Plan

In the blink of an eye, another week had passed.

The time until they set out for the battlefield was drawing closer and closer.

That was right—the news had already been made public.

Their batch of graduates would head to the Rain Country Battlefield together with newly promoted Chunin, Genin who had failed to advance, and a large number of clan ninja.

"The Land of Rain, huh!"

In his room, Qian gave a soft sigh and fell silent.

If there was one place he least wanted to go, it was undoubtedly the Rain Country Battlefield.

The Land of Rain lay between the Land of Wind, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Fire, while also bordering several smaller countries. Its unique geographical position had made it a place every village fought over in every Great Ninja War.

This time was naturally no exception.

Sand Ninja, Rock Ninja, Leaf Ninja, Bounty Ninja, the Land of Rain's own ninja, the Akatsuki Organization ninja led by Yahiko, Anbu ninja from Kumogakure and Kirigakure, and more—open forces and hidden ones alike were all there. The situation could be said to be complicated to the extreme.

And that complicated situation also kept the ninja of every side tense. The slightest disturbance could lead to a fight to the death.

As a result, the Land of Rain had become the infamous Ninja Graveyard, the Battlefield Meat Grinder.

The survival pressure borne by the ninja there far exceeded that of the other battlefields.

That was why Qian did not want to go there.

Unfortunately, that was not up to him to decide.

As for betraying the village and leaving?

Putting aside the fact that there were many ninjutsu within the Uchiha Clan and Konoha that he needed, the price of becoming a Rogue Ninja alone was something he could not afford.

Although he had awakened the Sharingan, his overall strength was only at the Chunin level.

With that level of strength, there was no way he could escape the pursuit of the Leaf Anbu.

Moreover, in this day and age, the outside world was not necessarily that safe either.

One had to know that the Sharingan of the Uchiha clan was listed year-round on the Black Market's purchase boards. Once his identity was exposed, what awaited him would inevitably be wave after wave of Bounty Ninja.

Qian did not want to be chased everywhere like a rat.

Rather than that, he might as well obey the village's arrangements and head to the battlefield.

With the Sharingan serving as his trump card, and the Proficiency Panel assisting his growth, Qian felt that as long as he played it safe, his life probably would not be in danger.

Thinking of the Sharingan, Qian opened the panel.

The familiar pale-blue screen immediately appeared in his field of vision.

[Name: Uchiha Qian

Age: 11

Physical Constitution: 7

Spirit: 9

Chakra: 1450 (2570→3018)

Bloodline: Sharingan · Single Tomoe (1/1000)→(30/1000)

Skills: Chakra Refining Technique: lv3 (266/1000)→lv3 (322/1000)

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique: lv1 (50/200)

Mind Reflection Technique: lv3 (601/1000)→lv3 (683/1000)

Ninja Tool Throwing: lv3 (1/1000)

Chakra Control: lv3 (102/1000)

Three Body Technique: lv3 (0/0)

Basic Body Technique: lv3 (0/0)]

Over the past week, he had been urgently testing the Sharingan's consumption while also exploring the pattern by which its proficiency increased.

After a week of testing, both of those questions now had answers.

First was the Sharingan's consumption. If he merely opened his eyes without fighting, it would only consume one point of chakra per minute.

But if battle broke out, then depending on the situation, it would consume varying amounts of chakra.

The more complicated the external situation was, the higher the demands on the Sharingan, and the greater the chakra consumption. The reverse was also true.

In addition, actively stimulating the Sharingan's abilities, or using the Sharingan to cast genjutsu, would both consume extra chakra.

In other words, if he did nothing, he could keep the Sharingan active around the clock without any pressure at all. But if a high-intensity battle broke out, he might exhaust his chakra in a dozen or twenty minutes.

However, Qian estimated that he would not put himself in such a dangerous position.

Having finished with the Sharingan's consumption, next came the method for increasing its proficiency.

First of all, what was worth being happy about was that the Mind Reflection Technique was still effective.

In fact, because the Sharingan had already awakened, the Mind Reflection Technique no longer needed dozens of proficiency points like before just to push the Sharingan forward by a single point.

Now, he only needed to accumulate ten points of Proficiency in the Mind Reflection Technique to increase his Sharingan's Proficiency by one point.

If that were all, Qian would not have been so happy.

Because grinding ten points of Proficiency in the Mind Reflection Technique required a full seventeen hundred points of Chakra.

And the Chakra he could use each day was only around thirty-five hundred points.

In other words, he could accumulate at most two points of Sharingan Proficiency each day.

And for the Single Tomoe Sharingan to evolve into the Double Tomoe Sharingan, it required a full one thousand points of Proficiency—five hundred days, or one year and four months.

Qian obviously could not afford to wait that long.

Fortunately, there was more than one way to increase his Sharingan's Proficiency.

While testing the Sharingan's consumption, Qian discovered that keeping the Sharingan active continuously could also promote its evolution.

On the Status Panel, this was shown as Proficiency increasing according to how long the Sharingan remained active.

So Qian immediately began testing it, and finally reached a conclusion—roughly every accumulated five hours of having the Sharingan active could give him one point of Proficiency.

And this required only three hundred points of Chakra at minimum. Compared to the Mind Reflection Technique's seventeen hundred points, it was more than four-fifths cheaper.

If calculated that way, his Sharingan's Proficiency should not have been only thirty points no matter what.

The reason it had turned out this way was simple: there were only twenty-four hours in a day.

Aside from eating and sleeping, the time he could use to grind Proficiency was only a dozen or so hours.

Precisely because of that, over seven days, he had only accumulated twenty-nine points of Proficiency.

And even that was because the Mind Reflection Technique had contributed eight points, and because no one had disturbed him these past few days, allowing him to keep the Sharingan active for as long as possible.

Otherwise, the number would probably have been even smaller.

So, practice of the Mind Reflection Technique could not be interrupted.

As long as he still did not intend to expose the existence of his Sharingan, he had to raise the level of the Mind Reflection Technique.

Only then could he accumulate Sharingan Proficiency faster and evolve it into the Double Tomoe Sharingan.

However, this step could not be rushed.

In a few more days, he would be heading to the battlefield.

But the methods he currently had for dealing with enemies were far too limited.

So Qian planned to expand his Skill Slot over the next few days.

First was the Body Flicker Technique. As a life-saving method, this could not be delayed any longer.

He had to grind up its Proficiency before he personally went onto the battlefield and fought others to the death. Only then could he use it smoothly when needed.

Next were the other two ninjutsu left behind by his predecessor's parents—Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique and Fire Release: Fire Dragon Technique. He also planned to grind them until he got started.

The former would give him a means of attacking groups, so he would not be at a loss when facing multiple enemies.

The latter would give him a way to strike enemies at mid-range.

Then there was Genjutsu.

Since he had awakened the Sharingan, Genjutsu naturally could not be lacking. When the two were combined, they could achieve an effect greater than the sum of their parts.

At present, the only Genjutsu he knew was the Mind Reflection Technique.

But the main function of this technique was to assist the Sharingan's evolution. Using it against enemies was really asking too much of it.

As it happened, his predecessor's parents had also left behind another Genjutsu—Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique.

This technique was not only a proper Genjutsu, it was also a Genjutsu developed specifically for the Sharingan.

It was just right for Qian to learn.