Hyuga Aokawa returned home and first washed his sweat-soaked clothes before taking a comfortable hot bath.
Feeling completely refreshed, he lay on his bed and closed his eyes to rest.
As soon as he closed his eyes, he couldn't help but take stock of his abilities in his mind.
The Quincy inheritance gave him powerful long-range capabilities.
If the enemy lacked information on him, he, a mere Ninja Academy Student, could even kill a Chunin.
However, because his physical fitness couldn't keep up, his Quincy fusion rate wasn't very high.
This resulted in the efficiency of his Reishi Gathering to condense Chakra Arrows also being low.
It not only consumed a lot of energy but also condensed slowly.
Therefore, Holy Arrow could only be effective when he had the initiative.
But setting those aside, once he lost the initiative, things would get difficult for him.
Take that time he killed the two bounty Ninja brothers.
The first shot with the initiative killed one instantly.
But once the initiative was lost, he had to rack his brains and use every trick in the book, nearly ending up in a mutual kill with his opponent.
And that was only achieved because the opponent had lost their reason due to anger.
So, he estimated that his overall strength was currently, at most, barely a bit stronger than a Genin.
Given his current situation, despite the occasional Favor granted by the Stone Gate,
most of those Favors were skills, providing limited improvement to his basic Chakra capacity and physical fitness.
No matter how many skills he had, they could only improve his all-around combat capability.
But the most fundamental cornerstone of a Ninja's strength should come from talent, Chakra capacity, Aptitude, physical fitness, and so on.
Skills can only be seen as tools to utilize these foundations, or rather, as amplifiers.
Just like the Flying Thunder God.
The Flying Thunder God is indeed an epoch-making, super-strong Ninjutsu.
But its true strength lies in perfectly utilizing Minato's space-time talent, superior neural reflexes, and learning ability.
If an ordinary person learned the Flying Thunder God without Minato's superb reflexes, flying in front of someone would just be delivering themselves on a silver platter.
The trio including Shiranui Genma, who also learned the Flying Thunder God, can only use it for basic transport.
If there's still some debate about that S-rank Ninjutsu,
then Madara's Great Fire Annihilation perfectly illustrates the saying:
'It's not that the Ninjutsu isn't good enough, it's that the person isn't.'
Therefore, his true growth in hard power still has to wait for his body to slowly grow and for him to train.
There will only be a major leap after he increases his Chakra capacity and physical fitness.
"But all of this takes time. How am I supposed to get through until then?"
"The Third Great Ninja War is imminent. If I haven't found my place by then, I'll just be cannon fodder."
He had a bit of a headache!
"First, I'll put all the energy crystals I've accumulated recently into the fusion rate."
He entered his Sea of Consciousness and found that including today's 30, he had accumulated 90 energy crystals.
He poured all of them into the fusion rate at once.
The energy crystals were rapidly consumed, and the fusion rate rose continuously from 36.02%.
It rose to 40% but then suddenly stopped.
A line of text appeared.
[Your Imprint fusion rate has reached 40%. You have unlocked a new racial skill.]
[Reishi Network—Compresses and visualizes the dissipated Spiritual Qi in the atmosphere into ribbon-like or mist-like forms. It can be used to quickly locate nearby targets or track their movements.]
Reishi Network?
Is it the one Ishida Uryū used to show off in front of Ichigo early on?
He carefully sensed the details of this skill.
He found that, like Holy Arrow, because Spiritual Power couldn't be sensed, the object of compression had become Chakra.
With a thought, he activated the skill.
Many ribbons spread out from around his body like a flower bud blooming.
These ribbons floated and swayed in mid-air; some were white, some were blue.
He grabbed one that was relatively close.
He discovered it was actually his grandmother's aura.
Can even ordinary people be sensed?
Then this blue one must belong to a Ninja.
He sensed another blue one nearby; it was actually Hyuga Fū's aura.
He reached out and grabbed it, finding it was indeed him; he was in the kitchen.
Dad actually came back from his mission.
He was very excited, sensing each ribbon one by one to see who they belonged to.
Some he recognized, some he didn't.
During this process, he discovered another way to activate this skill.
That is, it can be activated within the consciousness without needing to manifest it physically.
However, the range would be significantly smaller.
But for those with sensitive perception and high Spiritual Pressure, the impact isn't great.
This is also why Captain-level individuals were rarely seen using Reishi Network later on.
Sensing directly in the consciousness is enough, and the speed is much faster than physical manifestation.
He then compared it with the perception of the Byakugan.
He found that using Reishi Network in his consciousness had a much smaller range than the Byakugan.
But the advantage was that it activated faster than the Byakugan; it could be sensed with just a thought.
And the manifested Reishi Network was not inferior to the Byakugan's perception.
In fact, if he increased the output, the sensing range could be even larger than the Byakugan's.
At the same time, the details sensed by it and the Byakugan each had their own merits.
It's like visible light versus invisible light; the details of the world perceived are different.
In the end, the world presented has different points of emphasis.
"This is actually a very good supplement to the Byakugan's perception."
Hyuga Aokawa nodded, feeling very satisfied.
He added the final 10 energy crystals to the fusion rate as well.
The fusion rate increased again, settling at 40.52%.
The energy crystals were completely exhausted.
He looked at his personal information.
---
Racial Imprint: Quincy (Common, fusion rate: 40.52%)
Innate Skill: Reishi Gathering
Racial Skills: Holy Arrow, Reishi Network
Crest: Innate Full Spirit Power
Kekkei Genkai: Byakugan
Chakra Nature: Water, Lightning
energy crystals: 0
---
This time it was Reishi Network; he wondered what skill would be unlocked next time.
The Quincies have quite a lot of good things.
Hyuga Aokawa was looking forward to it.
Afterward, he changed into clean clothes and decided to go out for some fresh air.
Walking on the street, Hyuga Aokawa took in the sights of Konoha's main thoroughfare.
Before he knew it, the holidays were almost over.
From his initial resistance to this world when he first transmigrated,
to now, he had already fully integrated into this world.
He found that the streets of Konoha Village were very commercially developed, with all kinds of industries available.
It was hard to imagine a cluster of this scale being named with an administrative level like 'Village.'
While passing a crossroad,
he suddenly felt something strange behind him. In his perception, a watchful gaze was cast upon him... Hyuga Aokawa continued walking forward calmly.
With his current strength, without the Byakugan active,
he shouldn't have been able to sense someone behind him.
Moreover, this was inside the Village, so safety should be guaranteed.
"Hyuga Aokawa!"
A cold, steady voice without any emotional fluctuation came from behind him.
Only then did Hyuga Aokawa turn around with just the right amount of confusion, as if he had been suddenly called out to.
Sure enough, on the roof of a building behind and to his side, a Ninja wearing an animal mask was staring down at him from above.
Anbu?
Or Root?
Seeing his bewildered face, the other party leaped lightly from the roof, landing soundlessly.
"I am a member of the Anbu, code name Lynx."