Konoha's Tatsuya

Night gradually fell, and the hazy moonlight spilled across the land. Tatsuya and Kyoko walked side-by-side through the streets of Konoha.

Having been confined to his home for nearly two months, this was the first time Tatsuya had stepped outside since arriving in this world.

Tatsuya's injuries had actually healed two weeks ago, but with the chip in his mind beginning to optimize the chakra extraction technique, he'd been forced to stay put for another ten days.

There was no helping it!

The amount of chakra Tatsuya had stored was simply too small!

With the chip constantly drawing chakra, Tatsuya had to spend most of his time, apart from eating and sleeping, extracting chakra.

Today was the final day; in just two hours, the optimization of the chakra extraction technique would be complete. Tatsuya finally couldn't resist going out.

To thank Kyoko for taking care of him during this time, Tatsuya planned to take her out for a late-night snack.

Along both sides of the street, many shops had already closed for the night, with only a few sporadic stores still lit.

Compared to the scene in his memory, Konoha's night market was clearly much more desolate.

The Third Shinobi World War hadn't completely ended yet, and the entire village was shrouded in an atmosphere of sadness and tension.

Through what he saw, Tatsuya clearly felt the scars the Shinobi World War had inflicted upon Konoha.

If Konoha, the head of the Five Great Ninja Villages, was in this state, one could only imagine the fate of the smaller countries and villages currently suffering the ravages of war.

He raised his head to gaze at the starry sky, faintly seeing a dark cloud looming over all of Konoha.

"Tatsuya-san, are you worried about something?"

Kyoko's concerned voice sounded beside him.

"It's nothing! I just feel like the village seems a lot more deserted," Tatsuya replied, shaking his head, dismissing the stray thoughts, and offering a faint smile.

Right now, he was just a small fry at the very bottom of the ninja world, completely powerless to influence the course of events.

"Yeah! The war is just too brutal!"

Hearing this, Kyoko also sighed lightly, her expression tinged with sadness.

"Haha! Don't worry about that. My injuries have finally healed, so let's celebrate with a big meal!" Tatsuya chuckled, changing the subject.

"Yes! Yes! I'll let Tatsuya-san treat me!" Kyoko's eyes narrowed into crescents, her head bobbing repeatedly.

For a foodie, nothing was more delightful than delicious food.

Choosing a yakiniku restaurant not far from the clan compound, Tatsuya and Kyoko quickly began to devour their meal.

When it came time to pay, Tatsuya felt a pang of pain as he looked at his depleted wallet.

"Tatsuya-san!" Kyoko stood to the side, her face flushed with embarrassment, her head bowed.

Just now, the two of them had demolished over sixty plates of grilled meat, with Kyoko eating even more than Tatsuya.

It was at this point that Tatsuya finally gained a visceral understanding of the Akimichi clan's reputation for having enormous appetites.

Seeing Kyoko's flushed face, Tatsuya smiled at her.

Having been cooped up at home for over two months, Tatsuya had taken the time to assess his finances. While not wealthy, he could certainly afford a yakiniku meal.

What Tatsuya was really concerned about was his future expenses. With such an astonishing appetite, just feeding himself would be a considerable expense.

If he also wanted to research other advanced technologies, the relief funds from the clan and the village definitely wouldn't be enough.

It seemed that if he wanted to gain a foothold in the ninja world, he'd have to find ways to make more money.

Moreover, at this rate of consumption, Tatsuya also worried about becoming a "giant" in the future.

Although the ninja world wasn't a place that relied on looks, Tatsuya didn't want to become too unsightly.

"Chakra Extraction Technique optimization complete. Information is being recorded."

Back at the clan compound, shortly after Tatsuya parted ways with Kyoko, the chip's notification sound rang in his mind.

Following this, a stream of unfamiliar information began to flow into Tatsuya's mind.

Compared to the chakra extraction technique taught at the Ninja Academy, the optimized chakra extraction technique significantly improved the efficiency of chakra extraction.

Overjoyed, Tatsuya immediately and eagerly immersed himself in cultivation.

In the blink of an eye, several days passed.

Through this period of diligent cultivation, the effects of the optimized chakra extraction technique began to manifest.

The essence of the chakra extraction technique was to continuously extract a ninja's spiritual energy and physical energy, then combine them in a fixed ratio to form chakra.

The key to influencing the speed of chakra extraction lay in maintaining a stable extraction of both types of energy. This was a skill that came with practice, and there were considerable individual differences.

The chakra extraction technique taught at the Ninja Academy was designed for safety and universality. Students with high compatibility could quickly grasp it and become proficient.

Students with low compatibility would find their efforts yielding only half the results.

This was the disparity in ninja talent.

Tatsuya belonged to the category of extremely poor talent.

Now, however, the optimized chakra extraction technique had been tailored by the biometric chip to Tatsuya's individual physical characteristics, making it highly specific.

After several days of practice, Tatsuya felt that his chakra extraction speed had increased by about three times.

This instantly bridged the gap between Tatsuya and those with high talent.

Based on his current extraction rate, Tatsuya estimated that in another two or three months, his chakra reserves would reach the peak level for a genin.

Having tasted the sweetness of success, Tatsuya's motivation for cultivation grew even stronger.

While cultivating, Tatsuya also began to consider whether he could find an even faster shortcut.

With the biometric chip as his cheat, he couldn't bear to not take full advantage of it!

He wondered if the chakra extraction technique could be further optimized. If he could increase the speed by another one or two times, that would be amazing!

"Insufficient data in the database. Unable to establish a chakra extraction technique optimization task."

As he thought this, the biometric chip's pleasant notification sound immediately rang in Tatsuya's mind.

Uh...

Hearing this, Tatsuya's expression momentarily froze, and then he began to stroke his chin thoughtfully.

From the biometric chip's notification, Tatsuya gleaned two useful pieces of information.

The first was that the optimized chakra extraction technique could be further optimized.

It was simply that, due to the limited information Tatsuya currently possessed, the biometric chip could only optimize it to its current level based on his physical constitution and the available data.

If he could gather enough information, the speed of chakra extraction could be further improved.

The second piece of useful information was that Tatsuya could directly assign tasks to the biometric chip.

This was very important to him!

With this function, Tatsuya could, based on his needs, systematically use the biometric chip to enhance his strength, instead of blindly waiting for the chip to trigger on its own.

With the benefit of hindsight, having seen Naruto, Tatsuya knew very clearly what the peak combat power in the future ninja world looked like!

Tatsuya also had several paths to reaching that peak in mind.

With clear goals, Tatsuya believed that his future path would be more solid.