Taking Stock of His Foundations

More than a year had passed since he crossed into the Naruto world. Uchiha Narong stood in the training ground of his own courtyard and slowly breathed out a murky breath.

His seven-year-old body was still young and tender, but the anxiety of a modern adult in his soul drove him to train like mad at every moment.

Today, he decided to pause his training and take proper stock of his foundations—from chakra and taijutsu to ninjutsu, his financial situation, and even his plans for the future.

He knew full well that in this crisis-ridden world, blindly growing stronger would only make him repeat Uchiha Itachi's fate in the original work: exhausting his potential too early and becoming a short-lived genius.

What he wanted to walk was a more cautious, longer-lasting path.

Narong's chakra reserves had now stabilized at genin level. For a seven-year-old child, this was already an astonishing achievement.

He clearly remembered the subtle feeling when he first tried to refine chakra—the fusion of physical energy and spiritual energy, like a stream flowing into a river. It was not vast and mighty, but it was endless.

Here, the benefits of being a transmigrator showed themselves. His spiritual energy was far stronger than that of his peers, making chakra refinement twice as effective with half the effort.

But Narong did not rush ahead because of it. He knew that chakra training had to be done step by step, especially while the body had yet to fully develop. Excessive squeezing would damage the foundation.

The lesson of Uchiha Itachi in the original work rang like a constant alarm bell: awakening his eyes young, frequently using the Mangekyo, and ultimately overdrawing his body.

Narong even deliberately slowed the growth of his chakra. His daily training focused mainly on nourishing and tempering, supplemented by meditation to improve control precision.

"Chakra is a ninja's foundation, but bite off more than you can chew and you'll choke. Instead of chasing quantity, it's better to solidify control first." He often warned himself this way.

In addition, he drew on the wisdom of the clan's training. For example, the use of medicinal baths—although he could not soak in them every day for economic reasons, he still regularly prepared simple medicinal decoctions to relieve muscle fatigue after training.

This heritage from a great clan allowed him to avoid many hidden injuries that civilian ninja suffered due to a lack of resources.

Taijutsu was the field where Narong had progressed the fastest over the past year. This was thanks to two special "sparring partners": Might Guy and Hyuga Yutaka.

Sparring with Guy was full of pain and passion. Guy's taijutsu was like a raging storm, and every clash of fists and feet made Narong realize how fragile the body was.

Hyuga Yutaka's Gentle Fist, meanwhile, was like a fine net of needles, forcing him to learn to overcome strength with skill. Under this extreme training, Narong's taijutsu went from immature to proficient, to the point that he could even briefly hold his own against Guy without losing.

But he always kept the limits of his age firmly in mind. Guy's "youth-style training" was hot-blooded, but it was not necessarily suited to everyone.

Narong had once personally seen Guy keep training even after fracturing a bone. He did not dare imitate that kind of madness.

He set a red line for himself: daily taijutsu training could not exceed two hours, and it had to focus mainly on honing technique, avoiding exhaustion from overexerting strength.

After all, the body was a ninja's vessel. If the vessel was damaged, even the strongest ninjutsu had nowhere to be performed from. This restraint instead brought an unexpected benefit. Hyuga Yutaka once commented, "Your movements have no unnecessary expenditure. They're like a carefully designed assembly line."

Narong smiled bitterly—how was that talent? It was merely an adult's rationality forcibly restraining a child's impulses.

Narong's ninjutsu arsenal had now begun to take shape. The basic Three Body Technique came easily to him.

Transformation Technique in particular—he could even maintain the change in form for a long time, thanks to his precise control of spiritual power.

In terms of offensive ninjutsu, he had mastered two Fire Style techniques, Great Fireball Technique and Phoenix Sage Fire Technique, as well as one Wind Style technique: Great Breakthrough.

These were the legacies left behind after the original body's parents sacrificed themselves, and he treasured them as if they were priceless.

But his true trump card was the compound ninjutsu he had created himself—Gale Great Breakthrough.

This technique fused the sweeping force of Wind Style with the explosive nature of Fire Style. When cast, violent winds carried raging flames, forming a small-scale fire whirlwind.

Its flaw was its enormous consumption: with his genin-level chakra reserves, one strike would drain him dry. Therefore, Narong designated it his "desperation card," never to be used unless his life was on the line.

As for the Rasengan, he was still in the exploration stage. Chakra shape transformation was harder to control than nature transformation, and at present he could only barely maintain the stability of the sphere. It was still some distance from actual combat use.

But he was not in a hurry—"Naruto learned it in a few days. I have plenty of time."

Finances were the hidden pillar of ninja training. Narong took stock of his assets: 400,000 ryo in savings left by his parents, plus 600,000 ryo in clan compensation, for a total of 1,000,000 ryo.

If this money was used only for food and clothing, it would be more than enough to support him until adulthood; but if it involved training resources such as ninja tools and medicinal baths, it would be stretched thin.

He had done a rough calculation: a standard kunai sold for a thousand ryo, a shuriken cost several hundred ryo, and a single medicinal bath packet cost as much as five thousand ryo.

If he wanted to maintain the level of treatment provided in clan training, medicinal baths alone would cost 450,000 ryo in three months—and that did not even include ninja tool wear and nutritional supplements.

Therefore, Narong was extremely cautious with his spending: he made his own training equipment, gathered cheap herbs to replace some medicinal bath ingredients, and even learned from Guy how to substitute part of the consumables with pure physical training.

Real estate was another layer of security. His small two-story courtyard was valued at around 1,000,000 ryo, the final shelter left behind by his parents.

He would definitely sell it in the future. During the Nine-Tails' attack, this entire area would basically be reduced to ruins, but there were still some years left, so he would sell it when the time came. Narong's plans for the future were clear and conservative: he would not graduate early, and he would not deliberately stand out.

The year after next, he would graduate from the Ninja Academy normally, avoiding the attention of the higher-ups or the ANBU.

This strategy of "hiding his clumsiness" stemmed from his deep understanding of the Naruto world: Konoha appeared peaceful on the surface, but undercurrents surged beneath. Revealing talent too early might turn him into a pawn in factional struggles.

His ideal team configuration was to be grouped with Might Guy and Hyuga Yutaka. Guy's taijutsu, Hyuga Yutaka's scouting ability, and his own ninjutsu could complement one another, and the three of them already had rapport.

But he was also well aware that team assignments were in the hands of the higher-ups. All he could do was improve his strength and quietly wait for the right moment.

In terms of long-term goals, Narong had his sights set on "senjutsu." He remembered the original setting: chakra was essentially the product of an alien civilization, while natural energy was the native power.

When facing the Otsutsuki Clan in the future, senjutsu would be key. But all of this had to be built upon a solid foundation—"It's still too early to think about that now. First, I need to live until then."

Deep in Narong's heart, two voices were always clashing.

One was the anxiety of a modern person: knowing the tragedies of the original work and being eager to change fate; the other was the rationality of an adult: knowing full well that "haste makes waste."

This tug-of-war appeared in his daily choices. Should he practice ninjutsu for another hour? Should he attempt more dangerous training? In the end, rationality could always gain the upper hand.

He would occasionally envy those "geniuses," such as Uchiha Itachi and Kakashi, but in the next instant, he would let it go. "Geniuses are like shooting stars. I want to be a lamp that burns long and bright."

This mentality allowed him to avoid being drawn into internal clan disputes, and also kept him away from many potential crises. For example, he had never pried into the secrets of the Sharingan, and he stayed far from the conflicts between the Uchiha and the higher-ups—only by living was there a future.

When night fell, Narong finished taking stock. Chakra, taijutsu, ninjutsu, finances, plans—all of this formed the foundation for his survival in the ninja world.

There were many shortcomings, but the direction was clear.

He looked out the window at the lights of Konoha and murmured softly to himself, "I don't seek the name of genius. I just want to live step by step until old age. And I'll live well—whoever tries to block my path, I'll deal with them."

This path was the fusion of a transmigrator and native wisdom, a balance between anxiety and restraint, and even more so, the clear-eyed solitary walk of a seven-year-old boy in the ninja world.