"Continue."
Pulling back his thoughts, Qingming stopped thinking and raised his hand to continue practicing the Shadow Clone Technique.
However, as soon as he formed the hand seals, he discovered that his chakra was completely depleted, insufficient to support him in using the Shadow Clone Technique again.
He glanced at the panel and, sure enough, his chakra was empty.
Reviewing the memories in his mind, Qingming sat cross legged, focusing his mind on his body, using his will to draw energy from the cells within.
Then, he mixed this energy evenly with his spiritual energy, transforming it into chakra, which then flowed into the chakra meridians throughout his body.
As this process continued, his chakra gradually became abundant.
... An hour later.
Qingming opened his eyes.
"Panel!"
With a thought, Qingming opened the proficiency panel.
[Name: Uchiha Qingming
Age: 10 years old
Physique: 5 Spirit: 7 Chakra: 2→52 (125→126)
Bloodline: Sharingan - Unawakened (51/100)
Skills: Chakra Refining Technique: lv0 (1/100)
Shadow Clone Technique: lv0 (6/100)]
Just like the Shadow Clone Technique, after he personally refined his chakra once, a skill called Chakra Refining Technique appeared on his panel.
The lv0 Chakra Refining Technique increases his chakra limit by one point and restores fifty points of chakra every hour it is used.
At the same time, his proficiency will also increase by one point.
It can be expected that as its level increases, the effect will inevitably rise steadily.
Now, his growth rate may not be as fast as some geniuses, but it may not be in the future.
With this thought in mind, Qingming no longer wasted time, concentrated his mind again, and closed his eyes to refine his chakra.
······ Time passed by second by second.
In the blink of an eye, another hour had passed.
Qingming opened his eyes, sensed the chakra within his body, and found it was nearing its limit, so he stopped refining it.
Of course, he couldn't continue refining it either.
After all, chakra doesn't appear out of thin air; the refining process consumes his physical and mental energy.
Previously, fusing the memories of his predecessor had already drained his mind, and afterwards, he had to devise countermeasures and explore the panel's functions, leaving him mentally exhausted.
Continuing further, even if it didn't fundamentally damage him, would at least be counterproductive.
Therefore, it was better to stop for now.
However, I can't waste this chakra.
With this in mind, Qingming mustered his strength, reviewed the memories in his mind, and began forming hand seals again, attempting to use the Shadow Clone Technique.
A few minutes later, his chakra was exhausted; Qingming had used the Shadow Clone Technique a total of five times.
Unsurprisingly, all attempts failed.
Thinking about it, it made sense; even regular ninja academy students took several years to master the Three Basic Techniques. For an outsider like him to succeed after a few imitations was undoubtedly a pipe dream.
Even with the boost from his predecessor's memories, he couldn't do it.
However, judging from the proficiency panel, he was only four fifths of the way to success.
Now, the only thing hindering his progress was his chakra reserves.
However, this was difficult to improve in a short time; he wasn't a genius with so much chakra at such a young age.
Currently, he could only develop step by step.
Looking up at the bright moon outside the window, Qingming stopped thinking about it, washed up briefly, and returned to his bedroom.
Soon, soft snoring could be heard from inside.
Outside the window.
A figure appeared out of nowhere.
Crimson eyes shone brightly in the night; it was clearly a Uchiha ninja who had awakened the three tomoe Sharingan.
He stared at Qingming for a while, then vanished without a trace.
... The next day.
Morning.
Qingming woke up and the first thing he did was open the control panel.
[Name: Uchiha Qingming
Age: 10 years old
Physique: 5 Spirit: 7 Chakra: 37 (127)
Bloodline: Sharingan - Unawakened (51/100)
Skills: Chakra Refining Technique: lv0 (2/100)
Clone Technique: lv0 (19/100)]
After confirming that none of this was an illusion, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, he focused his attention on chakra.
It can be seen that after a night's rest, even without specifically refining chakra, his body had recovered more than 30 points of chakra on its own.
However, Qingming did not immediately consume it. He still had to go to school today, and it would be very troublesome if he needed it later.
In fact, he had also thought about whether to take a few days off and first realize the legacy left by his predecessor, but that might attract more attention.
So, it would be better to go to school.
At that time, even if some flaws were exposed, he could explain it as a sudden change.
If he stayed at home and someone came to his door, it would be even more difficult to fool him.
After weighing his options, Qingming decided to continue attending school. He figured as long as he kept a low profile, there shouldn't be any major problems.
Having made his decision, Qingming stopped thinking about it, quickly packed his things, ate something to fill his stomach, and immediately headed to the Ninja Academy.
The Uchiha clan hadn't yet been forced to move to a corner of the village; they were still located in the central area, not far from the Ninja Academy.
Therefore, Qingming arrived at the school quickly.
Following his memory, he found his classroom. People greeted him along the way, and he simply nodded in response.
Fortunately, his predecessor, like many Uchiha ninjas, was rather aloof; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to maintain his facade.
Ding a ling about ten minutes later, the school bell rang.
A ninja in his early twenties walked into the classroom. This was their homeroom teacher and subject teacher, named Sugimoto Itto.
From his predecessor's memories, he knew that this teacher, like most teachers in the school, didn't show much difference in treatment towards different students.
Therefore, Qingming didn't need to worry about the Uchiha surname causing trouble.
Just then, Qingming noticed Sugimoto Itto glance at him, making his heart pound.
Fortunately, the other boy didn't look at him for long, and class quickly began.
Qingming didn't hear a word Sugimoto Itto said on the podium; he was only thinking about why the other boy had looked at him earlier.
He was certain that the other boy hadn't just glanced at him casually, but had genuinely observed him.
Did he discover something
Qingming wondered anxiously. Suddenly, the bell rang.
Qingming was jolted awake; he realized that a class had passed without him noticing.
Sugimoto Itto, seeing the distracted Qingming, shook his head, said nothing more, and left the classroom after calling out Class dismissed.
As Qingming's teacher, he naturally knew about the deaths of his parents.
Or rather, he received news of every student in the class whose family members had died; this was a message specifically relayed to teachers by the Konoha leadership.
The purpose, of course, was to allow them to guide their students in a timely manner to prevent extreme situations from occurring.
Originally, he was also going to comfort Uchiha Qingming today.
However, the Uchiha clan ninjas had already informed him last night that he didn't need to comfort him, so he didn't interfere.
The Uchiha's purpose in doing so was simple: they wanted to see if Qingming could awaken the Sharingan.
For the Uchiha leadership, the loss of an ordinary clansman was nothing; if he could awaken a pair of Sharingan, it would be a huge gain.
Therefore, they didn't allow Sugimoto Itto to interfere.
If it were the future Iruka, he might have withstood the pressure and guided Qingming, but Sugimoto Itto was different; his sense of responsibility wasn't that great, so he just went along with it.
Qingming was unaware of all this; he was still feeling guilty about Sugimoto Itto's special attention.
However, after some thought, he roughly guessed that Sugimoto Itto probably didn't have any ill intentions towards him.
He probably just knew about the sacrifice of his parents, which was why he paid more attention to him.
Phew
After figuring this out, Qingming finally breathed a sigh of relief.
(End of Chapter)