Chapter 257: Shadow Clone Performs a Great Service
After discussing for a while at the dango shop, Obito and the others still couldn't decide on a group gift. In the end, they agreed to ask other teachers at the Academy and Mugetsu's friends for advice before making their final decision.
Once they parted ways, Obito went home for dinner. After eating, he headed back to the main street of the village.
In truth, even before the meeting, Obito had already thought about what he wanted to give Mugetsu as his personal gift. Though he knew little about calligraphy, he had gone out of his way to ask questions. By consulting the bookstore owner, he learned that brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones all had their own levels of craftsmanship and quality.
At first, Obito had wanted to personally craft a brush for Mugetsu, just as Mugetsu had once made ninja tools by hand. But he quickly discovered that making a brush was far more difficult than he imagined, and he wasn't cut out for it. So, he decided to try something simpler—making an inkstone.
In Obito's mind, an inkstone was just a rock with a shallow hole carved into it, and a fancy one simply had a few designs etched onto its surface. "How hard could that be?" he thought.
After asking around among the older villagers, he finally found an elderly man who loved calligraphy and was willing to sell him three stones suitable for carving.
Thrilled, Obito handed over the money, stopped by the bookstore to buy a sample inkstone for reference, and hurried home to begin his project.
He didn't start carving right away. First, he wanted to design the inkstone's appearance.
Pulling out a blank sheet of paper and a pen, Obito began sketching his ideas.
Twenty minutes later, he stared at a misshapen rectangle with a lopsided circle inside and a tangled mess of black lines beside it. His expression turned grim.
The idea was good—but his drawing skills were not.
Obito remembered how cool Mugetsu's dragon-patterned kunai looked and thought about engraving a dragon on the inkstone too. Unfortunately, not only could he not carve one, he couldn't even draw it.
"Damn it, drawing's so hard! This feels tougher than Ninjutsu!" Obito groaned, slumping onto his chair in frustration.
"Should I ask Rin or Kakashi for help?" he muttered, two familiar faces flashing through his mind.
Rin had given him paintings as birthday gifts before, and she was actually quite good at drawing. As for Kakashi, though Obito had never seen him draw, he had this strange feeling that Kakashi would somehow be good at it—probably at an annoyingly high level too.
But then Obito shook his head firmly. "No way. How could I ask someone else to help with a gift I'm giving?"
He wanted this gift to be entirely his own work. If someone else designed it, it wouldn't feel right.
Then an idea struck him—Shadow Clone Technique. If he created several clones to practice drawing with him, he could multiply his experience and learn faster.
Since a clone's memories return to the original when it's dispelled, he figured that if he managed the timing right, it wouldn't be too exhausting.
"The Shadow Clones can handle the practice. It's just drawing, not combat," he thought, confidence returning.
Of course, there was one problem—Shadow Clones didn't always behave as expected. In battle, they followed his commands without hesitation. But in daily life, they could be… unpredictable. If he told them to do homework, for example, they might argue or refuse outright.
"Shadow Clone Technique!"
Obito clasped his hands and formed the seals. Two Shadow Clones appeared with a soft puff of smoke.
With the plan in motion, he was about to explain what he wanted them to do—only for something unexpected to happen.
One clone immediately sat down at the table, grabbed a pen, and began drawing. The other clone found some paper and started sketching on the floor.
"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and practice while there's time!" the clone on the floor said, glancing up in mild annoyance.
Obito froze, blinking in confusion. "Wait, you're not slacking off this time? You're actually… motivated?"
He had fully expected to end up arguing with his clones, maybe even wrestling with them for control of the pen. Yet here they were—more serious and self-disciplined than he was.
The clone sitting in the chair looked up and said, "Mugetsu-sensei is so kind to us. Of course we have to do our best to make him the best gift possible."
"Exactly," the clone on the floor added. "There's only one week left before the graduation exam. Stop talking and start drawing."
Being scolded by his own clones was a first. Feeling a mix of surprise and amusement, Obito quickly grabbed a pen and joined in.
As they worked, a thought crossed his mind.
Maybe the clones' sudden diligence came from his own feelings.
In the past, whenever he used clones for assignments or chores, he always resented it deep down. If the task wasn't something Mugetsu assigned, he couldn't muster any motivation to do it.
But this time was different.
This wasn't homework—it was something from the heart. He was doing it for Mugetsu, and for the first time, there wasn't even a trace of resistance inside him.
That was why Shadow Clones behaved so differently when doing homework compared to now.
"Anyway, Senju Tobirama clearly didn't consider this when he developed the Shadow Clone Technique," Obito muttered, ultimately blaming the creator of the jutsu.
After two and a half hours of drawing, he finally dispelled the clones. The experience and fatigue from his clones flooded into his mind, and his face showed slight exhaustion.
Sorting through the returned memories, Obito realized that using Shadow Clones wasn't as efficient as he'd hoped. Most of the experience overlapped, so it didn't give him triple the progress.
"It's still better than working alone," he said, sketching another picture and nodding in satisfaction.
It still didn't look quite like what he envisioned, but it was far better than the unrecognizable mess he started with.
After another hour of solo practice, Obito finally went to bed. The moment his head hit the pillow, fatigue washed over him, and he fell asleep instantly.
The next morning, he woke up at his usual time, went through his routine, ate breakfast, and headed toward the southern border forest for training.
Maybe because of all that sketching the night before, as he walked through the village streets, he couldn't help but imagine what everything would look like drawn on paper.
"Obito, good morning!" Rin greeted cheerfully.
Hearing her voice, the still-groggy Obito instantly perked up. He turned and smiled. "Rin, good morning to you too."
"Obito, did you stay up late last night? You seemed a little out of it just now," Rin asked, concern in her tone.
"Let me guess—you were busy preparing a gift for Mugetsu-sensei, weren't you?"
Given how well she knew Obito, it wasn't a difficult guess. After all, they'd been talking about gifts just the day before.
"Haha, Rin, you really know me. But I didn't stay up late," Obito chuckled. "I just used Shadow Clones to speed up my learning yesterday, so I'm a bit tired. But it's fine."
He hadn't actually stayed up late; he'd heard somewhere that doing so could stunt growth—and since he planned to become Hokage, there was no way he'd let himself stay short.
"Don't push yourself too hard," Rin said gently. "You already train a lot. It'd be bad if you got sick from exhaustion."
Obito patted his chest confidently. "Don't worry, Rin. I'm the man who's going to be Hokage! I know my limits. If something happens to me, it'd be a loss for all of Konoha!"
Rin couldn't help but laugh softly, covering her mouth with one hand. "A loss for all of Konoha? That's a bit exaggerated, Obito. You haven't even become Hokage yet."
"I, on the other hand, think if you waste Rin's time any further, that's when you'll cause trouble," Kakashi remarked as he walked past, not even glancing back before heading for the training field.
"That annoying Kakashi," Obito muttered with a pout, his mood soured. He had been enjoying Rin's smile until Kakashi had to appear out of nowhere.
"Still, Kakashi's right," Rin said with a light laugh. "Let's get to training. We can talk more during our break."
Obito quickly nodded and walked beside her toward the training area.
By the time they arrived, Might Guy and Shisui were already training, and Kakashi had drawn his short sword, ready to begin.
Obito joined Shisui's side and started his Armament Haki training.
These days, their main focus was the Constant State Breathing Technique, but they still practiced Haki for two to three hours daily. The rest of their time was spent refining their breathing control.
Armament Haki training was meant to strengthen their potential, though it consumed large amounts of chakra. It was difficult to master, but once they did, their chakra reserves would grow much greater than before.
After training, the five gathered again to discuss Mugetsu's gift.
"Shisui, did your Shadow Clone find out anything useful?" Obito asked.
Since Shisui's clone still attended classes every day, he'd been tasked with asking the Academy teachers about Mugetsu in between lessons.
Shisui shook his head. "No. None of them know Mugetsu-sensei as well as we do."
The teachers only knew that Mugetsu liked calligraphy, while they, his students, knew about his fondness for egg dishes.
"Then what should we do?" Obito frowned. "The only person I know who's close to Mugetsu-sensei is Minato-senpai, but he's still on the battlefield."
"How about we all make a jumpsuit for Mugetsu-sensei?" Guy suggested, eyes gleaming.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Shisui immediately declined.
"Yeah, Guy," Obito added, rolling his eyes. "Not everyone likes jumpsuits—especially green ones."
He couldn't even imagine Mugetsu wearing something like that. The thought alone was enough to make him shudder.
After another round of discussion, the five still hadn't reached a conclusion, but they agreed to finalize their decision by tomorrow. Otherwise, they might not have enough time left before graduation.
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