Normal and Enhanced

However, two seconds passed, and the expected blow from the stick never came. Instead, she...

Was in Chiba's arms!

He set her down as if nothing had happened, paying no heed to her face, which had turned as red as an apple, and turned his gaze toward the group.

If he hadn't suddenly used the Body Flicker Technique just now, he and Mira might well have been hit with a stick by that bastard, whoever the hell he was.

Chakra slowly gathered, swirling around his hands as a pale blue mist, and his dark eyes turned blood-red once more.

Sharingan!

The Sharingan, also known as the Eye That Reflects the Heart, could continually evolve through intense emotional stimulation. The black, ink-like markings in the Sharingan were called Tomoe. The Sharingan's stages were, in order, the One-Tomoe Sharingan, the Two-Tomoe Sharingan, the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, the Mangekyō Sharingan, and the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, with the Rinnegan as the highest level. The Sharingan was the Uchiha Clan's Kekkei Genkai, and it could be called a seriously broken ability. It could perceive, copy, and identify and reflect Genjutsu.

Chiba's Sharingan had only just awakened. His One-Tomoe Sharingan could only see through some Taijutsu and Ninjutsu.

But for Chiba at his current stage, that was enough!

Go!

The Chakra in his legs erupted in an instant, and Chiba shot forward at tremendous speed, appearing before the first two men in the blink of an eye. With his Sharingan, Chiba saw through their every move. Then he struck both men in the stomach with his palms, sending them flying!

But another crowd surrounded him.

Judging by what his Sharingan showed him, the Body Flicker Technique didn't seem likely to get him out of this, so...

Ram, boar, ox, dog, tiger!

Hand Seals!

Substitution Technique!

Bang!

A dead branch suddenly appeared in the middle of the crowd, while Chiba appeared in the treetops.

Then, under their dumbfounded gazes, he ran down the tree trunk and threw two more punches, sending two of them flying.

The rest of the fight was straightforward. With Chakra and the Sharingan, Chiba was clearly beyond what these punks, who only knew how to bully women and children, could defeat. A few minutes later, it ended with everyone beaten black and blue.

"Hey, I hadn't even said a word, so why did you attack me? Couldn't we have talked this out?" Chiba wiped the sweat from his forehead. Beating up more than twenty people in one go was a little tiring, especially in the middle of summer. He put his hands on his hips and spoke helplessly.

Alili was beaten black and blue and felt like crying, but had no tears. "I only came to collect a debt, and you cursed at me... I..."

"You call that collecting a debt? That's loan sharking! They borrowed ten thousand, and you wanted thirty thousand. Who lends money like that?! Huh?!" Before Alili could finish, Chiba glared at him and shouted.

Considering Chiba's formidable strength, Alili didn't dare say anything. One could imagine the sight of a six-foot-tall, burly man lying on the ground like a wronged wife, too aggrieved to speak.

"Actually... it's not like we won't pay you back, right? We're all out here making a living. It never hurts to make another friend, and there's no need to make things this unpleasant..." Chiba's voice suddenly softened. "How about this? Give me three months, and I'll pay off the debt in full..."

"But three months..."

"Cut the crap. I said three months, so it's three months. Take it or leave it. You're really pushing your luck!" Chiba glared at him.

Alili swallowed and had no choice but to agree.

"Good. You're very obedient." Chiba smiled.

Alili slowly got to his feet, moving as though his bones had been broken.

"Hurry up and get lost!" Chiba's expression changed in an instant.

The whole group was scared witless and ran off in a flash.

"Honestly..." Chiba dusted off his hands and turned to look at Mira, who was standing nearby.

The girl's pretty face was still red, but there was a hint of admiration in her gaze as she looked at Chiba. She had never expected him to take care of more than twenty opponents.

"You're amazing! What you just used was... Ninjutsu?" Mira asked, blinking.

"Ahem, keep it low-key, low-key," Chiba said.

Hope showed in Mira's beautiful eyes, but she remembered what Chiba had said, pursed her lips, and said no more.

Chiba patted her delicate shoulder and said, "Ninjutsu isn't right for you. You have a great talent for magic. Magic is what suits you best."

"Magic?" Confusion appeared on Mira's face.

"Mm... things like Transformation Magic and Take Over Magic. They're both very interesting kinds of magic..." Chiba began patiently coaxing her.

"Really?" The little beauty seemed to be taking the bait.

Looks like Mira was well-behaved as a child, the picture of a good girl. I wonder how she became a delinquent after joining Fairy Tail?

After feeding her a few more lines, Chiba started clamoring for dinner, so Mira took him back inside.

Over the next few days, he focused on consolidating what he knew, practicing, and learning a new Ninjutsu.

The Great Fireball Technique!

Gale Palm required wind-natured Chakra to be transformed into wind, and Chiba might not even have a talent for wind-natured Chakra Nature Transformation. After all, changing the nature of wind Chakra was quite difficult.

Although the Great Fireball Technique was only a C-rank Ninjutsu, it was quite powerful. Even during the battle at the Valley of the End, Sasuke had used it against Naruto.

A Ninjutsu's rank did not necessarily indicate its power. It only represented how difficult it was to learn and how much danger it posed to the user. Take the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique: without vast amounts of Chakra, the user would drop dead from overusing Chakra as soon as they performed it. That was why the technique was classified as forbidden.

However, while learning Ninjutsu, he discovered something very interesting.

His cheat in the truest sense.

His Ninjutsu... how should he put it... had two modes...

Normal mode and enhanced mode...

Enhanced-mode Ninjutsu was hard to learn—in other words, it was the normal difficulty—but it was powerful and consumed more Chakra!

Normal-mode Ninjutsu was much easier to learn, but its power was that of ordinary Ninjutsu. It was a little weaker than enhanced-mode Ninjutsu, though it also consumed less Chakra.

Relatively speaking, the latter was a little more cost-effective.

Chiba stood at the door and drew a light breath.

Snake, ram, monkey, boar, horse, tiger!

Hand Seals!

"Fire Style! Great Fireball Technique!"

Following his low shout, a blazing fireball burst from Chiba's mouth.

When the fireball dissipated, Chiba formed Hand Seals again. This time he didn't shout, releasing the Great Fireball Technique directly.

That's right: the former required him to shout; the latter didn't.

After releasing them, Chiba could clearly feel that the latter seemed to be one hundred and fifty percent as powerful as the former, but it consumed twice as much Chakra.

In other words, Ninjutsu in non-serious mode was more cost-effective than Ninjutsu in serious mode.

It seemed that unless he could win in a single move, he would have to use normal-mode Ninjutsu in future battles.

In short, damage output depended entirely on shouting!