Honestly, being the center of attention felt pretty good.
He had barely taken a few steps into the school building when he ran into someone he knew.
The boy froze, eyes wide as he looked Lei Dou up and down. "Hey, did you take the wrong medicine or something? Your whole vibe feels different!"
"Does it?"
"Does it? Go look in a mirror!"
Shikamaru looked as though he had seen a ghost. The Lei Dou he remembered always wore a deep frown, weighed down by a misery he could never shake.
But the boy before him radiated something called confidence from head to toe, so dazzling that it was hard to look straight at him.
In fact, the faint aura Lei Dou gave off made Shikamaru feel an inexplicable hint of pressure.
This had to be his imagination, right?
He was clearly much stronger than this guy. How could Lei Dou possibly intimidate him?
"I think Lei Dou seems weird today too. Like... he's easier on the eyes?"
Choji, who stood beside them crunching potato chips, offered his earnest assessment through bulging cheeks.
Lei Dou rolled his eyes. "Just eat your snacks, Choji!"
"Oh! Sure! Want a chip?"
"No, I'm cutting out fried food. Thanks."
The moment he entered the classroom, even the air seemed to freeze.
His classmates' jaws dropped, their gazes trained on Lei Dou like spotlights.
Even the usually aloof Sasuke couldn't resist turning his head to steal several extra looks.
Had this guy only changed his clothes? Why did it feel like he'd swapped his soul for a more interesting one too?
"Wow! Lei Dou's look today... I think he's just a tiny bit cooler than Sasuke-kun!"
"Help, that look in his eyes is killing me! What do I do? I'm falling for him!"
As Lei Dou's deskmate, Ino had been staring at him with her mouth in an O since the moment she saw him, unable to close it.
There was easily enough room to stuff an egg inside.
Lei Dou calmly pulled out his chair and sat down, glancing at the still-dazed Ino. "What's up? Still half asleep? Don't recognize your old deskmate?"
Ino and Lei Dou had always been close, and she occasionally sneaked a few looks at him.
But with Lei Dou looking at her from so close today, her face flushed bright red in an instant.
She wasn't like Hinata, who fainted at the drop of a hat. She had always been easygoing and outspoken, so why couldn't she keep her heart from racing today?
"I... I'm not... It's nothing like that!"
"Really?"
A mischievous smile curled Lei Dou's lips as he leaned forward slightly, bringing his handsome face a little closer to Ino's.
"But you changed your shampoo today. It smells pretty nice."
Lei Dou tossed out the remark casually, watching with satisfaction as Ino grew so flustered that even her ears turned red.
Full marks for that flirting.
"D-does it?"
"As long as... you like it, Lei Dou!"
"Yeah, I really do."
"R-really?"
Sitting in front of them, Shikamaru and Choji couldn't help exchanging a glance as they listened.
Choji stuffed his mouth with chips. "Shikamaru, is Ino's tongue tied? Why is she stuttering?"
Shikamaru sighed helplessly. "Can't be helped. Lei Dou's charm is nuclear-grade today."
"Charm? What charm? Can you eat it?"
"Uh... you don't need to understand. That particular problem will probably never trouble you."
Just as Ino was stammering through her whispered conversation with Lei Dou-
A figure sauntered past with a crooked smirk, clearly thinking he looked cool, then backed up as though someone had hit rewind.
He grabbed Lei Dou's shoulder and forcibly turned him around.
Ino rolled her eyes in fury. She had been having a great conversation with her dream guy. What was Naruto's problem?
"Lei Dou!"
"Come clean. Did you go to a plastic surgery clinic?"
Lei Dou stared expressionlessly at the big face thrust in front of him.
"Did your brain short-circuit?"
Lei Dou and Naruto usually got along well, but right now Naruto looked utterly devastated.
"Why do you look even more handsome than before? Damn it!"
"I could put up with Sasuke being a show-off, but now you're even better-looking than him! What chance do I have with my Sakura now..."
Naruto turned toward Sakura, who was also sneaking looks at Lei Dou nearby. His jealousy spilled everywhere. One more romantic rival.
Listening nearby, Sasuke felt a vein throb on his forehead and shot Naruto a fierce glare. What did he mean, show-off?
This dead last's vocabulary was so limited it was infuriating.
Just then, Iruka-sensei walked in with his lesson plans tucked under his arm. He pointed at Naruto and shouted, "What are you doing? Get back to your seat! Class is about to start!"
As soon as he finished, he noticed the transformed Lei Dou too, and surprise flickered in his eyes.
But he was a teacher, after all, and had much more composure than this bunch of kids.
Iruka merely took a couple of extra looks before saying with a smile:
"You're looking lively today, Lei Dou. You seem completely different."
Lei Dou smiled faintly and replied meaningfully, "You'll see the real changes later, sir."
"Will I?"
"Good! I like that confidence! A ninja needs that kind of spirit. If you don't even believe in yourself, how will you complete difficult missions?"
"All right, sit down and open your textbooks!"
The day's lessons flew by.
In the past, sleeping through class had been a pleasure. Now, it was pure torture for Lei Dou.
He couldn't actively update his skills. He could only sit there blankly, staring at the passive skill section of his system panel as it cycled over and over.
His only entertainment was teasing his deskmate, Ino.
Something was off with her today. She had stayed beet red the whole time, practically steaming from the top of her head. It was especially fun to watch.
When the final bell finally rang, Lei Dou hurriedly said goodbye to Ino, Shikamaru, and the others, then bolted.
Getting home to update his skills came first. He couldn't waste a single second.
Yet the moment Lei Dou stepped through his front door, a knock sounded behind him.
"Who is it?"
"Lei Dou, are you home? It's me, Uncle Masano! I've come to check on you!"
Uncle Masano???
Lei Dou had just been about to take out the genjutsu scroll and learn it through skill analysis, while also seeing whether genjutsu could improve his mental energy.
After all, stronger mental energy would surely make his Chakra Extraction Technique even more efficient.
Hearing the call from outside, Lei Dou quickly tucked the scroll away and went to open the door.
Standing outside was Masano Shimozuki, a middle-aged man nearing forty and a Chunin.
Though his strength was only average, he had apparently been a close friend of Lei Dou's late father and had done a great deal to help look after Lei Dou over the years.
Lei Dou felt genuinely grateful to this elder.
"Uncle Masano, come in!"
"Have a seat. I'll make you some tea!"
Lei Dou got to work briskly. Masano knew the place well, visiting two or three times a week.
"Sure, go ahead. Use plenty of tea leaves. I don't like it weak!"
"You got it!" Lei Dou called from the kitchen.
Before long, he brought a steaming cup of strong tea to the table.
Although Masano was middle-aged, he was a ninja, and his frame remained sturdy.
The muscles bulging along his thick forearms made it obvious that he was a tough man who relied on strength.
"Lei Dou, your graduation exam is coming up. You can't slack off now. You've got to work harder!"
Lei Dou nodded obediently.
"I know. Thank you for looking out for me, Uncle Masano!"
Masano reached out with his callused hand and gently ruffled Lei Dou's hair.
"You seem a little different, kid. But that's a good thing. Don't spend all day looking miserable like you used to, like some little old man."
"You're still young. If the sky falls, the adults will hold it up. What have you got to worry about?"
Lei Dou kept nodding eagerly. "You're right, Uncle!"
"All right. Seeing you so full of life puts my mind at ease!"
As he spoke, Masano took a small cloth pouch from inside his clothes. It bulged with Lei Dou's living expenses for the month.
"Uncle Masano, you really don't have to. The savings my parents left are enough for me!"
"Absolutely not! Do you know how hard your parents worked to save that money?"
"That's for you to get married someday. If you blow it all now, are you planning to stay a bachelor?"
Masano laughed heartily and declared, "Go on, take it! Our Shimozuki clan might not be some wealthy, powerful family, but we can easily afford to feed a little fellow like you!"
"Thank you, Uncle!"
Lei Dou thanked him sincerely once more.
Masano had long grown used to the boy's good manners. It was precisely Lei Dou's considerate, well-mannered nature that made him genuinely fond of the boy and treat him like his own son.
Naturally, his expectations were high too.
"All right, I won't keep you from studying. I'll be off!"
Masano rose and headed out, but just as one foot crossed the threshold, he suddenly stopped and looked back.
"Oh, right!"
"That kid Hayate told me yesterday you were looking to get a ninjutsu scroll from me?"
Lei Dou paused, about to explain that he no longer needed one because Hayate had already helped him find one.
But without another word, Masano pulled a somewhat worn ninjutsu scroll from inside his clothes.
"Your uncle isn't all that capable, and I don't know many ninjutsu. It's not how I make my living, after all."
"But I've had this Fire Release scroll tucked away for years. Take it and practice with it. I don't know whether you'll be able to learn it, but there's no harm in trying!"
With that, Masano pressed the scroll into Lei Dou's arms, patted his shoulder, and left without looking back.
Holding the weighty Fire Release scroll, Lei Dou felt warmth surge through his heart.
Uncle Masano truly treated him exceptionally well. For an ordinary Chunin, a ninjutsu scroll was a scarce resource, something earned by risking his life.
And he'd given something so precious away without even blinking?
For the old Lei Dou, this Fire Release scroll would have been nothing but wastepaper.
His chakra affinity had almost certainly been water alone.
Without the matching affinity, he couldn't learn it at all. But now, things were completely different.
"System, can you analyze this scroll?"
[Great Sage: Analysis in progress...]
Lei Dou eagerly unrolled the scroll across the table, staring intently at its symbols and chakra pathway diagrams.
[Analyzing...] [0.5%] [1.0%]
Huh?
Why was the progress bar crawling like a snail, only going up by 0.5% at a time?
This was even slower than analyzing Transparent Release last time!
But last time, Hayate had demonstrated it personally and explained everything step by step, answering questions wherever Lei Dou got stuck.
With nothing but an inanimate scroll to work from this time, slower analysis made sense.
As long as it works, that's fine. Good things take time!
To speed up the progress bar, Lei Dou began following the scroll's instructions, trying to mobilize the chakra inside him while clumsily forming hand seals.
Once he put it into practice, the analysis sped up considerably, as though someone had hit the accelerator.
Even so, it remained a painstaking process.
Lei Dou sat there from the afternoon until the early hours, long after darkness had fallen outside.
He watched as the progress bar finally stalled with only 1% left.
That last step was often the most agonizing.
An entire hour passed, and the progress bar still hadn't budged.
Lei Dou's eyelids kept drooping. He was so sleepy that he wished he could prop them open with matchsticks.
[Analysis complete] [Congratulations, host. New skill acquired.] [Fire Release: Fire Dragon Technique] [Chakra nature transformation - fire]
Huh?
Buy one, get one free?
He'd not only learned the ninjutsu but activated fire nature transformation along with it?
This... this really was an unexpected windfall!
"So that means I'm a dual-nature genius now, too?"
Normally, only someone at the jonin level had a chance of developing a second chakra nature.
And he hadn't even graduated from the Ninja Academy yet.
"The Fire Dragon Technique, huh?"
This was a B-rank ninjutsu with considerable power.
Lei Dou couldn't have been more pleased.
"Uncle Masano, this is such an incredible gift. I'll repay you a hundredfold someday!"
This wasn't just about gaining a ninjutsu. More importantly, it confirmed a theory: as long as he had a scroll, he could obtain the corresponding chakra nature through the system's analysis.
In other words, collecting all five basic natures was now just a matter of time. So easy!
"Now I've got water in my left hand and fire in my right. I guess that makes me pretty versatile!"
"Too bad it isn't water and earth. Otherwise, I could fuse them and get Wood Release!"
If he had Wood Release, why would he need to scrape by in Konoha anymore? He'd be soaring straight to the top.
"But water and fire... can't they fuse into Boil Release?"
Lei Dou's mind raced, and a bold idea suddenly struck him.
Could he use the active skill's analysis function to forcibly blend these two chakra natures and create a new Kekkei Genkai?
Boil Release! That packed some seriously explosive power.
Once his chakra started boiling, the monstrous strength it unleashed in an instant would be terrifying. And if Lei Dou could exploit an infinite-stamina bug on top of that, the prospect was almost too glorious to contemplate.
He'd become a human Gundam, cutting his way from one end of the village to the other without even getting winded.
"If I don't have a scroll and just try to figure out how to fuse the two chakra natures myself..."
There was no question about it: that would be suicide. But if he brought the active skill in to analyze the process, his chances of success might be a different story.
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