The Fishing Boy by the Naka River

Hyuga Satoru glanced at Obito, who looked utterly dead inside, and silently thought, Obito, you can't blame me for this.

No one would be surprised if you did something stupid. You were the perfect test subject.

Besides, I was motivating you to study and keeping you from getting lost in puppy love. It was for your own good!

After using the control variable method to conduct interference tests on Obito's thrown shuriken, he discovered that he had some degree of control even over high-speed flying shuriken.

From now on, ninja tools basically posed no threat to him.

Watching Obito flail around in celebration, Fujino Daikichi scratched at his receding hairline and immediately felt a headache coming on.

"How did the Uchiha Clan produce such a weirdo?"

"Forget it. Next, Hyuga Iroha."

A boy with bandages wrapped around his forehead and pale white eyes stepped out from the crowd, throwing shuriken with both hands.

"10 points, 9 points, 10 points..."

"That's amazing. He's only a little worse than Kakashi and the others."

"He is from the Hyuga Clan, after all."

"Why is his forehead wrapped in bandages?" someone whispered.

"Shh! Don't you know? That's the Hyuga Clan's..."

Hyuga Iroha's face turned cold. He unconsciously clenched his fists and returned to his place.

Fujino Daikichi nodded in satisfaction. Over the past few days, he had noticed that although Hyuga Iroha was not the most talented, he was definitely the most hardworking.

For members of the Hyuga branch family, hard work was their only way out.

"Next, Hyuga Satoru."

Hyuga Satoru stepped forward, picked up several shuriken, and weighed them in his hand.

"7 points, 7 points, 7 points... 10 points!"

After several consecutive 7-point throws, only the last one barely hit the 10-point mark.

The crowd began whispering among themselves.

"They're both from the Hyuga Clan, but he seems much worse than Iroha! The gap between him and Kakashi's group is even bigger."

"Not everyone is a genius, after all."

"And did you notice? His earlier throws all nearly hit 8 points. Looks like his luck is bad too!"

Hyuga Satoru's expression remained calm, as though he had not heard the surrounding discussion.

Hyuga Iroha glanced at Hyuga Satoru before looking away.

Although they were both members of the Hyuga Clan, they had little contact in everyday life. This level was not worth his attention.

After school, not long after Hyuga Satoru returned home, someone knocked on his door. When he opened it, he found a branch family guard outside.

The other man wore a ninja forehead protector and handed him a slightly bulging envelope.

"Hyuga Satoru, this is your living allowance for the month."

Hyuga Satoru accepted the envelope. His name and the amount were written on it.

"Alright, thank you."

The guard nodded and vanished from the spot.

This branch family guard was specifically responsible for delivering living allowances. Hyuga Satoru only saw him once a month, and they rarely exchanged any extra words.

Hyuga Satoru opened the envelope. There were fifteen thin banknotes inside—1,500 ryo.

He felt a little troubled. In a world where even a bowl of ramen cost 60 ryo, making 1,500 ryo last an entire month was indeed rather tight.

As one of Leaf Village's most famous clans, compared with the Uchiha Clan, the Hyuga Clan revered hierarchy and rules to the extreme. They were orderly—perhaps overly so.

Every clan member was like a component in an enormous machine, silently following their assigned path.

Still, this was not bad. Other branch family members had their movements almost entirely controlled by the main family, while he had gained a bit of freedom instead.

Hyuga Satoru was not overly worried about the Caged Bird on his forehead.

Once Electromagnetic Force grew powerful enough to directly break down matter at its source, a mere curse mark would be nothing.

His most urgent task was finding a way to improve his strength.

The next day.

It was the weekend, so there were no classes.

Hyuga Satoru came to the bank of a river.

The rippling water reflected his face and the surrounding forest.

The banks of the Naka River.

This was perhaps Leaf Village's most famous great river.

The love, hatred, and grudges between the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan—even the history of all Leaf Village—could be traced back to this river.

Today, the river welcomed an unfamiliar young fisherman.

Splash!

Hyuga Satoru stood in the river with his trouser legs rolled up. He aimed at his target and suddenly grabbed.

He caught nothing, and river water splashed all over his face.

The Naka River covered an extremely broad area and ran through all of Leaf Village. Its upper reaches lay within the Uchiha Clan's territory, while the spot where Hyuga Satoru was catching fish remained quite some distance away from their grounds.

So he did not need to worry about Uchiha Clan members coming to cause trouble.

Naturally, he had chosen fishing to improve his living conditions.

Wouldn't it be great to learn from Naruto and catch fish for an extra meal?

He was at a crucial stage of development. His nutrition had to keep up.

He said he was fishing, but he was not merely fishing.

Two metal spikes the size of chopsticks slowly circled through the air around Hyuga Satoru's body.

He had made them by polishing thin iron rods.

As soon as he spotted a target, the iron spikes would shoot out and viciously stab down at the fish.

Besides that, as he moved through the river, small metal ores gradually began clinging to his exposed calves.

Riverbeds were gathering places for metal ores. Metal ores in nature were washed along by the current and deposited within riverbeds.

Leaf Village lay in the south, with a mild, rainy climate and many mountains. Hokage Rock itself had been carved into a massive mountainside.

Given this unique geographical environment, as Leaf Village's largest river, the Naka River's bed should have accumulated quite a few metal ores.

If he took certain valuable ores to a ninja tool shop for recycling, he should be able to exchange them for some money.

Using magnetic attraction, Hyuga Satoru continuously panned for metal.

He could eat and make money at the same time.

And gain experience levels as well.

Over the past few days, he had tested it thoroughly. The experience required to level up Electromagnetic Force was something similar to proficiency.

The more difficult the application, the faster he gained experience.

Correspondingly, if he kept exploiting the same application, the returns would steadily decrease. At first, he had controlled a kitchen knife to chop vegetables for experience, but as his proficiency improved, that method gave less and less experience.

Now, he was multitasking. He was not only controlling two metal spikes used for fishing at the same time, but his calves were also constantly attracting metal from the riverbed.

The experience was rising at a considerable rate.

Hyuga Satoru spotted a target.

Several small fish had gathered beneath a large rock a few meters away from him. If he caught them, he could enjoy a good meal.

If he kept approaching, those fish might notice the disturbance in the water and flee.

However, he had another method.

Hyuga Satoru held his breath.

Crackle!

An electric current as thick as a thumb erupted from between his toes and spread through the river water.

The fish were paralyzed.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The two metal spikes circling around him shot out instantly.

One of them was incredibly accurate. It not only pierced through one fish's belly, but also struck the tails of two fish beside it!

One shot, three fish!!!

Hyuga Satoru happily controlled the heavy iron spike as it wobbled back toward him.

At the same time, because of this difficult application of Electromagnetic Force—

A voice sounded in his mind:

[Electromagnetic Force Experience +2]

LV1 Electromagnetic Force was still far too weak. Other than basic magnetization and electrical discharge, it was difficult to use it in other ways.

The current it released was also very weak. It could not instantly stun fish, so he had to combine it with iron spikes to catch them.

However, Hyuga Satoru was already very satisfied.

This was one of the four fundamental forces. Its upper limit was right there.

"Thank you, Faraday! Thank you, Maxwell! Thank you, Tesla! Thank you, middle school physics teacher..."

"Without you, I wouldn't be able to eat this fish today."

"Amen!"