Trouble

Chiba had seen Nagato use Gale Palm. Supposedly, Naruto's son Boruto could use it too, but Chiba hadn't watched Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.

Who cares? I'll take them all! At his current stage, they were all good stuff!

His finger moved again, landing on another Ninjutsu scroll.

[Shadow Clone Technique]: A B-rank Ninjutsu that created bodies identical to the user. Chakra was divided evenly among each clone. The clones could attack just like the original, but they would disappear if struck.

The Shadow Clone Technique!

Good stuff!

Chiba took the scroll down and tucked it into his pocket.

The Shadow Clone Technique wasn't as overpowered as the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, but for Chiba as he was now, it was the technique best suited to him. Although the Uchiha Clan was born with vast amounts of Chakra, he was only just starting out. Knowing how the Multi Shadow Clone worked, it would drain his Chakra dry and kill him. There was no rush to learn the Multi Shadow Clone later, when he had more Chakra. He'd just assume the Ninjutsu Chamber had it.

However, after he had taken five Ninjutsu scrolls, the large room called the Ninjutsu Chamber suddenly shook. At the same time, a cold voice reached his ears.

"Time limit reached!"

Then...

"Uh..."

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Chiba opened his eyes, his gaze slowly coming back into focus.

Then he found five large scrolls in his arms.

He patted his head, and after confirming that he wasn't dreaming, he burst into delighted laughter.

Five Ninjutsu were enough to play around with for now. Besides, he had awakened a one-Tomoe Sharingan, so wouldn't practicing these things be a piece of cake?

But among the five scrolls, he spotted two books.

"Chakra Use and Refinement Methods"

"Analysis of Chakra Nature Transformation"

Oh, two beginner's guides.

Were they freebies?

"Chiba, time to eat!" At that moment, Mira's sweet voice reached the overjoyed Chiba's ears.

"Hehe! Coming, coming!" Chiba put the two books and five Ninjutsu scrolls on the bed and jogged outside.

There was no lavish spread on the table, just a couple of ordinary dishes. Apparently, Mira and the others had been poor as children.

Still, though it wasn't a lavish spread, it was undoubtedly a feast to the hungry Chiba.

He wolfed down his meal, leaving Mira and Lisanna stunned by the way he ate.

After he had eaten his fill and put down his bowl and chopsticks, he waited for Mira and the others to finish eating at their own pace, then helped Mira clear the table.

Although she had told him several times that she didn't need his help, Chiba insisted on helping her. Unable to talk him out of it, she let him stay in the kitchen.

Finally, he said a word to Mira, ran to his room, and grabbed the five scrolls. Then, under the three's stunned gazes, he ran out of the house.

Outside the house was an open stretch of grass. Mountains rose in overlapping ranges as far as the eye could see, surrounding the village on all sides. The village where Mira lived was neither particularly large nor small, with dozens of households. Somewhere in the distance, there seemed to be a building that looked like a church.

In the original story, Mira had joined Fairy Tail around X778, and had probably left here that same year. It was X776 now, so there was probably a little over a year left.

And the reason she left was the demon hidden inside that church!

Mira had helped the villagers deal with the demon, but the awakening of her magic had caused her to absorb it. The villagers, however, thought Mira was a demon. They came to her house to cause trouble all day long, telling them to get out of the village.

But that was all in the future. There was still over a year to go, so there was no rush.

Chiba first opened the first book, "Chakra Use and Molding Methods."

He sat cross-legged on the grass and carefully read through the book.

Time passed slowly. Over the next few days, Chiba read through most of both books and remembered most of their contents. All that remained was to put them into practice.

So, a few days later...

After spending several days together, chatting over meals each day, and having Mira bring him hot tea when he was tired from training and sit with him under a tree, talking and laughing, the awkwardness Chiba, Mira, and the others had felt when they first met disappeared.

It was mostly Mira and the others who had been awkward. Shameless Chiba didn't know the first thing about awkwardness...

Then, one evening...

Chiba stood before a large tree in front of the house. A pale blue mist suddenly swirled around his palms. A moment later, the young man's gaze turned cold, and he drove a fist toward the tree in front of him.

"Bang!"

His heavy punch struck the trunk. Although the tree didn't break, many cracks appeared in it.

"I still don't have Chakra like a Jinchūriki..."

Chiba looked at his hands and sighed.

His physical age should have been thirteen. If he went by the geniuses in Naruto, his Chakra reserves were still inferior to those of genius ninja his own age.

In three days, Chiba had more or less mastered how to use and mold Chakra. He had also completely mastered the Body Flicker Technique and the Substitution Technique.

His talent as a ninja was slowly beginning to show.

Chiba turned around, only to see a lovely white-haired girl in a white dress standing before him.

"Mira, what are you doing here?" Chiba asked.

"Um..."

Mira's pretty face reddened slightly. She hummed thoughtfully, seemingly searching for a reason. Suddenly, a hint of mischief flashed in her beautiful eyes, and she said with a smile, "I'm here to call you for dinner, of course! It's already dark, and you were so focused on training!"

"Is it dark already?" Perhaps he had been too focused on training, but Chiba hadn't even noticed the sun had set.

But...

Chiba narrowed his eyes. "I can't help feeling you're making excuses..."

Under his stare, Mira had no choice but to stick out her pink tongue and admit, "All right, I actually wanted to see... um... how a ninja trains."

Chiba smiled. "You want to learn?"

"Mm-hmm!" Mira nodded emphatically, hope shining in her eyes.

"Dream on!" Chiba said with a chuckle.

"You..." Both annoyed and amused, Mira couldn't help giving him a light punch.

She had seen plenty of this guy's wisecracks over the past few days.

Meanwhile, Chiba was thinking... If you learn Ninjutsu from me, what about your Take Over Magic? I'm still counting on you to use Transformation Magic! (Manual funny face)

But... doesn't Ninjutsu have a Transformation Technique?

Should I look for it in the Ninjutsu Chamber and teach her sometime?

Hehehe...

The young man in front of her suddenly began to laugh. Mira couldn't help feeling that his smile was a little... sleazy.

But just then, a burly man came down a path from the village, followed by more than a dozen lackeys.

The moment Mira saw them, her pretty face went pale.

"Brothers, that's the brat! He didn't pay me back, and he fucking sneak-attacked me! Get him!" The burly man glared at Chiba like he was looking at a sworn enemy, his eyes red as he roared.

"Fuck! Brothers, grab your weapons and show this brat what we're made of!"

The group cursed as they picked up sticks and the like. One of them swung a stick straight at Chiba.

Mira was so frightened that she squeezed her eyes shut.