Chakra Control

Muzan stood in the shadows, extending a pair of small hands from beneath his black robe. His pale hands contrasted sharply with the dark kunai.

They drew everyone's attention.

Seeing this, Nobi Wei frowned deeply. The other boy had no throwing technique whatsoever; relying on strength alone, he did not believe Muzan could hit the mark.

Whoosh!

"What?!"

A black streak flashed through the air. When they looked again, the kunai had struck the bullseye.

Muzan's bloodline had awakened, greatly enhancing his physical strength. Combined with his spread-out perception, hitting a stationary target was not much of a problem.

"H-He-He! He really hit it?"

As a member of the Uchiha Clan, Obito froze on the spot. He felt as though he had disgraced the Uchiha name. Without comparison, there was no harm.

"With no technique at all, he managed it through perception and throwing strength alone. And he's still just a child. As expected of Lord Sakumo Hatake's son."

Barring any surprises, he would become a Jōnin in the future.

Shinobi truly depended on talent. At least, he had never seen anyone become a Jōnin through hard work alone.

Besides Muzan, several other children also hit the bullseye accurately. They were all clan shinobi who had been exposed to training from an early age.

"You can see just how ordinary civilian shinobi are from this. Someone else's starting point might be their finish line."

Muzan noticed the disappointed children. Though they had all enrolled in the Ninja Academy, the gap between them would only grow wider. Setting aside hard work, clan training funds, and various ninjutsu, clan shinobi had one more advantage: bloodlines!

Uchiha, Hyuga, Uzumaki...

Only those freaks who defied common sense could surpass clan shinobi.

That move, along with his air of mystery, attracted the attention of quite a few girls. Everyone knew that children this age had two interests.

First, working hard to become Genin!

Second, finding boyfriends or girlfriends!

"Kakashi, have you ever seen his face beneath that black robe?"

Rin Nohara looked shyly toward Muzan in the shadows, lightly tugging at Kakashi's sleeve as she asked bashfully,

"I want to know what he looks like."

Seeing Rin's bashful expression, Obito flushed and did not know what to say. Then he suddenly realized that Rin might be interested in Muzan and immediately protested loudly,

"He must be ugly! That's why he doesn't want anyone to see him!"

"I don't want to talk to an idiot."

"You!"

Kakashi did not tell them what Muzan looked like. Muzan was not ugly, but he gave off an uncanny impression. Anyone who saw his face would remember it firmly.

Standing beneath a large tree and watching the sunlight, Muzan was considering how to join the hospital. After all, it was rather difficult for a child to enter Konoha Hospital. Then he suddenly heard someone calling him. When he turned around, it was actually Obito.

"Damn you, Muzan! I challenge you!"

To keep his girlfriend from being stolen away, Obito Uchiha decided to challenge Muzan!

Obito charged straight at him. To Muzan's eyes, he was far too slow. The instant Obito approached, Muzan lightly sidestepped and stretched out his left foot.

Bang!

"You're too slow, Obito. And don't come disturb me again."

Muzan crouched down and looked at the indignant Obito. At this point, he had yet to experience the pain of losing Rin, awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan, and become Madara Uchiha, a menace to the Shinobi World.

"Bastard!"

Obito raised his head, blood streaming from his nose. When he saw the disappointment in Rin's eyes, grief and fury immediately filled his heart.

"You made me embarrass myself so badly in front of Rin. I'll fight you!"

To everyone's surprise, Obito grabbed Muzan's black robe and yanked it down hard. The robe fell to the ground.

At that moment, everyone saw the face beneath the black robe.

His pale face was so white that the blood beneath his skin could be seen, and he had the distinctive white hair of the Hatake Clan.

But what truly drew their attention was his pair of scarlet eyes. They resembled an awakened Sharingan; a single glance was enough to create an illusion. Muzan looked like an aristocrat from an ancient age—noble and elegant, yet carrying an eerie wickedness.

Could a human truly possess such a face?

Seeing their expressions, Muzan felt helpless. Having fused with Demon King Muzan's bloodline, he possessed an innate power. Anyone without a firm will would be affected upon seeing him.

Obito, sprawled on the ground, faced that sensation head-on. Especially when Muzan glanced down at him from the corner of his eye, that gaze which seemed to disdain all living things made Obito tremble from head to toe.

"Can't you children just play nicely?"

He withdrew his gaze, picked up the black robe from the ground, and put it back on, once again becoming the mysterious figure hidden in the corner.

"Brother, is your body all right?"

Only Kakashi knew why Muzan wore the black robe. Seeing the sunlight filtering through the leaves, he checked again and again.

"Don't worry. The sunlight didn't hit me."

Only Muzan knew the truth. When sunlight touched his body, his terrifying regenerative ability healed the damage. Combined with how quickly he had put his robe back on, it had not caused any serious effects.

As for Obito, the culprit behind it all, Kakashi grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up.

"Do you know that if his reaction had been any slower, he would have suffered severe burns?"

"I-I-I..."

Speechless after being rebuked, Obito did not dare look at the furious Kakashi. If Nobi Wei had not appeared in time, matters would have escalated further.

Muzan did not care about what happened afterward. Kunai throwing techniques were not difficult. With his high-level muscle control, he memorized them in half an hour.

To become a medical ninja, he needed a vast amount of medical knowledge and precise chakra control.

After settling the children's conflict, Nobi Wei saw him standing beneath the eaves and noticed the chakra emanating from his body.

"I didn't expect you to have already begun practicing chakra control."

"Your method of control won't be very useful."

Whether it was tree climbing or water walking, both required precise chakra control, but that was far from enough for a medical ninja.

Nobi Wei's words piqued Muzan's interest. The homeroom teacher before him was not like the shinobi of later generations who merely taught and educated; they were shinobi who had come down from the battlefield.

"I once fought Sand Ninja. Their puppet masters had extremely precise chakra control. You can learn from them."

Puppet masters relied on chakra control and the precision of their materials in battle, placing little importance on the amount of chakra they possessed. In that regard, they had much in common with medical ninja.

One used threads to control puppets and kill people, while the other used a scalpel to treat patients.

Muzan casually picked up a leaf from the ground and tied a string to it. With the breeze blowing, he began trying to control the leaf's direction.

Seeing him quickly grasp the trick, Nobi Wei was sincerely delighted.

"It seems the village's rumors about Lord Sakumo's eldest son being a weak cripple were wrong."