Leveling Up

The moon shone brightly, and the dead of night was quiet.

Sasuke sat cross-legged on the Ninja Academy's back field, then slowly opened his eyes.

He rose to his feet and brushed a hand across his waist.

The next moment,

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

"Release!"

With a simple change of hand signs,

poof!

A burst of white smoke erupted, and a ninjato appeared with a sharp ring!

"Like a gentle breeze, returning to simplicity. It really is no ordinary weapon!..."

Sasuke ran his fingers over the blade of the Sword of Indra and sighed.

The Sword of Indra, which had once been so sharp and imposing,

had now become an extremely unremarkable ninjato.

Its blade was dull, its edge concealed.

At a glance, it looked like a piece of scrap iron, no better than an ordinary ninjato—plain and unimpressive.

Still, Sasuke was very satisfied with this.

After all, he now carried a treasure of considerable value.

His identity was special.

To avoid unwanted complications, it was better to play it safe and make it out of the beginner village first...

As he thought this,

the system interface suddenly popped up before Sasuke's eyes.

"What's this..."

Before Sasuke could figure out what was going on,

the system notification sounded:

[Congratulations, Host! Achievement unlocked: [Subdue Six Paths Tool Achievement]]

[Your level has been raised to: Level 8]

[Note: Sword of Indra: Unbreakable and indestructible. A ninjato with immense potential and room to grow.]

When the system notification ended, Sasuke was left completely bewildered—and even a little disappointed.

He had figured it out.

The Sword of Indra didn't have any special ability to absorb people's chakra like Jiaoji.

For all its grand claims of being unbreakable and indestructible,

Sasuke knew it was probably just a little harder than most swords.

Like how wife cakes didn't contain wives,

and braised beef instant noodles didn't have big chunks of beef.

It was all false advertising...

Even so,

Sasuke quickly came to terms with it.

Without hesitation, he put the one attribute point he'd gained from leveling up into his Constitution.

At the same time, the system's notification sounded again:

[Ding! Congratulations, Host! You have successfully reached Level 9]

[Achievement gift pack unlocked: [Phoenix Sage Fire Technique]. Would you like to unlock it now?]

"Unlock it!..."

Sasuke didn't hesitate.

He wasn't about to pass up a technique that could track its targets.

At the same time,

he put the one attribute point he'd gained from leveling up into his Constitution.

But this time, he didn't level up again.

He knew that was normal.

Otherwise, he could just sit here, exploit a bug, and do nothing. When he finally left the village, he'd be able to take on the Six Paths himself...

As he thought this, he willed the system's attribute panel to appear in midair before him once more:

Name: Uchiha Sasuke.

Faction: Land of Fire, Konoha Hidden Village. [Darkly rebellious, with the potential to become a rogue ninja.]

Level: 9 (50/2000).

Attribute Points: 0 (Note: Used to directly raise the Host's attributes.)

Skill Points: 8 (Note: Used to directly raise the Host's skill levels.)

Achievement: [Possess/Obtain a Six Paths-level Ninja Tool]

Attributes: Constitution: 37. Agility: 26. Intelligence: 18. Charisma: 74.

Skills:

[Substitution 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.]

[Ninja Tool Throwing: Level 3.]

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

[Konoha-Style Swordsmanship: Dance of the Crescent Moon: Level 3 (99.999%) (Note: Level-up imminent! But your insight has hit a bottleneck. You can spend one skill point to skip past it!)]

[Konoha-Style Swordsmanship: Hazy Moonlit Night: Level 0 (Not yet trained.)]

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

"Still so handsome. Look at that Charisma score. Is this crappy system trying to make me give up and live off a woman?..."

Sasuke glanced at his Charisma score, which was far ahead of the rest, and pursed his lips.

He wasn't sure whether the expression on his face was exasperated

or smug. Either way, in Naruto's words, it was: "Damn it, he's showing off again..."

He looked over the skill list once more.

He knew that raising his Constitution would also gradually improve his ninjutsu.

But his other skills, like Taijutsu, Genjutsu, and swordsmanship, showed no change at all.

From this, he could conclude that

even with the system, he couldn't just sit back and do nothing.

He'd still have to put in the work himself for things like Taijutsu, Genjutsu, and swordsmanship.

What excited him, though, was that Dance of the Crescent Moon was on the verge of leveling up!

Level 4!

That was the level of a top-tier Chunin's swordsmanship!

If he could raise Dance of the Crescent Moon to Level 4 tonight,

he'd have a better chance of winning against Kakashi tomorrow!

As for Naruto and Sakura?

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

Sasuke simply felt that, in the end, he had to rely on himself.

He couldn't count on other people forever. Besides, with a system like his, if he needed his teammates to handle even this little thing, he'd be a disgrace to the name of Sasuke!

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

His chakra was improving quickly, but he could still only just barely get by.

If he made too many Shadow Clones, he might end up completely drained again.

So he hadn't planned to level up this technique at all. After all, Level 2 was enough for a Genin...

At that thought, Sasuke slowly let out a breath.

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, he sealed away the Sword of Indra, sat cross-legged, and used the system once more to enter the final stage of his insight into 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 rang out across the silent Konoha Hidden Village,

Sasuke slowly opened his eyes once more:

"Ah! Looks like it's impossible to master Dance of the Crescent Moon again through sudden enlightenment in such a short time..."

Although Su Jian had worked hard all night to reach enlightenment with the system,

the 0.00001 on the panel remained motionless, as if it would go on forever.

"Forget it. Looks like without using a cheat, there's no getting past this hurdle anytime soon..."

After thinking it over, Sasuke finally decided to spend one of his precious skill points to force Dance of the Crescent Moon up a level.

It wasn't that he wanted to slack off or stop working hard.

But that stubborn 0.000001 increase that refused to budge reminded him of the note after Dance of the Crescent Moon on the system panel:

(Note: Level-up imminent! But your insight has hit a bottleneck. You can spend one skill point to skip past it!)

"What do you mean, my insight has hit a bottleneck? This is obviously just forcing me to pay!..."

Sasuke silently condemned the system's shameless behavior.

But his protests were useless, so he could only grit his teeth and spend one of his few remaining skill points.

[Ding! Congratulations, Host! Dance of the Crescent Moon has successfully reached Level 4 (12%)]

"That's it?..."

With a thought, one skill point vanished in an instant.

But to Sasuke's surprise,

after paying such a hefty price, his level hadn't increased at all for the first time!

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

"Otherwise, even with a cheat, getting out of the village safely won't be easy..."