THE UCHIHA ASCENSION

Hurrying home from the ninja shop, Uchiha Kiyo was quite excited.

"Why didn't I think of it? Separation—there is such an operation as separation!"

When he arrived at the study room on the second floor, which Uchiha Kiyo had arranged for himself, it was actually more of a research space. However, his research here was purely theoretical; he didn't conduct any actual experiments due to a lack of funds for proper equipment.

All the necessary equipment for experiments was extremely expensive. In the original book, Orochimaru had laboratories spread all over the ninja world, but people often overlooked how much money that required. In addition to his title as a scientist, Orochimaru was also undeniably wealthy.

According to Uchiha Kiyo's estimate, the construction of Orochimaru's laboratories alone must have cost no less than a billion ryo. This was an astronomical figure for Uchiha Kiyo, who was still struggling to gather even a million.

Uchiha Kiyo forced himself to calm down.

First, he took out the ninja tools from the scroll. Fortunately, he had remembered them. Otherwise, if those tools had broken, Uchiha Kiyo wouldn't even have a place to cry about it.

After arranging everything, Uchiha Kiyo began his research.

He had been searching for a way to control his body's energy, but after nearly a month, he had found no clues. However, this recent purchase of ninja tools had given him a new idea. Sure enough, sometimes, things depended on fate.

From Nawaki's words, Uchiha Kiyo had also found inspiration—separation.

He had never previously considered the issue of separation. This realization—sure enough, it was something he had overlooked.

It wasn't that he hadn't encountered similar problems in his previous life. Various chemistry problems often made things difficult for people—especially those involving substances that couldn't be transported directly. Instead, they had to be chemically transformed into another substance for transport and then converted back upon arrival.

This kind of thinking could also be applied to the problem Uchiha Kiyo had been pondering—controlling body energy.

If he couldn't directly control its movement, he could instead control chakra—transport chakra to a specific position, then convert it back into physical and mental energy. Wouldn't that indirectly mean controlling the movement of physical energy?

With this idea in mind, it was time for a step-by-step approach to testing. The biggest challenge now was figuring out how to convert chakra back into body energy.

Uchiha Kiyo concentrated, formed a seal, and released chakra from his right hand.

Although controlling chakra outside the body was more difficult, he wasn't certain whether there would be unexpected accidents. For safety reasons, Uchiha Kiyo didn't plan to try it inside his body right away. If a mistake occurred, he could at least avoid damaging his meridians.

Gazing at the glowing blue chakra energy in his palm, he adjusted its size until it was no larger than a sesame seed. Then, Uchiha Kiyo proceeded to the next step.

He continuously perceived the chakra in his hand, focusing on his own spiritual energy.

Truthfully, Uchiha Kiyo had no idea how to convert chakra back into physical and mental energy. No one had attempted it before, so he had to explore it himself.

However, exploration wasn't the real challenge—the direction was. Once the correct direction was found, solutions to many problems would become easier to discover.

His idea was simple: physical energy was difficult to define—it might require complete control over the body. Whether considering samurai training or his own previous experiments with chakra refinement, everything indicated that body energy was inherently hard to manipulate.

So, the starting point had to be spiritual energy.

Through previous research, Uchiha Kiyo had found that spiritual energy was much easier to control. Many ninjas, when refining chakra, first manipulated their spiritual energy to interact with physical energy.

With that in mind, Uchiha Kiyo planned to perceive his spiritual energy, then attempt to control it as much as possible. If he could extract spiritual energy from chakra, wouldn't that be enough?

But ideals were one thing—reality was another.

Theoretically, the process seemed logical, but as Uchiha Kiyo began his experiment, he realized that even taking the first step was extremely difficult.

Perceiving the spiritual energy within chakra wasn't the issue. He had spent two weeks studying spiritual and physical energy, so he could easily sense both.

Unlike physical energy, spiritual energy was connected to the soul. Even when it was part of chakra, Uchiha Kiyo could still feel that it was somewhat controllable.

However, there was a vast difference between merely feeling that something was controllable and actually controlling it.

For three hours, Uchiha Kiyo didn't even glance at his sealing technique notes. He was fully focused on his research.

Yet, despite his efforts, by the time his chakra was nearly depleted, he had failed to extract his spiritual energy from chakra. He could only sigh helplessly.

"Sure enough, another technique that requires rigorous training. Sigh! I really work hard."

When chakra was released from the body, even if nothing was done, it would naturally dissipate—just at a slower rate. However, it was still being consumed, meaning Uchiha Kiyo had to constantly supply new chakra for his research.

A chakra mass the size of a sesame seed had only lasted him three hours. By comparison, elite Jonin could maintain a fist-sized mass for 24 hours.

Once again, he was limited by his chakra reserves. Uchiha Kiyo couldn't help but envy the Uzumaki clan's physique. Even when they had just begun refining chakra, their reserves were enormous—probably at the level of an elite Chunin.

And then there were the Jinchūriki. The vast chakra reserves and Tailed Beast Mode were undeniably powerful.

Of course, that was just wishful thinking. Uchiha Kiyo had no desire to actually become a Jinchūriki. Their lives were miserable—whether it was Minato's son or Gaara, the son of the Fourth Kazekage, all Jinchūriki were isolated, imprisoned, and treated as village weapons.

If that was the kind of life he'd have to live, Uchiha Kiyo had no interest in experiencing it.

Shaking off those thoughts, he refocused on his experiment.

"This is too difficult… It looks like this won't be something I can achieve in the short term."

Another long-term project. Thinking about all the problems he had yet to solve, Uchiha Kiyo felt overwhelmed. Ever since he had started special training, a pile of unresolved issues had accumulated. And now, yet another time-consuming project had been added to the list.

But what choice did he have? He had to keep going.

After three hours of intense concentration, Uchiha Kiyo was exhausted. He didn't even eat dinner—he just collapsed into bed.

The next morning, he was woken up by hunger.

Hearing his stomach's loud protests, Uchiha Kiyo hurried to the kitchen to prepare food. He even skipped his usual morning training—he was too hungry to move.

Uchiha Kiyo wasn't like some people who forced themselves to train no matter what.

"Humans are iron, and rice is steel. You need to take care of your body first before you can train properly, right?"

As he ate, he convinced himself with that excuse. Either way, today's morning training was skipped.

After finishing his meal and packing his lunch, Uchiha Kiyo headed straight to school.

As he walked, he mentally reviewed yesterday's findings.

First of all, he had found a direction. His idea was feasible—as long as he persisted, he could complete this secret technique.

Yes, a secret technique.

In the ninja world, secret techniques were typically exclusive to powerful clans. Now, Uchiha Kiyo was developing his own.

And if the effect of this technique was ever exposed, it would shake the entire ninja world.