Upgrade

The moonlight shone bright, and the dead of night was silent.

Sasuke sat cross-legged in the back playground of the Ninja Academy, slowly opening his eyes.

He rose to his full height and swept a hand across his waist.

The next moment.

A scroll as thick as a forearm appeared in his hand.

"Release!"

With a simple change of hand seals.

Poof!

As a puff of white smoke dissipated, a ninja sword emerged in response!

"As light as a breeze, returning to simplicity—it truly is no ordinary object!..."

Sasuke sighed as he stroked the blade of the Sword of Indra.

At this moment, the Sword of Indra, which had previously been sharp and imposing, had transformed into an extremely inconspicuous ninja sword.

Its luster was dull, revealing no edge.

At a glance, it looked like a piece of scrap metal, even inferior to a common ninja sword, completely unremarkable.

However, this was exactly what satisfied Sasuke.

After all, he was now someone carrying a great treasure.

His current status was special.

To avoid any unnecessary trouble, it was better to play it safe and stay low-profile until he left the "newbie village"...

As he thought this.

Suddenly, a system interface popped up before Sasuke's eyes.

"This is..."

Before Sasuke could react to what was happening.

He heard the system prompt:

[Congratulations to the host, achievement unlocked: [Subjugate Six Paths Ninja Tool]]

[Your level has now increased to: Level 8]

[Note: Sword of Indra: Indestructible and unbreakable, it is a ninja sword with immense potential and room for growth.]

As the system prompt ended, Sasuke was left dumbfounded, even feeling a bit disappointed.

He had heard it clearly.

The Sword of Indra did not have the special ability to absorb chakra like the Samehada.

Regardless of the flowery language about being "indestructible and unbreakable."

Sasuke knew in his heart that it was, at most, just a bit harder than usual.

It was like a wife cake containing no wife.

Or braised beef noodles containing no large chunks of beef.

It was all just false advertising...

But even so.

In the blink of an eye, Sasuke let it go.

He did not hesitate to add the attribute point gained from leveling up into his Constitution.

At the same time, the system's notification sound rang out again instantly:

[Ding! Congratulations to the host, successfully leveled up: Level 9]

[Achievement gift pack available for unlock: [Phoenix Sage Fire Technique]. Do you wish to unlock it immediately?]

"Unlock!..."

Sasuke did not hesitate.

He would certainly not let such a ninjutsu with built-in tracking slip through his fingers.

At the same time.

He added the attribute point gained from leveling up into his Constitution once more.

But this time, he did not level up again.

He knew this was normal.

Otherwise, he wouldn't need to do anything at all; he could just stay here and exploit bugs, and by the time he emerged, he could take on the Six Paths directly...

Thinking this, he moved his mind, and the system attribute panel appeared once again in the void before Sasuke:

Name: Uchiha Sasuke.

Faction: Land of Fire, Konoha Hidden Village. [Possesses a hidden rebellious streak; potential for becoming a rogue ninja.]

Level: 9 (50/2000).

Attribute Points: 0 (Note: Used to directly consume and increase the host's attributes.)

Skill Points: 8 (Note: Used to directly consume and increase the host's skill levels.)

Achievements: [Possession/Acquired Six Paths-level ninja tool]

Attribute Panel: Constitution: 37. Agility: 26. Intelligence: 18. Charisma: 74.

Skill Panel:

[Body Replacement Technique: Level 4.]

[Transformation Technique: Level 4.]

[Clone Technique: Level 4.]

[Multi-Shadow Clone Technique: Level 4.]

[Chakra Control: Level 4.]

[Taijutsu: Level 3.]

[Genjutsu: Level 3.]

[Shurikenjutsu: Level 3.]

[Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique: Level 4 (10%).]

[Konoha Style Kenjutsu: Dance of the Crescent Moon: Level 3 (99.999%) (Note: About to level up! However, a bottleneck in comprehension has appeared; the host may choose to consume one skill point to skip it!)]

[Konoha Style Kenjutsu: Hazy Moonlit Night: Level 0 (Not yet practiced.)]

[Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: Level 2 (89%, about to level up!)]

"Still so handsome. With this much Charisma added, is this lousy system trying to make me just lie back and live off a woman's support?..."

Looking at the Charisma stat that far outstripped the others, Sasuke curled his lip.

It was hard to tell if that expression was one of helplessness or smugness; in any case, to use Naruto's words, it was: "Damn it, he's showing off again..."

He looked over the skill panel once more.

He knew that leveling up his Constitution would also slowly improve his ninjutsu.

However, other things like Taijutsu, Genjutsu, and swordsmanship showed no reaction at all.

From this, he could deduce that even with a system, he still couldn't just completely slack off.

Taijutsu, Genjutsu, swordsmanship, and the like—he still had to put in the work himself.

But what excited him was that Dance of the Crescent Moon was actually on the verge of leveling up!

Level 4!

That was top-tier Chunin-level swordsmanship!

He knew that if he could get Dance of the Crescent Moon to level 4 tonight, he would have an extra bit of success probability when he faced Kakashi tomorrow!

As for Naruto and Sakura?

It wasn't that he didn't trust them.

It was just that Sasuke felt one had to rely on oneself for everything.

Relying on others was ultimately unreliable. Besides, bearing the system, if he had to rely on teammates for even this small matter, then he, Sasuke, would have truly wasted his time!

As for the Phoenix Sage Fire Technique, which was also about to level up, Sasuke ignored it entirely.

Although his chakra was progressing quickly, it was barely enough to get by.

If he cast a few more Shadow Clones, he might end up facing a situation where he drained himself dry.

Therefore, he had no intention of upgrading this technique at all; after all, a Genin-level 2 proficiency was enough...

With that thought, Sasuke slowly exhaled.

Suppressing the agitation in his heart, he sealed the Sword of Indra, sat cross-legged, and used the system once more to enter the final stage of comprehension for Dance of the Crescent Moon!

The night passed without incident, and dawn arrived in the blink of an eye.

When the first rooster's crow of the morning rang through the silent Konoha Village, Sasuke slowly opened his eyes once again:

"Sigh! It seems it's impossible to have another sudden epiphany for Dance of the Crescent Moon..."

Although Su Jian had been working diligently to reach an epiphany using the system all night long.

Yet, the 0.00001 on the panel remained completely motionless, as if it were bottomless.

"Forget it. It seems that without cheating, there is no way to get past this hurdle in the short term..."

After much deliberation, Sasuke finally decided to use a precious skill point to forcibly upgrade the level of the Dance of the Crescent Moon.

It wasn't that he wanted to give up or stop putting in the effort.

It was just that this 0.000001, which refused to budge, couldn't help but remind him of the prompt behind the Dance of the Crescent Moon on the system:

(Note: About to level up! However, a bottleneck in comprehension has appeared. The host may choose to consume one skill point to skip it!)

"What kind of bottleneck in comprehension is this! This is clearly forced consumption!..."

Sasuke inwardly condemned the system's shameless behavior.

But since condemnation was useless, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and consume one of his few remaining skill points.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host, Dance of the Crescent Moon has successfully upgraded to: Level 4 (12%)]

"That's it?..."

With a flick of his consciousness, the skill point vanished in an instant.

But to Sasuke's surprise.

This time, despite the significant price he had paid, his level hadn't increased at all for the first time!

"It looks like I'll have to work harder from now on."

"Otherwise, even with a cheat, it won't be so easy to sneak out of the village..."