Naruto: I have Ten Skill Bars

"Shigure-kun! Bye! Make sure you come early tomorrow!"

Ino waved cheerfully as she saw Shigure off.

Shigure gave her a small nod in return.

Finally—Friday!

Ever since developing Boil Release, Shigure had spent the past few days taking it easy.

He went to class like a model student and focused on steadily increasing his chakra reserves.

His passive skill bar remained unchanged: Chakra Refinement, Kenjutsu, and Genjutsu.

Every evening after school, he would go home and train in chakra refinement, constantly updating the technique to maintain efficiency.

After all, as his chakra capacity increased, keeping that growth rate stable became harder.

On his walk home, Shigure sighed softly to himself.

"I should be practicing elemental jutsu and kekkei genkai tomorrow…"

"But Ino's so excited about this. How could I turn down a girl's invitation?"

He smiled wryly.

Ino had been acting noticeably more enthusiastic toward him lately.

Actually, a lot of girls had.

Which only made Ino feel even more threatened, leading her to invite him to her house on Saturday.

Her excuse?

"My dog can hula hoop, Shigure-kun! Want to come see?"

Shigure had to admit—it made him laugh.

Dog or not, if anyone could hula hoop, it was probably Ino herself.

Coincidentally, Shigure had also been planning to go out tomorrow to visit a ninja tool shop.

He needed to commission a custom sword.

Though he'd been diligently training in swordsmanship, combining it with Boil Release had produced incredible power—so much so that his basic ninja blade had already begun to crack just from practice.

The explosive force behind his Boil-infused strikes was simply too much for a standard weapon to handle.

A customized, high-grade sword was now a necessity.

Once he got home, Shigure took a short break before starting on dinner.

After eating, he prepared to update his chakra refinement technique, as usual.

His chakra had grown significantly over the past few days.

At this point, he could honestly say—even a chakra monster like Naruto, born with the absurd vitality of the Uzumaki clan, might not have more than him.

Naruto's chakra was largely tied up suppressing the Nine-Tails.

Shigure didn't have that problem.

So in terms of usable chakra, he might actually surpass Naruto.

"Tomorrow... maybe it's time to start developing the Rasengan."

After all, every transmigrator worth their salt knew how to do it. It'd be a waste not to.

"If possible, I need to get the Shadow Clone Technique and Body Flicker from Gekkō Hayate soon!"

Shadow Clones were practically a cheat code, even if they might not be the most efficient for him.

Still worth a shot.

But more importantly—Body Flicker.

Speed was a game-changer in any world.

"I wonder what mission Hayate's on… Haven't seen him in days."

It wasn't unusual for jonin to be out on missions, but Hayate's absence had gone on longer than expected.

Clearly, this assignment wasn't some quick errand near the village. It must be far away or high-level.

Later, Shigure stood in front of his mirror.

His abs were clearly defined now, and his body had become leaner and more proportional.

He'd even grown two centimeters in the past week.

Rapid growth wasn't uncommon for children his age, but this rate was still shocking.

Thanks to the passive effects of the Konoha-style kenjutsu, not only had his swordsmanship improved, but his physique had as well—albeit gradually.

But even gradual gains added up.

His mental strength had also seen a sharp boost.

And the best part?

His chakra refinement time had dropped from five minutes to four.

If things kept progressing like this, maybe one day… it would reach zero.

At that point, he would have truly infinite chakra.

With today's gains in both physical and mental strength, Shigure didn't want to waste time.

He needed to update his chakra refinement technique again.

Even if the returns diminished with each update, not updating it would slow down his growth.

Time to begin another round of chakra refinement.

[Great Sage: Calculation ability restored by 20%. Capable of assisting the host with skill update computations.]

The sudden system prompt made Shigure freeze for a moment.

His eyes snapped open, locking onto the translucent screen now floating in front of him.

"You..."

He blinked in disbelief, staring again at the skill interface.

The name of the skill—

Great Sage!

That's right.

Not "Great Wise Man", but Great Sage.

Was this the skill's true name all along?

Great Sage... The name alone stirred memories.

It was from the Slime world, wasn't it?

A broken, all-purpose skill that functioned like an advanced AI assistant.

A jack-of-all-trades with insane analytical capabilities.

"Have you fully recovered?" Shigure asked cautiously.

[Great Sage: No. Only partial recovery achieved.]

"Partial?"

"Then... can you calculate again?"

[Great Sage: Correct.]

"When did this happen?"

[Great Sage: Yesterday.]

Shigure frowned. "And you didn't think to tell me?! Or mention you got your name back?"

[Great Sage: The host did not ask. The name was also restored yesterday.]

"...Fair enough."

Even if it could think logically and assist him, it still had a very literal personality.

It didn't occur to the Great Sage to inform him unless prompted.

Still, this was excellent news.

"How's your recovery going? How long until you're fully operational again?"

[Great Sage: Estimated one month until full recovery.]

So, about a month… right around graduation.

Not bad. At least now he had a timeline.

Wait—if calculation ability has returned to 20%, then that means...

"You can help me optimize skill updates now, right?"

[Great Sage: Affirmative.]

"Then let's begin!"

Shigure's eyes gleamed with anticipation.

He wanted to see just how much of a difference 20% of the Great Sage's processing could make.

...

TN:

Apparently, the skill's name was supposed to be garbled—something vague like "Great..." or "Great Wise Man" 🤨—but now that 20% of it's been repaired, it's finally showing up properly as Great Sage. 😌

...

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