Over the next few months Jay Uzumaki became acquainted with the Uchiha clan as he studied under Itachi … surprisingly, there wasn't much ‘ninja’ work being done, as most of Jay's combat training was still done by Maito Guy and refined over his weekly tests at the academy.

  What Jay learned instead was the complex art of Fuinjutsu and how easy it was for the Uchiha to perform it …

  Jay watched in awe as the scribes made perfect copies of seals, almost like printers, thanks to the coordination and memorization provided by the Sharingan.

  Every tag came out exactly like the one before, any Uchiha with the Sharingan unlocked could make a quick buck making copies of the standard explosive tag or the standard sealing scrolls widely used by merchants to transport goods …

  It was something straight out of an automated factory, but performed by humans …

  ***

  Itachi on the other hand discovered the nightmare that was ledgers and double entry bookkeeping … The ever increasing workload surrounding said paperwork left Itachi with little time to actually train Jay, as Itachi himself was still getting used to his new responsibilities.

  *** *** ***

  Another new development was the recognition of Jay's modified Clone Jutsu as kinjutsu in its own right …

  The previous assessment that Jay simply discovered another way to cast a Shadow Clone was proven wrong as the differences became apparent over the months.

  Jay's Clones were a very different beast, something that attracted the attention of some of Konoha's brightest minds …

  ***

  The normal shadow clones were too costly for regular usage on everyday tasks … sure, you could use them to accelerate your work, but that was literally burning your candle on both ends …

  The chunk of chakra spent on making the Shadow Clone wasn't actually ‘spent’, it was still part of your reserves, a ninja’s chakra recovery was reduced for as long as a Shadow Clone existed …

  … This made Shadow Clones a constant drain on the user’s chakra … That's why it was an information gathering tool and not anything else despite the revolutionary potential …

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  The Shadow Clone was developed to perform risky maneuvers without actually risking yourself … The primary way to use the jutsu safely was to make a clone and then meditate for as long as the clone was active as a way to minimize the inevitable fatigue that came with the jutsu dispelling …

  ***

  Jay's version of the Shadow Clone was unbelievably slower to cast, even more costly in terms of chakra and required a chakra control and focus almost unheard of outside of high-end medical ninjutsu …

  ***

  The insight that led Jay to make his jutsu was obvious in hindsight … the normal clone jutsu was a crude representation of the ‘self’ … A bad copy lacking in details … that's why it was a simple shell useful for distractions and not much else …

  But if a single casting of the clone jutsu didn't give enough details to actually copy ‘you’ perfectly … why not make a bunch of copies overlaid on top of one another ?

  Jay's solution to the ‘detail’ problem of the clone jutsu was to ‘link cast’ the jutsu many times over … if one casting didn't give enough details, do a second one, a third one, a tenth one, a thousand one …

  Each link of the chain deepens the details, repeat the process enough times and you have a robust clone that's an almost perfect copy of you … down to the finest details …

  Just like a normal Shadow Clone… but much more stable …

  ***

  … Not many people know, but a normal Shadow Clone is capable of digesting food … The jutsu mimicked everything down to the finest details like cellular activity … and when dispelled, the user did receive most of the benefits from what the clones did, memories, experience and sustainment included …

  But with the jutsu keeping a massive portion of the users chakra occupied in exchange for this robust link … there was no way for someone to ‘break even’ on the chakra cost …

  Jay's Clones lacked those features of the normal Shadow Clones, there was no transfer of information and the likes … but with all of those downsides, Jay's jutsu came with enormous efficiency improvements …

  … as long as only a few were made, you could break even …

  ***

  And that left the question … What happened if you let those clones ‘living’ ? … Eating, drinking and ‘growing’ for months or years ? …

  The months of research so far were inconclusive …

  ***

  But the first round of testing was already done by the few ninja in Konoha capable of casting the jutsu … and they were pushing hard for domestic applications … having another one of them would lighten their workload significantly.

  A sustainable clone of the best minds and workers, multiplying Konoha's production in a way never seen before …

  … For the battlefield, a single clone of Konoha's best operatives would make previous suicide missions have no actual risk …

  … The only bottleneck was the absurd chakra control and focus necessary to cast said jutsu … something beyond most ninjas …

  … But something that could be dealt with in other ways …

  *** *** ***

  While Itachi was getting used to his new workload … the Hokage watched the new development of Konoha's research division …

  A scroll containing a framework for Jay's Clone jutsu, one only needed to supply the vast quantities of chakra needed for it.

  Hiruzen could only shake his head at the contract he signed with Jay over the insights on how to make his jutsu work and the permission to study said jutsu till completion …

  The boy understood intellectual property and made sure to take as much advantage as he could of it …

  Konoha's sealing division had to study Jay's use of his jutsu for weeks on end before they could even begin to develop a Fuinjutsu for it …

  The best minds of Konoha's research division worked with the young prodigy to make the scroll that Hiruzen now held.

  A single use, long lasting clone …

  Jay's jutsu could double Konoha's production and the boy would get a slice of that massive pie as the scrolls of his jutsu became the new commodity …

  All thanks to the fact that his jutsu was incredibly hard to execute …

  *** *** ***

  During the following month, the scroll containing Jay's Clone jutsu was released for sale.

  It was almost like investing in a new ‘machine’ for a workshop … the huge upfront payment was paid back in installments as the clone effectively doubled your production …

  As the creator of said jutsu, Jay received a ‘free sample’ from the research division…

  … Jay offered his ‘free sample’ of the scroll to Itachi in exchange for the historical accounts of the Uchiha …

  Itachi wasn't sure why Jay was interested in said history, but the Uchiha wouldn't refuse a way to lighten his own workload …

  Especially since Itachi was now seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi in more than one place at the same time … The aging Hokage finally had leisure time and Itachi came to appreciate the possibility of a work life balance in exchange for Ryos …

  ***