Devil Fruit Ascended Edition

After reading the detailed analysis of himself, Hyuga Matsuba opened his backpack—though he already knew roughly what was inside without needing to check.

He took a brief look. The backpack wasn't much different from a game inventory, except he hadn't yet tested how much storage space each slot actually held, so that remained unclear.

But those were secondary. The real surprise was a compensation gift pack inside the backpack—an unexpected gain.

"Could it be that the system feels guilty for taking so long to update?" Hyuga Tatsumi couldn't guess the system's intentions.

Still, Hyuga Matsuba summoned the system. Its hit-or-miss dialogue function was far too unreliable, and now that the gift pack was in hand, he could definitely open it.

He clicked on the gift pack. A blinding golden light burst forth, its intense rays forcing Hyuga Matsuba to shut his eyes.

"Why is this light so damn bright all of a sudden? If it blinds my Tenseigan, how am I supposed to keep up my idol image? With such a big show, what kind of treasure is this? If it's some junk like a Jianbing Guozi or a little wooden stick, I'm going to beat this system up."

Hyuga Matsuba's eyes were dry and stinging. The moment the strong light shot out, a sharp pain hit his eyes, making him extremely uncomfortable.

After finally managing to open his eyes, Hyuga Matsuba eagerly looked at his backpack to see what the reward was. Sure enough, he found three new items inside.

The first thing he spotted was a Devil Fruit. This fruit was yellow, with some indescribable, patternless markings.

Discovering he'd obtained this Devil Fruit, Hyuga Matsuba felt a wave of hesitation.

This yellow fruit indeed held great power, but like other Devil Fruits, it came with a glaring weakness alongside its obvious advantages—that was the reason for his indecision.

After a moment of deliberation, Hyuga Matsuba finally made up his mind. "Whatever, I'll open it first. If it's a decent fruit, I'll eat it. If it's useless, I'll just treat it as picking up trash."

He opened the backpack again, intending to open this newly acquired Devil Fruit. As his hand brushed over the fruit, a description of the item appeared beside it—he had to admit, this was one of the system's strengths.

Glint-Glint Fruit (Top-Tier Version): This fruit has been upgraded and optimized by the system. Its weaknesses have been improved to be less pronounced, while its attack power has been greatly enhanced. Attack potency is significantly increased, and compatibility has been raised to allow simultaneous use with other Devil Fruits without any side effects.

Looking at it this way, this top-tier upgraded fruit seemed to have no downsides and could boost his abilities. By now, Hyuga Matsuba had no more hesitation and immediately chose to consume it.

As the fruit was swallowed, Hyuga Matsuba briefly convulsed. After a struggle, the fruit was fully ingested.

"This thing tastes absolutely disgusting. I must have had water in my brain to forget about this." Hyuga Matsuba couldn't take it anymore. He quickly exited the system and grabbed a bottle of water to drink.

The taste and texture were beyond words. It took Hyuga Matsuba a long while to recover from the fruit's awful flavor.

However, Hyuga Matsuba hadn't looked closely enough. In the item description the system had shown earlier, there was another line of text.

Note: The system's upgrades and improvements only apply to the fruit's effects and compatibility. The taste has not been improved, and may even have increased the fruit's sourness and bitterness to some extent.

But Hyuga Matsuba had been too excited at the time to scrutinize it thoroughly.

Even if he had seen the note, he still would have consumed it without hesitation—after all, such a small matter was nothing.

Now, Hyuga Matsuba had already forgotten the Devil Fruit's taste and began examining his changes. His hand had started to flicker, occasionally flashing with a golden light.

"It said it was so powerful, but is it just for show? Forget it, I probably just ate it, and the fruit hasn't taken effect yet. I'm not old enough either, so this state is probably pretty good."

Hyuga Matsuba started carefully observing the light on his fingers, comforting himself with optimism. If he'd eaten it and immediately gained a huge boost, pulling off moves he couldn't before, that would have been the real surprise.

"Regardless, this Glint-Glint Fruit seems pretty impressive. It's definitely a treasure of a fruit."

"Now that I've eaten it, and it's been upgraded by the system, I'm definitely way stronger than that yellow monkey."

Hyuga Matsuba still had two items he hadn't taken out. This time, instead of re-entering the system, he chose to pull them directly from the backpack.

These two items weren't as useful as the Devil Fruit. One was the Six Powers, and the other was a Flash Bomb. Neither was particularly significant for Hyuga Matsuba at his current stage.

The Six Powers consisted of techniques like Shigan, Tekkai, and Geppo. Just looking at the components, they had some appeal—there were even abilities like Life Return among them.

Not only was there the Naruto World, but also the Pirate World. In that world, most techniques pushed beyond human limits. Even if they weren't used often or early on, their powerful effects couldn't be underestimated.

If these Pirate World techniques were applied to the Naruto World, they'd be a whole different story. They'd at least count as high-level abilities. Right now, Hyuga Matsuba wasn't too concerned with flashy moves; his priority was still training his physical fitness.

In this Naruto World, methods for training the body were few and clumsy, with slow results. Compared to the Pirate World's methods, it was like comparing heaven and earth.

For this reason alone, people in the Pirate World generally had much higher physical constitutions—something the Naruto World could only dream of. Even a famous figure like Madara Uchiha from the Naruto World would have no chance of winning in a deathmatch against a Pirate World Marine Admiral.

One reason for this disparity was that techniques in the Naruto World all relied on chakra, while in the Pirate World, techniques were mainly powered by physical stamina. The difference was stark—a clear sign of different worlds.

Still, there were similarities between the two worlds. For example, both had taijutsu, but due to various factors, its expression differed. In the Pirate World, taijutsu relied entirely on physical stamina.

In the Naruto World, taijutsu also couldn't do without chakra; it had to be based on chakra to be used.

Analyzing it this way, the Six Powers still had their uses. At the very least, they were a big help to Hyuga Matsuba now. Conqueror's Haki and Armament Haki alone were enough to get his heart racing.

"How about I try my Chakra Refinement Technique now and see if it works? Maybe I'll actually refine some chakra."

Looking at the Chakra Refinement Technique in his hands, Hyuga Matsuba felt another wave of hesitation. After spending so long in this Naruto World, he was finally getting his hands on this treasure.

He straightened his attitude, clearing his mind of all distractions. Focusing on the chakra refinement method, he began to prepare.

Chakra is only produced when a person's spirit and physical energy are perfectly fused together, making it quite rare.

However, when Hyuga Matsuba had crossed over, he'd undergone the system's refinement and upgrade. Both his bloodline and abilities were a cut above others, making him a standout in this Naruto World.

After briefly absorbing the refinement method, Hyuga Matsuba's energy began to change. Strands of power were drawn from countless cells in his body, coalescing and expanding outward.

When he saw the successfully refined chakra, Hyuga Matsuba's heart surged with excitement. He immediately continued the refinement process.

The blessing of the Sage Body gave Hyuga Matsuba a clear advantage. Extracting chakra consumed a huge amount of energy, but his special physique allowed the drained energy to recover quickly. This meant Hyuga Matsuba's energy was practically endless, so he could refine an infinite amount of chakra. After a long night, the chakra had changed considerably.

Still, it was his first time, and he lacked experience. After a night of hard work, Hyuga Matsuba finally couldn't hold on. His eyelids felt unbearably heavy—he needed to go meet the Sandman immediately.

That was no surprise. He'd spent the whole previous day training his body, so he hadn't rested properly. Then he'd worked through the night—such high-intensity labor was hard for anyone to endure.

In this Naruto World, chakra extraction was also different. Perhaps in some fantasy or xianxia worlds, a night of closed-door cultivation would boost one's abilities and leave them refreshed. But in this world, it was the opposite—it was an extremely exhausting task.

Chakra is, in essence, the fusion of spiritual energy and physical energy, so extracting it is no easy task.

After a night of effort, Hyuga Matsuba now had little strength left in his body, and his spirit was utterly exhausted. Fortunately, having crossed over from another world, his mind was exceptionally strong—otherwise, he would have already passed out by now.

"This is what they call learning from a mistake. Next time, I won't push myself this hard. It nearly killed me," Hyuga Matsuba muttered, lying limply on his bed, unwilling to do anything.

"But I still need to eat." Hyuga Matsuba forced himself up, wobbling as he prepared a meal to replenish his energy.

This morning's breakfast was especially lavish, enough for two people, but Hyuga Matsuba wolfed it down in one go.

He was simply too hungry. Refining chakra was no easy labor.