It was fairly clear to me that the order of operation that we were taught information was all wrong. The original way was likely chakra control, nature transformation and THEN jutsu and handsigns. By learning jutsu before nature transformation the order was all wrong and the quality of shinobi likely suffered as a result. Don’t get me wrong I totally get why the order is all wrong as with wars and battles leading to deaths and an increased need for fresh meat during battles the way of learning went from “how to create the best ninjas over all” to “how to create the most ninjas in a short amount of time.”.
Shinobi teaching methods switched to a quantity over quality mindset and only the geniuses managed to become quality from it rather than even more potential powerhouses at the cost of a much longer training period. The problem however that I spotted immediately was that no one seemed to remember to switch to the correct order during peacetime or to at least take those talented few and train them the correct way. After figuring this out I felt better at how long I took to consistently crinkle a leaf with nothing but pure chakra.-
Once I completed that step I moved on to learn earth chakra nature transformation which was using chakra to turn a leaf to dirt. You did this by pressing your chakra against a leaf and compressing the chakra on itself within the leaf. If done correctly your leaf should turn into dirt from the earth chakra nature now overwhelming it. I had a little more ease grasping the change in chakra nature this go around since I had experienced what a change in chakra nature felt like with the lightning element training.-
That didn’t mean it was easy though and I still needed almost a whole month to master the method. After that I moved to fire chakra nature training that was done by exciting ones chakra by a lot which if done correctly will cause the leaf to turn to ash. This sounded similar to the vibrate method of the lightning training but had very different meanings. For lightning training the chakra must still be controlled and shaken in place but for fire training it was basically just sending your chakra haywire with only general control over it.-
In a way it was a matter of density as lightning nature chakra was more focused and direct while fire nature chakra was spread out and wild. Once I figured this out it only took me another month to master the chakra transformation to fire to a basic degree like the other two I had done so far. Apparently the Hokage had told Iruka sensei about what I was doing as he was purposefully leaving me alone in class when I was practicing with a leaf and not paying attention to his lecture. The rest of my classmates were curious about what I was doing but only the kids from clans figured it out other than Naruto who I told directly.-
“Ah come on Kenzo you can at least give me a hint right?” the blonde brat begged after I told him I wasn’t going to teach him.
“While your chakra control isn’t the worst in our class you are not even close to being good enough at it to learn this stuff. It’s taking me, ME a whole month per nature to grasp the BASICS. You’d probably need years with how bad your control is, well that or the multishadow clone jutsu and a whole bunch of ration pills. Even then I still think you’d take months to get the basics done with. Just keep working on your control and by the time you get to graduation in a year or so you might be ready to learn it.” I said honestly.
“You mean it?” he asked excitedly.
I nodded “No matter what anyone else tells you you’ve got the potential for great things in you my friend but you’ll need to work harder than anyone else if you want to grasp that potential. With the exception of myself of course, can’t have you surpass me after all.” I said with a grin.
“Just you wait Kenzo, one day I will be even stronger than you! Believe it!” Naruto said determined and smiling widely.
“Hahaha! Try not to keep me waiting for too long then!” I said with a laugh.
I meant every word I said too as there was no way in hell the child of Narutos parents was an untalented idiot. His chakra reserve was even greater than mine and I was a bloody sage since the moment I was born and he was improving quite quickly despite whatever the hell was going on with his rebellious chakra. He couldn’t pull off a clone jutsu entirely because of this factor in fact as whenever he got close the rebellious chakra would cause the stuff he was using to get molded wrong and the amount of chakra being used thus way too much as well.-
After that Naruto seemed to have a vigor injected into him as he doubled his training and took less breaks than before. His grade in class also started to improve noticeably as he got better and better in the practical’s even though he failed to get the clone jutsu. By the end of the year I finished grasping all five basic chakra nature transformations and applied for early graduation. I had no more reason to stay in the academy as I easily passed as a normal graduate in terms of age appearance and couldn’t make any more improvement while in the academy.-
“Are you sure about this Kenzo? Once you take this test there is no going back.” my mom asked seriously after I told my parents about it.
“I am. I am only being held back in the academy at this point, it’s time to move on.” I said honestly.
“In that case we have a present for you that we prepared for the day you graduated.” My dad said with a smile as he stood up and retrieved a unusually large scroll from the closet.
The scroll was nearly as tall as I was but was only about double to width of a normal scroll.
“This is a special version of a kind of scroll known as a summoning scroll. In most cases a ninja would use a normal summoning scroll to go and find a summon unique and perfect for them. But this version instead will let you create a summoning contract with all your beasts and when you need them most summon them from anywhere in the world without them needing to go with you out of Konoha normally.” My mom explained with a smile.-
I was shocked since I had thought about getting exactly such a thing at one point but the seals needed to make it were so complex that the price of such a thing was well into months of a normal Jonins salary. Yes village ninjas had salaries based on their rank but could earn even more money by taking missions beyond the mandatory ones as well.