Early the next morning, Neji arrived at his classroom with an enormous backpack on his back. Naturally, he drew some strange looks along the way. After all, it was rare for a six- or seven-year-old child to carry such a huge backpack, so attracting attention was only normal.
Sitting at his desk, Neji took out the books from his backpack one by one. They covered all six years of theoretical knowledge at the Ninja Academy: Konoha History Volumes 1, 2, and 3; Introduction to Ninja; Ideology and Politics; Will of Fire; Kunai Throwing Techniques; Wilderness Survival Guide; and so on, totaling fifty or sixty books.
Since it was still early, there were not many people in the classroom. However, as class time approached, more and more students entered. Seeing the pile of books on Neji's desk, they wore strange expressions, and some even mocked him aloud. Neji merely glanced at them. They were just brats, so he ignored them outright.
Neji picked up a book and began reading on his own. If he had not wanted to keep a low profile, he would have made several Shadow Clones to study alongside him. Even with only his main body reading, though, his speed was still quite fast. Most of these books only required memorization and did not need much thought to understand, making them simple enough for Neji, with his powerful memory and absurdly sharp perception.
Before long, the class bell rang, and their homeroom teacher entered the classroom. She was an ordinary Chunin from the Sarutobi Clan named Asuma Sarutobi. She was not much of a talker and simply introduced the curriculum arrangements for the future.
The courses were broadly divided into theory, ideology, and practical classes. Theory and ideology would take priority during the first three years, while practical classes would take priority during the last three. Teacher Asuma did not elaborate further, merely saying, "You'll find out later," before beginning the day's first lesson: Konoha History 1.
The lesson was boring, but Neji did not care. He was not listening at all, instead reading on his own in the back. Yes, he had chosen a seat in the last row precisely because he did not want to draw the attention of the teacher or his classmates. Unfortunately, Rock Lee was seated beside him, and Rock Lee was listening quite seriously.
By the end of the first day of classes, Neji had already finished reading and memorizing three books. At this rate, he estimated that he could memorize all six years' worth of theory and ideology courses within a month.
Over the past year, with high-energy food, medicinal baths, and relentless training, his physical foundation had gained a certain degree of strength. During that time, Neji had restrained himself when extracting chakra, all to avoid burdening his body and damaging his foundation. Now, however, he could speed up his chakra extraction somewhat and strive to raise it to 60 cards within a year. In his second year, he would reach over 100 cards, the level of a Chunin. By then, he would barely have some ability to protect himself.
His plan to obtain the Akimichi Clan's secret technique for rapidly digesting food and absorbing its energy could begin as well. Sneaking into the Akimichi Clan's territory to steal it was obviously impossible. Going to their doorstep and asking for it outright was even less feasible. It would already be fortunate if he was not thrown out as a lunatic.
But Neji was not worried. Over the past year, as his basic medical knowledge had steadily accumulated, he still could not diagnose illnesses or save people, but his understanding of the human body had reached a very high level. With the Byakugan, he could perfectly combine theory and practice. Once again, he could not help marveling that the Byakugan was truly an incredible tool for research.
After school, Neji did not rush home. Instead, he found a relatively high, sparsely populated spot not too far from the Akimichi Clan and sat down. Activating his Byakugan, he stared intently at the Akimichi Clan's fat members, observing the flow of chakra within their bodies!
For an entire week, Neji meditated in that spot after school. People passed through the area from time to time, but since Neji was not doing anything out of line and wore a hood, ordinary people could not tell that his Byakugan was active. Thus, he did not attract any onlookers or discussion.
Over that week, Neji observed roughly forty or fifty Akimichi clan members. He used a notebook to label each of them separately and drew a diagram of their chakra flow beneath every entry.
When normal ninja were not using ninjutsu, their chakra generally remained still in the Dantian area inside their bodies. When they needed to use ninjutsu, they would draw chakra from the Dantian and employ it.
The Akimichi Clan members were different. Whether they were eating, sleeping, walking, or doing anything else, there was always a stream of chakra circulating around their stomachs. The circulation varied in intensity. By comparing the chakra flow paths of nearly fifty people, Neji was basically certain that the Akimichi Clan's secret method for rapidly digesting food was related to that circulating chakra.
After reaching his conclusion, Neji left the high ground and returned home. He ordered a large amount of high-energy food and ate all of it. Then, inside his body, he silently began circulating chakra according to the paths used by the Akimichi Clan. It took only half an hour for him to go from clumsy to proficient. As his chakra circulated, warmth spread through his body, especially in his stomach. It constantly writhed, accelerating the digestion and breakdown of the food inside. The food's energy was extracted faster and more efficiently. If that energy was not rapidly consumed, it would be stored in his body as fat. At that point, Neji would become Fat Neji.
The Akimichi Clan possessed another secret technique that could extract the energy stored in body fat again. Moreover, most of their members were rather lazy, and most did not mind becoming fat. After breaking down the energy in their bodies, they simply let it turn into fat and remain stored there.
Neji could not do that. First, he had not yet obtained the secret technique for extracting energy from fat. Second, he preferred to turn the extracted energy into chakra or use it to strengthen his body rather than store it as fat. Third, he rather disliked the idea of becoming fat!
Once the food in his body was mostly digested and his energy was full, Neji accelerated his chakra refining and trained his body even more intensely. After nearly three hours of exertion, he finally consumed the excess energy in his body. His chakra had directly increased by 0.2 cards, and his body had also been strengthened to a certain extent.
This secret technique is even more useful than I calculated. At this rate, if I extract chakra and train twice a day, barring any accidents, I can reach the 100-card chakra standard of an ordinary Chunin in two hundred days.
But another problem arose. The food he had just consumed was not a normal meal! It was five times the amount of an ordinary meal. In other words, he would need to consume ten times his usual food each day, costing twelve thousand ryo a day. Once again, he thanked his father for the inheritance left to him. Otherwise, with Neji's six-year-old body, it would truly be difficult to earn money for training.
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