Uchiha Gen wrote and sketched in a small notebook, beginning to take stock of the various resources he currently possessed.
Fire Release ninjutsu was what he lacked least.
Before reaching the level of jonin-class Nature Transformation, while these different Fire Release techniques did indeed have their distinctions, any ninja who mastered one Fire Release ninjutsu would not be much worse at the others. They shared a great deal in common.
Just like him—after his proficiency in the Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu had been enhanced, he had easily gotten the hang of several other Fire Release ninjutsu as well.
In this regard, he only needed to follow the established path laid out by the Uchiha Clan's powerful predecessors.
After all, when it came to Fire Release, the Uchiha were masters among masters. Even the Sarutobi Clan, who were equally adept at Fire Release, fell somewhat short of the Uchiha Clan in terms of accumulated expertise.
What he needed to make up for lay elsewhere.
Uchiha Gen placed several Ninjutsu Scrolls on the table, arranging them according to his own priorities.
At the very front were two Scrolls and a small booklet. One was the C-rank Ninjutsu Wind Release: Gale Palm, one was the Hell Viewing Technique, and the last bore several large words—Uchiha Style Swordsmanship: Upper Volume.
Below that was a line of smaller text: Compiled in Konoha Year 14.
According to the Great Elder, Uchiha Style Swordsmanship had taken shape over a century ago. During the Warring States Period, Uchiha Izuna, the Uchiha Clan's most outstanding swordsmanship master in a hundred years, had compiled and organized it. Later, in Konoha Year 14, Kagami Uchiha had sorted and classified it once more.
This Upper Volume was meant for Uchiha who had yet to awaken their eyes. Its primary purpose was to build a foundation. The later volumes were intended for Uchiha who had awakened the Sharingan.
Whether one possessed the Sharingan had an enormous impact on an Uchiha's combat style. With their exceptional insight, reaction speed, and genjutsu, the Uchiha Clan's swordsmanship differed greatly from that of other ninja clans.
But that did not mean the Upper Volume was weak in actual combat just because it focused on fundamentals.
Even without the Sharingan, the Upper Volume of Uchiha Style Swordsmanship was considered top-tier swordsmanship in the Ninja World. It was quite powerful and could be practiced normally like any other sword art. It would be more than sufficient even through the jonin stage.
No top expert was truly a perfect all-rounder, but none would have an obvious weakness in any one area either. Even if they did, they would have other means of compensating for that shortcoming.
Otherwise, before they ever became famous, enemies would target their weak point and kill them first.
The more a great ninja clan like the Uchiha, with its long inheritance and endless generations of powerful members, the more it valued the well-rounded development of young ninja. From this, they had developed combat systems proven through countless battles.
Lastly, Uchiha Gen took out two new Ninjutsu Scrolls.
He did not intend to use that green Skill Learning Card on the other techniques.
With his talent and solid foundation, learning C-rank Ninjutsu was not especially difficult.
At age five, Uchiha Itachi had learned the Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu from Fugaku after seeing it once. Second Pillar's talent was a fair bit worse than his brother's, but he was still a genius acknowledged by Kakashi. He could spit sparks after seeing Fugaku demonstrate it once, basically master the technique after training for an afternoon, and even the A-rank ninjutsu Lightning Blade, which involved Lightning Release Nature Transformation, took him only a month before he could use it in actual combat.
Uchiha Gen considered his talent only above average among his classmates. Compared with Sarutobi Enju and Uchiha Inabi, he lagged quite far behind. He was even somewhat inferior to Nara Shikaku and Yamanaka Inoichi. He had mainly surpassed them because of the rewards gained through the system's Gacha Pulls.
But at the very least, he was not bad. Especially in the early stages, when his level was low and the system provided little help, he had entered the elite class through his own talent and hard work. That meant that, in the eyes of those responsible for selecting elite class students, he had the potential to become a jonin.
He had not encountered high-level ninjutsu yet, so he did not know about those for the time being. But given time, inheritance, annotations, and someone to teach him, learning ordinary C-rank Ninjutsu was not particularly difficult for Uchiha Gen.
But some ninjutsu in this world were always exceptions.
For example, Space-Time Ninjutsu. Or Sensory Ninjutsu, Medical Ninjutsu, and Fuinjutsu.
The Flying Thunder God was a typical example. No matter how talented someone was, without the aptitude for it, they simply could not learn it. Sensory Ninjutsu, Medical Ninjutsu, and Fuinjutsu were somewhat less extreme than Space-Time Ninjutsu, but not just anyone had the talent to learn them either.
And this time, what Uchiha Gen had specifically selected from the Clan Vault was a Sensory Ninjutsu with a learning difficulty of C-rank—at least among people talented in Sensory Ninjutsu, its difficulty was considered C-rank.
Actually, Uchiha Gen had originally wanted to learn Medical Ninjutsu to improve his ability to survive.
He also had Haruno Sakura's Character Card. Even though it was only from her time as a Ninja Academy student, Sakura had gone on to become the strongest Medical Ninja besides Tsunade, so her foundation in that area was undoubtedly excellent.
Unfortunately, there was nothing suitable.
At this time, the three disciples of Hiruzen Sarutobi had not yet earned the title of Sannin, and the Medical Ninja system had yet to be established by Tsunade.
In other words, the specialized profession of Medical Ninja did not yet exist. Konoha did indeed have a small number of people capable of Medical Ninjutsu, but aside from Tsunade, most of them were half-baked.
That was because Medical Ninjutsu had yet to form a complete system. Its knowledge was disorganized, and its techniques were scattered.
Only in the future, after Tsunade, the founder of Medical Ninja, used her exceptional understanding of the field to consolidate everything accumulated by her predecessors and establish a complete Medical Ninja system, would Medical Ninja formally take the stage of the Ninja World and play an important role in several Ninja World Wars.
Of course, the Uchiha Clan had also developed its own medical system over centuries of warfare, but its effectiveness certainly paled in comparison to the Medical Ninja system created by Tsunade.
After deciding it did not meet his expectations, Uchiha Gen could only turn his attention to other ninjutsu.
Fuinjutsu was difficult to begin learning and even more difficult to master. Moreover, before reaching a relatively high level, it could not play much of a role in actual combat. Compared to it, Sensory Ninjutsu and Space-Time Ninjutsu were better options.
For Uchiha Gen, the most suitable choices were either Space-Time Ninjutsu or Sensory Ninjutsu.
And the only Space-Time Ninjutsu he could access right now was the Summoning Technique.
The Summoning Technique was not limited to summoning creatures. Ninja tools, puppets, and even corpses could be summoned. Even the forbidden technique Impure World Reincarnation could be classified within the scope of Summoning Technique.
The Uchiha Clan was also skilled at using the Summoning Technique to assist in battle. The most notable was a B-rank summoning technique called Lightning Flash Sword Transformation, which could summon a large number of ninja tools in an instant.
For the Uchiha Clan, who could make ninja tools do all manner of tricks, no ninja were more suited to this technique than them.
The most basic Summoning Technique happened to be C-rank in difficulty. For those with aptitude in this area, it had no real learning difficulty at all. They only needed to meet basic requirements such as chakra control.
"First, I'll see whether I have talent for Space-Time Ninjutsu. If not, I'll use this Skill Learning Card. If I can learn it, then I'll use it directly on Sensory Ninjutsu."
Uchiha Gen spread out a black Scroll. After thinking for a moment, he directly bit through his index finger and wrote his name on the Scroll.
The purpose of this Scroll was to let him form a contract with one of the Ninja Crow flocks raised by the clan.
As long as the contract was signed and he successfully summoned the flock's lead crow, that flock of Ninja Crows would belong to Uchiha Gen from then on—provided he paid for it. Fortunately, the Great Elder had waived the cost for him.
If new Ninja Crows joined in the future, he would only need to smear a little of their blood onto the back of the Scroll.
"Boar—Dog—Rooster—Monkey—Ram."
After writing his name, Uchiha Gen immediately formed hand seals, used the blood remaining on his finger to perform the technique, and slapped his hand onto the ground.
Black markings immediately appeared, followed by a burst of smoke.
More than a dozen crows appeared in Uchiha Gen's house, cawing as they circled through the room.
One especially robust crow with glossy feathers flapped over and landed in front of Uchiha Gen.
Seeing this, a faint smile appeared on Gen's face. He extended his arm, allowing the Ninja Crow to perch on his right forearm, then pulled a packet of jerky from a drawer with his left hand.
The Ninja Crow raised its head and let out a loud "Caw!" The other dozen or so crows also cried out together, landing before Uchiha Gen and lining up on the floor.
Uchiha Gen tore open the jerky package and fed each crow one by one.
This process was mainly meant to close the distance and familiarize the crows with his scent. Afterward, he could simply toss a few packets of food in front of them whenever he fed them.
It seemed he did have some talent for Space-Time Ninjutsu after all.
These Ninja Crows had been specially bred by the Uchiha Clan. They contained a certain amount of chakra, possessed stronger bodies than ordinary birds, could understand human speech, and were familiar with basic tactical commands.
Their combat strength was not particularly impressive. If he wanted them to coordinate with his ninjutsu and genjutsu like Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui did, the summoner would need to train them specifically. The difficulty was no less than mastering a high-difficulty ninjutsu.
There were not many of these Ninja Crows at present. Although they had undergone basic Uchiha Clan training, their greatest use was still fixed-area reconnaissance over medium and long distances.
Paired with this reconnaissance method was knowledge intended for the summoner: discerning information through the volume, frequency, and tone of the crows' calls.
For instance, an enemy's direction, distance, numbers, characteristics, and so on.
After feeding the Ninja Crows, Uchiha Gen finally released the Summoning Technique and took out the final Ninjutsu Scroll.
This was the Sensory Ninjutsu. Its name was nothing special: Chakra Sensory Technique. At medium and close range, it could vaguely sense the chakra signatures around him and determine the number and strength of enemies.
Uchiha Gen slowly placed his hand on the Scroll.
[Skill Learning Card (Green)] used!
One day later.
With the Skill Learning Card's boost, after one day of study, he had basically gotten started with the Chakra Sensory Technique.
With his current sensory ability, once he entered a sensing state, he could only detect an area of roughly ten meters around himself.
To expand that range later, he would either need to continue increasing his proficiency in this Sensory Ninjutsu or simply raise his mental strength and force it through with higher stats.
Morning arrived, and the sky gradually brightened.
After training in ninjutsu for an entire day and resting for the night, Uchiha Gen once again prepared all his equipment and headed to the Ninja Academy.
He had already graduated, so naturally, he was not going there to attend class.
At this time, the day after the Graduation Exam was when newly promoted Genin went to meet the jonin instructors assigned to their teams.
They would also receive their ninja certificates bearing their Ninja Numbers.
"Ninja Number: 005486."
This was Uchiha Gen's Ninja Number.
It meant he was the 5,486th person to graduate from the Ninja Academy.
The Ninja Numbers of classmates such as Sarutobi Enju, Aburame Shino, and Nara Shikaku also began with 54.
It was worth mentioning that a considerable portion of Konoha's ninja had not actually graduated from the Ninja Academy.
The newest batch of graduated Genin had Ninja Numbers in the five-thousands, but that did not mean Konoha only had five thousand ninja.
In fact, the Ninja Academy had very few students in its early days. The first class had only thirty-six students, while all the other Konoha Ninja at the time were trained by their respective clans in their own ways.
For a long period afterward, the situation remained the same. Only later, under the Third Hokage's orders, did the Ninja Academy undergo several expansions and enrollment increases, eventually reaching its current scale. It had gradually become Konoha's mainstream method for training ninja, as well as the only path for commoners to become ninja.
In truth, a large portion of Konoha's ninja had not been trained through the Ninja Academy. They had emerged through bloodline ties, master-disciple relationships, and other connections, together forming this enormous ninja village with over ten thousand ninja.
"Team assignments will now begin."
The person presiding over the assignments was still Muna, the examiner from the previous Chunin Exams.
"Team One: Akimichi Chōza, Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi. Jonin instructor: Sarutobi Biwako."
"Team Two: Aburame Shino, Uchiha Tetsu Inaho, Katsumai Sanae. Jonin instructor: Inuzuka Tsume."
"Team Seven: Sarutobi Enju, Uchiha Gen, Utsuki Ruri. Jonin instructor: Orochimaru."
He had finally heard his own name.
But why was Orochimaru his jonin instructor?
Was this the Butterfly Effect caused by him?
Uchiha Gen only remembered that Orochimaru had once had two disciples. One was Nawaki, the First Hokage's grandson and Tsunade's younger brother, who had stepped on a trap and died on the battlefield three years ago. The other was Mitaraishi Anko, who had not even been born yet.
And this team's lineup...
Uchiha Gen looked at Sarutobi Enju and Utsuki Ruri.
The former was staring at the latter with a foolish grin, apparently delighted to be placed on the same team as the goddess of his dreams.
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