In this era, Uchiha Jinzō didn't know many people—and even fewer had the chance to learn the so-called "basic internal skills" he'd been cooking up.
After all, if some nobody kid walked up to hardened shinobi and said, "Hey, I've got a secret technique that'll boost your power!"… yeah, they'd laugh him out of the village. Or assume he was a ghost.
Still, some were gullible enough.
Right now, though, Jinzō's biggest concern wasn't teaching or fighting—it was dessert. He popped a pastry into his mouth, savoring the sweetness that spread across his tongue. For one blissful moment, life was perfect.
"So sweet…" he murmured happily.
Just as he reached for another piece, a paw slapped down on his hand.
Blue feline eyes glared up at him. A sharp meow followed.
"Where's your promise?" the cat demanded with all the authority of a debt collector.
Jinzō scowled. "Where's your stretcher?"
"What a mess."
The little cat—Xiao Miao—lunged, batting at him wildly. Jinzō pinned her down on the table with one hand.
"Alright, alright! A year's worth of cat treats. I'll buy them tomorrow, okay?"
Xiao Miao froze, then let out a satisfied mrrow, clearly taking the deal. Jinzō stroked her fur with a sigh.
"Cats these days, all about bargaining. Not easy at all."
He tossed her gently to the ground. She flipped midair and landed neatly on her paws.
"Go play. You can crash here for now," Jinzō said.
It wasn't like his house was crawling with summoned beasts or anything. One stray cat wasn't going to make a difference.
Xiao Miao licked her paw dismissively, as if to say yeah, whatever.
Jinzō headed upstairs to his storage room. His face hardened.
"Less than a year left… I need to get stronger. Fast."
He glanced at the shelves lined with scrolls—rank upon rank of neat ninjutsu. Being the son of a jōnin had its perks.
Some were mission spoils, like the Shadow Clone Technique. Others came from the Uchiha clan's archive. There were sealing techniques, too, though nothing compared to the mountain of jutsu stored in Konoha proper.
But what really caught the eye was the round wooden table in the middle of the room. Six scrolls floated above it, slowly rotating.
They were his own creations—ninjutsu he'd spent ages deducing and refining.
He read their names:
Shave
Paper Art
Finger Gun
Iron Body
Cat Whispering
Basic Internal Arts
Four were already complete. Two were impossible without massive chakra reserves.
Completing them had been like writing a college thesis. Endless trial and error, refining theories, running deductions. Failing, rewriting, failing again.
But finally, he'd pulled it off.
Basic Internal Arts—the foundation of everything he had now. The thing that gave him a fighting chance in this world.
"According to the numbers, I can probably handle a regular chunin," he muttered. "A jōnin or special jōnin would squash me, though."
That was the problem. On paper he was decent, but theory wasn't the same as battle. And his style relied on close combat, while most shinobi specialized in mid-to-long-range attacks.
He needed speed. Speed was power. If he couldn't win, he had to at least outrun them.
He already had some ideas: combining Paper Art's perception with Shave's explosive movement, layering in elemental chakra flow, maybe even applying concepts from the Bagua and I Ching he'd studied in his past life.
"Deduction."
The system whirred—then spat out:
[Deduction failed]
Jinzō's eyebrow twitched.
"…Are you seriously just a university professor making me write papers? Do I need to check for plagiarism too, you bastard?!"
He groaned, flipping through his compiled notes like a frustrated grad student.
Then his eyes widened. His pupils shrank, then returned to normal as shock spread across his face.
"Kushina… actually broke through?!"
Meanwhile…
Kushina Uzumaki sat at her window, chin in her hands, staring out at the rain. Minato had just left, and she was still sulking.
"Why's my stupid little brother such a clueless idiot? And Minato… ugh, always blushing like some lovesick fool. You two are hopeless. You'll never get girlfriends."
She scowled, her voice dripping with disdain.
After cleaning up, she returned to her room. This house had belonged to Mito. After Mito's death, it had been passed to Kushina, but it still didn't feel like home.
"I'm an outsider here," she whispered, lying on her bed.
Instead of spiraling into her loneliness, she focused inward, sinking into the Basic Internal Arts she'd been practicing.
Chakra gathered in her lower abdomen, forming into an egg of light. Even the Nine-Tails' chakra was sucked inside—purified and transformed into golden light.
"…Shouldn't the fox's chakra be red?" she muttered.
Whenever she focused, she could enter the seal inside her body. The huge fox glared at her with glowing scarlet eyes, but Kushina wasn't afraid.
She stomped up to the cage and shouted, "Hey, stupid fox! Lend me some chakra!"
"No."
The Nine-Tails didn't even bother opening his eyes. Normally, he would've gladly lent chakra—it was the easiest way to trick a Jinchūriki into breaking their seal. But this brat? She was actually robbing him, sucking his chakra straight into that weird golden egg!
What the hell was this cursed technique? Even Mito hadn't been this bad.
Kushina's hair bristled. "Stinky fox, lend it to me!"
The Nine-Tails rolled over and presented his butt. Message received.
"Oh, that's it? You're asking for it!"
Golden chains burst from Kushina's back, lashing into the cage. The fox roared as pain shot through him.
"Owwww!"
Back in her room, Kushina gasped, cheeks red. "S-sorry! I didn't mean it. But seriously—don't point your butt at me!"
(The Nine-Tails: I'd like to nominate you as the most ruthless Jinchūriki of all time.)
But the damage was done. A flood of chakra poured into her body. Her egg of light pulsed, nearly overflowing. She held on tight, guiding it through her meridians.
And then—
"The second level of Basic Internal Arts… Opening the Body—achieved!"