New Student Enrollment

Since he had already completed the enrollment procedures yesterday.

Neji arrived at the Ninja Academy early that morning to attend the entrance ceremony. There were roughly one hundred sixty or seventy students in Neji's year, divided into four classes. Neji was assigned to Class One. With his outstanding entrance test results, he was unquestionably one of the top students.

Of course, that was with Neji holding back. Otherwise, he would not have been merely a top student, but a monster.

Just as the rumors said, the opening ceremony was dull and tedious.

The Third Hokage stood at the podium, and his speech about the Will of Fire had the surrounding students fired up.

But it only made Neji sleepy. Even so, he had to force himself to stay alert so he would not seem out of place. More importantly, he did not want to leave a bad impression on the Third Hokage.

Because he had lacked sufficient Chakra before, he had never practiced the Shadow Clone Technique, the jutsu known in Naruto as a cheat-level technique.

It seemed he would have to arrange time to learn it after returning home. Otherwise, sitting here in the blazing heat listening to these meaningless speeches was truly embarrassing—and having to put on an expression that said he wholeheartedly agreed was even more painful.

The first day of school passed with Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's speech and the class introductions. Plain and unremarkable, dull and tasteless!

It was worth mentioning that Rock Lee and Tenten had both been assigned to Class One, just as expected.

Tenten naturally needed no explanation; her talents in every category were quite good. Rock Lee's placement in Class One was indeed thought-provoking, but it had nothing to do with Neji, and he could not be bothered to look into it.

The moment he returned home, Neji opened the ninjutsu scroll his father had left him and found the Shadow Clone Technique.

The Shadow Clone Technique was a B-rank ninjutsu. In principle, only veteran Chunin or Jonin and above could learn it, but Neji's terrifying Chakra control made up for that.

The hand signs for the Shadow Clone Technique were: Ox—Dog—Dragon—Rat—Dog—Boar—Snake—Tiger. There were eight signs in total, along with the corresponding Chakra flow for each one. Even among B-rank techniques, this was considered fairly difficult to master.

Neji first familiarized himself with the hand signs, then slowly guided his Chakra according to the corresponding flow paths. Finally, he shouted in a cringey manner, "Shadow Clone Technique!"

Then... there was no then! Nothing appeared.

He was too slow to form a complete Chakra flow, causing the technique to fail! That was perfectly normal. Succeeding on the first try would have been abnormal.

After trying several more times, once he had mastered the hand signs and their corresponding Chakra flows, Neji increased his speed. Coordinating the proper Chakra flow, he once again shouted in a cringey manner, "Shadow Clone Technique!"

"Poof..." Amid a cloud of smoke, another Neji appeared beside him. The Shadow Clone Technique had succeeded, while the Chakra in his body was also reduced by half.

Facing a shadow clone that looked exactly like himself was truly a strange feeling.

The shadow clone possessed thoughts as well as an independent personality, and when it dispersed, it could even send its memories back to the original body.

Such a setting was extremely unreasonable, yet it existed right before his eyes. No matter how many doubts Neji had, reality was reality. He could only set those questions aside for now and look for an opportunity to solve the mystery later.

While training, Neji had also established a unit of measurement for Chakra. With a bit of mischievous humor, he named the unit "ka." Naturally, one ka here did not mean the amount of Chakra possessed by one Kakashi.

Rather, it was the amount of Chakra needed to cast the lowest-level Clone Technique.

At present, Neji had approximately twenty ka of usable Chakra in his body, barely reaching the standard of a Genin.

It should be noted that having one ka of Chakra did not mean one could necessarily cast a ninjutsu that consumed one ka of Chakra.

On the contrary, if someone only had one ka of Chakra but insisted on casting a one-ka technique, either the technique would fail and they would suffer backlash, or they would force it to succeed, have all their Chakra drained, and die!

Generally, having five ka of Chakra to cast a one-ka technique was more appropriate.

With only four ka of Chakra, a ninja needed relatively strong Chakra control to cast a one-ka technique.

With only three ka of Chakra, they needed exceptionally powerful Chakra control to cast a one-ka technique.

As for having only two ka or one ka of Chakra, only forbidden techniques or techniques that guaranteed death upon activation could achieve that. As the saying went, squeeze out every last bit of your potential, then march generously toward death!

At present, Neji's limit was six shadow clones. Any more than that would require paying a certain price.

Leaving the shadow clone standing still beside him, Neji wanted to test how long it could remain. He recovered his Chakra nearby, and before long, his Chakra was fully restored. After dinner, he studied some basic knowledge for a while.

The shadow clone, which had also been studying basic knowledge nearby, ran out of Chakra and dispersed with a poof. A stream of memories suddenly surfaced in Neji's mind. The newly received memories were not particularly numerous, but the impact still made Neji feel slightly dizzy. After a brief rest, he adapted.

It seemed that transmigrating souls had strengthened his soul and spirit, also increasing his ability to withstand the impact of returned memories.

However, due to his relatively low Chakra reserves, a shadow clone created with ten ka of Chakra could only last at most five hours.

And that was under the condition that it did not move or use ninjutsu. Otherwise, it would last even less time.

Sigh! It looks like my plan to have a shadow clone attend school for me is dead for the time being. It can't last long enough! Neji thought to himself.

He could only continue playing the role of an elementary school student, obediently listening to the teacher's lessons. The experience was indescribably miserable.