Sleight of Hand

(Chapter 27: Sleight of Hand)

After that, Uchiha Itachi always headed home early after school. His expressions had become more varied, and he even smiled now and then. During the roughly six months he had been at school, Mirai had hardly ever seen him smile.

Mirai kept adding to his training every day. He made slow progress in everything from ninjutsu to taijutsu. He now had 0 Points, earned from a few tests of his abilities and, apart from those, from Uchiha Itachi.

Uchiha Itachi's Friendship with Mirai had now reached 70 Points, earning Mirai a total of 7 Points. After deducting the Points he had spent at the beginning, of his current 0 Points, 5 had come from their Friendship, while the remaining 15 had come from tests of his abilities. However, Mirai hadn't received any more System Shop missions for subsequent tests. Clearly, the system had decided that those tests didn't even count as F-rank difficulty for him.

With this many Points, another 70 would let him unlock the strongest form of the ordinary Sharingan: the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. But even if he had it now, it would only provide a limited boost to his combat strength.

The most notable improvement from the Two-Tomoe Sharingan to the Three-Tomoe Sharingan was its ability to see through things. The Two-Tomoe Sharingan could see through eighty percent of ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, while the Three-Tomoe Sharingan could see through almost ninety percent or more.

It might not seem like much, but that extra ten percent was often the difference between life and death. Still, what good was seeing through an attack if he lacked the ability to respond? It was like seeing a car speeding toward him from ten meters away but being unable to dodge in time. He'd still end up dead. And so Mirai was stuck with the awkward problem of not being strong enough.

At a time like this, the only thing that could really help him was the System Shop. Kekkei Genkai were the fastest way to increase his strength, but even the cheapest one was beyond what Mirai could afford. He could only look through the Martial Arts Pavilion instead.

The Martial Arts Pavilion listed every ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. It had everything from the Naruto anime, and even techniques that had never appeared in it. The selection was enormous.

Techniques ranged from F-rank to SSS-rank. F-rank techniques cost 1 Point, E-rank cost 2, D-rank cost 5, C-rank cost 10, B-rank cost 20, A-rank cost 50, S-rank cost 100, SS-rank cost 200, and SSS-rank cost 500.

Seeing this, Mirai finally understood why those rich players were so powerful. He had to work himself to the bone doing missions to earn Points, while the rich could just buy whatever they wanted. The road to world domination was still a long one.

Naturally, Mirai started by looking at the B-rank techniques. Higher-ranked techniques were obviously more powerful—that was only common sense. The ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu he saw were all excellent and quite powerful, but for him, they would only be icing on the cake. What he needed was a lifeline; the icing's value was simply too limited.

Mirai then started looking at the C-rank techniques. Their power was a little lower than the B-rank ones, but even the stronger techniques were still just icing on the cake. The weaker ones were even less useful. He could learn more of them, but quality still mattered more than quantity. This was especially true for a ninja. Uchiha Itachi was a genius, and ninjutsu and genjutsu were his specialties. Even his taijutsu, which was comparatively weaker, was only weaker compared with people like Might Guy. His taijutsu was still no worse than that of other Jonin.

Uchiha Itachi was famous for his ninjutsu and genjutsu, but the attack that truly decided a fight wasn't either of those. It was his unpredictable Kunai-throwing technique. Even Nagato, who possessed the Rinnegan, treated it as a serious threat. No one could match Uchiha Itachi in that particular skill.

Mirai went through everything from B-rank to D-rank, looking over the techniques several times in case he'd missed anything important. But none of them would help him, and he felt a little disappointed.

He didn't expect much from the E-rank techniques either, since those were all the basic techniques taught at school, like the Clone Technique, the Substitution Technique, and the Shuriken Shadow Clone. They were very useful in a ninja battle, and using them well was what truly determined a Jonin's strength.

With no expectations at all, Mirai tapped the F-rank section. There were no ninjutsu or genjutsu at F-rank, just a few simple techniques, like Taijutsu: Punch and Taijutsu: Kick. Seeing them, Mirai felt disappointed and prepared to close the System Shop.

But just as he was about to close it, Mirai noticed a strange name. He stopped and looked at the last taijutsu technique on the list.

"Taijutsu: Sleight of Hand. As the name suggests, this technique gives you a pair of hands as swift as lightning. The higher your level, the faster your hands become. At the highest level, you can even steal the underwear of women walking toward you without them noticing. It's mainly used by thieves and perverts."

Uh, that description was really something. Was he that kind of person? Well, perhaps he could try it someday—just to confirm that the System Shop wasn't selling fakes. A righteous man like him would never do something like that out of selfish desire.

Of course, that wasn't what Mirai cared about. He wasn't the sort of man who'd waste Points on something so pointless. What interested him was something else.

If it gave him hands as swift as lightning, that meant it made his hands incredibly fast, right? As everyone knew, ninjutsu required Hand Seals. The more powerful the technique, the more complicated its seals. Destructive techniques above B-rank almost all required around thirty seals.

What did thirty seals mean? If someone had a fast seal speed of five per second, it would take about six seconds to finish all thirty. During those six seconds, they'd have almost no way to attack. In a ninja battle, especially one between Jonin, even 0.1 seconds could decide life or death. Six seconds was practically asking to be killed, which was why battles between Jonin tended to be simpler and more violent.

The F-rank technique cost only 1 Point. Points were hard to come by, but losing just one wouldn't hurt too much, so Mirai clicked to learn it.

[ Ding—! The host purchased the F-rank Taijutsu: Sleight of Hand, consuming 1 Point! Friendly reminder: purchasing level two Sleight of Hand requires 2 Points! ]