their population was born with an inclination towards one of the elemental natures, for example the Land of Fire, Water, Earth, Lightning and Wind. 

Members of the Uchiha clan are born with an affinity for Fire nature, without fail and dual chakra natures are exceedingly rare, and are mainly found in those with elemental kekkei genkai."

Setsuna demonstrated by channelling his own chakra into the paper, causing one half of it to turn to ash and burn, while the other split in half. "I was born with fire as my chakra nature, although I later mastered wind as my secondary chakra nature."

Izuna listened to his words intently, before his father gave a nod of approval, and he began channelling his own chakra into the slip of paper, and to no one's surprise it burnt to ash.

"Given all that reading you've been doing the past few months, I presume you've given thought to what chakra nature you want to master in the future?"

"I decided upon lightning as my secondary chakra nature."

"Hoh, are you sure? There aren't many lightning release specialists within the clan or in Konoha are you sure I can't dissuade you?"

"I am positive."

"A pity, I had been hoping you would choose wind, but oh well. You're still a while off from mastering a second nature, so you can always change your mind. Although Lightning may seem more flashy, Wind is much better paired with your Fire Nature and there will be a lot of people in the clan who can help you with it, including myself."

"Hmm, you do have a point, but don't worry, I'll choose wind as my third chakra nature."

"Brat… do you think mastering a chakra nature is easy? Even with my talent, I could only master a second one."

Izuna responded with a tilt of his head, causing Setsuna to massage his brow in frustration before continuing, "You know what, forget it, so what jutsu did you want me to teach you?"

"Body Flicker Jutsu."

"I was going to hold off teaching it to you until after you joined the academy, although given the progress you've made, I suppose a reward is in order."

"The Body Flicker Jutsu is a D-Rank Supplementary Jutsu that can be considered easy to learn, but hard to master. It's easy as it only requires one hand sign, being the Tiger Seal, so it doesn't require any advanced hand seals or complicated chakra moulding. But in order to perform the technique, you need to concentrate chakra within your legs as a focus point in order to be able to move at high speeds.

There have been cases of Shinobi injuring themselves with this jutsu, due to their own ignorance or inexperience, by miscalculating their speed or supercharging the jutsu with their chakra, and ending up crashing into buildings, trees, mountains, objects and even in some cases enemy shinobi. 

But there are even those who have damaged the muscles, tendons and soft tissue in their legs by incorrectly focusing their chakra and causing internal and external damage.

I don't doubt your capabilities, but as a father I won't allow you to perform this Jutsu without my attendance, until I am sure you are able to safely use it, I don't need your mother scolding me for you crippling yourself."

"That's fine, but is there a limit to how far one can travel with this jutsu?"

That elicited a smile from his father, Setsuna, as he gazed at him proudly. "There is no such thing as the maximum distance one can flicker away. Instead, it is the amount of time you can sustain this jutsu. 

Most beginners think that they will need to learn to flicker many times consecutively, when instead the focus is on the amount of time you can maintain the jutsu. For example, if you are able to flicker 100 metres per a second, but can only sustain the jutsu for 10 seconds, you will only be able to travel a kilometre away."

"I see. How far can you travel?"

"Hmm, if I were to push myself, I could reach the border of the Land of Rivers within a day or two, but I would have probably torn my muscles and tendons at the end of it. I am not as proficient with this jutsu as your mother, she could probably do it in half of that time. There's a reason the Body Flicker is not normally used for travelling, as it strains the body too much, even if you have the chakra to keep it active."

Izuna was surprised, sometimes he forgot his mother was once a shinobi and a Jōnin at that. 

"What surprised?" his father asked with a smirk.

"A bit." he admitted sheepishly.

"Haha, while my chakra is much larger than your mother's, her chakra control is much better than mine. It's one of the reasons she was able to learn medical ninjutsu. If you asked, she would be willing to help you learn the body flicker as well."

"I see, that's good to know. Is there anything else I need to know about the jutsu?" Izuna asked curiously.

Setsuna pondered for a second before replying, "Although I mentioned that I would be able to travel long distances in only a short time with the Body Flicker, this does not mean I or others would often use it for that. 

As it puts a large amount of strain on the user's body, because unlike space-time jutsu, the user of the Body Flicker, is actually running there, and it only looks so fast that they've teleported. 

So most people mostly use it only for relatively short distances, and combine it with a form of distraction to mask their direction and original movement, with things like smoke bombs, leaves, animals, etc…"

"I see, so the Body Flicker technique is just a brief burst of chakra-fueled movement typically accompanied by a puff of smoke to disguise its user's movements?"

"Pretty much." His father replied deadpanning.

"Okay, hurry up, so I can start practising." Izuna said hurriedly.

"Tsk impatient brat." he said while shaking his head at his son's usual antics. 

Setsuna couldn't help but recall his mother-in-law's words, 'Have a genius, it'll be great, they said. Have a genius, it will be fun, they said.' the damn woman forgot to mention how infuriating.

His father Setsuna just looked at him blankly for a while before sighing again as he weaved the Tiger hand seal, disappearing in a scattering of leaves, about a hundred metres away, before reappearing again within an instant.

"Start off by trying to move 10 metres with the Body Flicker, and then progressively increasing the range If I give the go ahead."

Setsuna activated his sharingan, as Izuna nodded his head as he weaved the Tiger hand seal and disappeared and reappeared ten metres away.

"Any problems?"

"I used the Sharingan to observe your movement, and I didn't notice any glaring issues. My only critique would be that you probably need to increase your chakra control and physique, although both of them will come with time. The other thing I noticed was you didn't use any distractions, why?" he said, looking at his son with interest.

"My goal is to become proficient enough with the Body Flicker, that the distraction will be unnecessary because I'll be able to move so fast that the enemy won't be able to notice my presence or have any indication of my destination." 

Setsuna would have laughed at any other kid who made such a bold claim, but not his son. Over the years Izuna had developed a habit of surprising him when he least expected it, he only hoped that one day he wouldn't do something so ludicrous that it would give him a heart attack.

Izuna knew that despite the immense talent his new body provided him with, he wouldn't be able to come as far as he had without the blood sweat and tears he had put into countless hours of training and many sleepless night's ruminating and studying.

After all, many are born with talent, but lack the drive or resolve to make use of it. But even more than his talent, what he values most is his different perspective and experiences.

Still, he couldn't help but be glad he was born in such advantageous circumstances. He knew he wouldn't have been able to come close to his current progress had he been reborn a penniless civilian orphan, and it was this constant reminder, which forced him not to rest on his laurels or slack off in his training.

For the next hour or so, they continued training the Body Flicker Jutsu, until Izuna could travel 100 metres, each flicker could sustain the jutsu for at least three seconds, giving him a range of 300 metres.

"Do you have any other Jutsu?" Izuna looked expectantly at his father, who looked annoyed.

"Tsk, I had only been planning on teaching you a single jutsu today, but given your progress I'll teach you another one, it's a C-Rank Ninjutsu called Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu and it can be supplemented with shurikenjutsu." 

Izuna's head began nodding vigorously, causing a smirk to appear on Setsuna's face.

"I'll show you a demonstration first." he said, as he began weaving through hand seals too fast for the eye to track.

Rat → Tiger → Dog → Ox → Rabbit → Tiger

"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu" 

A large fireball appeared, bursting into dozens of smaller fireballs that went flying unpredictably through the air, before suddenly veering towards Izuna and circling around him, before swerving off and embedding themselves into a large tree.

"Mother liked that tree." Izuna said casually as he gazed at the once beautiful tree, which was now soot stained with a gaping hole as well as multiple shuriken embedded into it. 

His father looked grim, once the realisation kicked in, as with a forlorn gaze he stared at the tree while thinking 'Where's a bloody Senju when you need one.' before loudly clearing his throat.

"That was the Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu, it's a C-Ranked Ninjutsu wherein the user volleys multiple small fireballs into the air; at a glance, it can appear as though there was only one fireball that then burst into many. The many small flames move wildly through the area, potentially mesmerising targets as they're surrounded. 

The user controls each individual flame with their chakra, allowing them to guide each at the target and, consequently, making this technique difficult to evade. Shuriken can be hidden within the flames, making the jutsu more deadly upon impact."

"This Jutsu seems very similar to Fireball Jutsu."

"I was hoping you would notice. Phoenix Flower Jutsu was originally developed as a variation of the Fireball Jutsu to compensate for the former's stiffness, as it can only be launched in one direction and usually has a low chance of hitting a non-stationary target.

Phoenix Flower Jutsu on the other hand, while each individual fireball is weaker than the standard jutsu, it allows for much more accuracy and the ability to deal with multiple opponents, and is a lot more multi purposed, as it can also be used for setting off traps, and a various other roles."

Izuna listened intently, hanging onto his father's every word.

"Do you need me to repeat the hand seals?"

Izuna shook his head as he began weaving hand seals. 

Rat → Tiger → Dog → Ox → Rabbit → Tiger

'Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu'

A large stream of fire appeared from his mouth, coalescing into a large fireball, before bursting into five smaller fireballs that went soaring through the air in a spiral, until he tried to guide the flames like his father, only to cause the flames to disperse.

A look of annoyance flashed across his face, until his father placed a hand on his head ruffling his hair, before saying, "Patience son, patience."

"I know…" Izuna sighed.