Chapter 9: The Rejected Izayoi
Points could only be obtained by decomposing entry tags.
Izayoi had known this since he was three years old.
Back then, in order to appear reasonably near the Hyuga clan, he made friends with a group of kids and played ninja games with them.
Because he was too popular, he provoked some resentment from his peers and got into fights with a few children.
Among them were a few who possessed white-tagged ninja aptitude.
After those tags were dropped, the system's prompt gave the same options: Fuse or Decompose.
After decomposing the tags, Izayoi received 25 points. Each white tag, when decomposed, would yield a random single-digit number of points.
Now, after decomposing a purple tag, he instantly received four-digit points.
Even the blue tags could now be upgraded.
"So, how many points does it take to upgrade a blue tag?"
Izayoi was very curious and couldn't help but tap the plus sign behind Chakra Control.
Immediately, his panel changed once again.
[Host: Izayoi]
[Innate Tags: Otsutsuki Bloodline (Red), Kage-Level Aptitude (Gold), Kekkei Genkai: Byakugan (Purple), All-Attribute Constitution (Purple), Chakra Control (Purple), Medical Genius (Blue)]
[Points: 793]
The Chakra Control tag had changed from blue to purple.
And the plus sign behind Medical Genius had disappeared.
The points had also decreased by 999.
"Tag levels are divided into White, Green, Blue, Purple, Gold, and Red. Decomposing white tags yields single-digit random points. Decomposing purple tags yields four-digit points. Upgrading a blue tag requires a three-digit extreme number of points. Are these points random or fixed?"
Izayoi murmured to himself in thought: "If it's a fixed extreme number, then does that mean: White to Green requires 9 points; Green to Blue is 99; Blue to Purple is 999; Purple to Gold is 9999; Gold to Red is 99999; and Red to an unknown new tier would be 999999 points?"
Izayoi didn't know. He didn't have any low-level tags below blue now, nor did he have a large amount of points to test it.
Even if he had spare points, Izayoi wouldn't use them to upgrade low-level tags.
Aside from special tags like Byakugan and Chakra Control, Izayoi didn't plan to upgrade any tags below red.
Once he awakened the Tenseigan, he would gain a vast number of dimension-crushing techniques.
If developed to the extreme, he could attain Six Paths-level power.
A pair of eyes alone would be enough for Izayoi to survive until the final battle of the Shippuden era.
Rather than wasting points on junk tags, it was better to use them to upgrade the Otsutsuki Bloodline.
Once the Otsutsuki Bloodline was upgraded again, its purity would surely match that of the extraterrestrial Otsutsuki clan.
By then, it might even give rise to other colored Rinnegan variants, or even abilities like Karma and Divine Techniques.
Of course, all of this was just speculation, and far off for Izayoi.
The date was now September 1st.
The second semester of the Ninja Academy began.
This semester, Izayoi finally attended classes in person, but only in the afternoon.
The second semester still had cultural classes in the morning, but in the afternoon, besides Physical Education and Shuriken Throwing, a new subject was added: Taijutsu Duels.
Unfortunately, the Taijutsu Duels were randomly assigned by Iruka Umino, and Izayoi didn't get matched with Naruto Uzumaki or Sasuke Uchiha, nor did he get matched with Hinata.
"Iruka-sensei, can I request to duel Sasuke?"
When he heard the matchups were random, Izayoi actively approached Iruka Umino, wanting to fight Sasuke Uchiha.
Iruka hesitated slightly, but still shook his head and said, "Taijutsu Duels will not make exceptions. Their purpose is to remind everyone that your opponents might be evenly matched, weaker, or even much stronger."
"You must adapt to battles that are equal, overwhelming, or when you are being overwhelmed… Improve through hardship, gain a sense of achievement through victory, and experience bitterness through defeat—then continue growing."
"I understand, Iruka-sensei."
Seeing that Iruka didn't agree, Izayoi didn't push further.
He planned to challenge Sasuke Uchiha after school instead.
However, after school, Sasuke Uchiha's response made Izayoi twitch at the corner of his mouth.
"Sasuke, want to have a match?"
"Sorry, I'm not interested. I still have to go home and train."
This Sasuke wasn't yet the avenger. He wasn't as cold as in the original story, but he still refused Izayoi's challenge without hesitation and eagerly ran back home.
After the Nine-Tails attack, the Uchiha clan was suspected of being the masterminds behind the event, so their clan grounds had to be moved from the central district to near the Naka River.
Sasuke Uchiha, who had yet to master the Body Flicker Technique, had quite a walk from the Ninja Academy to his home.
Right now, he only wanted to go back and train with his brother. He had no time to waste on Izayoi.
Izayoi didn't even have the chance to provoke the Uchiha clan or bait Sasuke into a fight—he had already vanished.
Izayoi was left quite helpless.
He didn't try switching targets to challenge Naruto Uzumaki either.
Although the top student rankings hadn't been decided yet, Naruto's overall performance in the first semester was already the lowest in the grade.
Even the worst students knew how to read the word "chakra."
Only Naruto Uzumaki, even after graduation, would still misread the three characters for chakra. His cultural scores were just like his Chunin Exams—either blank or randomly filled in.
His body, somewhat malnourished, also couldn't meet even mid-level physical standards.
As an honor student, Izayoi challenging the class bottom-feeder would easily draw the attention of the Anbu, and even of those who constantly monitored Naruto—Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura.
The former was manageable, but the latter might suspect Izayoi knew something or believed he was a pawn sent to get close to Naruto.
To avoid any complications, they might take certain measures.
That would put Izayoi in a very passive position.
And that was something he didn't want.
So for now, Izayoi's targets were only Hinata and Sasuke Uchiha.
Having been rejected by Sasuke Uchiha, Izayoi didn't pester him.
It was already September in the 54th year of the Hidden Leaf. Just three months remained until the end of the year.
Next year would be the infamous massacre of the Uchiha clan.
By then, Sasuke, turned into an avenger, would definitely not refuse Izayoi's challenge.
So, on the next day, Izayoi still came to class in person but didn't request to fight Sasuke, nor did he issue any challenges after class.
Getting matched with Sasuke or Naruto was certainly great.
But the other classmates weren't bad either.
After all, aside from the two future saviors of the ninja world, this class also had the new generation Ino-Shika-Cho and the Sensory Division.
Every other student had at least white-tagged ninja aptitude.
Each one had tags, and even if only white tags were dropped, decomposing them still gave single-digit points.
As for the Nine Rookie Powerhouses, they had blue, purple, even gold and red tags.
Getting any one of those would be a huge gain.
Since Izayoi wasn't sure whether shadow clones could drop tags, he naturally couldn't afford to skip the afternoon classes.
(End of Chapter)