Chapter 6: First Dungeon Clear
"You're here?" Just as Kyosuke's thoughts began to drift again, Fugaku finally looked up and acknowledged him.
Before Kyosuke could reply, Fugaku simply said, "Follow me," and turned to walk toward another large courtyard.
Kyosuke watched his back, shrugged helplessly, and followed. Their current dynamic was a perfect echo of the day before, still walking one after the other down a wide corridor.
After a while, they arrived at a huge, open-air training ground.
"Come, attack me," Fugaku said, standing in the center of the training ground and looking at Kyosuke.
And so, a completely one-sided beatdown commenced.
In front of Fugaku, a shinobi on the cusp of reaching the elite Jounin rank, Kyosuke was hardly different from an ordinary person. After five minutes of intense exertion, he hadn't even managed to touch the corner of Fugaku's sleeve, while he himself was left gasping for breath.
Fugaku frowned as he looked at Kyosuke. This kid's fundamentals are too weak, and his chakra reserves are insufficient, he thought. But these things can be improved through hard work.
He then began to correct the flaws in Kyosuke's movements, such as his right hand subconsciously flinching when blocking, and his messy footwork when charging forward.
The day passed just like that.
After saying goodbye to Fugaku, Kyosuke had intended to sneak into the village to see if he could trigger any new missions. Unfortunately, the moment he stepped out of the Military Police headquarters, he saw an Uchiha clansman already waiting for him.
With no other choice, Kyosuke had to follow him back to the clan compound.
That night, after washing up, Kyosuke lay bored in his bed, idly flipping through the system menu. He was surprised to find that his chakra had increased by one point.
After thinking hard for a while, he finally turned his attention to a skill he had largely ignored: "Chakra Extraction Technique."
To confirm his theory, Kyosuke focused his mind and began the daily training essential for any ninja: extracting chakra.
An hour later, Kyosuke opened his eyes and immediately checked the results of his efforts. Sure enough, not only had the experience for his "Chakra Extraction Technique" increased by a point, but his total chakra reserves had also grown.
This brought a wave of unexpected joy to Kyosuke, who currently had no other way to gain experience points.
However, when he tried to extract chakra again, a splitting headache forced him to stop.
Since there's a daily limit to how much I can extract, I'll have to find a way to level up the 'Extraction Technique.' That should increase the amount I get each time.
As he thought about it, he realized something was wrong.
"But that still requires experience points!!!"
Outside Kyosuke's room, the shadow tasked with monitoring him heard the shout and scratched his head in confusion.
"Why is the kid yelling so late at night instead of sleeping?"
A month passed.
During this time, through his relentless efforts, Kyosuke not only increased his Strength and Constitution attributes by 0.1 each, but more importantly, his "Chakra Extraction Technique" finally reached Level 2.
Now, his daily chakra extraction training increased his reserves by... two points.
It still wasn't much, but Kyosuke was content. His freedom was currently restricted, so it wasn't the right time for a major power-up anyway.
Clang! The sound of kunai clashing echoed through the forest.
Kyosuke smiled faintly as he faced the rogue ninja who, just a month ago, he could barely fight head-on without his Sharingan.
Thanks to Fugaku's training, while his base stats hadn't increased dramatically, his combat experience and taijutsu skills had improved enough for him to hold his own against the two rogue ninja. The increase in his chakra reserves, in particular, allowed him to fight with the Sharingan activated with much more confidence. At least he no longer had to count the seconds.
The kunai clashed again, but this time, the rogue ninja couldn't easily evade Kyosuke's attack.
With his Sharingan active, Kyosuke had perceived the man's intention to use his superior strength to overpower him. Kyosuke spun in advance, using the momentum to slip past him while leaving his own kunai embedded in the man's chest.
Seeing his partner fall, the other rogue ninja let out a furious roar and charged at Kyosuke wildly.
"Come on, you already roared last time. Do we have to do this every single time?" Kyosuke said with a calm smile.
Less than three seconds later, this rogue ninja also fell to Kyosuke's kunai.
Kyosuke looked at the two bodies dispassionately. He realized that while he had felt a bit shaken after killing them the first time, he now felt nothing at all. He could only give a self-deprecating smile. It seemed he was well-suited to survive in this world.
As he was smiling, Kyosuke suddenly spun around and threw the kunai in his hand toward a hidden patch of grass.
"Did you really think you could ambush me a second time?" Kyosuke said coldly, looking at the third rogue ninja who now had a kunai sticking out of his throat. "Sorry about that. Your chakra may be low, but in this dark forest, it shines as brightly as a lantern in the night."
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the system's notification.
[Notification: Dungeon cleared successfully. Generating random rewards. Please wait.]
After a short while, three virtual items appeared before him.
[Chakra Extraction Technique]
[Kunai Throwing Technique]
[Shuriken Throwing Technique]
They were all basic skills. Given how weak the rogue ninja were, it was unrealistic to expect a ninjutsu scroll.
However, the skills weren't useless. The problem was that his Kunai and Shuriken Throwing skills were already close to leveling up, so using a skill scroll on them now would be a waste. To upgrade a skill to Level 2, he would need two identical scrolls. For now, he had to put these three aside.
Kyosuke shook his head with a sigh and exited the dungeon.
Another ten days passed in the blink of an eye.
Kyosuke's two throwing skills finally reached Level 2. Not only had their power increased, but their accuracy and speed had improved significantly. For this, even Fugaku offered him some rare praise.
And that wasn't all. Although Fugaku didn't approve of him doing intense physical training due to his age, his physical stats had still seen a small increase. Most importantly, his chakra had reached 80 points, not far from the 90-point minimum required to use C-Rank ninjutsu.
Although the system still rated him as a "Ninja Apprentice," he was confident he could now take on some fresh graduates from the Ninja Academy and have a high chance of winning.
Truth be told, Fugaku was already very satisfied with his progress. After all, he hadn't been training seriously for very long.
But there was someone who was not satisfied with his rate of progress.
That person was none other than the powerful Great Elder.