Simply being an Uchiha, and already having awakened his Sharingan, was enough to make Uchiha Sora a protected asset of the village.
Kakashi had stayed near Uchiha Sora for the past few days.
He was keeping an eye on him from a distance.
Now that Uchiha Sora had gone out, Kakashi hadn't followed only because the Hokage had instructed him not to.
Even so, he still felt a little uneasy.
"This kid knows he could learn from me, and there's a good chance I'd teach him Chidori. But he still doesn't come?"
Kakashi couldn't figure Uchiha Sora out.
After a moment, he shook his head and casually pulled Icha Icha Paradise from his pocket.
"Forget it. One less person means less trouble for me."
And so, everyone in the village taking part in the exam made the most of the half-month they had, to one degree or another.
Some went out to train, while others stayed home to learn from their elders.
In short, they were all improving.
Meanwhile, in a small village on the outskirts of Konoha.
It was within Konoha's jurisdiction, and technically part of the village.
There were hardly any ninja here, though. The locals usually made their living growing wheat.
In short, it was a very poor place.
But bandits had recently started causing trouble in this backwater, making life miserable for everyone.
At that moment, Uchiha Sora was sitting lazily on a rock at the entrance to the village.
He bought a handful of shiny brass-colored bullet casings from the shop.
Then he filled them with chakra.
With a quick gesture, a brand-new, orange-yellow Gatling Gun appeared in his hands.
Uchiha Sora braced it against one arm, took aim at a brown bear in the distant woods, and pulled the trigger!
A rapid string of thunderous blasts rang out. A hail of bullets tore straight through the bear.
At the same time, a system notification sounded in Uchiha Sora's ear.
"Ding! Congratulations, host! You have killed a beast. You have received 120 bullets and 200 coins!"
Uchiha Sora smiled faintly and stored the 120 bullets that had appeared before him in his space.
He had repeated this same routine several times over the past few days.
He had already wiped out all the bandits.
By now, he had collected over a thousand bullets through his missions.
The reason he hadn't left yet was that he'd noticed wild beasts roaming the area.
Every time he killed one, a beast could count as a Genin.
So the rewards were pretty good.
Uchiha Sora planned to stay here for a few more days.
Meanwhile, he had also used chakra to create over twelve thousand bullets.
Combined with the two thousand he already had, Uchiha Sora could now keep firing for several minutes.
However, Uchiha Sora knew his enemy was Orochimaru.
This still wasn't enough.
So, after the sun had climbed high in the sky, Uchiha Sora turned and headed back to the small village behind him.
He found Doctor Wang, who usually went up the mountain to gather firewood.
"Old Wang, do you have any more of those stones? If you do, I'll trade you for some."
Over the past few days, Uchiha Sora had grown quite familiar with the villagers after helping them wipe out the bandits.
Doctor Wang traveled around a lot and was a well-known trader in the village. He gathered firewood and sold things on the side.
Not long ago, Uchiha Sora had bought a good amount of sulfuric acid and saltpeter from him.
Now, Uchiha Sora wanted to buy some more and see if he could gather enough materials to make a few grenades.
"I do! When you said you wanted that yellow mineral, I got a few dozen pounds from another trader last night. I'll just give it all to you!"
Uchiha Sora hurriedly shook his head.
"That won't do. I still have to pay you. Take these points; you can exchange them for plenty of good things in the village."
To his surprise, Doctor Wang refused outright.
"No, young man. You saved our whole village before. We should be the ones rewarding you."
"And these past few days, you've helped us clear out all sorts of monsters in the nearby mountains, and even killed that nasty brown bear. You've solved a lot of problems for us. They're just a few stones; they're not worth anything!"
Seeing that he couldn't talk Doctor Wang out of it, Uchiha Sora nodded and accepted.
Afterward, he received more than twenty pounds of potassium sulfate, along with plenty of similar materials.
Uchiha Sora took it all and headed straight for a small cave outside the village.
He planned to make some weapons on the spot.
"Ordinary weapons won't be enough against Orochimaru. I've got a Gatling Gun with over ten thousand bullets now, but it's still not enough."
"The Human Rocket Launcher is pretty good too, but Orochimaru's already been caught off guard by it once. He'll probably learn from his mistake and be on guard this time, so I should make a few grenades."
"Then I should make some armor. What would work?"
As Uchiha Sora thought, his hands kept moving. Before long, he had made several grenades.
They were all fragmentation grenades.
He'd bought the casings from the system shop for a few dozen coins.
He filled some with gunpowder and others with chakra. Either way, they packed a punch.
Just as Uchiha Sora was thinking, his eyes suddenly lit up.
"Why not make a little tank with my bare hands? I've got the firepower now; what I'm missing is defense."
"But a tank would require much more advanced technology. I can't build one in a short time."
"I should check the shop and see if there are any good jutsu!"
Uchiha Sora slapped his thigh. He'd almost forgotten about the jutsu in the shop.
There were lots of jutsu in the shop. Many of them were disguised as jutsu, but there were still high-level ones like the Human Rocket Launcher.
Before, his technology level had been too low, so there wasn't much he could buy.
Now that he'd unlocked a higher level, he should be able to get something good.
So, Uchiha Sora finished making all the bullets first.
He also made over three hundred grenades.
Only then did he open the shop.
He soon found the jutsu section.
One look was all it took for him to spot an incredible jutsu.
"Nuclear Fist! Just as the name suggests, you create nuclear energy with your bare hands, convert chakra into nuclear energy, and unleash a devastating punch!"
"And it's cheap, costing only around thirty coins!"
Uchiha Sora's mouth fell open.
Could he really already work with nuclear energy?
But as Uchiha Sora kept reading, his expression turned grim.
"Nuclear Fist. Effective radius: within three kilometers. Range: two meters..."
Uchiha Sora was utterly speechless.
This was a surefire way to take himself out along with his enemy.
The range was shorter than the blast radius.
Still, Uchiha Sora thought it might be worth learning.
For one thing, once he mastered it, he could use his control over nuclear energy.
He could use it to create the first Nuke of his very own.
What boy didn't want to build his own Nuke?
Uchiha Sora was immediately thrilled.
Before you continue