Even though Yagyu was excited, he didn't immediately fuse with Asura's chakra.
After taking a few deep breaths, Yagyu closed the virtual panel and shifted his focus back to the practice field.
As the rounds of taijutsu matches ended, the first small test for the first-year students finally concluded.
With a smile, Yagyu bid farewell to his enthusiastic classmates and returned home, finally taking off his mask-like smile.
While changing shoes at the entrance, Yagyu summoned the virtual panel again and tapped on the golden orb with his finger.
Just like in a game, a prompt asking if he wanted to use the item appeared in front of him.
Taking another deep breath, Yagyu clicked "Yes."
Swoosh—
In an instant, the golden orb in his inventory transformed into a streak of golden light, flying out like a shooting star and merging into Yagyu's body.
Immediately, his body flashed with golden light, similar to the leveling-up effect in a game.
And then… nothing else happened.
"That effect… I'd give it a three out of ten at best," Yagyu muttered, slightly sarcastic.
He then started feeling around his body, trying to see if anything had changed.
Of course, there was no obvious physical change.
Yagyu knew that any changes would be internal, not external.
So, he went to the living room, sat down cross-legged on the tatami mat, and closed his eyes to extract chakra.
Even though Yagyu was just an ordinary civilian without a bloodline limit, he was considered a genius now.
At least until graduation, he would shine as a talented civilian.
His soul was that of an adult from another world, giving him advanced thinking similar to those early-blooming geniuses.
His soul also provided him with mental energy far beyond the average person's.
And chakra is the result of merging physical energy with mental energy.
Originally, Yagyu's mental energy was 'over the limit' for his age, but because his physical energy was quite ordinary, the amount of chakra he could produce wasn't exceptional.
When he mixed his physical and mental energy, his chakra levels remained average.
But now, as Yagyu extracted chakra as he usually did, the surge of energy from his 130 trillion cells felt like going from a child's trickle to turning on a full-blast faucet.
As the two energies merged, the chakra cyclone in Yagyu's body rapidly expanded, visibly growing in size.
If someone were to look at Yagyu through a Byakugan or Sharingan, they would see his blue chakra cyclone slowly getting bigger and more concentrated in color.
It wasn't clear how long it had been, but eventually, Yagyu stopped extracting chakra and slowly opened his red eyes, filled with astonishment. He murmured, "So this is what it feels like to cheat? How could anyone possibly beat this!"
There's a huge difference between ordinary players and paying players, just as there is between paying players and cheaters.
Ordinary players grind, paying players enjoy, and cheaters enjoy even more.
After extracting chakra for just a short while, his chakra amount had already surged to several times what it was before. Yagyu finally understood just how harsh the reality of bloodline supremacy was.
Only by cheating could he hope to reverse his fate!
After the initial shock, Yagyu suddenly laughed and said, "Haha… It's funny how life suddenly feels meaningful, and the world seems so exciting now."
Like the dawn of a new day, the once rough road ahead suddenly became smooth and clear.
As he regained his composure, Yagyu's mind became tense again.
What lay ahead was the biggest test—the moment to prove the true power of his cheat ability.
In the following days, Yagyu lived as usual, playing the role of a six-year-old child. He endured the discomfort of playing with other kids, blending into their little groups like a character in a Japanese anime.
During this time, he didn't find himself entering some otherworldly space during sleep, nor did he meet any floating white-haired elder.
Yagyu didn't know whether the Sage of Six Paths was secretly observing him.
But for the next few years, he had to continue playing the part of a child, and couldn't afford to talk to himself like before.
If nothing happened during this period because his cheat ability was above everything else, that would be great.
But Yagyu didn't dare to gamble on that.
Only by staying cautious could he survive long enough to reach the pinnacle.
———
The timeline moved forward to the latter half of Year 54 of Konoha.
Winter had arrived, and snow was falling heavily.
Unknowingly, five months had passed since Yagyu fused with Asura's chakra.
During this time, Yagyu's progress had been remarkable.
In terms of chakra amount, aside from Naruto, there wasn't anyone in the entire first year, and not even in the sixth year, who had more than him.
The changes within just half a year were astonishing.
Yagyu couldn't even imagine how much his chakra would skyrocket by the time he graduated.
One thing was certain—by then, his chakra would be measured in "units."
Although having a lot of chakra doesn't directly represent strength, it does give one the luxury to act recklessly.
Those with limited chakra have to carefully calculate their every move during a fight.
Naruto, on the other hand, could use the Forbidden Technique, Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu, as if it were a normal jutsu, and each clone could wield an A-rank Rasengan.
This swarm tactic could easily compensate for any lack of combat experience.
If someone with immense physical strength worked as hard as Naruto, Kisame Hoshigaki was the best example of what could happen.
Yagyu wouldn't waste his talent like Naruto did.
Even before entering the Ninja Academy, once Yagyu successfully extracted chakra, he practiced walking up walls using his feet at home, laying a solid foundation for chakra control.
Now that his chakra levels had risen, Yagyu immediately began learning the ultimate cheat skill—Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Although Yagyu was an orphan now, he came from a ninja family.
He lived in a two-story house, one of the inheritances his parents had left him. Luckily, it hadn't been destroyed by the Nine-Tails back then.
When he turned three and left the orphanage, Yagyu was sent back to his house to start learning how to live independently.
During that time, the village didn't seize his property.
While cleaning the house, Yagyu found several scrolls.
These scrolls were part of his inheritance from his parents, and they contained techniques like chakra extraction methods, the basic three jutsu (Clone Jutsu, Transformation Jutsu, and Substitution Jutsu), the Leaf Instantaneous Body Technique, a few low-level elemental jutsu scrolls, and the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
To Yagyu, the most valuable scroll was, without a doubt, the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
For most people, the Shadow Clone Jutsu wasn't considered a cheat skill, as the exhaustion from using the clones would return to the user.
If the fatigue exceeded a person's limit, they could literally die from exhaustion.
Ordinary ninjas could only use one or two shadow clones at most to assist in training.
But Yagyu, like Naruto, possessed the Sage of Six Paths' body, allowing him to endure an extraordinary amount of fatigue.
Naruto was an exception among exceptions. Not only did he have the Sage's body, but he was also the jinchuriki of the strongest-tailed beast.
Even if he wanted to die, the Nine-Tails wouldn't let him.