2 Years

Neji immersed himself in his busy training, and before he knew it, two months had passed!

The construction crew had done a decent job as well, completing the basement renovations on schedule. After inspecting it, Neji was fairly satisfied with the results. There had been no major setbacks, and after paying the remaining balance, he moved back into his own home.

The custom laboratory equipment also arrived one after another, and Neji placed each piece in the basement. With that, his research work began to get on track.

Every day, Neji assigned two Shadow Clones to the basement to test the functions and properties of various materials and record the results. He focused especially on the characteristics of different plants. In Neji's understanding, the Naruto World had an abundance of plant life, but few plants were used by people, and even fewer were made into medicinal herbs.

Neji was quite interested in this. He wanted to see whether the plants of the Naruto World, like those from his previous world, included many that could cure illnesses and save lives, as well as highly poisonous ones that could harm people.

His priority was finding substances that could dissolve and repair gene chains, helping him advance the Gene Completion Plan.

Experiments, chakra extraction, school, taijutsu training, research into the Eight Trigrams Formation, accumulating knowledge, and researching ninjutsu—these would be Neji's priorities for some time to come. Outwardly, he continued to maintain the image of a low-key yet talented student. Before he had fully grown stronger, he was determined not to provoke trouble on his own.

Just like that, more than two years passed in a flash. Neji was now over nine years old and in his third year at the Ninja Academy.

Having firmly established himself as the top student of his grade, he remained fairly low-key during that time. Occasionally, he would pass by the lower-grade classrooms to take a look at the two Children of Prophecy—Naruto and Sasuke. Neji still had not decided how to deal with them, but if he wanted to carry out the Tailed Beast Collection Plan, one of his major schemes, conflict with Naruto would be unavoidable. He could only consider that matter later.

The chakra within Neji's body had already reached 890 cards, surpassing the 700-card standard for a Special Jonin. He was not far from the 1,000-card standard of a true Jonin either. He could be considered to have some fighting ability now.

His Gentle Fist training had reached a state of mastery, and his research into the Eight Trigrams Formation had also produced modest results. However, since he had never had an opportunity for actual combat, Neji had no way to determine exactly how strong he currently was. It seemed practical combat training needed to be put on the agenda. He could not become a ninja who ranked first in theory but was useless in real combat.

During those two years, Neji had found time to test his elemental affinities. They were wind and lightning, both quite good attributes.

As his chakra reserves increased, Neji could now use the Rasengan proficiently. He could form small Rasengan whenever he wanted, but he still had to be more careful when forming larger ones. As for the more advanced Wind Style: Rasenshuriken, he could not train it for the time being because he had not mastered Senjutsu.

He had not touched Kakashi's Chidori yet, but he had already worked out the Lightning Style Body Stimulation Method. With Neji's terrifying chakra control assisting him, he slowly experimented with using Lightning Release to stimulate his body. Eventually finding the best method had not been difficult, though suffering a little along the way had been unavoidable.

Neji had currently adjusted the weights in his training clothes to 1,000 kilograms. It was fine during the day, since he constantly used chakra to control the weight, but his bed suffered at night. He had accidentally crushed five beds already.

Neji had tested it before. Without using Lightning Release to stimulate his body, a single punch could deliver 2,000 kilograms of force. After Lightning Release stimulation, it could reach 4,000 kilograms. Neji could easily break a large tree, but compared to Tsunade's monstrous strength—where a casual punch could smash out a huge crater and a kick could carve a trench—he was still far behind. He was even less comparable to Might Guy with more than Five Gates opened.

Speaking of Might Guy, at first Neji had wanted to find an opportunity to learn the Eight Gates from him. Later, after recalling the original story, he realized that the Eight Gates were nothing more than forcibly using chakra to break through the: Gate of Opening, Gate of Healing, Gate of Life, Gate of Pain, Gate of Limit, Gate of View, Gate of Wonder, and Gate of Death—the "Eight Gates."

When he had been learning Gentle Fist, Neji had already opened most of the acupoints in his body in order to more conveniently discharge chakra from within his body. This included the first gate of the Eight Gates, the Gate of Opening. As for the remaining seven gates, it was merely a matter of how much chakra he used and whether his body could withstand it. Neji assessed his current physical condition and estimated that he could barely withstand opening the first Four Gates. If he forcibly opened the fifth gate, he would be seriously injured. If he opened the sixth gate, he would definitely die.

Might Guy, when he had been able to open all Eight Gates, probably possessed the force of tens of thousands of jin in a single punch even in his normal state. In the Eight Gates state, he had the power to alter terrain and landscapes.

Therefore, Neji had not gone to learn from Might Guy. Since he was still young, he had not deliberately tried to force open the Eight Gates either.

As for the ninjutsu Neji coveted most, they were naturally the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God and Obito's Kamui. Those two space-time techniques were practically cheats, but for now, Neji could only think about them.

All in all, he had undergone a qualitative improvement over the past two years. With the Shadow Clones at the Ninja Academy serving as cover, he had not attracted the attention of anyone watchful.

In the laboratory, there were already promising leads on gene-decomposing substances. All that remained was clinical testing. However, he was still completely in the dark regarding gene-splicing materials. There was no rushing such things; he would continue exploring.

After dismissing all his Shadow Clones, Neji adjusted his condition and created a brand-new Shadow Clone. A fresh Shadow Clone with more than 400 cards of chakra could theoretically exist for over a month. Accounting for accidents, maintaining it for more than ten days would not be a problem. Neji planned to have the Shadow Clone act as cover while he left the village himself to prepare for certain plans.

Early the next morning, Neji blended into the flow of people entering and leaving Konoha and quietly departed from the village. It was also his first time seeing the scenery outside the village, and he felt a slight thrill in his heart!