Nara Kazuki’s expression twisted subtly.
"Realistic," huh? How realistic are we talking? Is this even legal?
He had to admit—this upgrade was seriously tempting. The idea of independent personalities and memories made his mind swirl with mischief. Like...
Kazuki cleared his throat, suppressing the grin climbing up his face.
For example, he could shape a shadow clone into Rin Nohara—complete with her memories—and drop her right into the middle of wherever he wanted to stir up trouble. What would Obito do then?
But in the end, that sort of plan was flawed. A clone wasn’t truly alive. For something like that, Edo Tensei would be more effective. This upgrade, despite its appeal, had its limits. Still, it was a fascinating toy to play with, one that left Kazuki itching to test the "divine pleasures" it could offer.
"The first one’s actually not bad either," Kazuki muttered. With enough shadow clones, he could exponentially increase the power of his ninjutsu. If he ever reached the chakra levels of a jinchūriki—say, the Nine-Tails—imagine three thousand shadow clones all casting Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu at once...
Kazuki licked his lips. That first option had absurd potential.
Without a chakra growth skill, it would be basically useless. But with his current trajectory? It was a monster of a power-up.
"Oh right, there’s a third upgrade..." he remembered, glancing down at the option he’d initially overlooked.
[They Imitate My Face... And My Jutsu?]
Become a Master of Mimicry. Observe and replicate a designated target. Mimicry difficulty scales with the target’s power. Upon success, one Multi Shadow Clone will gain access to the target’s current full abilities.
Kazuki sucked in a sharp breath.
He had thought the first option was the clear winner—simple, brutal, with limitless growth. But this... this third one might be even more broken.
If it were up to his second head (so to speak), it would pick the second option—no questions asked. But Kazuki wasn’t making choices with his libido. Not this time.
And while the second option was interesting, it lacked the brutal utility of the other two. He needed upgrades that were powerful and versatile.
"Not enough Rewind Points..." Kazuki clicked his tongue. If he had some saved up, he could’ve just taken both—or hell, even all three.
But considering how clone memory feedback worked, he couldn’t risk accidentally downloading something deeply personal. The second option might bypass that limit, but it wasn’t guaranteed. The risk was real.
Kazuki had no desire to awaken... strange preferences.
"This is giving me a damn headache," he muttered, scratching at his hair. The first and third were both really good. The third one even bordered on divine-tier. The only catch was the unknown: how long did it take to mimic? And how hard would it be against strong targets?
What if mimicking Madara took ten thousand years?
"Think logically," Kazuki told himself.
Still, he handed in his mission report first, collected the bounty from the Minato escort job, and wandered over to the training field. Lying back against a training post, he stared up at the clouds.
Both upgrades were game-changers. The first was raw power. Scalable. Reliable.
The third... was situational, but if the difficulty wasn’t outrageous, it could lead to some insane plays. Even if he couldn’t copy Madara right away, what about Minato? Hiruzen? If he could pull off a team-up between those two via shadow clones? Even Madara would have a bad day—at least pre-Six Paths Madara.
Hell, if he got really reckless, maybe he could form a Kage-level dream team of clones.
Only downside: chakra. But that, too, could be solved as he grew stronger.
"Alright. Screw it..." Kazuki hesitated a moment longer, then chose the third upgrade.
He couldn’t resist the allure of mimicry.
And if he could copy that guy’s Sacrificial Dance—well, maybe one day he’d be breakdancing on the graves of the whole ruined shinobi world.
It was worth the risk.
"Hey, Kazuki, back from your mission?" Kakashi approached just as Kazuki was preparing to test his new power. Kazuki lit up instantly.
Kakashi was an ideal subject. Despite becoming something of a power-scaling benchmark over time, he was no weakling. His only real limiter was the Sharingan’s chakra drain.
"Yup! Kakashi, I just developed a brand new jutsu!" Kazuki rubbed his hands together, eager.
He popped a Multi Shadow Clone into existence and ordered it to start observing Kakashi. The clone stepped behind him silently.
"What kind of jutsu?" Kakashi asked, slightly wary. He reached into his pocket—and Kazuki noted with interest that the clone mimicked the movement.
A new progress bar popped up.
Kazuki’s eyebrow twitched. How long is this going to take?
"Shadow Imitation Art. Basically, the clone mirrors your every move. Just... pretend he’s not there," Kazuki explained, already annoyed by how long the progress was taking.
"...That’s gonna be hard," Kakashi muttered, glancing behind him. The clone really was mimicking him perfectly. Eerily so.
At Kazuki’s signal, the clone vanished into stealth mode, disappearing into the trees.
That helped. A little.
"Yeah, definitely some restrictions," Kazuki sighed, scratching his head.