"Alright, it's normal for accidents to happen during missions, so don't be paranoid. Besides, with a Jonin like me here, I will protect you all!" Jōzuka Masaki said after hearing them.
"Mm-hmm!" Hirai Mitsuteru finally nodded.
However, Uchiha Sora secretly remained vigilant in his heart, remembering that in the original work, the reason Itachi's teammates died was because Uchiha Obito was causing trouble behind the scenes.
Uchiha Itachi's awakening of his eyes was likely something Obito did on purpose.
As for why Obito would help Itachi awaken his eyes, it was possible he wanted to groom Itachi, using him as a tool and planting a chess piece for his future plans.
And since Uchiha Sora had graduated early alongside Itachi, as an Uchiha genius who graduated at the same young age, could he also be targeted by Obito?
"It seems I need to find a way to speed up my growth," Uchiha Sora thought to himself.
To guard against Obito, he had to become strong enough that even Obito would be wary of him.
During the subsequent missions, Uchiha Sora became extremely cautious. Not only that, but he also decided to develop the Ninjutsu, Rasengan, himself.
Uchiha Sora's current Chakra reserves were actually quite substantial; according to his own estimation, they were likely already comparable to an average Jonin.
After all, for nearly two years, his Chakra Concentration Technique had been cultivating automatically.
Furthermore, his Sharingan had long been able to open to the two-tomoe state, so overall, he possessed the foundation to develop A-rank Ninjutsu.
It was just that he had been busy building his foundation previously and hadn't practiced these more advanced Ninjutsu.
Now that his foundation was solid, it was necessary to develop some trump card Ninjutsu.
The development of the Rasengan went very smoothly. Following the detailed tutorial provided in the original work, Uchiha Sora had only just begun the first step when the system immediately popped up a notification:
"Ding! Ninjutsu Rasengan project successfully initiated, entering automatic cultivation mode!"
About half an hour later.
"Ding! Your Ninjutsu Rasengan, due to your detailed tutorial guidance, has had its automatic cultivation speed greatly increased! Cultivation complete!"
As soon as the system sound rang out, Uchiha Sora couldn't help but laugh.
After developing the Rasengan, he immediately started the project for the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.
However, the system quickly gave another notification: "Your Chakra reserves are insufficient, automatic cultivation of the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken failed!"
"Your Chakra Concentration Technique feels discouraged and has decided to cultivate even harder, automatic cultivation speed greatly increased!"
Suddenly, Uchiha Sora felt the upper limit of the Chakra in his body beginning to increase at a noticeable speed.
At this rate, within a month, Uchiha Sora's Chakra reserves could double compared to now!
Although he failed to cultivate the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, the fact that it sparked the enthusiasm of his Chakra Concentration Technique was still something worth celebrating.
"Ding! Your physique feels that it will become a burden to your Chakra Concentration Technique! It has suddenly strived for self-improvement, broken through its limits, and successfully evolved into a standard Sage Body!"
This message made Uchiha Sora pleasantly surprised; he hadn't expected his physique to evolve into a Sage Body!
With this, Uchiha Sora no longer had to worry about running out of Chakra in the future.
With this major improvement, the sense of crisis in Uchiha Sora's heart was finally reduced a little.
One month later.
After completing a C-rank mission, Jōzuka Masaki said to the three of them: "Registration for the Chunin Exams begins next month. I think the performance of all three of you is excellent, and you are ready to participate in the Chunin Exams. If you are interested, I can help you register."
Yūgao Uzuki and Hirai Mitsuteru both showed expressions of eagerness and looked at Uchiha Sora: "How about it? Sora, why don't we try participating?"
Uchiha Sora frowned slightly.
To be honest, he didn't want to participate in the Chunin Exams and get promoted to Chunin so quickly.
Because he knew well the principle that the tree that stands above the forest is the first to be broken by the wind.
During his time at the Ninja Academy, showing excellence or even graduating early was understandable. But if he were to go from Genin to Chunin in just one year, that kind of talent would likely invite trouble.
Furthermore, as a member of the Uchiha Clan, he would inevitably invite the wariness and suspicion of Konoha's top brass.
Therefore, he would definitely not become a Chunin so quickly; he would even rather remain a Genin for his whole life than promote quickly and attract unnecessary attention.
However, looking at the expectant eyes of his two teammates, Uchiha Sora thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.
First of all, the tradition for participating in the Chunin Exams was that registration was only successful if a team of three applied together, unless a teammate had sacrificed themselves during a mission, which would count as a special exception for individual registration.
Secondly, Uchiha Sora could easily hold back during the Chunin Exams, making himself appear less conspicuous, or even withdraw halfway through.
As long as he went through the motions with his two teammates so they could successfully participate in the Chunin Exams, that was enough. He could just act as a participant accompanying them.
"Great! If the three of us agree, we can sign up for the Chunin Exams!" Upon receiving Uchiha Sora's agreement, Hirai Mitsuteru said eagerly.
"Alright, since you all agree, I will sign you up in these next two days," Jōzuka Masaki smiled.
If Uchiha Sora and the others could pass the Chunin Exams, then he, as their Jonin instructor, would also receive praise from the Hokage. From his perspective, he naturally hoped that the three of them would succeed.
The next day, Jōzuka Masaki brought them the good news that the registration was successful, and he gave them a long break. From now until the start of the Chunin Exams, nearly a month, he allowed the three of them to cultivate hard and improve their strength.
The three of them also took this opportunity to ask Jōzuka Masaki some questions about Ninjutsu and asked him to teach them some more powerful techniques.
However, Jōzuka Masaki himself didn't possess many trump card Ninjutsu and couldn't teach them much.
In the end, he just used his connections to get a few scrolls from a friend, one for each person, and gave them to Uchiha Sora and his team.
"Thank you, Teacher Masaki!" Uchiha Sora and the others thanked him as they received the scrolls.
Then they opened them one after another to read.
The scroll Hirai Mitsuteru received contained a B-rank Water Release Ninjutsu, Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique.
Yūgao Uzuki's was the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Uchiha Sora's scroll recorded a B-rank Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet.
These three Ninjutsu were all B-rank, which were techniques that only the Jonin level could cultivate and master.
If Uchiha Sora and his team could master these three Ninjutsu, they would definitely be able to display immense power during the Chunin Exams.