My Techniques are a bit off

"My ninjutsu is… profoundly, absurdly wrong."

Link sat back on his bed, wearing a peculiar expression as he pondered deeply.

It had been—well—two minutes since he first attempted a ninjutsu. His Clone Jutsu had lasted barely ten seconds before dissipating, likely due to his limited chakra reserves.

When the Clone Jutsu ended, all of his body parts—regardless of where they had been—reassembled with a "poof" back to the position of his head.

Which was why he'd ended up sprawled awkwardly on the floor at the moment of release. His neck still felt a little sore from the odd posture.

According to the scroll, the Clone Jutsu creates a perfect illusion of oneself to confuse opponents.

Hand signs, chakra flow—he had followed the instructions meticulously. After studying the scroll for four or five years, there was no way he could've gotten it wrong.

And yet… something was clearly amiss.

Scratching his head, Link felt like his brain cells were dying from the sheer confusion.

"Well, it's not entirely bad," he muttered, glancing at his unscathed fingernails. If he remembered correctly, those nails should have been broken and bleeding after jabbing the floor earlier. Yet, there wasn't even a hint of pain—almost as if the earlier discomfort had been an illusion.

Rubbing his fingers together, he felt a phantom pain. Shaking it off, he began to refine chakra again, forming the seals for another attempt.

That bizarre sensation surged back.

"If I relax even slightly, my body parts will fall apart," Link noted grimly, quickly grasping the peculiarity of his "Clone Jutsu."

The moment he activated the jutsu, his limbs, head, and torso physically separated. Only through sheer willpower could he hold them together. The moment his concentration wavered, they detached.

"Hyah!"

Grabbing his left arm with his right, Link swung it experimentally. Surprisingly, it worked quite well—especially with the left hand forming a fist. The reach of his punches had effectively doubled.

"Longer reach means stronger attacks!"

"Poof!"

A cloud of smoke marked the end of the Clone Jutsu. Link's body reassembled, and he sank back onto the bed to contemplate. With his current chakra reserves, barely meeting the minimum extraction standard, he could manage the Clone Jutsu twice in quick succession.

But what if he used more chakra at once?

Gathering a larger amount of chakra, he repeated the seals.

When the peculiar sensation returned and his limbs began to feel unsteady again, he picked up a kunai and made a shallow cut on his arm. Blood trickled down.

Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Thirty seconds…

One minute!

"Poof!"

"Whew…" Link exhaled deeply, a little winded but still managing. If he continuously used the Clone Jutsu, he could hold it for about five minutes before collapsing from exhaustion.

"But the most important part is—"

He examined his bronze-toned arm, which bore no trace of the earlier cut. Even the blood had vanished.

"It seems the literal effect of this Clone Jutsu is that it erases injuries when the technique is canceled."

Link felt a surge of excitement. Sure, the Clone Jutsu had turned out strange, but if it was this effective, who cared? This was practically a miniature version of Izanagi! At the very least, it could erase minor wounds.

"Wait… this could be a problem."

His excitement was cut short by a sudden realization.

If this was how his Clone Jutsu worked, how was he supposed to get into the Ninja Academy?

Covering his face, Link felt a whirlwind of emotions he couldn't put into words.

After a while, he calmed himself with a bit of self-reassurance. "Maybe this is my cheat ability. Who knows? It might have even greater uses. I'll just rely on other jutsu for the entrance exam. One Clone Jutsu isn't a dealbreaker…"

"…"

But a subtle premonition crept into his mind: if this was the result of a "correctly" executed Clone Jutsu, what would happen with other ninjutsu?

Taking a deep breath, he shifted his gaze to the next technique on the scroll: Transformation Jutsu.

Among the basic Three Techniques, the Clone Jutsu was the simplest. It required only enough chakra to create an intangible illusion and was considered easy even among the most basic techniques.

The Transformation Jutsu, slightly more complex, involved physical alterations and was thus ranked second on the scroll. It was no longer just an illusion but involved slight physical changes to the body.

While the Clone Jutsu could only create one's illusory double, the Transformation Jutsu allowed one to fully disguise as another person—or even objects like animals, plants, or weapons.

However, it remained a low-difficulty jutsu. The changes were superficial and relied heavily on chakra simulation.

"What should I transform into…"

Unlike the Clone Jutsu, which merely required creating a duplicate, the Transformation Jutsu demanded more thought and preparation.

The execution wasn't hard. Rather, success depended on the user's skill and precision.

For both the Genin Certification Exam and the Ninja Academy graduation exam, even the simplest successful Clone Jutsu was sufficient to pass—proof of how basic the requirements for becoming a genin were.

After all, genin-level missions involved no combat with ninjas. D-rank tasks like picking up trash, finding lost pets, or farming didn't exactly require flashy ninjutsu.

Merely being able to perform a ninjutsu demonstrated adequate physical fitness—enough to be a useful labor force.

"I'll transform into Dad."

After some thought, Link decided on his late father's appearance: his height, face, and the familiar vest he often wore.

Refining his chakra and forming the seals, he activated the jutsu.

Nothing happened.

"That's odd."

This time, Link closely observed the chakra flow. The chakra refined for the technique simply disappeared into thin air at the moment of activation.

Where it went, or how it worked, was a complete mystery. The process was a black box. Theoretically, however, the technique should have succeeded.

Even a failed Transformation Jutsu should have altered his outward appearance, so why had nothing changed?

Could it be—

Adopting the same logic as his peculiar Clone Jutsu, Link focused his thoughts on transforming his hand into a longsword.

In the next moment, his arm shifted and morphed into a gleaming blade.

The hilt merged seamlessly with his shoulder, as though it had always been part of his body.

After a few more experiments lasting about thirty seconds, the technique dissipated, and his arm returned to normal.

"I knew it…"

Link let out a long sigh. The Transformation Jutsu wasn't for disguising; it was for reshaping his body. His head, however, remained stubbornly unaffected.

The Substitution Jutsu was likely to follow the same bizarre logic.