The Registry

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

Afterward, he prepared breakfast, packed lunch for later, and headed out.

Upon arriving at the academy again, the atmosphere was vastly different from yesterday. The excitement of graduation still lingered, but it was now accompanied by a sense of formality.

Today, they were required to submit their ninja registration forms, which symbolized their official entry into the Konoha ninja system.

The classroom was filled earlier than the day before. Some students were acting as they always did, while others were already wearing their Forehead Protectors.

Their faces beamed with pride and anticipation. Uzumaki Naruto was particularly conspicuous; he stood on top of a desk, gesturing wildly as he showed off his Forehead Protector to those around him, shouting loudly.

"Look at this! I told you I could do it! I'm the man who's going to become Hokage!"

Clearly, he had passed the exam and become a Genin, though it was unclear how he had managed it.

Ning Xue was not surprised by this. He vaguely remembered that in the original story, Naruto had stolen the Scroll of Seals to... but he didn't care about the specifics; the result was that Naruto had succeeded.

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

The form was standard, asking for name, age, clan, and chakra nature.

He filled in Water and Wind. For mastered jutsu, he only listed the Three Basic Jutsu, basic Gentle Fist, and the trivial Water Wave and Wind Blade.

Even so, it still felt a bit too impressive, so he thought for a moment and removed Wind Blade, leaving only Water Wave.

Just as everyone was submitting their forms and chatting, a commotion suddenly broke out at the classroom door.

Oh, it was the photographer.

Ninja registration records required a photo, and the face had to be completely unobstructed.

(Of course, this excluded hair accessories and clan-specific face paint.)

"Students, after you finish filling out your forms, please go to the next classroom in order to have your ninja profile photos taken," Iruka announced as he walked into the room.

Photos? Ning Xue frowned slightly. This was a step he hadn't really considered.

However, he wasn't worried; since he didn't need to remove the headband on his forehead, it meant he wouldn't have to reveal the Caged Bird seal.

The students began to line up for their photos.

The process was routine. Most sat upright in front of the backdrop, leaving behind a portrait of a budding ninja that was either serious or slightly nervous.

Ning Xue looked at his photo and was quite satisfied.

In the picture, the young man had blue clothes and white hair, his white eyes appeared calm, and his handsome face was meticulous. He possessed an air of maturity.

Naturally, many were satisfied with their own photos, which was to be expected.

Except for one person.

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

He claimed it was cool and that it had taken him half an hour to paint, among other things.

This remark made many people's mouths twitch, leaving them speechless.

When Iruka handed these registration forms to the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at them with an indescribable expression.

He opened his mouth, thought for a moment, and decided to call the boy in.

A moment later, Naruto arrived, merely grinning and scratching his head.

Hiruzen picked up the registration form again, looked at Naruto, then back at the form, and gave him a pained look, signaling for him to explain himself.

Receiving the look, Naruto awkwardly scratched his head.

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

"It took me three hours to decide on this one."

"But, tell me, should I say it's artistic, or that I look handsome?"

Naruto gave Sarutobi a confident thumbs-up.

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

Still, he said to Naruto with a blank expression:

"Retake it!"

Back in the classroom, the small incident with Naruto's painted face didn't cause much of a stir.

Once all the paperwork was finished, Iruka announced that they had the day off and were to return to the academy tomorrow morning for team assignments.

The crowd cheered, celebrating the official end of their short time at the Ninja Academy.

Students gathered in small groups, discussing where to go to celebrate or hang out.

A few who weren't particularly close to Ning Xue even tried to invite him along, but he turned them all down.

Ning Xue had no intention of going out to play. He walked straight out of the classroom and left the academy.

He didn't go home, but instead returned to that secluded training ground. Putting on his newly purchased weights, he began his physical training.

First came sprints, shuttle runs, and frog jumps while wearing the weights... every movement became exceptionally difficult, and sweat soon soaked his clothes, but he gritted his teeth and persisted.

"Not enough... it's still far from enough!" He gritted his teeth, continuing to push his physical limits to the edge.

After physical training came chakra control practice. He attempted to extract more chakra while maintaining precision.

But it wasn't long before he hit a wall.

My spiritual energy is far greater than my physical energy... a bottleneck... He panted, leaning against a tree trunk to rest. It seems that simply increasing the physical burden only increases physical energy; trying to train it alongside precision makes it impossible to control.

He realized that this was likely a gradual process. Expecting to make rapid progress was nothing more than a pipe dream.

After resting for a moment, he began practicing Wind Release, attempting to integrate it into his Ice Release.

Just as he was trying to increase the sharpness of the ice needles he had condensed, a voice sounded from behind him.

"I knew you'd be here."

The person who had arrived was none other than Hyuga Neji.

Neji seemed to have just returned from a mission; he wore his Konoha forehead protector, and his clothes were somewhat disheveled.

"You really are hardworking," Neji remarked with a sigh.

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

He could sense that the chakra on Neji was more refined than the last time they met; clearly, he hadn't slacked off on his training either.

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

"Graduated?"

"Yeah. Team assignments are tomorrow."

"Who's your jonin instructor?"

"Don't know yet."

"Congratulations."

Heh, a conversation between two NPCs.

After a moment of silence, Neji was the first to speak again.

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

Ning Xue was slightly taken aback, then nodded and said, "My spiritual energy is far greater than my physical energy, and at the same time, my chakra precision isn't enough, so I end up wasting too much excess chakra when releasing ninjutsu."

Neji pondered for a moment before saying, "I encountered a rogue ninja from the Land of Tea while on a mission recently, and he mentioned a method that might be useful to you."

Ning Xue was surprised to hear this.

"Tell me more."

Seeing that Ning Xue was interested, he continued, "It's about moving beyond external control and attempting to manipulate the flow of chakra more precisely within the body. For example, try stimulating multiple different, unrelated acupoints with chakra simultaneously while maintaining different output intensities."

"It's somewhat similar to our Rotation, which requires the absolute defense formed by releasing chakra from all 360 acupoints of the body at once."

"The principle is similar; both require releasing chakra from multiple acupoints while maintaining a steady output intensity."

A flash of insight lit up Ning Xue's eyes. This was indeed a line of thought he had never tried before! External control versus internal precision manipulation.

"Thank you," Ning Xue said sincerely.

Neji waved his hand. "It's just a method I heard by chance. Perhaps this method will also help us master Rotation; I would have told you even if you hadn't asked."

With that, he turned to leave. "I'm off. I have another mission tomorrow."

Watching Neji's retreating back, Ning Xue took a deep breath and reinvigorated his spirit. He immediately began to attempt the method Neji had mentioned.