Naruto - The Wind Calamity - Chapter 21 : Wind Release (2) (Patreon)

It took just 10 days for Fujin to learn the 5 rank E wind release jutsu. With one more month of vacation still remaining, he started training for the rank D jutsu.

He revamped his plans thinking, 'My initial plans were to learn in order of their importance, but since I'm able to learn at such a quick pace, let's just learn in the order of ease of learning them. So let's do Breakthrough jutsu first. And follow it up with Dust Cloud jutsu and Gale Surge.'

On getting all the required data from the library, he began the training for Breakthrough jutsu. The initial process was very similar to Gale Jutsu. Only, the amount of chakra he had to gather was larger. The winds generated needed to have much more power. Also the winds had to be made sharper to cause damage. On his initial few tries, the result was only as good as Gale jutsu, but he could clearly see where he should improve. In merely 15 minutes, he was able to expel a stronger gust of wind from his mouth. He noted, 'It ain't very powerful yet, but it's damage should be damn good if paired with a fire jutsu. Anyways, this jutsu will require a lot of work. The process of gathering chakra as well as the process of converting chakra into wind should be faster. The chakra gathered should be larger as well to increase the damage done.'

He practiced it for 7 days, until he got the hang of the jutsu. He also tested it on a poor tree, which resulted in it losing the majority of its leaves and many branches. His thoughts were, 'That's good. Though it probably won't kill anyone, it can easily injure most Genins.'

The next day he grabbed the scroll for Dust Cloud Jutsu and memorized it. This jutsu was incredibly easy. It's process was similar to Breakthrough jutsu, just that it had to be focused on the ground to lift the dust above. It also had some aspects of Wind Levitation jutsu to ensure that the dust cloud existed for a longer time. He was able to raise a dust cloud on his very first try, however it lasted a very short time. Properly incorporating the Wind Levitation aspect took a few hours. But by the end of the day, the progress was sufficient.

The next day, he began training for Gale Surge jutsu. It was almost the opposite of Wind Retrieving Jutsu. Here, he had to distill the air around him with his chakra, and then suddenly release it up to 3 metres in a direction. In a way it resembled the Almighty push of Nagato. Of course the power was extremely lagging.

This jutsu didn't really provide a very good defense. However Fujin's reason for learning this jutsu was due to a couple of ideas he had with it. The first being, to increase the range and power of this jutsu and the second was to be able to release wind in every direction around him. That way this jutsu could become incredibly disruptive. If the range and power is increased, then it'll be perfect to create a nuisance on a battlefield whereas an omni-directional release would be helpful in case he's ever surrounded by enemies.

It again took him only a day to learn this jutsu and practice it to an acceptable level.

On the next day he started learning the Wind Explosion jutsu. He treated this jutsu as a practice for his Rasengan later on. Here he had to gather the wind and shape it in a spherical form and infuse a little chakra in it. That was the difference between it and Rasengan. Rasengan was purely made of chakra, whereas this jutsu was majorly made of wind and only had a small percent of chakra in it. Since the amount of chakra was low, these spheres could be launched at the enemy. Since he was already practicing for Rasengan, this jutsu became much easier to learn. Within a couple of hours, he was able to get the jutsu right for the first time.

After trying it for a few times on nearby trees, he concluded, 'Though the chakra infused in the winds explodes, it is not what causes the damage. The damage is caused by the winds, which become lethal after the explosion. They can cause a large amount of cuts and some of them can be very deep. I tried to infuse more chakra to increase the power of the explosion, however it didn't work as the wind sphere couldn't move as fast or as long distance. Even if I increase the amount of winds to maintain the ratio of chakra to wind, the sphere still becomes very bulky and no longer has the same speed.'

He sighed, 'I guess upgrading it would be a very complex task. Anyways, I should instead try to change my point of view. Perhaps I should try to combine this jutsu in the wind clone jutsu. If the wind clones can explode in this manner, then it will transform into a killing strike.'

The practice for Wind Explosion jutsu continued for a week. After the first day, Fujin stopped improving the wind sphere, instead focused on increasing his speed of forming the sphere and the speed of launching the spheres. His goal was to be able to launch these explosive spheres one after another without any breaks. That way, though it won't be a killing blow, it'll still cause a lot of damage to anyone who couldn't dodge or block these spheres. It could also cause death due to having lost too much blood. However, he was still quite far from reaching that stage.

On the following day, he started learning the Propelling Winds jutsu. Here the task was to gather the chakra in his hands and burst it in a direction. That burst would apply an opposite force on him and move him in the opposite direction. This technique could be used to change directions quickly. However, in terms of movement on land, this technique was quite inferior to Body Flicker. Its advantage lay when the users feet weren't on ground as this jutsu was very convenient to use while in air.

Thanks to all his training over the past month, creating bursts was very easy. The issue was in controlling the amount of movement he had. Also his footwork needed a lot of adjustments. To employ this jutsu, one had to be very light on his feet and allow himself to be pushed back by the burst. While he could control the amount of force of the burst, the force applied back changed in accordance to how much pressure was applied on his feet. That was incredibly hard to control.

On the third day of its training, he managed to bypass this issue by using two tactics. The first was, he would slightly jump in the direction where he wanted to go to and then use the burst to push him there. The second was to use the burst and then force his feet off the ground instantly which would make him move out of the way. However, the control for 2nd one was lacking a lot. It would cause him to flip in the air a couple of times which could be dangerous in a fight if the enemy followed and persisted with his or her attack.

He trained to improve his control over this jutsu for 6 days, after which he was happy with his progress.

That night after dinner, he decided to sit down and think about his current status. He thought, 'In the last 32 days, I have learnt 5 rank E wind release jutsu and 5 rank D wind release jutsu! Including the 3 basic Ninjutsu, Body Flicker and Shadow Clones, I now knew 15 jutsu in all.'

He analysed his jutsu further and concluded, 'My wind clone jutsu makes the normal clone jutsu redundant. I should completely drop its usage. Gale jutsu too doesn't need anymore work. It can cover footsteps adequately and in fights, Breakthrough jutsu is much better. That leaves 13 jutsu. Even though I have learnt them, if I talk about truly mastering a jutsu, then I have probably mastered just 1 jutsu, which is Body Flicker jutsu, on which I spent 10 whole months. Next I should focus on mastering these wind release jutsu. Especially to perform them without hand signs. Even though the Body Flicker jutsu took 10 months to master, if I have learnt anything in the last one month is that either my talent in wind nature is extremely high, or these wind release jutsu were very easy. So mastering them shouldn't take very long.

I could also upgrade my Substitution jutsu by substituting with my Wind Clone rather than nearby logs or other objects. Other than that, I could also try to combine wind clone and wind explosion jutsu. Similarly, I should experiment trying to use Body Flicker and Wind Propelling jutsu simultaneously. If Body Flicker jutsu could freely change directions, then it will be extremely lethal. And I still have to learn to strengthen my weapons using wind chakra.'

After thinking about these ideas, Fujin decided to think how he could get his hands on rank C jutsu. He thought, 'I'm not sure if I can get access to rank C and rank B jutsu anytime soon. I could ask Genki, but even if I am successful, I don't think he'd give me more than 2 or 3 jutsu. And that'll also attract a lot of attention.

I could ask Hiruzen for access to higher sections in the library after the 3rd year exam, but I'm doubtful that he'd agree. Even if he did agree, I will probably be monitored when I enter the library. And if they see me reading those high ranked jutsus, they may have someone keep an eye on me. That would mean that I can't practice Ninjutsu secretly like I do right now. And if they sent someone good enough to avoid me from sensing him, that would mean my skills would be known to Hiruzen and soon to Danzo.'

He sighed, 'Leave it, let's follow stability. There's no point in taking such a huge risk. If I master all my current jutsu and also a few Earth release jutsu and can't progress any further, then I can consider graduating early.'

Over the past year, he had thought quite a bit about graduating early. His thoughts were, 'Initially I thought that graduating early would attract a lot of attention. Perhaps it still would in Naruto's generation. But right now, graduating early seems to be highly supported and even encouraged by teachers. In the last 2 years, there were many who graduated after their 4th or 5th year in the academy. A few even graduated after the 3rd year. I guess the village wants to have new ninjas join in their ranks as soon as possible. Which is why it may be encouraged right now. Though if someone graduates at 6 or 7, then it'll still attract a lot of attention.'

During this vacation, Fujin had almost entirely focused on Ninjutsu. His routine was, workout in morning, and then Ninjutsu training the whole day. When he ran out of chakra, then he would practice meditation or practiced Shuriken throwing. Everything else was halted.

Fujin decided to continue practicing his wind jutsu in the last week of vacation. However, he started additional training. He started trying to hit his wind clones with shurikens in order to improve his skill at it. Though he wasn't sure whether to be upset about his shuriken throwing skills or be happy at his clone's speed and maneuverability, as he didn't manage to hit his wind clone even once! However he did improve at a rapid pace.