Raising Crows "Yamashiro Aoyuu"

"Rejected."

Aoba lay on his bed, his eyes devoid of emotion as he unhesitatingly passed on the first option.

Using the Chip to stimulate growth hormone secretion was somewhat like forcing a plant to grow. It had severe side effects, drained his potential, and caused his growth plates to close early. He only wanted to grow up sooner; there was no need to make such a huge sacrifice.

"As for the second option... that's more troublesome!" Aoba turned over and rolled his blanket into a ball. "A creature with chakra? That thing could practically be used as a summoned beast. And many wild animals with chakra have gained intelligence. They're like monsters—they can even talk."

Then he could only hunt in the Forest of Death, Aoba thought to himself.

It was said that the Forest of Death had been created by the First Hokage's Wood Release. Many of the animals inside had been affected by the First Hokage's lingering chakra and had grown abnormally huge.

They had also become extremely dangerous, which was how the Forest of Death got its name.

And many of the village's summoned beasts had been captured from the Forest of Death.

"This might be worth trying..."

The troublesome part was that it was like antibiotics. Eat too much of it, and resistance would build up, so he had to keep switching things up.

When he first started eating Killer Bee honey, the effects had been astonishing. Not only had he grown taller, but his chakra had also increased dramatically. Now, it was nothing more than candy.

Sigh...

Aoba sat up and scratched his messy hair.

[Re-searching database... Option Three: Obtain a Kekkei Genkai. Analyzing feasibility...]

"A Kekkei Genkai..."

Aoba touched his chin, lightly tapping it with a finger.

His half-baked Chakra Radar activated once more.

There were no Anbu watching him. Ever since the day he had beaten Asuma senseless, the Anbu seemed to have stopped coming.

Of course, they might have simply become more covert, but that possibility was slim. His vague sixth sense had not reacted either.

This "sixth sense" was one of the benefits of having lived two lives. Like old soldiers on the battlefield who were unusually sensitive to even the faintest killing intent, it allowed him to avoid enemy traps.

Aoba formed the Snake hand seal with both hands, and a small fireball appeared above his palm.

[Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique]

It was also the only Fire Release ninjutsu Aoba had mastered. After several improvements using the Chip, he no longer needed to spit it from his mouth. However, without the boost from expelled airflow, the technique's power had plummeted.

But it had also become more controllable, making it easier for him to study Fire Release's nature transformation and shape transformation.

He still had too few Fire Release techniques. Even with the Chip's analysis, progress had been slow.

Besides Fire Release, he also had Earth Release. He possessed dual-nature chakra, something he had tested with chakra paper two years ago.

Although progress with Fire Release was slow, he could still gain something by grinding away at it over time. Earth Release, however, left him at a complete loss. He had no idea where to begin.

Uncle Shinku definitely knew it, and he could probably offer Aoba some guidance.

The trouble was that Aoba needed an extremely "perfect" reason. Chakra nature transformation and shape transformation were advanced ninja knowledge.

They were monopolized knowledge. Even ordinary chunin could not access teachings at that level. For most ninja, knowing the hand seal sequence and being able to cast a technique proficiently was the norm.

Aoba waved his hand and dispelled the fireball.

After washing up, he began preparing breakfast.

Even if his growth was temporarily limited, maintaining proper nutrition was still necessary.

The reason Aoba was so obsessed with "growing up" was not just because he did not want to be treated like a brat. Being a child was troublesome and came with too many restrictions. Buying kunai and Explosive Tags alone required proof of ninja status, or an adult accompanying him and explaining their purpose.

He also wanted to increase the capacity of his "bucket."

The body was the container, and chakra was the water. If the container was not large enough, then even if he mastered forbidden techniques, he would not be able to use them.

With the Chip's assistance, mastering ninjutsu was no problem for him. He did not want to become like the future Sharingan Kakashi—despite being known for copying a thousand techniques, his chakra limitations meant that he had to analyze everything in every battle and could never bear to spend chakra. Netizens everywhere had mocked him as Hatake Fifty-Fifty.

Beyond that, he also needed to solve another issue involving his identity.

The civilian students at the Ninja Academy were still too insignificant. Even after graduating, they would only become ordinary civilian ninja and would have no access to high-level information.

The ninjutsu scrolls left behind by the original owner's parents did not even mention chakra nature transformation or shape transformation, let alone Kekkei Genkai.

Wanting to fuse two chakra nature transformations could not be done through imagination alone.

It was like knowing only the principle that nuclear reactions involved neutrons striking atomic nuclei.

What about the process? What about the method?

The longer he stayed in this world, the more he could feel the suffocating rigidity of its class system. The monopoly over ninjutsu knowledge had reached an outrageous level.

Ordinary civilians wanted to learn ninjutsu? Keep dreaming.

He had visited the village's public library several times. Its shelves were packed with brainwashing material like Inheritance of the Will of Fire, Quotations of the Successive Hokage, and History of Konohagakure, while the rest were worthless biographical novels. As for profound theories involving chakra nature transformation and shape transformation, there was not even a trace of them.

Even the Ninja Academy library had little besides Three Body Technique scrolls worn fuzzy at the edges from being handled so often. The rest taught students how to set traps, recognize coded signals, and find food in the wilderness.

Knowledge was power, and Konohagakure's upper ranks had locked that power in a safe. Only the major ninja clans and the higher-ups possessed the key.

If the source of information could not withstand scrutiny, long-term surveillance was the least of it. Searching memories, sending someone to Root for brainwashing, or putting them on an autopsy table after death were all standard procedures.

"Fine, novels really are all lies."

Aoba sighed, cleared away the dishes, then grabbed the ninja tool pouch on the table and fastened it around his waist.

Before leaving, he grabbed a few handfuls of feed and gave them to the crows in the courtyard.

That was right, he had started raising crows.

The nickname "Yamashiro Aoyuu" was not bad.

Most importantly, it was cool!

Forest of Death.

Passing through a broken gap in the wire fence, the clamor of the village gradually gave way to the chirping of insects and birds.

Massive ancient trees blocked out the sky and sun. Sunlight could only filter through gaps in the leaves in scattered patches, while the air was thick with the mingled scent of rotting leaves and soil.

Aoba darted swiftly between the tree trunks, moving as lightly as a civet cat.

As he used Body Flicker more frequently, the speed at which he activated it grew faster and faster.

"Hm?"

Aoba stopped. With a light tap of his toes against the trunk, he leaped onto a high branch like a weightless feather.

Rumble—

The ground began to shake, and the shrubs ahead flattened to either side as though crushed by a bulldozer.

A huge spherical object spun at high speed, charging forward with unstoppable momentum. Trees along its path exploded into flying splinters when struck, while slightly thinner ones snapped cleanly in half.

"Human Bullet Tank?"

Aoba raised an eyebrow.

There was only one clan in all of Konohagakure that used such a distinctive taijutsu.

The rolling mass finally stopped after crashing into a huge boulder with a dull boom. As the dust settled, a round-bodied boy sat on the ground, dizzy and disoriented, with spirals in his eyes.

"Ow, ow, ow..."

The boy rubbed his head and struggled to climb to his feet. He wore an oversized training uniform, with the character for "food" embroidered on his chest.

The Akimichi Clan.