Grind is My Ninja Way

"Continue."

Seimei collected his thoughts, stopped dwelling on it, and raised his hand to continue practicing the Clone Technique.

However, as soon as he started forming the hand seals, he realized that his chakra was completely depleted, not enough to support another attempt at the Clone Technique.

He opened the panel and glanced at it. As expected, his chakra was at its lowest point.

Recalling the memories in his mind, Seimei sat down cross-legged, immersed his mind in his body, and used his willpower to extract the physical energy generated by his cells.

Then, he mixed it evenly with his spiritual energy, and after some transformation, it turned into chakra and flowed into the chakra pathways throughout his body.

As this process continued, the chakra within him gradually became abundant.

...

An hour later.

Seimei opened his eyes.

"Panel!"

With a thought, Seimei opened the proficiency panel.

[Name: Uchiha Seimei

Age: 10 years old

Physique: 5

Spirit: 7

Chakra: 2→52 (125→126)

Bloodline: Sharingan - Unawakened (51/100)

Skills: Chakra Refinement Technique: lv0 (1/100)

Clone Technique: lv0 (6/100)]

Just like the 'Clone Technique', after he personally refined chakra once, a new skill called 'Chakra Refinement Technique' appeared on the panel.

The lv0 Chakra Refinement Technique could increase his chakra limit by one point and restore fifty points of chakra every hour it was practiced.

At the same time, the proficiency would also increase by one point.

It was foreseeable that as its level increased, its effects would surely improve significantly.

Currently, his growth rate might not be as fast as some geniuses, but that might not be the case in the future.

With this in mind, Seimei didn't waste any more time and once again focused his mind, closing his eyes to refine chakra.

...

Time passed by.

In the blink of an eye, another hour had gone by.

Seimei opened his eyes and sensed the chakra within him. It was almost at its limit, so he stopped refining.

Of course, he couldn't continue refining anymore.

After all, chakra wasn't created out of thin air. The refining process required consuming his physical and mental energy.

Previously, merging with the original owner's memories had consumed a lot of his mental energy. Afterward, he had been thinking about countermeasures and exploring the panel's functions, so his mind was already exhausted.

If he continued, even if it didn't harm his foundation, it would at least be half as effective.

In that case, it was better to stop for now.

'However, I can't waste the chakra within me.'

Thinking of this, Seimei forced himself to cheer up, recalled the memories in his mind, and once again started forming hand seals, attempting to perform the Clone Technique.

A few minutes later, his chakra was depleted. Seimei had performed the Clone Technique a total of five times.

Without any surprises, all of them failed.

It made sense. Even proper ninja academy students needed a few years to master the three basic techniques. He, an outsider, couldn't expect to succeed after just a few imitations; that would be wishful thinking.

Even with the original owner's memories as a bonus, he couldn't do it.

However, judging from the proficiency panel, he was only four-fifths away from success.

Currently, the only thing limiting his progress was his chakra reserves.

But this was difficult to improve in a short time. He wasn't some genius with abundant chakra at such a young age.

For now, he could only develop step by step.

Looking up at the bright moon outside the window, Seimei stopped thinking and, after a quick wash, returned to his bedroom.

Soon, soft snoring sounds came from the room.

Outside the window.

A figure appeared at some unknown time.

Crimson eyes shone brightly in the night; it was clearly an Uchiha ninja who had activated the three-tomoe Sharingan.

He stared at Seimei for a while, then silently disappeared.

...

The next day.

Morning.

The first thing Seimei did upon waking up was to open the panel.

[Name: Uchiha Seimei

Age: 10 years old

Physique: 5

Spirit: 7

Chakra: 37 (127)

Bloodline: Sharingan - Unawakened (51/100)

Skills: Chakra Refinement Technique: lv0 (2/100)

Clone Technique: lv0 (19/100)]

After confirming that all of this wasn't an illusion, he finally let out a sigh of relief.

Then, he focused his attention on 'Chakra'.

He could see that after a night's rest, even without specifically refining chakra, his body had naturally recovered more than thirty points of chakra.

However, Seimei didn't immediately consume it. He still had to go to school today, and it would be troublesome if he needed it then.

He had actually considered taking a few days off to convert the original owner's legacy first, but that might attract more attention.

It was better to go to school!

That way, even if he revealed some flaws, he could explain them as being due to the sudden change.

If he stayed at home and someone came looking for him, it would be even harder to fool them.

After weighing his options, Seimei decided to continue going to school. As long as he kept a low profile, there shouldn't be any major problems.

With his decision made, Seimei stopped thinking and quickly got ready. After eating something to fill his stomach, he immediately headed to the Ninja Academy.

The Uchiha clan hadn't been forced to relocate to the corner of the village yet and was still located in the central area, not far from the Ninja Academy.

Therefore, Seimei quickly arrived at the school.

Following his memories, he found his classroom. Some people greeted him along the way, and he simply nodded in response.

Fortunately, the original owner, like many Uchiha ninjas, was rather aloof, making it easier for him to pretend.

Ding dong~

About ten minutes later, the bell rang for class.

A ninja in his twenties walked into the classroom. This was their homeroom teacher and also their subject teacher, named Sugiki Kazuto.

From the original owner's memories, he knew that Kazuto, like most teachers in the school, didn't show any obvious bias towards different students.

Therefore, Seimei didn't have to worry about the Uchiha surname causing any trouble.

As he was thinking this, Seimei noticed Sugiki Kazuto glance in his direction, making his heart skip a beat.

Fortunately, Kazuto didn't look for long and soon started the class.

Seimei didn't hear a word of what Sugiki Kazuto was saying on the podium. He was just wondering why Kazuto had looked at him earlier.

He was certain that it wasn't a casual glance; Kazuto had genuinely been observing him.

'Did he discover something?'

Seimei felt uneasy.

Ding dong~

Suddenly, the bell rang for the end of class.

Seimei was startled awake. A class had passed without him realizing it.

Sugiki Kazuto looked at the absent-minded Seimei, shook his head, and didn't say anything. After announcing the end of class, he left the classroom.

As Seimei's teacher, he naturally knew about the news of his parents' deaths.

Or rather, whenever a student in the class had a family member who died, he would be informed. This was information specifically conveyed to them, the teachers, by the Konoha higher-ups.

As for the purpose...

It was naturally to allow them to guide their students in a timely manner and prevent any extreme situations from arising.

Originally, he was supposed to counsel Uchiha Seimei today as well.

But last night, an Uchiha ninja had already approached him and told him not to, so he didn't interfere.

The Uchiha's purpose for doing this was simple: they wanted to see if Seimei could awaken the Sharingan.

For the Uchiha higher-ups, it was no big deal if an ordinary clan member's potential was wasted. If they could awaken a pair of Sharingan, it would be a huge gain.

That's why they didn't let Sugiki Kazuto intervene.

If it were Iruka in the future, he might have resisted the pressure and guided Seimei, but Sugiki Kazuto was different. He didn't have that strong a sense of responsibility, so he simply went along with it.

Seimei knew nothing about all of this. He was still feeling guilty about Sugiki Kazuto's special attention.

However, after thinking for a while, he roughly guessed that Sugiki Kazuto probably didn't have any ill intentions towards him.

He probably just knew about the original owner's parents' deaths and was paying a bit more attention to him because of that.

"Phew—"

After figuring this out, Seimei finally relaxed.

(End of Chapter)