Chapter 9: The Rejected Izayoi
Points are only earned by disassembling traits.
Izayoi had known this since he was three years old.
At that time, in order to make his presence known near the Hyuga clan, he befriended a group of children and played ninja games with them.
However, due to being too popular, he became the target of jealousy among his peers, and got into fights with some of the kids.
Among them, there were a few who possessed white-tier ninja aptitude traits.
After those traits were discovered, the system notification appeared, asking whether to fuse or disassemble.
After disassembling those traits, Izayoi received 25 points, with each white-tier trait giving a random single-digit number of points.
Now, disassembling purple-tier traits immediately granted him a four-digit number of points.
Even the blue-tier traits were eligible for upgrading.
"So, how many points are required to upgrade a blue-tier trait?" Izayoi wondered, unable to resist tapping the plus sign next to Chakra Control.
Immediately, his status panel updated.
[Host: Izayoi][Talent Traits]:
Otsutsuki Bloodline (Red)
Kage-Level Aptitude (Gold)
Kekkei Genkai: Byakugan (Purple)
All-Attribute Physique (Purple)
Chakra Control (Purple)
Medical Genius (Blue)
[Points]: 793
Izayoi noticed that the Chakra Control trait had upgraded from blue to purple, while the Medical Genius trait no longer had the plus sign.
He also saw that his points had decreased by 999.
"Trait levels are divided into white, green, blue, purple, gold, and red. Disassembling white-tier traits gives random single-digit points, while disassembling purple-tier traits grants four-digit points. Upgrading blue-tier traits requires three-digit points... but are the points fixed or random?"
Izayoi muttered to himself, "If the points are fixed, does that mean it costs 9 points to upgrade from white to green, 99 points to upgrade from green to blue, 999 points to upgrade from blue to purple, 9999 points to upgrade from purple to gold, 99999 points to upgrade from gold to red, and 999999 points to upgrade from red to some unknown new level?"
Izayoi didn't know for sure, and he didn't have lower-tier traits or enough points to test this theory.
Even if he had extra points, Izayoi wouldn't waste them on upgrading lower-tier traits.
Aside from special traits like Byakugan and Chakra Control, Izayoi had no intention of upgrading traits below red.
Once he awakened the Tenseigan, he would gain numerous game-changing abilities.
Pushing his abilities to the extreme would allow him to reach Six Paths-level power.
A single pair of eyes would be enough to carry Izayoi through the final battle of the Shippuden era.
Rather than waste points on useless traits, it would be more efficient to upgrade his Otsutsuki Bloodline.
Once the Otsutsuki Bloodline leveled up, its purity would be on par with the extraterrestrial Otsutsuki clan.
At that point, he might even unlock new abilities like the Rinnegan or Kaguya's abilities.
Of course, these were all just speculations, and it was still early for Izayoi to focus on them.
September 1st arrived.
The second semester of Ninja School began.
This semester, Izayoi finally attended class in person, but only in the afternoon sessions.
The second semester continued with morning cultural classes and added afternoon physical training and shuriken throwing lessons. Additionally, a new class on Taijutsu battles was introduced.
Unfortunately, the Taijutsu battles were randomly matched by Iruka, and Izayoi didn't get matched with Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, or even Hinata.
"Iruka-sensei, may I request to battle Sasuke?"
When Izayoi heard that the battles were being randomly matched, he approached Iruka to ask if he could battle Sasuke.
Iruka hesitated but shook his head. "Taijutsu battles won't have any special exceptions. The purpose of these battles is to remind you that the enemies you face could be of equal strength, weaker, or even stronger than you."
"You must adapt to battles of equal strength, as well as crushing or being crushed by your opponent. You'll grow through hard-fought battles, find a sense of accomplishment in victory, and feel bitterness in defeat—always growing."
"I understand, Iruka-sensei."
Seeing that Iruka hadn't agreed, Izayoi didn't press the issue.
He decided to wait until after school to challenge Sasuke on his own.
However, after school, Sasuke's response left Izayoi with a twitching smile on his face.
"Sasuke, do you want to have a match?"
"Sorry, I'm not interested. I still have to go home and train."
At this point, Sasuke Uchiha, who hadn't yet become the vengeful figure from the original story, wasn't as cold as he would later be, but he still declined Izayoi's challenge without hesitation and eagerly ran home.
After the Nine-Tails Incident, the Uchiha clan was suspected of being behind the release of the Nine-Tails, forcing them to move their clan grounds from the central streets to the area near South He River.
Without mastering the Body Flicker Technique, Sasuke Uchiha had to walk a distance from the ninja school to his home.
He only wanted to go home and train with his brother, so he had no time to waste on a challenge from Izayoi.
Before Izayoi could provoke the Uchiha clan or use a psychological tactic to get Sasuke to fight him, Sasuke had already disappeared into the distance.
Izayoi was left helpless.
He didn't try to challenge Naruto Uzumaki instead.
Although the final exam to determine the top student of the year had not yet happened, Naruto Uzumaki's overall performance in the first semester was already at the bottom of the class.
Even the worst students could read the characters for chakra, but Naruto, who had such poor grades, would still mispronounce the word chakra even after graduating. It was clear that his academic performance was just as bad as his ninja exam results—either leaving it blank or filling it out randomly.
With his somewhat malnourished body, his physical education results weren't even above average.
As a top student, Izayoi knew that challenging someone at the bottom of the class would easily attract the attention of the Anbu and people like Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura, who had been keeping an eye on Naruto.
The former wasn't much of a concern, but Danzo might suspect Izayoi knew something or think that Izayoi was sent to get close to Naruto as part of some scheme.
To avoid any unwanted complications, they might take measures.
At that point, Izayoi's situation would become very difficult.
That wasn't something he wanted.
So, for now, Izayoi's targets were still Hinata and Sasuke Uchiha.
After Sasuke rejected his challenge, Izayoi didn't persist.
Now, it was already September of Konoha Year 54, and only three months remained until the end of the year.
The following year would mark the tragic event of the Uchiha clan's annihilation.
By that time, Sasuke, who would become a vengeful figure, would definitely no longer refuse Izayoi's challenge.
So, the next day, Izayoi once again attended class in person but didn't actively request to fight Sasuke or challenge anyone after class.
It would be great to be matched up with Sasuke or Naruto, but there were other students as well.
After all, aside from the two future saviors of the ninja world, there were also the new generation of Ino-Shika-Cho and the Sensory Class.
Other students were all guaranteed to have at least white-tier ninja aptitude.
Each of them had traits, and even just white-tier traits, once disassembled, could give a single-digit number of points.
The top nine students had traits that ranged from blue and purple, to even gold and red.
Finding any of those would be a huge gain.
Uncertain whether the Shadow Clone technique could trigger traits, Izayoi naturally couldn't afford to miss the afternoon class.
(End of Chapter)