Today, rain poured down heavily in the Land of Bears. Near the Mist's camp, a Konoha three-man squad moved steadily through the storm.
Suddenly, a dense mist surged from the forest ahead, and more than a dozen Mist shinobi sprang out from all sides, charging at them.
"Asana!" the black-haired boy in the lead shouted behind him.
"I got it." The white-eyed girl behind him bit her finger and swiftly formed hand seals: "Summoning Technique!"
A several-meter-long gray serpent was summoned, swinging its tail and flinging away most of the approaching Mist shinobi.
One of the Mist jonin leaped into the air, avoiding the serpent's attack, and charged toward the leading boy in the squad.
But halfway through the charge, the Mist jonin suddenly froze in place—his body paralyzed and unable to move freely.
In a flash, the boy teleported in front of the Mist jonin and decapitated him with one swift strike.
With the leader eliminated, the remaining lower- and mid-ranking Mist shinobi posed no threat. In mere moments, the squad wiped them all out.
After clearing the ambush, the trio resumed their journey.
"Kagetsu, your Mind Body Switch Technique is getting more and more precise. You invaded a jonin's body that easily," said the white-eyed girl, Hyuga Asana.
"You're one of Lord Orochimaru's disciples now, and Yuan here can already defeat jonin and fight members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen head-on. If I don't improve too, I'll no longer deserve to be your teammate," replied Yamanaka Kagetsu.
"You're exaggerating. That fight with Raiga Kurosuki—I only barely held him off," said the black-haired boy in the lead, Uchiha Yuan.
That's right—this was Uchiha Yuan's team.
It had been one full year since the massive clash between the Mist and Konoha.
Not long after the battle ended, the village sent Anbu to formally promote Might Duy to jonin and announced that his name would be inscribed on the Memorial Stone.
The Anbu also spoke privately with Guy. Since then, his treatment had improved considerably. The village even assigned specialists to guide Guy's taijutsu training and treat internal injuries he had sustained from overtraining.
With the village's resources behind him, Might Guy's taijutsu improved rapidly.
In pure hand-to-hand combat, even Uchiha Yuan wasn't confident he could beat Guy.
As for Hyuga Asana, she officially became Orochimaru's disciple a week after the war ended.
Since then, except during missions, Yuan and Kagetsu rarely saw her, and she no longer trained with them.
But her power had grown tremendously. Not long after becoming Orochimaru's student, Asana signed a summoning contract with Ryuchi Cave and gained the ability to summon snakes.
Then, at Orochimaru's request, Hiruzen Sarutobi pressured the Hyuga main family into providing her with access to taijutsu techniques she had previously been denied, thereby compensating for gaps in her Gentle Fist training.
Lastly, Orochimaru began systematically teaching her Lightning Release techniques. In his view, lightning was ideal for taijutsu-focused ninja—stimulating their chakra and boosting speed to maximize their power.
With Orochimaru's training, it took just half a year for Hyuga Asana to reach a level where she could contend directly with jonin.
Now that two members of the team could stand up to jonin, there was no need for Shibi Aburame to remain as their guiding teacher.
He was recalled by the village and reassigned to a different battlefield.
Three months ago, Uchiha Yuan reached level 30, but this time he didn't receive any reward—not even a chance to spin the wheel.
Notably, back when he opened the purple gift box at level 25, he received a piece of chakra-conducting metal—enough to forge about 20 kunai.
Now, the only thing left in his mind was a countdown.
The countdown was set for 100 days.
It seemed like the wheel was undergoing an upgrade.
With no way to earn attribute points, Uchiha Yuan's stats had barely changed over the last three months. His current panel looked like this:
Chakra: 266
Constitution: 145
Eye Power: 260
Vitality: 29
Nature Affinity: 4
Level: Lv30 (?/?)
Attribute Points: 0
During the wheel's upgrade phase, Yuan hadn't gained much in eye power. His chakra and vitality each increased by 15, thanks to his daily training and rising constitution.
Yuan guessed the reason for the wheel upgrade was that he'd reached jonin-level strength—no longer a "rookie," but a veteran. So an upgrade at this stage seemed logical.
Still, according to the usual pattern, there should be some kind of compensation after the upgrade, right? Otherwise, losing 100 days of attribute points would be a huge loss.
Besides, he still hadn't received the golden reward box from hitting level 30!
At this moment, the countdown in his mind showed only 9 days remaining. Yuan was eager to see what surprises awaited him once the upgrade was complete.
Worth noting, several of Yuan's abilities had improved through frequent use.
First, his Teleportation Technique: Previously, it allowed him to jump within 100 meters at the cost of 10 chakra.
After one upgrade, the range increased to 200 meters, and the chakra cost dropped to 9.
Based on the upgrade trend, the technique could be upgraded 10 times. At level 10, it would allow teleportation within 1,000 meters while consuming only 1 chakra point.
Then there was Insight: After upgrading, the skill's effect didn't change, but the chakra consumption dropped from 1 every 10 seconds to 1 every 20 seconds.
At max level 10, it should only consume 1 chakra every 100 seconds—almost negligible.
Next was Mind's Eye, which increased from 40 meters of detection range to 80 meters.
However, it maxed out at level 5, so its highest range would be 320 meters.
But as the skill improved, what he could "see" became clearer. Initially, it only detected vitality. After its first upgrade, it could sense rough outlines of enemies. With this latest upgrade, it could estimate enemy chakra levels.
It likely had even more enhancements at max level.
Besides these word-game-granted abilities, Uchiha Yuan had also learned various Water and Wind Release techniques on his own.
By now, he had mastered most of the basic Water and Wind techniques. The more advanced ones weren't so easy to learn.
Unlike B- and C-rank jutsu, A-rank techniques were extremely rare across the shinobi world. Yuan still hadn't learned a single A-rank jutsu—though Hyuga Asana had already learned two A-rank Lightning techniques.
Unfortunately, Yuan didn't possess Lightning Chakra Nature, so even if Asana wanted to teach him, he couldn't learn them.
Still, although he hadn't gained an A-rank ninjutsu, he had learned one A-rank genjutsu—from Uchiha Cai.
(To Be Continued...)