In a remote corner of Konoha, Koji slowly approached a house that looked as though it might collapse at any moment.
This was where he lived.
According to what remained of the original body’s memories, his parents had supposedly been merchants.
Logically speaking, civilians capable of doing business inside Konoha shouldn’t have lived this miserably.
Yet everything inside the small courtyard looked ancient.
Most of the furniture appeared to be at least a decade old.
Anyone who didn’t know better might have assumed the place belonged to some elderly man unwilling to part with his possessions.
Koji didn’t know the exact circumstances.
The memories left behind by the original owner of the body were incomplete.
All he knew was that after a certain disaster, almost everything had disappeared.
What remained were two urns of ashes and this dilapidated little house that had been assigned to him afterward.
Considering the timing…
that disaster could only have been the Nine-Tails’ attack on Konoha.
Koji entered the house and quickly prepared himself a simple lunch.
Once he finished eating, he left the kitchen and returned to his bedroom.
Small as the house was, it at least had everything a single person needed.
That was probably the nicest thing anyone could say about it.
Assuming, of course, they ignored the support beam overhead that looked dangerously close to snapping.
Koji wasn’t particularly concerned.
With his current abilities, there was no chance a falling wooden beam was going to send him straight into his next reincarnation.
After entering the bedroom, Koji closed his eyes and resumed practicing the Healing Jutsu.
Thanks to the Grindlord System, every successful use of a technique increased its proficiency.
Being able to see his progress so clearly was one of the few things that made endlessly repeating the same boring exercise tolerable.
And fortunately, all that grinding paid off.
After several more successful uses of the Healing Jutsu— the most basic of medical ninjutsu finally crossed its first threshold.
[Healing Jutsu — Limit Break +1 (1%): Healing +1]
The Healing Jutsu was already a fundamental medical technique.
Its learning difficulty was probably around C-rank, and the greatest obstacle was simply the delicate chakra control required to use it properly.
For Koji, that part was almost laughably easy.
As for the special trait gained after the technique’s Limit Break—
Healing +1.
That was simple enough to understand.
Whenever Koji used the Healing Jutsu, wounds should now heal somewhat faster than they would under the same technique performed by another medical ninja.
Exactly how much faster?
He had no idea.
He hadn’t tested it yet.
After the first Limit Break, however, each successful use of the Healing Jutsu only increased its progress by one percent.
Reaching the next stage in a short period of time clearly wasn’t realistic.
Still, Koji expected to spend quite a long time at Konoha Hospital.
There was no reason to worry about proficiency.
He had time.
After finishing his Healing Jutsu training, Koji moved on to his usual routine.
Most importantly—
Lightning-Nature Transformation.
Unlike the Healing Jutsu, this was something directly useful in combat.
Not that medical ninjutsu couldn’t be used offensively.
The issue was simply efficiency.
One of the strongest combat-oriented techniques available to medical ninja was the A-rank Chakra Scalpel.
Unfortunately, there was no chance Koji would be allowed to learn something like that anytime soon.
For now, even the fact that he had already mastered the Healing Jutsu needed to remain hidden.
Learning it in a single day would attract far too much attention.
Koji intended to wait until several members of the current training group succeeded before revealing that he had learned it too.
That afternoon, Koji returned to the hospital training room.
To his surprise, no one else was there.
It wasn’t until roughly half an hour later that trainees began arriving one after another.
Most entered in small groups of two or three.
The atmosphere wasn’t all that different from the Ninja Academy.
Koji returned to his usual spot, opened the Healing Jutsu scroll, and appeared to study it quietly.
In reality, he was secretly practicing both the Healing Jutsu and his Lightning-Nature Transformation.
His method was fairly straightforward.
He guided Lightning-nature chakra through different parts of his body, using it to temper his flesh.
Under normal circumstances, doing something like that would have been extremely dangerous.
But after his Lightning-Nature Transformation reached its first Limit Break, it had gained the special trait—
Body Tempering.
That was the only reason Koji could safely attempt such a reckless training method.
Of course, “safely” was relative.
Body tempering still damaged him.
That was the entire point.
The Lightning-nature chakra injured his muscles and tissues, and once his body recovered, it gradually became stronger and more resistant to damage.
Previously, Koji had only been able to perform one round of body tempering per day.
Any more would have caused too much accumulated damage.
Now that he had the Healing Jutsu?
That problem had largely disappeared.
He could probably manage at least five rounds every day.
During the afternoon alone, Koji completed two cycles.
If such delicate chakra manipulation weren’t so mentally exhausting, he could have done even more.
“Teacher! I did it!”
Near the end of the afternoon training session, an excited cry suddenly echoed through the room.
Everyone immediately turned toward the voice.
It came from a young woman.
Green chakra was glowing around her hand.
The unmistakable sign of the Healing Jutsu.
“She learned it in only ten days? That’s amazing!”
“Someone succeeded already?”
“As expected of—”
Whispers quickly spread throughout the room.
Listening to them, Koji finally learned how long this particular group had been training.
Ten days.
Koji was also certain that the girl who had succeeded wasn’t some extraordinary genius.
She wore a Konoha forehead protector, proving that she was already a genin.
And under Konoha’s usual system, the people sent to study medical ninjutsu generally weren’t the core fighters of their squads.
At best, most of them were support types.
The three medical ninja responsible for answering questions immediately gathered around the girl.
After all, someone from this batch had finally crossed the threshold and could technically be called a medical ninja.
Koji watched the commotion thoughtfully.
If someone who isn’t particularly talented needs ten days…
then if I take twenty days, that shouldn’t make me the dead last, right?
Until he achieved what he had come here for, drawing too much attention inside Konoha would only create unnecessary problems.
Being an ordinary, unremarkable medical ninja suited him perfectly.
The successful trainee was soon taken away.
Silence gradually returned to the room.
Koji noticed, however, that several people now looked visibly tense.
Someone from their group had succeeded.
Naturally, the others weren’t willing to believe they were inferior.
Fortunately, none of that had anything to do with Koji.
This was only his first day here.
Why would he be nervous?
The day soon came to an end.
That night, Koji sat cross-legged on his bed and began another round of body tempering.
Blue lightning spread throughout his body.
From the outside, there was almost nothing unusual to see.
Otherwise, there would have been no way for him to practice the same technique inside the hospital training room.
Once the full cycle was complete, green chakra began appearing throughout different areas of his body.
The damage caused by the lightning was rapidly repaired by the Healing Jutsu.
Using the Healing Jutsu on himself was actually quite simple.
He only needed to direct chakra toward the injured area before converting it into the form required for healing.
There was no absolute requirement to channel the technique through his hands.
Using his hands would simply make the process faster.
But right now—
Koji wasn’t paying attention to the Healing Jutsu at all.
His eyes were fixed on the system panel in front of him.
Because it wasn’t the Healing Jutsu that had changed.
His Lightning-Nature Transformation had broken through its limit again…