Entering the Ninja Academy!

The Ninja Academy was always bustling with voices on the first day of school.

Ye Chuan passed through the throng and walked through the school gates.

His exceptionally handsome face stood out even among a crowd of children, drawing plenty of attention, but he ignored it all and headed straight for his assigned classroom.

The classroom was large, already packed with chattering children-more than a hundred, by his estimate.

At the front stood their teacher, Umino Iruka, who had a scar across his nose.

Ye Chuan found a corner seat by the window.

A casual glance revealed Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and several other faces he knew from the future.

The future's prominent figures were still just noisy brats at this point.

But none of that had anything to do with him. Ye Chuan withdrew his gaze and paid them no further attention.

Iruka clapped his hands to quiet everyone down, then began speaking:

"Welcome to the Ninja Academy! I'm your teacher, Iruka.

"The path of a ninja is a difficult one. Not many students successfully graduate from our school and become genin each year, so you'll all have to work hard starting today!"

Ye Chuan showed little reaction.

Choosing twenty or thirty out of more than a hundred-the elimination rate certainly wasn't low.

After all, extracting chakra and mastering ninjutsu both required talent and perseverance. Simply enrolling wasn't enough to succeed.

Soon, Iruka led the new students out to assemble on the school grounds for the opening ceremony.

Up on the platform, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, attended in person and delivered a speech.

"...Wherever leaves dance, fire will burn..."

Listening to that all-too-familiar speech about the "Will of Fire," Ye Chuan remained expressionless.

He knew full well that this village was nowhere near as bright as it appeared.

The children around him might have been fired up by it, but as a transmigrator with an adult's soul, he found it rather ironic.

The Will of Fire? Sounds nice.

Ye Chuan's gaze swept over the hundred-odd young faces on the grounds, and he sneered inwardly.

In the end, only nine people from this year's intake would actually graduate and become genin.

Uchiha, Hyuga, Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka, the Inuzuka Clan, Aburame... which of them didn't come from a prominent ninja family in Konoha?

How many civilian ninja were there who truly had almost no background, like Sakura Haruno?

The so-called Will of Fire was far too cruel to ordinary people. In this world, birth and strength mattered far more than some vague, intangible will.

He knew that this stretch of peace before him was only a fleeting dream. In just a few years, there would be Orochimaru, Pain, the Shinobi World War...

Thinking of the future sight of corpses strewn everywhere, then looking at the oblivious children before him, Ye Chuan felt even less inclined to be moved.

After the ceremony ended, the crowd dispersed.

Several girls attracted by his looks immediately approached him, blushing as they tried to invite him to play with them.

"Not interested." Ye Chuan rejected them outright, his tone cold.

He had no time to play house with children.

To him, every minute and every second was precious.

Ignoring the girls' disappointed expressions and the other children playing around, Ye Chuan strode out of the school and headed straight home.

At first, the ninja responsible for looking after orphans would still come by regularly to check on him, worried that a six-year-old couldn't take care of himself.

But Ye Chuan was an adult on the inside, after all, so looking after himself was no problem.

When the caretaker discovered that Ye Chuan not only kept the little house neat and tidy but had even learned to cook for himself, the visits gradually became much less frequent, until he was practically left to his own devices.

That suited Ye Chuan perfectly, giving him space where he wouldn't be disturbed.

For him, the only thing that took effort to adapt to was the various limitations of this young body.

Putting down his schoolbag and changing into lightweight clothes, he immediately went to the clearing behind the house and gripped his wooden sword.

Daily task-[Swing the sword one thousand times]!

Whoosh!

Ye Chuan began swinging his sword, his movements precise and meticulous.

This six-year-old body was still far too weak. After only a few dozen swings, his arms began to ache, and sweat soon broke out.

He had to stop frequently to rest and steady his breathing before he could continue.

For him as he was now, a thousand sword swings were an agonizing process that consumed almost all his time after school and every ounce of his strength.

I have to adapt as quickly as possible. Classes will take up my days, and I'll only have less and less time to train, he thought as he swung his sword.

The reward for all that effort was one point of inheritance experience.

According to the system's explanation, one experience point increased inheritance progress by one ten-thousandth.

In other words, I'll need ten thousand experience points, a full ten thousand days... nearly twenty-seven and a half years to reach 100%?

During a break, Ye Chuan calculated it in his head.

That timespan was somewhat similar to Hawkeye's own growth trajectory. The World's Greatest Swordsman had also taken decades to reach the pinnacle.

At the start of the Pirate King story, Hawkeye had been around forty-one and had already held the title of the world's greatest swordsman for who knew how many years.

And more than twenty years earlier, when Pirate King Roger was executed in Loguetown, he had also been there. He had looked like a young man then, and had probably already been a renowned master swordsman by around twenty.

By that calculation, his main period of growth had probably lasted only a dozen to twenty years or so.

But in the world of the Hokage, nearly thirty years was too long, with far too many uncertainties. The Fourth Shinobi World War wouldn't wait thirty years for him.

But relying entirely on daily sword swings... this is far too inefficient. Ye Chuan frowned.

The system probably wasn't that stingy. There had to be other ways to gain inheritance experience faster; he simply didn't know them yet.

Could it be combat? Or completing certain challenges?

He leaned more toward the latter. Otherwise, relying on this daily task alone would be far too grueling.

At his current rate of 0.01% per day, he would gain 3.65% inheritance progress in a year.

3.65%... what stage of Hawkeye's life would that correspond to? Perhaps when he was just past ten?

At that age, he should already have had a very solid foundation in swordsmanship. At the very least, his physical abilities would have been far better than Ye Chuan's were now.

If he could reach that level, handling the Ninja Academy's classes, or even facing genin-level opponents, should become considerably easier.

Setting those thoughts aside for now, Ye Chuan tightened his grip on the wooden sword again and focused all his attention on each swing.

The road to strength was destined to be long and monotonous.

From then on, Ye Chuan's life became as rigidly routine as a machine.

He attended classes at the Ninja Academy during the day, trying not to draw attention, then went home immediately after school and devoted all his time to the system's daily task.

He hardly ever spoke to any of his classmates and always kept to himself. His handsome face was almost always expressionless, and his eyes held an indifference that didn't suit his age.

Over time, his classmates grew used to his aloofness. Apart from a few girls who would occasionally steal glances at him, almost no one tried to strike up a conversation anymore.

In terms of popularity, he ranked even below Naruto Uzumaki, whom everyone ostracized.

But Ye Chuan didn't care in the slightest. All his attention was devoted to improving his strength.