"Continue."
Snapping back from his thoughts, Shane stopped overthinking and raised his hand to continue practicing the Clone Technique.
However, just as he formed the hand seal, he realized that his chakra was completely depleted — there wasn't enough to perform the technique again.
He opened his panel for a quick glance, and sure enough, his chakra was empty.
Recalling memories from his mind, Shane sat cross-legged, focused his thoughts inward, and used his will to draw physical energy produced by his body's cells.
Then, he mixed it evenly with spiritual energy, and through a process of transformation, it became chakra, which flowed into the chakra pathways spread throughout his body.
As this process continued, his chakra gradually replenished.
One hour later.
Shane opened his eyes.
"Panel."
With a thought, Shane opened the proficiency panel.
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[Name: Uchiha Shane
Age: 10
Body: 5
Mind: 7
Chakra: 2 → 52 (125 → 126)
Bloodline: Sharingan · Unawakened (51/100)
Skills:
Chakra Extraction Technique: Lv0 (1/100)
Clone Technique: Lv0 (6/100)
Just like the "Clone Technique", once he had refined chakra himself, a new skill called "Chakra Refining Technique" appeared on the panel
At level 0, the Chakra Extraction Technique increased his chakra limit by 1 point and restored 50 chakra points every hour of practice.
At the same time, proficiency also increased by 1 point per hour.
Predictably, as the skill level increased, the effects would improve significantly.
Currently, his growth speed might not match that of a true prodigy, but that might change in the future.
With this thought in mind, Shane didn't waste any more time. He focused again and closed his eyes to continue extracting chakra.
...
Time passed minute by minute.
Before he knew it, another hour had gone by.
Shane opened his eyes and sensed the chakra within his body. It was nearly at its limit, so he stopped extracting.
Of course, he couldn't continue even if he wanted to.
After all, chakra wasn't created out of thin air—the extraction process consumed his physical and mental energy.
After all, chakra doesn't appear out of thin air — the refining process consumes physical and mental energy.
Earlier, merging with his predecessor's memories had already drained his spirit. Afterwards, he spent more energy thinking through strategies and exploring the panel's features. He was already mentally exhausted.
Continuing further wouldn't just be inefficient—it might even harm his foundation.
In that case, it was better to stop for now.
'Still, I shouldn't let the chakra in my body go to waste.'
With that in mind, Shane forced himself to concentrate again. Recalling memories in his mind, he began forming hand seals once more to practice the Clone Technique.
A few minutes later, his chakra was exhausted. He had attempted the technique five times in total.
As expected, all attempts failed.
It made sense. Even official ninja school students took years to master the Three Basic Techniques. For an outsider like him to succeed just by mimicking a few times was pure fantasy.
Even with inherited memory bonuses, it wasn't enough.
However, based on the proficiency panel, he was already four-fifths of the way to success.
Currently, the only thing limiting his progress was his chakra capacity.
But that wasn't something that could be improved in the short term. He wasn't a prodigy with massive chakra reserves at a young age.
For now, he could only grow steadily and step by step.
Raising his head to glance at the bright moon outside the window, Shane pushed aside his thoughts. After a quick wash-up, he returned to his bedroom.
Soon, soft snores filled the room.
Outside the window—
At some unknown point, a figure had appeared.
Glowing scarlet eyes lit up the night — it was a Uchiha ninja with a fully awakened Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
He stared at Shane for a moment, then silently disappeared.
The next day.
Morning.
Shane awoke from his sleep, and the first thing he did was open the panel.
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[Name: Uchiha Shane
Age: 10
Body: 5
Mind: 7
Chakra: 37 (127)
Bloodline: Sharingan · Unawakened (51/100)
Skills:
Chakra Extracting Technique: Lv0 (2/100)
Clone Technique: Lv0 (19/100)
Once he confirmed everything wasn't just a dream, he let out a long breath of relief.
Next, his eyes fell on the "Chakra" stat.
Overnight, even without actively extracting chakra, more than 30 points had naturally recovered.
Still, Shane didn't rush to use it all up. He had school today, and if something came up, it could be troublesome without any chakra reserve.
In fact, he had considered taking a few days off to convert the predecessor's assets into usable resources. But doing that might attract unnecessary attention.
In that case, going to school would be better!
Even if he slipped up a little, it could be explained by the emotional impact of a recent traumatic event.
But if he stayed home and someone came knocking, it would be much harder to explain.
After weighing the options, Shane decided to keep going to school. As long as he kept a low profile, there shouldn't be a problem.
With that settled, Shane quickly got ready, ate a little to fill his stomach, and headed straight to the ninja academy.
At this time, the Uchiha clan hadn't yet been forced to move to the outskirts of the village. They still lived in the central district, not far from the academy.
So Shane arrived at school quickly.
Relying on his memory, he found his class. On the way, some classmates greeted him, and he simply nodded in response.
Fortunately, his predecessor — like many Uchiha — had a cold personality. Otherwise, pretending to be him would've been much harder.
Ding-ling-ling~
About ten minutes later, the class bell rang.
A ninja in his twenties entered the classroom. This was their homeroom teacher and main instructor, named Itō Sugi.
According to the predecessor's memories, Itō was just like most teachers at the academy — he didn't treat students too differently.
So Shane didn't have to worry about being targeted because of his Uchiha name.
Just as he thought this, he noticed Itō glance in his direction, making his heart race.
Luckily, the teacher didn't linger and began teaching shortly after.
On the podium, whatever Itō was talking about, Shane didn't catch a word of it — he was too distracted wondering why the teacher had looked at him.
He was certain it wasn't a casual glance — the man had deliberately observed him.
'Did he notice something?'
Shane felt uneasy.
Ding-ling-ling~
Suddenly, the bell for the end of class rang.
Shane snapped out of his daze — an entire class period had passed without him realizing it.
Itō looked at the clearly distracted Shane, shook his head without comment, said "class dismissed," and left the classroom.
As Shane's teacher, he naturally knew about the death of his parents.
In fact, the academy received notice any time a student lost a family member. It was a directive from Konoha's higher-ups to help teachers guide their students and prevent emotional breakdowns.
Originally, he had planned to counsel Uchiha Shane today.
But last night, a Uchiha clan ninja had already spoken to him and told him not to intervene, so he didn't.
The clan's intention was simple — they wanted to see whether Shane would awaken his Sharingan.
To the Uchiha leadership, losing an average clansman wasn't a big deal. But if one could awaken the Sharingan — that would be a huge gain.
That's why they didn't want Itō to interfere.
If it had been Iruka from the future, perhaps he would've pushed back and helped Shane. But Itō Sugi was different. He lacked such a strong sense of duty, so he simply went along with it.
Shane, of course, knew none of this — he was still feeling guilty over Sugimoto's special attention.
Still, after thinking for a while, he guessed that Sugimoto probably had no ill intentions.
Most likely, the teacher had simply learned about his predecessor's parents and was showing concern.
"Phew—"
(End of Chapter)