Six Powers!

So, should he help Konoha? Stop Orochimaru? Save the Third Hokage?

Ye Chuan shook his head, quickly finding his answer.

No, at least not now.

He was no saint, nor did he feel any deep sense of belonging to this village.

He would do his best to save ordinary people he could help along the way, but he would never be foolish enough to get involved in a battle between Kage Level fighters.

With his inheritance progress still below 50%, even with Haki and a famous sword, his chances against an all-out Orochimaru remained slim.

Until he could guarantee his own safety, lying low and growing stronger was the way to go.

He had to avoid anything that might get him killed.

Besides...

The Konoha Crush Plan might... be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

A Konoha in chaos would see countless battles, making it the perfect opportunity to gain inheritance experience.

At that thought, the anxiety he had felt over his slow growth in strength eased considerably.

After completing all his daily tasks, Ye Chuan felt the experience building within him and sat cross-legged, calming his mind and focusing.

His consciousness sank into his mental space once again.

This time, what he sensed was no longer just combat techniques and experience, but more of a... state of mind.

[Inheritance progress: 50.1%]

[Inheritance progress has reached the 50% milestone!]

[Congratulations, host! Milestone reward obtained: Six Powers]

Ye Chuan's eyes snapped open.

"Six Powers?! I actually got those!"

He immediately checked the details of the system reward.

The Six Powers, from the world of Pirate King, was the collective name for six Taijutsu techniques that surpassed the limits of human physical ability.

There was [Soru] for high-speed movement, [Geppo] for jumping through the air, [Iron Body] to make the body as hard as steel, [Finger Pistol] to deliver impacts with the fingers, [Rankyaku] to launch slashing waves with kicks, and [Kami-e] to make the body as light as paper.

Every one of these six Taijutsu techniques could be called extraordinary.

Especially [Soru] and [Geppo].

[Soru]'s high-speed movement could combine perfectly with the Body Flicker Technique, taking his speed to an entirely new level.

And in this Naruto world, where combat generally took place on the ground, [Geppo] offered practically game-breaking mobility.

Having received his reward, Ye Chuan decided to treat himself and headed to the familiar Ichiraku Ramen.

As he bent over his noodles, he caught a familiar figure out of the corner of his eye: the chief examiner of the preliminary matches, Gekko Hayate.

He was eating noodles at the counter nearby.

A thought stirred in Ye Chuan's mind as he recalled this Special Jōnin's storyline.

He seemed to have been killed by Baki after accidentally overhearing Sunagakure and Otogakure plotting together to invade Konoha.

Ye Chuan sighed inwardly.

Although he had decided not to actively interfere in major events, there was no harm in saving this Jōnin, who might prove somewhat useful in the future, if it took only a little effort.

At that thought, he picked up his half-finished bowl of ramen, pretended it had slipped from his hand, and cried out.

With a splash, most of the hot broth in the bowl unfortunately spilled onto the clothes of Gekko Hayate beside him.

"Ah! Cough, cough... cough! Hot, hot, hot!"

Gekko Hayate jumped up from the scalding heat, frantically brushing the broth off his clothes while coughing violently. His health had never been good to begin with.

"Sorry, sorry! I'm terribly sorry!" Ye Chuan immediately stood and apologized sincerely.

"Cough... it's fine... Oh, it's you!"

Gekko Hayate looked at his filthy clothes, then at the face of the boy apologizing before him, and suddenly recognized him.

Wasn't this the kid named Ye Chuan who had defeated an Otogakure Genin with a single move in the Chunin Ninja Exams preliminaries not long ago?

Why did it have to be this kid who got my clothes dirty?

Looking at Ye Chuan's innocent face, he felt deeply frustrated, but he could hardly lose his temper. He could only chalk it up to bad luck.

In this state, he clearly could not continue his surveillance mission.

"I'll go back and change first..."

Leaving those hurried words behind, Gekko Hayate left the ramen shop, clutching his chest as he continued to cough.

Watching him leave, Ye Chuan sat back down as though nothing had happened and asked the owner for another bowl of noodles.

With Gekko Hayate missing tonight's surveillance, he probably would not hear anything he should not, and thus would not be killed.

After finishing his ramen, Ye Chuan wandered over to the village's public bathhouse.

A hot bath after intense training helped relieve fatigue.

However, the moment he entered the men's bath, he keenly sensed a lecherous gaze coming from above the dividing wall, its target clearly being... the women's bath next door.

Ye Chuan followed the gaze and saw a middle-aged man with spiky white hair draped over the top of the wall, chuckling foolishly as he devoted his full attention to gathering material.

Jiraiya... The corner of Ye Chuan's eye twitched.

This member of the legendary Sannin, the Pervy Sage, had indeed returned to Konoha as well.

Orochimaru, Jiraiya... Two of the Sannin were already here.

It looked like things really were about to get lively in Konoha.

He paid no further attention to that old lecher and walked into the bath, finding a corner to soak in.

The warm water enveloped his body, soothing his tense muscles.

Ye Chuan closed his eyes, but did not relax completely. Instead, he quietly began another kind of training in the water.

He held out his hand, and a water balloon he had brought from home appeared in it.

Then he focused, drawing on the modest amount of chakra within him. Following the method he remembered Naruto practicing, he tried to make the chakra spin rapidly and irregularly inside the water balloon.

[Rasengan]!

This Ninjutsu had been developed by the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. It was the pinnacle of pure shape transformation and possessed tremendous power.

The original story had explained its training method in great detail. With Ye Chuan's exceptional control, there was no reason not to learn it.

Although his main focus was swordsmanship and Haki, there was no harm in having more skills.

Having come to the Naruto world, using only Hawkeye's power would have been something of a waste.

Mastering some powerful Ninjutsu would also expand his combat options and give him more trump cards.

The water balloon shook violently in his hand, the water inside swirling faster and faster, growing more and more chaotic... pop!

In the end, the water balloon could not withstand it and burst.

"Still not good enough. Taking control of chakra's shape to the limit really is difficult." Ye Chuan was not discouraged.

He knew this would take patient, steady work.

But he was confident that, with his advantages, he would master the Rasengan far faster than Naruto.

Besides the Rasengan, he also thought about his own chakra nature.

Shortly after enrolling, he had tested it with Chakra Paper. The result had been-[Lightning].

The paper had become wrinkled, as though it had been crumpled.

Having the same lightning nature as Kakashi was rather good. Lightning Release excelled in penetration and speed, making it well suited to complement his swordsmanship.

"Unfortunately, the original story never explained exactly how Kakashi learned [Chidori]."

It seemed to demand an extremely high level of both nature transformation and shape transformation. He could only work it out gradually himself later, or look for other Lightning Release Ninjutsu.

But... a Lightning Release Rasengan?