Chapter no.11 Styles

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A ninja's style is an approach to combat that makes use of that ninja's strengths and talents.

It then proceeded to give off a list of different catalogued styles and the direct page number to skip to, something Naruto was thankful for as he didn't have to read the whole thing if he found something he liked.

'Long-range, mid-range, and close-range styles.' Remembering how Tenten fought he flipped to the section on long-range, 'Marksman, that sounds like her alright. Marksman; a style more suited for support than for direct attack. Is most useful in events of surprise attack to take down multiple foes before they can react, weakening an enemy's defenses, and diverting their attention away from the main attack. A marksman's best bet in a fight is to stay at a distance from an opponent to keep out of the enemy's range and safely bombard them with accurate attacks. Good reflexes and impeccable hand-eye coordination are the hallmark of a good marksman. Marksmen are usually weak against wind-type ninjutsu as their weapons must fly through the air to reach the target'

Naruto sighed, "Man if only I was a wind-type… or even knew how to be one. Then Tenten would have been done for." He laughed to himself at the thought of a chibi Tenten throwing stuff at him and Naruto just lifting one hand and blowing it away like paper.

He kept reading through styles such as puppeteering, which sounded cool but they were all from Sunagakure, and Naruto couldn't even find that place on an unlabeled map, let alone actually know someone from there so no dice whatsoever there. He read about sensor ninja, a type of ninja able to detect the presence of others through their chakra. He was pretty new at that as he couldn't really use Chakura Hankyouteii no Jutsu (Chakra Echolocation Jutsu) far enough for it to be effective enough to call him a proper sensor yet. He eventually lost himself in the book, jumping around and reading parts that he found cool enough to pay attention to… for the better part of an hour.

"Uzumaki-kun." Shiho ran back to his table with a scroll in hand, "I found the scrolls you were looking for." She placed three scrolls on the table, "This is what me and your clones worked out as what you might like to use."

Naruto looked up from his book, "Oh, I know."

Shiho looked at him strangely, "How would you know? You were here the whole time, why would you possibly know what I had done with your clones?" That thought caused Naruto to pause. Why did he know? He remembered doing stuff with Shiho before climbing the bookcase to grab the scrolls at the top, it almost tipping over and Shiho screaming causing him to lose his balance and fall. That was what jumped into his head about two minutes ago. Shiho had a thought, "I'll be right back Uzumaki-kun."

While Shiho left to head back into the archives, Naruto looked over what she had left. Three scrolls; Yawa-ashi (Soft Foot), Oomi-te (Long-Blade Hand), and Nebaiken (Sticky Fist).

Yawa-ashi (Soft Foot) was out almost immediately when Naruto read it. Not only did the name turn him off as it made him sound like a ballerina, it didn't seem like his kind of style. It revolved around using your legs for feints and neglecting the use of your hands to deal damage in exchange for kicks. The hands were never used, even when it came to blocking. Head movement and simply being elusive were the touted defenses of the style. It required good coordination and fast feet. Naruto didn't even know how to train to get fast feet and he tripped on his own feet walking down the street from time to time. He wasn't too coordinated.

Oomi-te (Long-Blade Hand) was a cool concept, but the practice turned Naruto off from learning it. It required you to build up the hardness of the tips of your fingers and the knife-edge of your hand for powerful chops and straight-hand thrusts that could be shoved right through an opponent. It sounded cool in practice, but the training to get your hands that strong in the first place however was to repeatedly break your fingertips and pinky side of your hand enough times while learning the strikes that the bones would calcify and harden over time to increase hardness. The only good thing about that style to Naruto was that he would have to drink more milk.

The last style hooked him in. Nebaiken (Sticky Fist) went right along with what he had caught notice of in the Academy taijutsu text of advanced grappling. It basically compounded on what to do after you had trapped a limb on your opponent. After grabbing an enemy's arm or leg you would either pull them in and deliver shockingly powerful punches, forearm and elbow strikes, knees, shoulder shots, headbutts, and short joint attacks powered by physical strength and momentum to disable your opponent and keep them close or keep them literally at arm's reach and pick apart their open defenses with fast looping kicks. It was also the simplest to train. All it required was someone willing to take a beating in order to learn its nuances due to how close one had to remain to an opponent to launch attacks and willing partners to be training dummies. Naruto had an abundance of both as this fit in best with his 'take three to give one' brawling style and he had Kage Bunshin to beat on for as long as he needed.

Naruto's head snapped up suddenly, "Shiho-chan what was that all about? You've got to be joking!" He cried suddenly.

He left his book and scrolls on the table and rushed through the archives to find Shiho standing with a smile on her face. Naruto dropped to his knees in front of her, "Please tell me you're joking Shiho-chan. I can't afford that." Shiho was fighting hard to keep from laughing out loud, "I can't afford a 30000 ryo fee for library use!"

Shiho broke down and started laughing, "I'm sorry Uzumaki-kun it was a joke. But it did end up proving my theory right, how did you know I said that? I was all the way over here."

"You told my clone didn't you?" Naruto said plainly as if it was unimportant. Shiho just stood there counting the seconds until it hit him what he had just said and realizing that him being his year's dead-last might not be so unfounded, "Wait, you told my clone! How did I know about it?"

"Shh." Shiho said trying to settle him down, "I don't know, but you obviously get your clone's memories after they get dispelled. Do you know what this means?" Naruto shook his head and a shine reflected off of the girl's glasses, "You could read like seven books at once as long as you use you clones and still get the information they got from it."

Naruto's face lit up, "So I can make my clones read these books while I train and do actual cool stuff?" Shiho nodded, "Yatta!"

"Shh!"

The sounds of others audibly shushing Naruto erupted from all around the library, breaking Shiho into a mess of giggles as Naruto apologized quietly, "Make some more of those Kage Bunshin Uzumaki-kun, there's so much you need to know before you become an active ninja. You won't be a dead-last by the time I'm through with you!" Shiho grabbed onto Naruto's wrist and swiftly dragged him through different aisles, loading him up with books. He had to wonder what part of her wasn't conditioned to be a field ninja, because she was dragging him and half a dozen books around the place like they were weightless.