Chapter 23: The Unseen Training
"The mission is complete. Let's head back." Kakashi pulled his mask back up, concealing the Sharingan that had so stunned his team.
Sasuke's gaze was intense, burning with a need to know. "Where did you get that eye?" he demanded, his voice tight.
Kakashi didn't look back, his pace steady. "A gift from my best friend." The finality in his tone made it clear the discussion was over.
Frustrated but knowing he would get no further answers, Sasuke fell silent, the mystery of the Sharingan-wearing jōnin now a permanent fixture in his mind.
On the journey back, Sakura, her curiosity overriding her earlier shock, turned to Naruto. "Naruto-kun, what exactly is the Sharingan?"
"It's a kekkei genkai," Naruto explained, his hands tucked behind his head as he walked. "A bloodline limit unique to the Uchiha clan. A very powerful and rare ocular jutsu."
"A bloodline limit? Only for the Uchiha?" Sakura's eyes drifted to Sasuke, wondering if he possessed it.
Naruto followed her gaze. "Sasuke has it. He just hasn't trained it enough to be useful in a real fight yet."
"Really?" Sakura asked, skepticism coloring her voice. It was hard for her to believe someone as talented as Sasuke would neglect such a powerful asset.
Had Naruto known her thoughts, he would have scoffed. 'Talented? He's one of the least gifted Uchiha in recent history. The only one weaker would be an Uchiha who never awakened it at all.'
As dusk began to paint the sky in shades of violet and orange, Kakashi called a halt in a small, sheltered clearing. "We'll camp here for the night. It's a good opportunity for that training I promised."
"Really?" Sakura's eyes lit up, her earlier anxieties momentarily forgotten in her eagerness to improve.
"I'll sit this one out. You guys have fun," Naruto declared. He casually walked over to the nearest large tree and, to Sakura's astonishment, proceeded to walk straight up the trunk, settling comfortably on a high branch where he appeared to fall asleep instantly.
Kakashi wasn't surprised. He had long accepted that Naruto operated on a different level.
"Whoa! How did he do that?" Sakura gasped, pointing at the sleeping Naruto.
"That," Kakashi said, a small smile playing on his lips, "is exactly what you'll be learning. The Tree-Climbing Exercise."
He proceeded to explain the principles of chakra control to Sakura and a still-brooding Sasuke. Soon, the clearing was filled with the sounds of intense training. Sakura, with her innate chakra control, managed to scale the trunk on her first few attempts, though not without effort. Sasuke, however, was having a much harder time, his concentration broken by the turmoil in his mind. He repeatedly lost his footing, tumbling to the ground with frustrated grunts.
The constant thuds and muttered curses eventually roused Naruto from his feigned sleep. Annoyed by the noise, he decided this was the perfect cover for his own, more secretive training.
"Sensei, I'm going to scout the perimeter and see if I can find some fresh game," he called down, not waiting for a reply before vanishing into the deeper shadows of the forest.
Once he was a safe distance away, hidden within a dense thicket, he focused. "Sharingan, open!"
[Ding! Detected that the host is training the Sharingan. Your Sharingan has competitively evolved to the Two Tomoe stage!]
A surge of power flowed into his eyes. His vision sharpened, colors becoming more vivid, and the world slowing down around him. Two black tomoe spun lazily in his crimson irises.
A smirk touched his lips. 'Went straight to two tomoe. Not bad. Poor Sasuke... still stuck with one after all these years.'
"Time to test its abilities," he murmured. The known powers were replication, illusion, and enhanced perception.
"Shadow Clone Technique!" A single clone poofed into existence. Naruto focused his Sharingan on it, attempting to cast a basic genjutsu.
The clone stood there, utterly unaffected.
[Ding! Detected that the host's genjutsu proficiency is subpar. Your genjutsu has worked hard to improve and has derived a new technique: 'Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death.']
"..." Naruto felt a wave of secondhand embarrassment from his own system. His genjutsu was so weak it couldn't even affect his own clone.
Abandoning that line of testing, he moved on. He ordered his clone through a series of complex taijutsu katas. With the Sharingan active, he could see the faint flow of chakra enhancing the clone's muscles, and his eyes captured every minute detail of its movement with perfect clarity.
"So that's how the replication works," he mused. "You see the hand seals and the chakra flow pattern, and you copy them." He understood its limitations, too. High-level S-rank ninjutsu with intricate chakra manipulations would be far beyond its scope, as would taijutsu arts like the Eight Gates.
Satisfied, he dispelled the clone and moved to his second major acquisition of the day. His hands flew through the familiar seals.
Ram → Monkey → Boar
"Lightning Style: Chidori!"
A thousand birds screeched to life as brilliant, chaotic lightning enveloped his right hand.
[Ding! Due to the host's diligent training, Chidori's proficiency has reached the Grandmaster Level!]
He knew that with a bit more practice, his system would inevitably unlock the more advanced derivatives of the technique.
He dismissed the jutsu, the clearing falling silent once more. "The Chidori is flawed," he analyzed coolly. "The high-speed charge creates a tunnel vision that leaves the user vulnerable. It's useless without the predictive vision of the Sharingan to compensate."
A fortunate flaw, given his new ocular power.
As his eyes returned to their familiar blue, a new thought occurred to him. "I'll need to find a way to conceal the Sharingan. I can't exactly explain how an Uzumaki came to possess the Uchiha clan's most treasured kekkei genkai."
The path to power was, if nothing else, never boring.
(End of Chapter)
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