Itachi Uchiha graduated, and Chiya's life returned to tranquility.
In his spare time from training, he often went shopping with Izumi Uchiha, and they would occasionally exchange gifts.
Of course, in most cases, it was Izumi who gifted things to Chiya. For example, almost all his clothes were gifted by Izumi.
There was no helping it. Chiya was simply too poor, barely surviving on the minimal assistance provided by Konoha — just enough to not starve. Without Izumi's support, his household would practically run out of food.
As time passed, the relationship between them grew even closer.
Chiya could clearly sense Izumi developing feelings for him, and he didn't dislike it. With a "let it be" mindset, he thought perhaps living like this in the future wouldn't be too bad.
Unknowingly, Chiya had already turned 11.
He was close to graduating from the academy.
His height had grown significantly, and his cultivation in the Tiangang Art had advanced to the fourth layer.
He had essentially mastered the Tiangang Art, and his body could now store an enormous amount of Sage Chakra.
In other areas, his skills had also improved greatly.
During his five years at the academy, he used Shadow Clones to fully comprehend all martial arts techniques recorded in the Tiangang Art.
He also purchased a chakra paper from the ninja tool shop to test his chakra nature, confirming he possessed fire and lightning affinities.
Through persistent persuasion, he managed to obtain some rare ninjutsu scrolls from Izumi's house.
His argument was simple: "What's yours is mine, and what's mine is yours. I just won't use Uchiha-exclusive jutsu until I'm of legal age, right?"
This completely flustered Izumi, who blushed and ran off in embarrassment.
But the next day, she still brought a small bag of ninjutsu scrolls to Chiya.
Unfortunately, most of the scrolls only contained Fire Release jutsu, training methods for chakra nature transformation, and some genjutsu and summoning techniques that required the Sharingan — there was nothing related to Lightning Release.
Left with no choice, Chiya began practicing Fire Release nature transformation according to the notes Izumi provided.
At the same time, he refined his Body Flicker Technique, perfectly integrating it with the teleportation technique that came with the Tiangang Art, creating a completely new and advanced Body Flicker.
But heaven never seals all paths.
When Chiya was nine, he unexpectedly met a little girl, and the system assigned him a task, allowing him to perfect his Lightning Release chakra nature transformation.
It was a snowy winter day. The streets were empty due to the harsh wind and snow.
At that time, Chiya had just finished celebrating New Year with Izumi and was on his way back home after escorting her.
Passing by a snowy corner of Konoha, he stumbled upon a little girl with pure white eyes and delicate features.
She was wearing a black coat and was stumbling through the snow while crying, eventually falling and curling up in fear, sobbing.
Chiya didn't think too much and simply carried her on his back, sending her home.
It was only when he saw the "Hyuga" sign on the door that he realized the girl was Hinata Hyuga.
At the same time, he recalled that day was also the funeral of Hinata's uncle, Hizashi Hyuga — Neji Hyuga's father.
Suddenly, Chiya remembered the peace treaty signed between Konoha and the Hidden Cloud Village not long ago.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had gone all out to host a grand welcoming ceremony, celebrating the peace agreement.
The whole village was bustling with joy, but unfortunately, the Hidden Cloud mistook this as a sign of Konoha's weakness.
That very night, Hidden Cloud sent men to kidnap the three-year-old Hinata, attempting to obtain the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan.
The result was predictable — the infiltrator was killed by the Hyuga Clan's leader, Hiashi Hyuga.
However, Hidden Cloud shamelessly denied the act and instead accused Konoha of killing their envoy. They demanded that Konoha hand over Hiashi or they would declare war.
As expected, the ever-soft-hearted Third Hokage caved once again.
This led to the tragic event where Hizashi Hyuga, Hiashi's twin brother, voluntarily sacrificed himself to protect the clan and the village.
...
Today was another harsh winter day with snow falling heavily, wrapping Konoha in a thick, white coat.
Dusk was approaching.
Chiya had just finished a full day of training, taken a bath, and put on clean clothes.
As usual, he was heading to find Izumi to celebrate the New Year together.
However, as he passed by a familiar snowy corner, a scene made him stop in his tracks.
Not far away, three brash kids — two boys and one girl — were bullying a five or six-year-old girl.
"Hey, I heard you're from the Hyuga Clan. Show us your Byakugan!"
"If you don't want to, then don't look at us!"
"Those creepy eyes… she's definitely a monster, a Byakugan freak!"
The girl had light purple, short hair, pure white eyes, and delicate features.
The harsh words made her eyes well up with tears, and she covered her face, sobbing.
"…Hinata," Chiya muttered softly as he recognized the familiar face.
At that moment, a long-lost system prompt echoed in his mind:
[Ding! As the world's greatest loli protector, how can you stand by and watch a little loli suffer? Go help her!]
[Option 1: Step up and help her, preventing her from being bullied. Reward: Earth Release chakra nature transformation.]
[Option 2: Ignore the situation. Reward: Danzo's underwear.]
"…Seriously? Danzo's underwear again?" Chiya was speechless but quickly chose the first option. After all, acquiring another chakra nature transformation was always beneficial.
But if he simply approached them now, it wouldn't solve the root problem. The bullies would just return later.
The real solution was to make Hinata learn to stand up for herself.
With a hand seal, Chiya activated the Transformation Jutsu.
Poof!
Smoke dispersed, and he transformed into his six-year-old self.
"Hey… does bullying someone like this feel good?"
The three bullies turned around. Seeing Chiya's small frame, they instantly laughed.
"Where did this little bean sprout come from? Playing hero?"
"Haha! A bean sprout monster trying to save a Byakugan monster!"
"Yeah! Birds of a feather, huh?"
The lead bully stepped forward, ready to punch Chiya.
However, the moment the punch was thrown, Chiya casually caught it with one hand, then delivered a clean punch to the boy's face.
The other two were still dumbfounded when Chiya quickly stepped up and landed two more punches, making all three cry out, clutching their bleeding noses.