Seeing the Puppet Master collapse dead, Kyosuke finally let out a sigh of relief.
A slight burst of Chakra from his body blew away the fading flames.
Just as he was about to return to Fugaku to check on the situation, an unexpected System Prompt made him stop in his tracks.
System Prompt: Successfully killed an enemy (Level 47 Puppet Master). Obtained 84 Experience Points.
Kyosuke froze for a moment, then was overwhelmed with joy.
You could gain Experience Points by killing enemies? As he ran toward Fugaku's battlefield, Kyosuke carefully checked the details.
Through the system's explanation, Kyosuke learned that—
The Experience Points gained from killing an enemy corresponded to the enemy's personal level.
In other words, killing a Level 47 Puppet Master would provide him with 47 Experience Points.
However, two situations could alter the rate at which Experience Points were gained.
First, if he killed an enemy below his own level, he would gain no Experience Points at all.
Second, once the enemy's level exceeded his by more than three levels, every additional level of difference would grant one extra Experience Point.
In other words, the reason this Level 47 Puppet Master had given him 84 Experience Points was that, in addition to the 47 points from the enemy's own level, there were another 37 points from the level gap.
Kyosuke was only Level 10 at the moment. That meant he had defeated an enemy 37 levels above him.
Of course, this was almost impossible to replicate.
The reason he had managed to kill an enemy so many levels above him was the result of many advantages piling together.
Prearranged traps, drawing away the enemy's main puppets, overwhelming intelligence, and several unexpected attacks—only with all those advantages had he accomplished such a feat.
So, even though he now knew he could gain Experience Points this way, he still had to take things slowly.
Besides, other than during special times like the Shinobi World War, where would he find so many shinobi to kill?
More importantly, Kyosuke had no desire to become some madman who killed everyone he saw.
In Kyosuke's eyes, people like that no longer deserved to be called "human."
Of course, if they were enemies, he would have no psychological burden about killing them.
But where could he find that many enemies?
As he thought about it, Kyosuke's eyes suddenly lit up.
He had thought of a good place. Not only would there be enough enemies for him to kill, but there might even be some additional gains.
For now, though, he tucked the idea away, because there was still a difficult hurdle waiting for him.
Clang! The sound of kunai striking each other came from not far ahead of Kyosuke.
That meant Fugaku's battle was not over yet.
Kyosuke carefully approached the battlefield. At the same time, he added the eighty-odd Experience Points he had just gained to Hand Seal Training and Chakra Control.
Hand Seal Training LV3 (0/30) Chakra Control LV4 (0/40)
At once, he felt his control over Chakra improve by several degrees.
With a light jump, he landed atop the tree before him. He coated the soles of his feet with a faint layer of Chakra, anchoring himself firmly in place.
It worked. Kyosuke smiled inwardly, then turned his attention back to where Fugaku and the others were fighting.
After watching for a while, Kyosuke felt reassured.
From the looks of things, Fugaku was essentially locked in a stalemate with his opponents.
Although he was seriously wounded, the two Sand Shinobi could not take him down anytime soon.
As expected of Itachi and Sasuke's father. His strength truly could not be underestimated.
At that moment, a thought suddenly occurred to Kyosuke.
In the original story, if Fugaku had not surrendered without resistance and had instead used his Mangekyō Sharingan to fight Konoha, what would the final outcome have been?
After considering it carefully, Kyosuke still felt that the Uchiha Clan's chances of winning would have been slim.
Indeed, at that time, Konoha's strength was nearly at its lowest point since the village had been founded.
The Fourth Hokage was dead, the Third Hokage was old and frail, and Kakashi, Gai, and the others had yet to fully mature into their peak strength.
With Orochimaru's defection, Tsunade's departure, and Jiraiya's travels, the vast village of Konoha had almost no Kage-level experts worth mentioning.
But the Uchiha were even more useless.
Shisui was dead, Itachi had defected, and aside from the deeply hidden Fugaku, the rest were nothing but a pack of incompetent fools.
Even if Konoha had been weakened, relying on Fugaku's Mangekyō Sharingan alone, he probably could not have killed all the endlessly emerging mid- and high-ranking shinobi even if he blinded both eyes.
So, if the future Uchiha Clan were truly forced onto the path of rebellion, Kyosuke would need to think carefully.
At that time, could he rely on his own strength to lead his clan out of that bottomless abyss?
Wind Release: Great Breakthrough. The leading Sand Shinobi had not wanted to cause such a huge commotion, but with his two subordinates still nowhere to be seen, his growing sense of unease left him no choice but to launch a wide-area attack.
After all, fighting an opponent who had activated the Three-Tomoe Sharingan was simply too stifling.
Not only could they not look directly into their opponent's eyes, but every attack they thought had finally landed would ultimately be evaded.
"Let's see how you dodge this time," the Sand Shinobi captain said viciously, signaling to his subordinate.
The other Sand Shinobi nodded and quietly began forming hand seals.
Before long, the fierce winds dispersed. Amid the forest of toppled trees, Fugaku was nowhere to be seen.
Naturally, not only Kyosuke but even the two Sand Shinobi did not believe Fugaku had been defeated so easily.
Sure enough, things unfolded exactly as they had expected.
Not long afterward, Fugaku's battered figure appeared amid a patch of ruins in the distance.
Just as Fugaku was about to form hand seals, a figure descending from above unexpectedly interrupted him.
That figure was the other Sand Shinobi who had yet to make a move.
In his hand, he held a sharp blade composed entirely of "wind."
Wind Release: Wind Blade.
This A-rank Ninjutsu was that Sand Shinobi's trump card.
Using the force generated by his companion's Ninjutsu, he had silently reached the space above Fugaku.
The moment Fugaku revealed himself, he used the Ninjutsu's recoil once more to dive through the air directly at his enemy.
This tactic was the method that had made the two of them famous.
That was why the two of them had stayed behind to deal with the powerful Fugaku while their other companions went to capture the target.
Although the enemy's strength and resilience had exceeded their expectations somewhat, once this move was unleashed, they believed he would surely be unable to withstand it.
That confidence came from their countless experiences of successfully defeating enemies.
Before you continue