Chakra!

"I'm fine. I just ran out of strength. I'll be all right after I rest for a while!" Li shook his head slightly, a faint smile appearing on his pale face. He didn't want to worry Kushina.

Seeing how pale Li looked, Kushina felt terribly guilty. This had all happened because of her, so why was Li the one who had to bear the consequences? She felt wronged and deeply sorry to him. With red-rimmed eyes, she crouched in front of him.

"All right, Kushina. I told you, no matter what I do, I'll never regret it. Even if I could choose again, I wouldn't give up on saving you after what happened last night!" Li patted the back of her head and spoke softly.

"Why... why are you so good to me? I'm just... just a girl everyone hates. Why would you go this far for me?" Kushina, who had always been so strong, cried for the first time. Though she made no sound, her tears spoke volumes about her gratitude and guilt.

"Kushina, I..."

Ahem!

At that moment, the Third came over, pipe in hand, and gave Li a thoughtful look. Li was a little annoyed at being interrupted, but he still got to his feet with Kushina's help and bowed slightly to the Third. He still held a grudge over what the Third had done, but he was too weak to resist right now.

"Li, you did well. You look like you've reached your limit. Kushina, help Li go rest for now. We'll take care of things here!" The Third looked at Kushina and spoke with an amiable smile.

"I understand, Third!" Kushina nodded respectfully. She still had a great deal of respect for him. She was simply too young and rather oblivious to see the conflict between the Third and Sunagakure. If she knew the Third had used Li as a pawn, she would probably have confronted him on the spot.

Li said nothing and didn't look at Uchiha Hao or the others. With Kushina supporting him, he left the Training Ground. What happened next had nothing to do with him. Even if Sunagakure wanted to press the matter, they had no grounds to do so. The Third and the others would handle it.

After Kushina helped him home, Uchiha Mikoto and Uchiha Fugaku were already waiting. Both looked anxious, worried about Li. As soon as they saw him being helped inside, looking utterly exhausted, they rushed over and supported him to his room, where they laid him down.

"Li, did they do something to you? Why are you in such bad shape?" Uchiha Mikoto asked, glaring angrily.

"Hmph! The people from Sunagakure are shameless. They actually sent a vicious-looking Chunin to fight Li!" Remembering how aggressively Sunagakure had acted at the Hokage Office Building made Kushina furious all over again.

Uchiha Mikoto and Uchiha Fugaku were both startled. He'd fought a Chunin?

"Li, are you hurt? Let me check!" Uchiha Mikoto reached out anxiously to examine him, but Li caught her hand.

"I'm fine. I just ran out of chakra. You should all go out and let me rest for a while!" Li shook his head slightly. He really was exhausted. His chakra was almost completely depleted, and overusing his Sharingan had left his head spinning.

Since Li had said so, Uchiha Mikoto took Kushina and Uchiha Fugaku out, despite her worry, leaving him in peace.

After the three of them had left, Li let out a quiet breath and entered the System Space. He checked his points. Completing the mission had earned him five thousand points, and killing a Chunin had earned him another two thousand. That made seven thousand, which, added to the three thousand he had left after exchanging for Flash Step, brought him to ten thousand.

"The Three-Tomoe costs exactly ten thousand points, and I have one chance to upgrade a Kekkei Genkai. That means I could evolve it directly into the Mangekyō Sharingan!" Li frowned slightly at the thought and pinched his small frame. In the end, he shook his head. The Mangekyō Sharingan was powerful, but its side effects were far too severe. At six years old, he wouldn't just be unable to fight with it—activating it would drain his chakra in an instant and overwhelm his body. He couldn't handle that yet. Without a Sage Body, it wouldn't increase his strength; it would only become a burden for a long time. It simply wasn't worth it.

Still, growing stronger was what Li wanted most right now. With his reputation as a genius, he would surely face more challenges in the future. To overcome them, he needed overwhelming strength. Ninjutsu? Li dismissed the idea. The high-level techniques required more chakra than he could supply, while the low-level ones didn't interest him. Besides, the Uchiha Clan had far too many techniques in its collection for him to waste points on them. The only technique worth mentioning was the space-time Ninjutsu, Flying Thunder God. It didn't require much chakra to use, and with his elite Genin-level reserves, he could teleport several times in succession. But he already had Flash Step, so Flying Thunder God wouldn't be much use to him.

"I'd better hold on to these ten thousand points for now and decide what to do when I'm stronger!" Li shook his head helplessly, now more eager than ever to increase his chakra reserves.

Time passed quickly. When Li woke again, the sky was already growing light. He blinked groggily, then cleared his head. He must have slept for a long time. He'd gone to bed in the afternoon, and now it was the next morning. Yesterday's battle must have been grueling.

"Hmm? My chakra has actually increased?" Li had just been about to check whether his chakra had recovered when he noticed that his reserves had grown. They were close to breaking through the limit for an elite Genin; he was only one step away from reaching Chunin level.

"Could using up all my chakra each time increase the rate at which I build it back up?" At the thought, Li immediately saw a possible direction for his training. Overall, he didn't lack Ninjutsu. What he lacked was chakra.

But Li wasn't foolish enough to push himself recklessly. Using up his chakra might speed up the rate at which he could build it back up, but chakra was ultimately a combination of physical and spiritual energy. Setting spiritual energy aside, the number of body cells his body could produce each day was limited. Overtraining would leave lasting damage.

"Looks like I'll need to eat more nourishing food from now on to replenish my body's cells!" Li rubbed his chin. Now he understood why shinobi ate more than ordinary people. Extracting chakra every day consumed the body's cells, and replenishing them required eating more. With that thought, an idea came to him. Such nourishing food might be hard for others to get, but for Wenxuan...