Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-30168130-20170706050832/@comment-734582-20170710085751

LegionZero wrote: We can also add that substitution is rendered moot by most of the higher tier ninja because it is little more than a parlor trick that against their speed/perceptiveness. Notably, when Gaara used it against Lee, every spectator saw it. Only Lee didn't due to the pain of the Gates making him flinch. Due to the nature of the eye, a Substitution wouldn't work against a Sharingan (It would almost certainly see the shunshin) or a byakugan (it would be able to track both the substitute and the original)

Lorenzo.r.1st wrote: could it be that they just use transformation jutsu on a piece of anything nearby? I mentioned before that it uses some sort of transformation jutsu on the substituting object. Lorenzo.r.1st wrote: but how can they move outta the way just like THAT still doenst make much sense imo. A shunshin is still a jutsu. One can compare it to the Eight Gates technique (IE using chakra to temporarily gain superhuman speed). As shown by Naruto in KCM, it's not so much about the speed one can gain but about the amount of control one has over that speed.

Critical to the Substitution is the misdirection, since it allows a safe dodge. If you saw through the substitution you could just attack the real target. Note that Sasuke vs Bee for instance shows Sasuke dodging attacks but Bee simply redirecting his own to match Sasuke's dodge. Meanwhile, Sasuke and Naruto both dodged the Raikage's attacks since both predicted the trajectory and speed and so could execute an extremely fast shunshin safely. Contrast Naruto doing Shunshin in KCM and getting stuck in a wall, which is probably why most Ninja don't shunshin faster than they can react and compensate.