Re-cultivating

"How did I end up here?"

Full and content, Gu Qi had been walking aimlessly down the road.

He never expected that while walking, Gu Qi would unconsciously arrive at the entrance of the Hyuga Clan's compound.

"Strange, I ended up here. Could it be because of that little girl from the branch family?"

Gu Qi shook his head, the image of the small, thin girl suddenly appearing in his mind.

"No, no! Three years is a starting point, death penalty is not a loss... Pfft, she's just a child." Gu Qi vigorously shook his head, casting aside the inappropriate thoughts.

Feeling a little guilty, he glanced around. Seeing no one nearby, Gu Qi quickly left the area.

"It's him? Is he looking for me?"

Just as Gu Qi left, the little Hyuga girl he had saved twice inadvertently saw his figure.

She wanted to chase after him but was a little shy. In the end, the girl could only look on in annoyance as Gu Qi's figure disappeared around the corner.

"Lightning Style - Earth Run!"

"Gu Qi, you're amazing, you know ninjutsu!"

A week later, through exploration and learning from ninjutsu scrolls, Gu Qi finally succeeded in learning the Lightning Style ninjutsu taught by Kakashi.

After all, it was his first time learning ninjutsu. Although it was only a C-rank ninjutsu, Gu Qi still spent a week on it.

However, with this experience, Gu Qi believed that learning ninjutsu in the future would be much more efficient.

"Naruto, as long as you train hard, you'll be an excellent ninja in the future," Gu Qi said to Naruto, who was beside him with admiration.

"No, I must keep up with Gu Qi's pace. I'm going back first. I must train hard today."

Gu Qi opened his mouth and watched helplessly as Naruto's figure disappeared before him: "What an impatient guy."

"Forget it, it's getting late. I should head back too."

Packing his things, Gu Qi whistled a tune with a relaxed expression, preparing to leave the forest.

"Bang, bang!"

"Huh?" Gu Qi, who was about to leave, stopped when he heard a sound coming from not far away.

"It seems to be coming from the south. Is someone training here?" Gu Qi muttered to himself.

Out of curiosity, Gu Qi couldn't help but push aside the branches in front of him and walk towards the sound.

"Two people? Is that a Gunbai? I didn't expect to meet someone from the Uchiha Clan here!"

When Gu Qi emerged from the forest, he finally got a clear look at the figures fighting.

"Who's there!"

Just as Gu Qi was trying to get a clear look at their faces, the younger boy, who seemed to be the same age as Gu Qi, appeared to have spotted him.

Without a second thought, he threw a wooden kunai at Gu Qi.

Gu Qi wasn't flustered at all. He calmly tilted his head, dodging the attack.

"Excuse me, I was just curious about who was here. Please forgive me if I disturbed you." Gu Qi picked up the kunai thrown by the other party and threw it back.

The kunai drew a beautiful arc through the air, landing precisely in the open space between the boy's feet and embedding itself in the ground.

"Sasuke, don't be so rash next time. What if you hurt someone?"

The older boy beside the child gently chided the younger one. He then picked up the kunai embedded in the ground and apologized to Gu Qi: "I'm sorry, my brother is young and ignorant. I apologize on his behalf."

Gu Qi couldn't help but look at the older boy more closely. His brother's name was Sasuke, and he was so doting towards him. Gu Qi immediately knew the older boy's identity: Itachi!

However, Gu Qi had already seen too many famous people in this world, so he didn't show much surprise.

"It's fine, children can be ignorant. I'm a magnanimous person, so I won't hold it against him," Gu Qi chuckled.

Sasuke pouted in dissatisfaction: "What do you mean, he's the same age as me!"

Itachi patted Sasuke's head and smiled at Gu Qi: "You're a child from the Hatake Clan, aren't you? Hello, I'm Uchiha Itachi, and this is my brother, Uchiha Sasuke."

"Hatake Gu Qi, Elder of the Hatake Clan," Gu Qi said shamelessly, rubbing his nose.

Itachi chuckled: "Hello, Elder Gu Qi."

"Tch!" Sasuke scoffed dismissively.

Itachi smiled and asked, "Gu Qi-kun, do you often train here?"

Gu Qi didn't hide anything: "Yes, I started training here over two months ago."

"Then, those big trees were broken by Gu Qi, right? I didn't expect Gu Qi-kun to be so powerful," Itachi praised.

Gu Qi sheepishly scratched the back of his head. Being praised by Uchiha Itachi surprised him quite a bit.

"I didn't expect Gu Qi-kun to be shy. What a lovely person," Itachi said, narrowing his eyes.

"Hmph!" Seeing his brother getting along so well with Gu Qi, Sasuke became unhappy.

Seeing Sasuke's jealousy, Itachi rubbed his head to comfort him: "Of course, our Sasuke is also very powerful!"

After comforting Sasuke, Itachi looked at Gu Qi and asked, "Gu Qi, are you heading back?"

Gu Qi nodded, "I've pretty much finished my training and was just about to head back."

Upon hearing this, Itachi reminded him, "Alright then, Gu Qi, be careful on your way."

"Thank you, goodbye!"

After speaking, Gu Qi left without looking back.

Even though the other party was Itachi and Sasuke, for Gu Qi, filling his stomach was more important than anything else.

"Brother, let's go back too!" Sasuke tugged on Itachi's sleeve and said.

"Mm!"

Glancing one last time at Gu Qi's retreating figure, Itachi took Sasuke and left in the opposite direction.

Back home, Gu Qi took out the Electromagnetic Shield technique he had copied onto a scroll and began to study it seriously.

Although Gu Qi had been busy learning ninjutsu these past few days, he hadn't neglected the acquisition of new knowledge.

Over the past week, Gu Qi had already developed some ideas on how to turn the Electromagnetic Shield into a ninjutsu.

What Gu Qi needed to do now was to bring this idea to fruition.

"It's a shame I don't have Chakra Metal, otherwise I could forge equipment to achieve the Electromagnetic Shield," Gu Qi couldn't help but sigh.

Chakra Metal was a type of metal that could efficiently transmit Chakra.

While ordinary kunai and shuriken could also be imbued with Chakra, their loss rate was very high, incomparable to Chakra Metal.

Because of this, Chakra Metal was practically priceless and its price was astronomically high.

With the little money Gu Qi had, he probably couldn't even afford a single scrap of Chakra Metal.

"Sigh!" Since he couldn't buy Chakra Metal, Gu Qi had no choice but to rely on himself to release the Electromagnetic Shield.

Pushing away the distractions in his mind, Gu Qi earnestly studied the scroll.

Although he had already memorized all the technical data for the Electromagnetic Shield when he copied it onto the scroll, Gu Qi still read it carefully.

"Electromagnetic confinement, it sounds simple enough. I didn't expect it to be so difficult to achieve."

As the core of the Electromagnetic Shield, electromagnetic confinement was difficult to achieve without professional equipment, relying solely on intuition.

Therefore, Gu Qi could only use simple detection equipment to continuously adjust the frequency and transmission speed of his Lightning Release Chakra, experimenting bit by bit.

"Sigh, another failure."

Gu Qi looked at the Lightning Release Chakra that had collapsed again and couldn't help but sigh.

Gu Qi had lost count of how many times he had failed. A full week had passed, and he had experimented thousands of times, all ending in failure.

Calming himself, Gu Qi ate a piece of Dried Meat before diving into a new round of experiments.

"Adjusting Chakra frequency, adjusting Chakra transmission speed..."

"Huh? It didn't collapse!?" Gu Qi, who hadn't held out much hope, was surprised to find that the electromagnetic ring in front of him hadn't disappeared.

Quickly clearing his mind, Gu Qi silently memorized the feeling in his heart while using the nearby detector to record the Chakra's frequency this time.

However, maintaining the electromagnetic ring for an extended period consumed a lot of Chakra for Gu Qi at his current level.

Seeing his Chakra about to run out, Gu Qi quickly ate another piece of Dried Meat to continue maintaining the electromagnetic ring.

From evening until the early morning of the next day, Gu Qi managed to maintain the electromagnetic ring in front of him all night, relying on Dried Meat.

With the data parameters from this entire night, Gu Qi believed that the Electromagnetic Shield would be completed soon.

Until the Chakra within his body was completely depleted once more, Gu Qi collapsed onto the ground with a thud.