Shadow Clone Technique

Shadow Clone Technique
The Shadow Clone Technique (影分身の術, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?, Viz "Art of the Shadow Doppelganger", UK DVD "Art of Shadow Body Splitting", English TV "Shadow Clone Jutsu") creates actual copies, not illusions, of the user. The user's chakra is evenly distributed among every clone, giving each clone a fraction of the user's overall power. Because of this, the technique itself is considered dangerous; when creating multiple copies of one's self it is possible to use up all of one's chakra fairly quickly. This is considerably more dangerous with the jutsu's forbidden form, the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique (多重影分身の術, Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?, English TV "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu"). While the standard Shadow Clone Technique typically creates no more than five clones, the Multiple version allows the creation of a limitless number of clones so long as the user has enough chakra. Due to the danger of the ability it is typically used by only the most advanced ninja, often at or above Jonin rank. Naruto Uzumaki, however, learned the technique prior to even becoming a ninja, and thanks to his large amount of chakra he can use it to create thousands of clones and never worry about running out of chakra.

Any experience the shadow clones gain during their existence is transferred to the user once they are dispersed (occurs at the clones discretion or after it receives a fatal or direct blow). This makes the technique ideal for spying, since the user can simply send a clone to spy on a target and then have the clone disperse itself to quickly pass the information back to the user. It's also useful for training purposes, since the total amount of experience the user gains is multiplied by the total number of clones being used to train. This is especially seen in Part II as Naruto creates hundreds, possibly thousands, of shadow clones to accelerate his training.