Registry

Early the next morning, Ning Xue woke up early to train as usual.

Afterward, he made breakfast and packed lunch for later before heading out.

When he arrived at the school again, the atmosphere was vastly different from yesterday. The excitement of graduation still lingered, but there was now a sense of formality.

Today, they had to submit their ninja registration forms, signifying that they had officially registered within Konoha's ninja system.

The classroom was filled even earlier than yesterday. Some students looked as they usually did, while others had put on Forehead Protectors.

Their faces brimmed with pride and anticipation. Naruto was especially conspicuous, standing atop his desk and wildly gesturing as he showed off his Forehead Protector to everyone around him, shouting loudly.

"See? I told you I could do it! I'm the man who'll become Hokage!"

Apparently, he had somehow passed the exam after all and become a Genin.

Ning Xue was not surprised. He vaguely remembered that, in the original story, Naruto seemed to have done so because he stole the Scroll of Seals... but he did not care about the exact process. The result was that Naruto had succeeded.

He silently walked to his seat, took out his registration form, and began filling it in.

The form contained the usual information: name, age, clan, chakra nature.

He wrote Water and Wind. For the ninjutsu he had mastered, he listed only the Three Basic Jutsu, basic Gentle Fist, and some insignificant techniques such as Water Wave and Wind Blade.

Even so, it still seemed a little too extravagant. After thinking it over, he crossed out Wind Blade and left only Water Wave.

As everyone gradually submitted their forms and chatted among themselves, a commotion suddenly arose at the classroom door.

Oh, the photographer had arrived.

Ninja records required photographs with no obstructions on the face.

(Of course, hair accessories and clan-specific face paint were exceptions.)

"Students, once you have finished your forms, please proceed to the classroom next door in order to have your ninja records photographed," Iruka announced as he entered the classroom.

Photographs? Ning Xue frowned slightly. This was a step he had not paid much attention to.

Still, he did not mind. After all, he did not need to remove the cloth wrapped around his forehead, which meant he would not have to reveal the Caged Bird.

The students began lining up for their photographs.

The process was routine. Most of them sat properly before the backdrop, leaving behind youthful images of fledgling ninjas that were either serious or slightly nervous.

Ning Xue looked at his own photograph and was quite satisfied.

The youth in the picture wore blue, with white hair and pale eyes that carried a hint of calm. His handsome face was impeccably composed, giving him an air of maturity.

Of course, many people were satisfied with their own photographs. That was only natural.

But there was one exception.

Uzumaki Naruto... that idiot had smeared face paint all over himself and struck an exaggerated pose.

He even said it looked cool and that he had spent half an hour painting it, and so on.

That comment made quite a few people's mouths twitch, leaving them with expressions as though they wanted to say something but could not.

When Iruka delivered these ninja registration forms to the Third, Sarutobi Hiruzen wore an indescribable expression when he saw them.

He opened his mouth, thought for a moment, then decided to call the child over.

When Naruto arrived a moment later, he merely smiled and scratched his head.

Hiruzen picked up the registration form again, looked at Naruto, then at the form, and gave Naruto a headache-inducing look that clearly told him to explain himself.

Naruto, receiving that look, awkwardly scratched his head as well.

"I really couldn't decide what expression to make. Haha."

"I spent three whole hours deciding that this was the best one."

"But, well, should I say it's artistic, or should I say I look handsome?"

Naruto gave Sarutobi a thumbs-up with a confident expression.

Sarutobi was not impressed in the slightest and suspected that the face paint was leftover from some time ago.

Still, he said to Naruto expressionlessly,

"Retake it!"

Back in the classroom, the little incident involving Naruto's painted face did not cause much of a stir.

After all the procedures were completed, Iruka announced that they had the day off and were to return to school tomorrow morning for class assignments.

The crowd immediately erupted in cheers, celebrating the official end of their brief Ninja Academy days.

The students gathered in small groups, discussing where to go to celebrate or have fun.

A few people who were not particularly close to Ning Xue even wanted to invite him along, but Ning Xue declined them all.

Ning Xue had no plans to go out for fun. He walked straight out of the classroom and left the school.

He did not go home. Instead, he returned to that secluded training ground. After putting on the weights he had bought, he began physical training.

First came weighted sprints, shuttle runs, frog jumps... Every movement became exceptionally difficult. Sweat soon soaked through his clothes, yet he continued gritting his teeth.

"Not enough... it's still nowhere near enough!" he muttered through clenched teeth, continuing to push his stamina to its limits.

After the physical training came chakra control practice. He tried extracting more chakra while maintaining precision.

But he ran out of steam before long.

"My mental energy far exceeds my physical energy... a bottleneck..." he panted, leaning against a tree trunk to rest. "Simply increasing the burden on my body can only increase physical energy. If I train that alongside precision, I can't control it at all."

He realized this might be a gradual process. Wanting to advance by leaps and bounds was simply wishful thinking.

After resting for a moment, he began practicing Wind Release, trying to incorporate it into Ice Release.

Just as he attempted to make the Ice Needle he had condensed sharper, a voice sounded behind him.

"So you really are here."

The newcomer was Hyuga Neji.

Neji seemed to have just returned from a mission. He wore a Konoha Forehead Protector, and his clothes were somewhat disheveled.

"You really work hard," Neji said with a sigh.

"Aren't you the same, Neji?" Ning Xue replied calmly.

He could sense that Neji's chakra was more condensed than when they had last met. Clearly, Neji had not relaxed his training either.

Neji walked closer, his gaze sweeping over the weights on Ning Xue's legs.

"You graduated?"

"Yeah. Class assignments are tomorrow."

"Who's your Jonin instructor?"

"Still don't know."

"Congratulations."

Heh, what a conversation between two machines.

After a moment of silence, Neji finally spoke first.

"You've hit a bottleneck? How are you training?"

Ning Xue was slightly taken aback, then nodded.

"My mental energy far exceeds my physical energy. At the same time, my chakra precision isn't sufficient. Releasing ninjutsu consumes too much excess chakra."

Neji pondered for a moment. "While carrying out missions recently, I met a wandering ninja from the Land of Tea. He mentioned a method that might be useful to you."

Ning Xue was somewhat surprised to hear that.

"Tell me more."

Seeing Ning Xue's interest, Neji continued.

"It involves controlling chakra not outside the body, but trying to manipulate the flow of chakra more precisely within the body. For example, attempt to use chakra to stimulate multiple different, unrelated acupoints at once while maintaining different levels of output."

"It's somewhat like our Rotation, an absolute defense formed by releasing chakra from all 360 acupoints across the body at the same time."

"The principle is similar. You need to release chakra through multiple acupoints and maintain the output intensity."

A glint flashed in Ning Xue's eyes. This truly was an approach he had never tried before—external control and precise internal manipulation.

"Thank you," Ning Xue said sincerely.

Neji waved a hand. "It's just a method I happened to hear about. Maybe it could also help us master Rotation. Even if you hadn't asked, I would have told you."

With that, he turned to leave. "I'm going. I still have a mission tomorrow."

Watching Neji's departing back, Ning Xue took a deep breath and renewed his spirits. He immediately began trying the method Neji had mentioned.