Points—these things could only be earned by dismantling talent tags.
Izayoi had known this since he was three years old.
Back then, in order to reasonably appear near the Hyūga clan and interact with them, he had made friends with a group of kids and played ninja games with them.
Because he was too popular, he ended up rubbing some kids the wrong way and got into fights.
Among those kids, a few had white-grade ninja potential talent tags.
After extracting those tags, the system's notification also gave the option: "Fuse or Dismantle?"
By dismantling those tags, Izayoi gained 25 points. Each white-grade tag, when dismantled, granted a random single-digit number of points.
Now, dismantling a purple-grade tag had instantly earned him over a thousand points.
Even the blue tags could now be upgraded.
"So then, how many points does it take to upgrade a blue tag?"
Curious, Izayoi couldn't resist clicking the plus sign next to [Chakra Control].
Immediately, his status panel changed again:
> [Host: Izayoi]
[Talent Tags: Ōtsutsuki Bloodline (Red), Kage-level Potential (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.
Meanwhile, the plus sign behind [Medical Genius] had disappeared.
He had also lost 999 points.
"So the tag levels go: White, Green, Blue, Purple, Gold, Red. Dismantling white tags gives random single-digit points. Purple tags give four-digit points. And upgrading a blue tag requires a high three-digit point cost. So, are the upgrade costs fixed values or random?"
Izayoi murmured in his heart:
"If the costs are fixed 'extreme' values, then does that mean upgrading White to Green takes 9 points; Green to Blue takes 99; Blue to Purple takes 999; Purple to Gold takes 9999; Gold to Red takes 99,999; and Red to an unknown next level would require 999,999 points?"
He didn't know.
And right now, he didn't have any lower-level tags or enough points to test the theory.
Even if he did have extra points, Izayoi wouldn't waste them on upgrading low-grade tags.
Except for special tags like [Byakugan] or [Chakra Control], he had no plans to upgrade anything below red grade.
As long as he awakened the Tenseigan, he would gain access to a range of dimension-breaking techniques.
Fully developed, it would give him Six Paths-level power.
Just a pair of eyes would be enough for him to survive until the final battle of Shippuden.
Rather than waste points on trash-tier upgrades, it would be better to invest in upgrading the Ōtsutsuki bloodline.
If that were upgraded again, its purity would surely match the alien Ōtsutsuki clan.
At that point, perhaps he'd unlock other forms of Rinnegan, or even powers like Karma and Shinjutsu.
Of course, all of this was just speculation, and for Izayoi, still far in the future.
---
September 1st arrived.
The second semester at the ninja academy began.
This term, Izayoi finally attended in person—but only for the afternoon classes.
In the second semester, the morning classes remained focused on academics. In the afternoons, along with physical education and shuriken throwing, a new course was added: taijutsu sparring.
Unfortunately, in this sparring class, the matches were randomly assigned by Iruka Umino, so Izayoi didn't get matched with Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, or even Hinata.
"Iruka-sensei, can I request to spar with Sasuke?"
When Izayoi heard the matchups were random, he took the initiative to approach Iruka, hoping to spar with Sasuke Uchiha.
Iruka hesitated for a moment but eventually shook his head. "There are no special exceptions in taijutsu sparring. The purpose of this class is to remind you all that the opponents you meet may be evenly matched, weaker, or even stronger."
"You must learn to adapt—whether the battle is equal, overwhelming, or you're being overwhelmed. You'll improve through hardship, gain a sense of achievement through victory, and taste bitterness through defeat. Only then will you grow."
"Understood, Iruka-sensei."
Seeing Iruka wouldn't budge, Izayoi didn't push the matter.
He planned to challenge Sasuke after school instead.
However, Sasuke's reply after school made Izayoi's mouth twitch.
"Sasuke, want to spar?"
"Sorry, I'm not interested. I need to go home and train."
This Sasuke, not yet the avenger he would become, wasn't as cold as in the original story—but he still turned down Izayoi's challenge without hesitation and jogged off, full of excitement.
After the Nine-Tails Incident, the Uchiha clan had been suspected of being behind the attack and were forced to move their compound near the Naka River, away from the central district.
Without having learned the Body Flicker Technique, Sasuke's walk from the academy to his home was fairly long.
Right now, all he wanted was to go back and train with his big brother. He had no time to waste on Izayoi.
Izayoi didn't even get the chance to provoke the Uchiha clan or bait Sasuke into a fight before the boy had already vanished.
He could only sigh helplessly.
He also didn't bother trying to challenge Naruto instead.
Even though the year-end exams hadn't yet determined the top student, Naruto's first semester overall performance was already ranked dead last.
After all, even the worst students knew how to read the word "chakra."
Only Naruto still misread "chakra" even after graduation. That alone said everything about his academic performance. Just like in the Chūnin Exams, his written tests were either blank or full of nonsense.
With his slightly malnourished body, his physical performance wasn't even average.
As a top student, if Izayoi suddenly challenged someone at the very bottom, it would easily draw the attention of the Anbu, and especially that of Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura, both of whom were keeping a close eye on Naruto.
The former wasn't too bad, but the latter might start to suspect that Izayoi knew something—or worse, think he had been sent by someone to get close to Naruto.
To avoid unexpected complications, they might take certain countermeasures.
That would put Izayoi in a very passive and dangerous position.
And that was not what he wanted.
So, for now, Izayoi's only targets were Hinata and Sasuke Uchiha.
Having been rejected by Sasuke, Izayoi didn't insist.
It was already September of Konoha Year 54, with just three months left in the year.
Next year would bring the Uchiha massacre and Sasuke's transformation into a true avenger.
When that time came, there was no way Sasuke would refuse a challenge.
So the next day, Izayoi attended class again in person, but this time didn't try to apply for a fight with Sasuke, nor challenge him after class.
Getting matched with Sasuke or Naruto would certainly be ideal—
—but the other classmates weren't bad either.
After all, this year's batch didn't just include the two future saviors of the ninja world, but also the next-gen Ino-Shika-Cho trio and members of the Sensory Division.
Each student had at least basic ninja potential (white-grade) tags.
Every one of them had tags. Even if all he extracted were white ones, dismantling them still gave him single-digit points.
As for the "Nine Little Powerhouses," they had tags in blue, purple, or even gold and red.
Getting just one from any of them would be a huge reward.
Since he wasn't sure if shadow clones could trigger a tag drop, Izayoi naturally wouldn't skip afternoon classes.