Clan Massacre

On a dark, windy night perfect for murder, the night of the Uchiha clan massacre finally arrived—and ahead of schedule, before the Ninja Academy's second semester had even ended.

Compared to something as major as a clan massacre, a little genius from the Ninja Academy naturally drew far less attention.

Lin Chuan could roughly guess that the King of Blame had to be behind this, pushing things along. The King of Blame was using public opinion to force the Uchiha into rebellion!

In this gluttonous feast to seize the Sharingan, that old schemer Shimura Danzō, the Uchiha's matryoshka-doll schemes, and Orochimaru, lurking near Konoha, would all likely wait for an opportunity to make their move.

The three major bosses of the early, mid, and late stages would all take part in this battle for the Sharingan. The Sharingan was a powder keg—whoever touched it died.

That was also why he did not want to get involved with Yota. The night of the clan massacre was imminent, and Orochimaru had placed Yota near Konoha. Who knew whether Orochimaru might make a move at any moment?

After all, Orochimaru and Danzo were practically wearing the same pair of pants. There was no way Orochimaru did not know about something this major, especially since traitors would pass along the news.

Yota was a child Naruto, Shikamaru, and the others had met in the forest. Naruto and Shikamaru's new friend could make it rain whenever he cried.

Naruto and the others had invited him to play with them and meet this new friend named Yota in the forest, but he declined on the grounds that he needed to train.

If he was right, Yota was one of Orochimaru's failed Impure World Reincarnation experiments, abandoned in the forest near Konoha. His Kekkei Genkai was the ability to control the weather.

He appeared to have been abandoned, but who knew whether Orochimaru was secretly keeping an eye on this failed experiment? In the anime, the children who played with Yota were basically all direct descendants of Konoha's great clans, so naturally Orochimaru would not do anything to them.

After all, those were clans with secret techniques. If he captured their children, dealing with the consequences would be troublesome. Besides, Orochimaru was only interested in the Sharingan.

But Lin Chuan was different. If he were captured, only his parents would be heartbroken, Teacher Maruboshi Kosuke would worry, and Naruto and the others would worry. No one else would care whether he lived or died. A genius who had not yet grown up was no genius at all. He could not afford to be reckless.

Before he had the strength to protect himself, he had no plans to leave the village. After graduating from the Ninja Academy, he would leave the village to carry out missions under a Jonin team leader. The danger would not be as great then. That would be the right time to leave.

Fortunately, his home was to the left of Hokage Rock, while the Uchiha clan was to the right. The two places were farther apart than anything else, so even when the night of the clan massacre came, it would not affect his home.

In the backyard of the wooden house, he looked up at the full moon hanging high in the sky. For once, he was not training today, because the village had imposed a curfew. His father had also gotten off work early, saying that some kind of counterespionage drill was being held.

When school ended that afternoon, he had unusually not skipped class. He had even seen Iruka tell Sasuke to stay after school. It really was the night of the clan massacre.

He would not train tonight. Giving himself a night to relax was not bad. He ate dinner with his parents early, then returned to his room and looked over the Grind Panel from this period.

[Ninjutsu]

[Non-Elemental Ninjutsu]

[E-rank Ninjutsu: Transformation Technique (Genin: 1014/2000)]

[E-rank Ninjutsu: Clone Technique (Genin: 1013/2000)]

[E-rank Ninjutsu: Substitution Technique (Genin: 1017/2000)]

[D-rank Ninjutsu: Body Flicker Technique (Genin: 1412/2000)]

[B-rank Ninjutsu: Shadow Clone (Usable: 11/100)]

The Shadow Clone technique could finally be used to speed up his grinding. Unfortunately, after creating Shadow Clones, he did not have enough chakra left to train B-rank Water Release. He could only use them to practice C-rank Water Release or the Body Flicker Technique. For B-rank Water Release, only his main body could recover chakra and keep grinding.

[Ninjutsu]

[Water Release Ninjutsu]

[C-rank Ninjutsu: Water Release Clone (Genin: 152/1000)]

[C-rank Ninjutsu: Water Release Shock Wave (Genin: 143/1000)]

[B-rank Ninjutsu: Water Release Formation Wall (Usable: 17/100) (Two hand seals)]

[B-rank Ninjutsu: Water Release Dragon Bullet (Usable: 19/100) (Six hand seals)]

Through the constant grinding of both his main body and Shadow Clones, the proficiency of his Water Release techniques kept increasing. In the end, chakra still limited his grinding. He had to allocate his daily chakra carefully between different techniques. If only he had endless chakra. Actually, becoming a jinchuriki would not be bad either. At least he would never lack chakra.

His personal panel was still the same. Learning B-rank Water Release had not made him a Chunin, but his water-nature chakra proficiency had broken through and become Genin level...

[Life: 3 points]

[Bloodline: Ordinary]

[Talent: Mediocre]

[Strength: Genin]

[Chakra Nature: (Water (Genin: 21%)]

[Throwing: (Kunai Throwing)] [Ninjutsu: (Non-Elemental Ninjutsu) (Water Release Ninjutsu)] [Taijutsu] [Genjutsu] [Other Functions]

It seemed ninja ranks were judged by overall strength. To advance to Chunin, he would probably have to grind every aspect of his abilities up to Chunin level.

However, his talents had improved somewhat. It seemed learning more ninjutsu helped increase his talent.

[Talent: [Ninjutsu: 5+] [Body: 4+] [Illusion: 3+] [Wisdom: 4+] [Strength: 3+] [Speed: 4+] [Spirit: 3+] [Seals: 4+] Total: 30]

Thirty points across the eight ninja attributes still did not put him beyond Genin level. The twelve rookies taking the Chunin Ninja Exams were basically all around thirty points, with only Neji's team being somewhat higher than the others.

The highest was Neji's forty-two points. Calling that Chunin-level strength would not be an exaggeration. Iruka only had forty-eight points, and his Wisdom had raised the average, since Iruka was a teacher and Wisdom was related to knowledge reserves.

After closing the Grind Panel, when it was about eight or nine at night, he went up to the roof and looked toward the other side of Hokage Rock, in the direction of the Uchiha District. That area was shrouded in a dark barrier. No sounds or screams could escape; only the low cawing of crows could be heard.

"Caw, caw, caw—"

He gently raised his arm, and an unusually intelligent crow landed on it. He had raised this crow for more than half a year. It had even learned to refine chakra. Of the dozen or so crows he had trained, only this one possessed chakra. It was good enough to serve as a summoning beast.

"Stay in your nest. Don't fly around tonight," Lin Chuan softly instructed the crow as he stroked its head. Then he turned, jumped down into the backyard, went inside, shut the door, washed up, and went to sleep. Tomorrow would be another new day.

Early the next morning, on his way to school, he heard a horrifying piece of news: the Uchiha clan had been massacred. It was said that Itachi Uchiha had done it, and Itachi had also been listed by Konoha as an S-rank rogue ninja.

By the time he reached the school and entered the classroom, everyone was discussing it. Their gazes kept drifting toward Sasuke Uchiha's seat. If nothing unexpected happened, Sasuke Uchiha would not come to school. He would be in Konoha Hospital.

After taking one hit of Itachi's Tsukuyomi, even though Itachi had gone easy on him, Sasuke Uchiha would still need to stay in bed for at least a month.

By now, Danzo had probably been removed from his position as the head of Root by that old bastard Sarutobi. Still, those two old bastards were probably playing their little game of promotion in name and demotion in reality again.

Once that old bastard Sarutobi needed a pair of black gloves, he would definitely reactivate Danzo to do the dirty work. It was only a matter of time.

Of course, none of that had anything to do with him. He continued attending classes and training as usual—carving wood with the Chakra Scalpel in the morning, then skipping class in the afternoon to return home and train.

Until that old schemer Shimura Danzō arrived. What was meant to come had finally come...