Preparation for the Graduation Exam

After leaving the Hokage's office, Ryosuke intended to head back and find little Sasuke.

He wanted to ask about Itachi.

The more he understood about Itachi, the better his chances of distancing himself from the Uchiha clan's impending annihilation.

That was right; since he had no intention of interfering in that event, he would inevitably become a target of scrutiny as a survivor of the Uchiha clan, which meant trouble.

However, on his way, he saw his class practicing "ninja sparring" on the training grounds.

In reality, it was just an outdoor activity.

As a child of the Uchiha clan, not only did Sasuke have no one to practice with, but he was also being provoked by the other children.

Quite a few of them were throwing stones at him.

Yet, little Sasuke never once fought back.

Perhaps he didn't understand why all of this was happening, but he had already grown accustomed to silently enduring it all.

Ryosuke felt a pang of empathetic heartache.

He walked over and warned the three mischievous children.

"If I ever see you bullying Sasuke again, I'll make you regret it."

Ryosuke was half a head taller than the tallest child, and the boy immediately backed down.

"It's another guy from the Uchiha clan. Why are they still allowed to stay in Konoha?"

"I heard that everyone in the Uchiha clan is a murderer."

The surrounding children looked at Ryosuke with wariness and disgust.

Ryosuke helplessly walked over to little Sasuke's side and began practicing movement techniques with him.

It was clear that, unlike the other children who only attended the Ninja Academy to play, little Sasuke was working incredibly hard.

Although Ryosuke knew that he was likely doing this to surpass his brother and earn more attention from his parents and Itachi.

"Sasuke, has Itachi been home lately?"

"Brother Ryosuke, are you very concerned about Brother Itachi? He came home once yesterday, but he left again very quickly."

It seemed it would be difficult to get any information about Itachi from little Sasuke.

Just as class was about to end, several older students suddenly blocked Ryosuke and Sasuke's path.

"Hey, you Uchiha brats, hold on a second."

Ryosuke turned back to see that the children he had scared off earlier for throwing stones at Sasuke had brought four older students to the entrance of the training grounds.

They were students from the graduating class, clearly looking to stand up for the younger ones.

"Is there a problem?"

Ryosuke stood in front of little Sasuke and asked coldly.

"Did you bully my little brother? I want you to apologize to him."

The freckled boy among them looked down at Ryosuke condescendingly.

The two little boys beside him wore smug expressions on their faces.

"They were the ones who threw stones at me first; Brother Ryosuke was just stopping them."

Little Sasuke gripped the corner of Ryosuke's shirt and argued.

"Apologize now, or I'll make you regret it."

"What did you say?"

Ryosuke didn't move, simply revealing his two-tomoe Sharingan.

The group of children looked as if they had seen a ghost.

"It's the Sharingan! He's already at two tomoe; we're no match for him."

"This guy... he awakened his eyes at such a young age. Could he have killed someone?"

The children instinctively took several steps back.

Just then, the chunin instructor walked over.

"What are you all doing here? Get back to your own classes."

The children let out a sigh of relief and immediately ran off.

"Brother Ryosuke, you're so amazing! You've awakened your eyes too, just like Brother Itachi."

Little Sasuke lowered his head, looking somewhat saddened.

He had been working so hard, so why couldn't he keep up with Brother Itachi's pace? And now, even Brother Ryosuke had surpassed him.

Uchiha Ryosuke seemed to have realized something.

He lowered his head and stroked Sasuke's hair, saying, "Sooner or later, you will be just like us. Let's work hard together."

"Mm." Little Sasuke finally regained some of his confidence.

The chunin instructor saw the two of them but did not approach; instead, he revealed a look of apprehension.

The two returned to the classroom together.

With three days left until the graduation exam, and having already secured a promise from the Third Hokage, he naturally wouldn't just sit idle.

He sent a shadow clone to the graduating class to see what ninjutsu they were reviewing.

He also wanted to confirm whether the ninjutsu witnessed by his clone would be recorded by the system.

Half an hour later, Ryosuke, sitting in the classroom, dispelled his Transformation Technique.

[Ding, congratulations to the host for recording 'Transformation Technique', 'Substitution Technique', 'Shadow Shuriken', 'Water Dragon Technique', 'Earth Dragon Technique'...]

He received a string of notifications all at once, all of which were records of C-rank ninjutsu.

It seemed that the clone could indeed trigger the system, though the main body wouldn't receive the information synchronously, but this was already enough.

The graduation exam was nothing more than a test of these C-rank ninjutsu.

It appeared there would be no difficulty at all.

After school that day, Ryosuke first sent Sasuke home.

He then arrived in the forest to begin familiarizing himself with the ninjutsu he had recorded.

The system would record the ninjutsu, but he still had to learn them through practice.

Furthermore, some ninjutsu required meeting harsh conditions to be learned.

For instance, the few Lightning Release ninjutsu he had recorded earlier required the use of lightning-natured chakra.

Otherwise, he could only use them once after recording them.

But currently, Ryosuke only possessed fire-natured chakra.

This was somewhat awkward.

Fortunately, some basic C-rank ninjutsu had no requirements regarding chakra nature.

However, after practicing for only a short while, his chakra hit rock bottom.

His base stats were simply too low right now.

Whether it was the volume of his chakra or his elemental nature, he was far behind the two main protagonists.

After resting for a while, his chakra hadn't recovered much.

This gave Ryosuke a massive headache.

In the end, he had no choice but to use experience points to increase his chakra cap.

Host: Uchiha Ryosuke
Overall Strength: Genin
Chakra: 2000/4000
Available Experience Points: 0

Ryosuke immediately felt his mind clear up significantly.

Chakra is the combination of physical and spiritual energy.

His sense of fatigue was also swept away.

However, he was still at a loss as to how to unlock chakra natures.

Therefore, 'Lightning Release: Lightning Armor' was unusable.

But if it were a ninjutsu he had plundered, like 'Lightning Release: Sandamurei', it could be used.

However, plundering ninjutsu required killing an enemy to activate.

It would be fine if he encountered an enemy, but in normal times, he simply couldn't meet this condition.

'Lightning Release: Sandamurei' was a B-rank ninjutsu, and using it once required 200 chakra.

Given his current situation, he could use it twenty times in total.

That should be enough to handle average combat.

"As long as I graduate smoothly, I can leave the village. Only then will I be able to utilize the Plunder System to its fullest potential."

Ryosuke was full of confidence in the future.

Just then, he suddenly heard a faint sound coming from the depths of the forest.

"Someone is in the woods."

Ryosuke immediately became vigilant.