Chapter 12: One Month
Evening. Inside the Second Elder's residence in the Uchiha compound.
"This is madness!" The Second Elder was furious with Kyosuke, a rare sight. He even slammed his beloved teacup onto the floor, shattering it.
Kyosuke stood to the side, his head bowed, saying nothing. His posture screamed, Do what you will.
Although the Second Elder appeared angry, Kyosuke knew that if he still had the mind to yell, the situation wasn't that serious. And so, Kyosuke adopted the attitude of a pig that isn't afraid of boiling water.
Seeing him act so defiantly, the Second Elder's stern expression finally cracked.
"Alright, alright, come and sit down," he said, glaring at both of them irritably. He muttered to himself, "I never should have let you two out. It's only been one day, and you've already caused me so much trouble."
Kyosuke and Nagisa pretended not to hear his mumbling and obediently sat down on the chairs opposite him.
As the Second Elder was about to get a new teacup, he suddenly froze.
He realized that somewhere along the line, his precious granddaughter, who used to cling to him, had grown incredibly close to this little rascal. Now, she even chose to sit next to him.
Feeling a pang of sourness, the Second Elder shot another sharp glare at Kyosuke.
Kyosuke: "?"
"I am aware of how this incident began," the Second Elder said gravely after taking a sip from his new teacup. "I will have a file on your opponent sent to you later. Right now, I only have one question for you, and I want an honest answer."
"Please ask, Second Elder," Kyosuke replied, his expression turning serious as well.
"What are your chances of winning? Speak freely," the Second Elder asked, staring directly at him.
It wasn't just him; Nagisa also turned her gaze toward Kyosuke. In her mind, this whole mess had started because Kyosuke was standing up for her, so she was deeply concerned.
"As of right now, very low," Kyosuke said quietly. Before either of them could respond, he continued, "But in a month, I am seventy percent confident I can defeat him."
The Second Elder smiled with relief at his words, then said in a cryptic tone, "You know, the higher a person stands, the harder they tend to fall."
Kyosuke nodded, indicating that he understood the principle.
"Grandpa," Nagisa suddenly tugged on the Second Elder's arm, as if reminding him of something.
"Haha, Grandpa remembers," he chuckled, patting her little head. He then smiled at Kyosuke. "From now on, the clan's ninjutsu library is fully open to you. This is a reward for not tarnishing the clan's name. Cherish this opportunity, do you understand?"
"Thank you, Second Elder." Although Kyosuke had expected a reward, this exceeded his expectations. His gratitude was entirely genuine.
"Mm," the Second Elder grunted in acknowledgment, then instructed a servant to begin serving dinner.
After a pleasant meal, Kyosuke prepared to take his leave.
Just as he was about to turn and go, the Second Elder spoke to him in a low voice. "If... and I mean if... you truly feel you are no match for him, I can still pull some strings and get the duel canceled. As for becoming Orochimaru's student, you can figure that out for yourself."
Hearing this, Kyosuke paused. After a long moment, he slowly said, "Don't worry."
With that, he left the residence.
The Second Elder watched his retreating back with a smile, then his voice dropped to a low, cold tone. "Find out who is pulling the strings behind this."
"Yes, sir."
After leaving the Second Elder, Kyosuke, filled with excitement, went to the clan's ninjutsu library. After greeting the guard, he dove right in.
As a great clan from the Warring States Period, the Uchiha's collection of ninjutsu was truly vast, covering every element—Fire, Earth, Lightning, Wind, and Water—as well as Genjutsu and Taijutsu.
After careful consideration, Kyosuke selected only three scrolls.
Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu
Genjutsu: Sharingan
Genjutsu: A Detailed Explanation
He chose the Earth Release technique because, besides Fire, his most prominent chakra nature was Earth. Moreover, the Headhunter Jutsu was very effective against lower-level opponents.
He chose the Sharingan genjutsu and the detailed explanation because his spiritual energy had been growing rapidly lately, a result of the fusion of two souls.
He was confident that if he mastered these techniques and put in the effort over the next month, defeating the Hyuga boy would not be a problem.
Soon, the one-month deadline was approaching.
During this month, aside from his daily patrols, Kyosuke dedicated almost all his time to learning these new ninjutsu. He mastered the Headhunter Jutsu in six days and the Sharingan genjutsu in two. The rest of the time was spent practicing and honing his skills, with Fugaku often serving as his guinea pig.
The repeatable patrol mission had also provided him with a massive 450 experience points.
With this experience, he successfully raised his personal level from 2 to 10, with 10 experience points to spare. He used 3 of those points to raise his "Chakra Control" to Level 2. The remaining 7 points went into "Hand Seal Training." While it wasn't enough to level it up, his hand seal speed had noticeably improved.
In addition to these gains, he had also extensively farmed the low-level dungeons, acquiring another pile of miscellaneous items. Discarding the useless and temporarily unusable items, his real gains were leveling up his Kunai Throwing Technique, Shuriken Throwing Technique, and Body Replacement Technique to Levels 5, 3, and 3, respectively.
At this point, besides his physical attributes (excluding Spirit), which might still lag behind a normal Chunin, he was not far behind in other areas. In terms of kunai throwing alone, even an Itachi of the same age would probably not be much better. An average Chunin, or even a Jounin, who didn't specialize in this skill, would at best be on his level, and likely not as good as his Level 5 throwing skill.
Having reviewed his opponent's detailed file, Kyosuke was now at least sixty percent confident of victory.
But these preparations were not enough. He needed one last push.
And what would that be? Challenging a higher-difficulty dungeon, of course.
This time, he chose a very special type of dungeon called "Challenge of the Strong." As the name implied, there were no complicated story plots in this type of dungeon. His task was simple: kill the enemy in a one-on-one fight.
He chose this type of dungeon for three reasons.
First, the final reward was determined by the challenger's level. If Kyosuke, at Kage-level strength, were to challenge a low-level "strong" opponent, the reward would be something paltry like three kunai. Therefore, it was crucial to challenge these dungeons when his strength was comparable to the opponent's. Otherwise, it would be a waste.
Second, the rewards from this type of dungeon were very specific: he would randomly obtain three abilities from the defeated "strong" opponent. This was very different from regular story dungeons. For example, if he cleared the "Land of Waves" dungeon, he could randomly get abilities from Team Kakashi, Zabuza, Haku, or even the samurai. With bad luck, he could end up with anything. Although story dungeons had many ways to be cleared and no difficulty restrictions, the chance of getting high-quality loot was extremely low. For Kyosuke, who desperately needed a significant power boost, this was not a good option.
Third, and most importantly, even if he got lucky and obtained a Kekkei Genkai like Ice Release or a legendary weapon like the Executioner's Blade, he couldn't just use it openly in the real world, at least not at his current stage. So, it was better to selectively challenge "strong" opponents to obtain abilities he could actually use.
For all these reasons, it was no surprise that Kyosuke prioritized the "Challenge of the Strong" dungeons.
And the first one he chose was a young, powerful warrior from his own clan: Uchiha.