Points can only be obtained by dismantling talents.
Izayoi had known this since he was three years old.
Back then, in order to reasonably appear near the Hyuga Clan, he had befriended a group of children and played ninja games with them.
Because he was too popular, he had incurred the jealousy of his peers and ended up in fights with some of the kids.
Among them were a few children who possessed white-tier Ninja Aptitude.
After these talents were revealed, the system prompt offered the options to either fuse or dismantle them.
After dismantling those talents, Izayoi received twenty-five points. Each white-tier talent, when dismantled, yielded a random single-digit number of points.
Now, by dismantling a purple-tier talent, he instantly obtained a four-digit number of points.
Even the blue-tier talents could now be upgraded.
"So, how many points are needed to upgrade a blue-tier talent?"
Izayoi was extremely curious and couldn't help but clicking the plus sign behind Chakra Control.
Immediately, his panel changed again.
[Host: Izayoi]
[Talents: Otsutsuki Bloodline (Red), Super Kage Aptitude (Gold), Kekkei Genkai: Byakugan (Purple), All-Attribute Body (Purple), Chakra Control (Purple), Medical Genius (Blue)]
[Points: 793]
The talent for Chakra Control had upgraded from blue to purple.
However, the plus sign behind Medical Genius was no longer displayed.
His points had also decreased by nine hundred and ninety-nine.
"The talent levels are divided into white, green, blue, purple, gold, and red. Dismantling white-tier talents yields random single-digit points, while dismantling purple-tier talents yields four-digit points. Upgrading blue-tier talents requires three-digit points. Are these points random or fixed?"
Izayoi murmured to himself, "If it's fixed at extreme numbers, does that mean upgrading white to green requires 9 points; green to blue requires 99 points; blue to purple requires 999 points; purple to gold requires 9999 points; gold to red requires 99999 points; and upgrading red to an unknown new level would require 999999 points?"
Izayoi didn't know for sure. He currently didn't have any low-tier talents below blue, nor did he have a large number of points to test this.
Even if he had extra points, Izayoi wouldn't use them to upgrade low-tier talents.
Apart from special talents like Byakugan and Chakra Control, Izayoi had no intention of upgrading talents below red.
Once he awakened the Tenseigan, he would have a plethora of overpowered techniques.
Developed to their fullest potential, he would possess Six Paths-level strength.
With just his eyes, Izayoi could endure until the final battle of the Shippuden arc.
Rather than wasting points on garbage talents, it would be better to use them to upgrade his Otsutsuki Bloodline.
Once the Otsutsuki Bloodline was upgraded again, its purity would undoubtedly match that of the extraterrestrial Otsutsuki Clan.
At that point, it might even give rise to other variations of the Rinnegan, or abilities like Karma and Divine Techniques.
Of course, these were just speculations, and it was still too early for Izayoi.
The date was now September 1st.
The ninja school began its second semester.
This semester, Izayoi finally attended classes in person, but only for the afternoon sessions.
In the second semester, the mornings were still dedicated to cultural studies, while the afternoons, in addition to physical education and shuriken throwing, now included a new subject: Taijutsu Duels.
Unfortunately, this Taijutsu Duel was randomly assigned by Umino Iruka, and Izayoi didn't get matched against Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, or Hinata.
"Teacher Iruka, can I request to fight Sasuke?"
When he heard that the matches were random, Izayoi proactively approached Umino Iruka, hoping to have a match against Uchiha Sasuke.
Umino Iruka hesitated but ultimately shook his head. "The Taijutsu Duel doesn't allow special treatment. Its purpose is to remind everyone that the enemies you encounter might be evenly matched, weaker, or even stronger than you."
"You must adapt to battles where you're evenly matched, where you dominate, or where you're dominated. You grow through tough fights, gain a sense of accomplishment from victories, and learn from the bitterness of defeat. That's how you keep improving."
"I understand, Teacher Iruka."
Seeing that Umino Iruka didn't agree, Izayoi didn't push further.
He decided to wait until after school to challenge Uchiha Sasuke.
However, after school, Sasuke's response made Izayoi's lips twitch slightly.
"Sasuke, want to have a match?"
"Sorry, I'm not interested. I need to go home and train."
At this point, Sasuke wasn't yet the cold avenger from the original story, but he still refused Izayoi's challenge without hesitation, eagerly jogging home.
After the Nine-Tails incident, the Uchiha Clan was suspected of being the mastermind behind the Nine-Tails' release, forcing them to relocate their compound from the central district to near the Naka River.
Uchiha Sasuke, who hadn't yet mastered the Body Flicker Technique, had a bit of a journey to get home from the ninja academy.
Right now, he just wanted to go back and train with his brother, and he had no time to waste on Izayoi.
Before Izayoi could provoke the Uchiha Clan or goad Sasuke into a duel, the latter had already disappeared.
Izayoi could only sigh in frustration.
He didn't consider switching his target to challenge Uzumaki Naruto either.
Although the final exams to determine the top student hadn't taken place yet, Naruto's overall performance in the first semester was already dead last in the grade.
Even the weakest students knew how to pronounce "Chakra," but Naruto, even after graduation, still managed to mispronounce it. His academic performance was as bad as his Chunin Exam results—either blank or filled with random answers.
Physically, due to malnutrition, his physical education scores weren't above average either.
As a top student, Izayoi suddenly challenging the dead last would easily draw the attention of the Anbu, or even Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shimura Danzo, who were closely monitoring Naruto.
The former might not be a big deal, but the latter could suspect that Izayoi knew something or was sent by someone to get close to Naruto.
To avoid any complications, they might take certain measures.
If that happened, Izayoi's situation would become very precarious.
That wasn't what he wanted.
So, for now, Izayoi's targets were only Hinata and Uchiha Sasuke.
After being rejected by Sasuke, Izayoi didn't persist.
It was already September of the 54th year of the Leaf Village, and there were only three months left until the end of the year.
By next year, the infamous Uchiha Clan massacre would occur.
When Uchiha Sasuke becomes an avenger in the future, he will definitely not refuse Izayoi's challenge again.
So the next day, Izayoi still attended class with his main body, but he did not actively request a match with Uchiha Sasuke, nor did he challenge him after class.
Matching up with Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto is undoubtedly a good thing.
But the other classmates are not bad either.
After all, besides the two saviors of the Shinobi World, this class also includes the new generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho Formation and the Sensory Team.
The other classmates also possess at least a basic level of Ninja Aptitude (White).
Each of them has Talents, and even if they only produce White Talents, decomposing them would yield single-digit points.
As for The Nine Rookie Ninja, they possess Blue and Purple Talents, and even Gold and Red ones.
Obtaining any one of these would be a huge gain.
Uncertain whether Shadow Clones can produce Talents, Izayoi naturally could not miss the afternoon class.
(End of Chapter)