The next day, Ryōsuke got up early.
Kurenai was pregnant, so of course there had been no intimacy. Even so, heat surged through his body. As his physical attributes increased, his needs grew stronger too. He would have to find another woman, but there was no suitable target yet. The only option was morning training to burn off the heat.
He headed to the small grove beside the clan compound to start drills and raise his physical stats. After running around the grove for over ten minutes, a silhouette appeared in front of him. It was Uchiha Inaho, looking a bit haggard.
Seeing Inaho wave him over, Ryōsuke stopped.
"Do you need something?"
Inaho asked, embarrassed.
"Ryōsuke, is there some trick to training the Eight Gates? I've been practicing for days and still can't open even the First Gate."
He had trained hard, passing out from pain more than once. He had not slacked off at all.
Ryōsuke shot him a look. The Eight Gates were not easy. He himself had trained for three months and still had not reached the Fifth Gate.
"The key to training the Eight Gates is not fearing pain or exhaustion. Be persistent and you will improve. Do you understand?"
Inaho understood. Ryōsuke meant that grinding practice would yield progress. But Ryōsuke had reached Four Gates so fast that Inaho wanted a shortcut.
"Ryōsuke, is there any shortcut that can speed it up?"
A shortcut? Ryōsuke knew Inaho had seen his pace and assumed there was one. If there was, it was only a tough body and strong recovery, which were his alone. He could not just say that.
"There is a shortcut," he said. "Refine chakra continuously and ram it against the chakra limiter. But this carries risk. At best you'll faint. At worst you could suffer brain trauma."
Inaho's face changed. So that was Ryōsuke's method. He had already experienced the fainting. Brain trauma was something he would rather not have. He decided to slow his Eight Gates training.
Even so, his respect for Ryōsuke grew. Ryōsuke had advanced this fast by such methods. He would surely become the new leader of their Radical Faction. The current Eighth is fine, but the strong should rise. Ryōsuke was already powerful with taijutsu alone. If he learned the clan's genjutsu, he would be even stronger.
Ryōsuke's ocular power surpassed his own. Genjutsu cast with the Sharingan would naturally be stronger than his. Perhaps even comparable to Uchiha Shisui.
"Ryōsuke, your taijutsu is already strong," Inaho said. "If you learn the clan's Sharingan genjutsu, you'll only grow stronger."
The clan prodigies Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui both excelled at genjutsu.
Ryōsuke fell into thought. His base body's taijutsu was formidable. He could even suppress the clan head, Uchiha Fugaku. But taijutsu had an obvious weakness: it required close combat. He did have a ranged option, the Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu, but even he found it hard to hit with it. Great power, slow speed.
Genjutsu was different. If his ocular power was strong enough, as long as eyes met, the enemy could be trapped with hardly any effort. Perhaps he really should study genjutsu. A true expert should have it.
"You're right," he said to Inaho. "I should study genjutsu."
Inaho was pleased. Ryōsuke growing stronger meant their Radical Faction grew stronger. Reviving the Uchiha's honor might be within reach.
"Ryōsuke, I'll head back first." He was not like Ryōsuke and still had to report to work.
Ryōsuke nodded. He needed genjutsu scrolls. That was not a problem. His grandfather was the Great Elder of the Uchiha clan. The clan's secret arts would not be lacking. No need to worry. For now, training his physical attributes remained key.
By afternoon, Ryōsuke went straight to his grandfather. Though respected in the clan, the old man had mostly retired from affairs. He smiled at his grandson.
"So, what brings you here?"
He had noticed Ryōsuke's recent changes. At first he worried that training with Might Guy would harm the boy's body, but it had not, so his concern faded. Seeing his grandson grow stronger made him happy. That was likely the result of training with Might Guy, and he felt grateful to him.
Ryōsuke stated his purpose directly.
"Grandfather, I want to learn the clan's Sharingan ocular arts. You know them."
His grandfather's brows knit. He did know the clan's genjutsu. But the Sharingan's genjutsu was not something anyone with the Sharingan could master. Best with three tomoe and strong ocular power.
"Ryōsuke, you don't need to learn Sharingan genjutsu," he said helplessly. "You only have one tomoe. Even if you learn it, the power will be weak. It's as good as nothing."
Ryōsuke activated a three-tomoe Sharingan on the spot. His eyes turned red, three tomoe spinning in each.
His grandfather was stunned. His grandson had awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan. That should have been impossible. He rubbed his eyes, blaming presbyopia, then looked again. The red was almost excessive, a clear sign of immense ocular power. No wonder Ryōsuke wanted to learn genjutsu. Wasting such eyes would be a shame.
"Good. Good. Good," the old man said, a smile breaking through. "I'll fetch the genjutsu scrolls."
Soon he returned to the main hall carrying a stack of scrolls.
"Here. The Uchiha clan's genjutsu are all here."
Ryōsuke carefully unrolled them to examine the techniques within, eager to see what fearsome genjutsu the clan possessed.