School

"Continue."

Setting his thoughts aside, Qian stopped overthinking and raised his hand to continue familiarizing himself with the Clone Technique.

However, the moment he formed the hand seals, he discovered that the chakra within him was already completely depleted, nowhere near enough to support another use of the Clone Technique.

He opened the panel and glanced at it. Sure enough, his chakra was nearly empty.

Reviewing the memories in his mind, Qian sat cross-legged and sank his awareness into his body, using his will to draw out the Body Energy produced by his cells.

He then mixed it evenly with Spirit Energy. After a process of transformation, it became chakra and flowed into the Chakra Meridians that spread throughout his body.

As the process continued, the chakra within him gradually became more abundant.

An hour later.

Qian opened his eyes.

"Panel!"

With a thought, Qian opened the Proficiency Panel.

[Name: Uchiha Qian

Age: 10

Physical Constitution: 5

Spirit: 7

Chakra: 2→52 (125→126)

Bloodline: Sharingan · Unawakened (51/100)

Skills: Chakra Refining Technique: lv0 (1/100)

Clone Technique: lv0 (6/100)]

Just like the Clone Technique, after personally refining chakra once, an additional skill called the Chakra Refining Technique had appeared on the panel.

At lv0, the Chakra Refining Technique could increase his Chakra Limit by one point and restore fifty points of chakra for every hour it was practiced.

At the same time, its proficiency would increase by one point.

It was foreseeable that as its level rose, its effects would steadily improve.

His current rate of growth might not compare to that of some geniuses, but that might not necessarily be true in the future.

With that thought, Qian stopped wasting time. He concentrated once more, closed his eyes, and began refining chakra again.

Time passed second by second.

In the blink of an eye, another hour had gone by.

Qian opened his eyes and sensed the chakra within his body. It was already close to its Limit, so he stopped refining it.

Of course, he could not continue refining it anyway.

After all, chakra did not appear out of thin air. The refining process consumed both his Body Energy and Spirit Energy.

Fusing with the previous owner's memories had already drained a considerable amount of his mental strength. Then he had spent time considering countermeasures and exploring the panel's functions. His mind was already exhausted.

If he kept going, even if it did not damage his foundation, he would at least get half the results for twice the effort.

Since that was the case, it was better to stop for now.

"But I can't waste the chakra in my body either."

With that in mind, Qian forced himself to focus. Reviewing the memories in his mind, he began forming hand seals once more and attempted to use the Clone Technique again.

A few minutes later, his chakra was exhausted. Qian had used the Clone Technique five times in total.

Without any surprise, every attempt had failed.

It made sense. Even proper Ninja Academy students needed several years to master the Three Body Technique. For an outsider like him to think he could succeed after imitating it a few times was simply wishful thinking.

Even with the previous owner's memories to help him, he could not do it.

Still, judging by the Proficiency Panel, he was only four-fifths of the way from success.

Right now, the only thing restricting his progress was his Chakra Amount.

But that was difficult to improve in the short term. He was not some genius who possessed so much chakra at such a young age.

For now, he could only develop step by step.

Qian looked up at the bright moon outside the window and stopped thinking about it. After washing up a little, he returned to the bedroom.

Before long, faint snores sounded from within the house.

Outside the window.

At some unknown point, a figure had appeared.

The scarlet eyes gleamed especially brightly in the night, revealing an Uchiha ninja who had activated the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

He stared at Qian for a while, then vanished without a sound.

The next day.

Early morning.

Qian woke from his sleep, and the first thing he did was open his Status Panel.

[Name: Uchiha Qian

Age: 10

Physical Constitution: 5

Spirit: 7

Chakra: 37 (127)

Bloodline: Sharingan · Unawakened (51/100)

Skills: Chakra Refining Technique: lv0 (2/100)

Clone Technique: lv0 (19/100)]

Only after confirming that none of this was an illusion did he finally let out a long breath.

Then, he turned his attention to "Chakra."

After a night of rest, even without deliberately refining chakra, his body had naturally recovered more than thirty points of chakra.

However, Qian did not immediately use it up. He still had to go to school today, and it would be troublesome if he needed it later.

In truth, he had considered taking a few days off first, cashing in the legacy left behind by the previous owner of this body. But doing so might draw even more attention.

In that case, it was better to go to school!

Then, even if he revealed some flaws, he could explain them away as the result of suddenly suffering a great upheaval.

If he stayed cooped up at home and someone came looking for him, it would be even harder to fool them.

After weighing it over, Qian decided to keep going to school. As long as he kept a low profile, there probably would not be any major problems.

Having made his decision, Qian stopped overthinking. He quickly got himself ready, ate something to fill his stomach, and immediately headed for the Ninja School.

The Uchiha clan had not yet been forced to move to the corner of the village. They still lived in the central area, not far from the Ninja School.

Thus, Qian arrived at the school very quickly.

Following his memories, he found his classroom. A few people greeted him along the way, and he merely nodded in response.

Fortunately, like many Uchiha clan ninjas, the previous owner of this body had been rather aloof. Otherwise, he truly would have had a hard time keeping up the act.

Ring, ring, ring~

About ten minutes later, the class bell rang.

A ninja in his twenties entered the classroom. He was their homeroom teacher as well as their instructor, Sugi Itto.

From the previous owner's memories, Qian knew that, like most teachers in the school, this man did not treat different students with any obvious bias.

Therefore, Qian did not need to worry that the Uchiha surname would bring him trouble.

Just as he was thinking this, Qian noticed Sugi Itto glance in his direction, making his heart pound wildly.

Fortunately, the man did not look for long and soon began the lesson.

At the podium, Qian did not absorb a single word Sugi Itto said. He only kept wondering why the man had looked at him earlier.

He was certain that it had not been a casual sweep of the room. The man had genuinely been observing him.

Could he have discovered something?

Qian felt uneasy.

Ring, ring, ring~

Suddenly, the dismissal bell rang.

Qian jolted awake. Before he knew it, an entire class had already passed.

Sugi Itto looked at the absent-minded Qian, shook his head, and said nothing more. After calling, "Class dismissed," he left the classroom.

As Qian's teacher, he naturally knew that Qian's parents had died in battle.

Or rather, whenever any student in the class lost a relative, he would be informed. This was something Konoha's higher-ups specifically conveyed to teachers like them.

As for the purpose—

Naturally, it was so they could guide their students in time and prevent extreme situations from arising.

Originally, he had intended to counsel Uchiha Qian today.

But an Uchiha clan ninja had already spoken to him in advance last night, telling him there was no need to counsel the boy. That was why he had not intervened.

And the Uchiha clan's purpose in doing so was simple: they wanted to see whether Qian could awaken his Sharingan.

To the Uchiha clan's higher-ups, crippling an ordinary member was nothing worth worrying about. But if he awakened a pair of Sharingan, they would come out far ahead.

That was why they did not stop Sugi Itto from intervening.

If it had been the future Iruka, he might have withstood the pressure and guided Qian, but Sugi Itto was different. His sense of responsibility was not that strong, so he simply went along with the flow.

Qian knew nothing of all this. He was still feeling guilty over Sugi Itto's special attention.

However, after thinking it over for some time, he had more or less guessed that Sugi Itto bore him no ill will.

He had probably only learned that his predecessor's parents had died in the line of duty, which was why he showed him a little extra concern.

"Phew—"

Having sorted it all out, Qian finally let out a sigh of relief.