When Did He Arrive?

Speaking solely of chakra reserves—or rather, stamina—Lin Ke was currently at a rather embarrassing level.

Forget comparing himself to Uzumaki Naruto; even the renowned ninja world unit of measurement, Hatake Kakashi, was an insurmountable mountain to him.

Compared to his Anbu father, who possessed the standard chakra reserves of a chunin, he probably had only one-tenth as much, or even less.

Fortunately, his chakra control was quite exceptional.

The use of any ninjutsu involved chakra control. To put it absolutely, even chakra refinement relied on chakra control.

Even Kaguya, the final boss, had still needed Black Zetsu to remind her that she was running out of chakra and had to refine more.

Actual ninja combat was even more filled with the use and expenditure of chakra: taijutsu, ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Dojutsu, Kekkei Genkai...

Even every movement consumed stamina—or rather, chakra.

When using ninjutsu, refining too little chakra would lead to failure, while refining too much would waste it. Given that chakra equaled stamina, and chakra depletion could mean death, unless one truly did not care about chakra consumption, the most important thing for an ordinary ninja was to train their chakra control well.

In battle, controlling chakra and gathering it in a particular location was likewise a manifestation of chakra control. For example, Inuzuka Kiba had once gathered chakra in his nose to gain a sense of smell tens of thousands of times stronger. Even the most basic Body Flicker Technique involved gathering a large amount of chakra in the soles of one's feet before exploding forward.

Lin Ke did not know whether it was because he had lived two lives or because of his cheat, but his chakra control was excellent. He had been able to sense it from the moment he first refined chakra.

Ninjas maintained a certain level of chakra refinement in their daily lives to guard against unexpected incidents, but they could not exhaust too much stamina. The balance involved was quite complicated.

For him, however, it was much simpler. After successfully refining chakra for the first time, he discovered that he could refine chakra in a very short time and precisely sense changes in the amount of his stamina.

Even without the cheat that mutated ninjutsu, with his chakra control, if he possessed more chakra, a stronger physique, and greater stamina, becoming an outstanding ninja would not be difficult.

However, since he could not change his frail body in the short term, continuing to improve his chakra control was the top priority.

"Water walking, tree climbing..."

Lin Ke pondered training methods to strengthen his chakra control, then spread out the scroll and found the section on the Substitution Technique.

The principle behind the so-called Substitution Technique was actually very simple. At the instant one was attacked, one used some physical object to replace their body, making the enemy believe their attack had succeeded. It was a disruption technique.

Its extremely low E-rank learning difficulty made the essence of the Substitution Technique perfectly clear.

The reason it was slightly harder than the Clone Technique and Transformation Jutsu was that it incorporated parts of the release techniques of the other two Three Body Techniques, along with a little of the basic Body Flicker Technique, making it just a tiny bit more difficult.

But after mastering the Clone Technique and Transformation Jutsu, the Substitution Technique was actually very simple.

The process: predict the opponent's attack beforehand, gather chakra in the soles of the feet and burst away at high speed, while transforming the substitution item into an illusion of oneself.

"Gather chakra, then—"

Lin Ke produced roughly the right amount of chakra. The chakra gathered beneath his feet, along with the chakra in his body that he had prepared to create the illusion, vanished into thin air.

Again?

He thought with a mixture of anticipation and helplessness. His hand suddenly grew heavy, as though something had appeared in it. Looking down—

He was holding a handgun that looked like both a revolver and an automatic pistol.

A pistol that an adult could hold comfortably looked oversized in his small hand, though his finger could just barely pull the trigger.

"This thing—" The moment Lin Ke looked at the pistol, he learned its name:

Emperor

Its name came from the Tarot cards. It was a Stand from a famous anime.

Its effect was to fire infinitely controllable bullets, which were no different from ordinary pistol rounds.

"No, is this what the Substitution Technique means by 'substitute'?!" His expression nearly cracked.

Before this, he had imagined many possible mutations of the Substitution Technique, but he had never expected it to be this kind of Stand.

"Phew~" A gust of wind scattered it, and Emperor vanished from his hand.

"About fifteen percent of my chakra can only maintain it for a few seconds... The Substitution Technique consumes a lot."

Lin Ke estimated the approximate cost. He could even accept his own head suddenly falling off, so what was there to be unable to accept about the Substitution Technique becoming a 'Stand Summoning Technique'?

If anything, the current Stand Summoning Technique was far stronger than the ordinary Substitution Technique, which became unusable once battles grew even slightly more advanced.

Even if the bullets fired by Emperor were no different from ordinary pistol bullets, it was still a Stand—a Stand ordinary people could not see. The bullets were also Stand bullets.

Was an invisible, traceless attack not terrifying enough?

"Wait, can ninjas see Stands?"

A new doubt arose in Lin Ke's mind. Since he still had more than one-third of his stamina left, he decided to try again. He refined chakra, formed hand seals, and released it—

A tall, muscular humanoid covered in blue-purple appeared before him.

His pupils contracted instantly, and his face was filled with shock.

"When did he arrive? Star Platinum..."...

Konoha, Ninja Academy recruitment day.

"Ugh~" Watching the boy who looked as though he was straining with all his might to take a dump, Mizuki covered his face with one hand, concealing the disgust in his eyes.

A thoroughly mediocre fool.

"Alright, you failed the ninjutsu qualification test." The colleague beside him waited patiently for a while before informing the boy of the result.

"Huh?"

The boy, visibly dejected, dragged himself out of the examination room.

"Next, Lin Ke."

Mizuki called the name on the list and looked toward the entrance. A child who seemed a little too calm walked in.

Most children taking the Ninja Academy entrance examination were nervous beyond belief. Seeing one who was so composed, he could not help but take a few extra looks.

But no matter how calm he was, even if an ordinary person entered the Ninja Academy, they would most likely become cannon fodder incapable of deciding their own fate.

He mocked himself inwardly.

"Good morning, examiners." Lin Ke walked to the center of the examination room on his short legs. The room was quite spacious, somewhat like a lecture hall.

Mizuki did not even notice that his tone had become slightly complicated as he said, "You may begin." Trying to get close to them was completely useless.

Konoha was so large and had such a huge population, yet each Ninja Academy class had only thirty or forty students. At its peak, the entire school had just over a hundred students; at its lowest, fewer than a hundred.

Those who could pass the entrance exam were often few and far between.