Chapter 101: Practice
That evening!
Uchiha Asuka watched the setting sun, then invited Might Guy to eat some fried chicken before turning around and heading back toward the village.
He had to admit, this [×3] Acceleration Card was incredible.
His taijutsu was improving at an astonishing rate.
When Uchiha Asuka returned to the shop to pick up Shukaku, he saw a young girl standing outside.
She had slightly dark skin, silver hair, and green eyes that reflected the setting sun.
She looked around twelve or thirteen years old.
Uchiha Asuka watched her from a distance. Seeing that she was simply standing there quietly, he couldn't help hesitating.
The last person who had stood there so quietly had been Uchiha Madara.
This young girl seemed to be looking for him, but he didn't know her.
After a moment of silence, he put his hands into his pockets and walked up to the girl.
"Miss, can I help you with something?"
As he spoke, he waved toward Shukaku, who was sitting cross-legged inside the shop, and dismissed the clones working there.
Uchiha Asuka's cheek twitched when he looked at Shukaku.
The One-Tail was wrapped from head to toe in a cloak, wearing sunglasses and chewing on a lollipop.
Lately, this guy had been wrapping himself up tighter and tighter.
He didn't look like a mascot anymore.
He looked more like a gangster.
"Ya~ ha~!"
Shukaku's excited voice suddenly rang out.
He pointed proudly at the young girl standing outside the shop.
"She has been standing here for a while."
"She probably likes me. She kept trying to use that hand to touch my head just now."
The girl glared at the tanuki before turning toward Uchiha Asuka and bowing.
"Excuse me. I'm Mabui, a shinobi from Kumogakure."
The moment he heard that name, Uchiha Asuka immediately knew who she was.
The future Raikage's secretary.
He had thought there weren't any young girls with dark skin in Konoha.
After locking the shop's doors and windows, he noticed Mabui was still standing there and asked curiously,
"Is something wrong?"
Mabui glanced up at the shop's sign before turning her gaze toward Uchiha Asuka.
She asked curiously,
"I was a little curious after confirming that the information was true. I didn't expect the famous Uchiha Asuka to actually sell fried chicken himself."
Uchiha Asuka shrugged, his tone calm.
"What's so strange about that?"
"There are even people in our clan who sell vegetables and pancakes."
"That's different."
Mabui shook her head and said softly,
"Shinobi rarely run businesses, let alone jōnin."
Uchiha Asuka casually put his hands behind his head and walked past Mabui with a smile.
"You can just consider it one of my strange hobbies."
"After all, aren't there thousands of strange hobbies in the shinobi world?"
"This is still better than secretly spying on other people or experimenting on them for no reason."
After saying that, he waved toward Mabui before turning around and walking home.
Uchiha Asuka would never tell her that he simply wanted a business that could make money even with his eyes closed.
How could he possibly lose money in an industry that required virtually no capital investment?
Watching Uchiha Asuka's departing back, a trace of suspicion flashed through Mabui's eyes.
Her curiosity had been genuine, but that alone wasn't enough to make her interact with Uchiha Asuka.
It was just that she had recently bought a bucket of fried chicken, and she had clearly noticed that the chicken wrapped in the breadcrumbs was unusually tender.
Moreover, the raw ingredients seemed to have come from the Land of Lightning.
There was nothing strange about that.
Chicken from the Land of Lightning was popular throughout the shinobi world.
But it seemed he was actually selling the fried chicken at a loss to attract customers.
The fried chicken he sold was considerably cheaper than even live chickens from the Land of Lightning.
Could he have gotten hold of diseased chickens somewhere?
Could the dignified Uchiha clan actually be a ruthless group of merchants?
The Uchiha clan compound.
After checking Uchiha Asuka's training progress, Madara couldn't help feeling speechless.
This kid's training speed was simply astonishing.
Although the strength of the Uchiha clan increased dramatically as their Sharingan evolved, once an Uchiha's Sharingan reached the Three-Tomoe stage, it became difficult to make further breakthroughs unless they experienced an enormous amount of negative emotion.
They could only make up for their shortcomings through other areas.
Taijutsu, genjutsu, and so on.
As the owner of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, Madara naturally looked down on the Three-Tomoe Uchiha.
That was why he had recently arranged a large number of training programs specifically suited to Uchiha Asuka's talents.
Once Asuka's ocular power accumulated to a certain level, Madara would be able to find a way to stimulate it.
[…]
This is ridiculous!
Madara admitted that Uchiha Asuka's talent was far beyond that of ordinary people.
He was extremely talented.
At best, he could barely be considered a genius among the Uchiha.
But…
Can someone tell me why a person who can barely be called a genius suddenly has a training speed that rivals mine when I was young?
Uchiha Madara looked at Uchiha Asuka, who was staring at him expectantly.
After a moment of silence, he nodded approvingly.
"Not bad."
"Although you're still far from the level I reached in my youth, it's enough to distinguish you from the other Uchiha."
Haa…
Hearing this, Uchiha Asuka couldn't help sighing inwardly.
He had absolutely no doubt that the straightforward Madara was being honest with him.
There had been four legendary powerhouses in the shinobi world over the past thousand years.
One of them was Uchiha Madara.
If Madara praised someone, that person was genuinely outstanding.
Years later, Might Guy would still remember receiving Madara's praise.
"Such powerful chakra. I acknowledge you!"
"Among all the opponents I've ever fought, your taijutsu is second to none."
"I, Madara, declare you the strongest!"
Sleep well.
At four in the morning the next day, the round alarm clock beside the bed had just popped up and was about to ring when a hand shot out from beneath the blanket.
With lightning speed, it slapped the alarm clock silent.
Then it moved the orange cat sleeping on his chest aside and instantly appeared in the bathroom.
Through the window, Uchiha Asuka gazed at the pitch-black night sky outside.
He reached out and turned on the faucet.
A splash of cold water washed over him.
The drowsiness in his heart instantly vanished without a trace.
Although he still didn't understand why Uchiha Madara had suddenly decided to teach him, that didn't stop him from wanting something for nothing.
People often said that the most expensive things were free.
But you still needed someone to help you collect the debt, right?
After showering, he looked at the sunny, handsome, energetic man reflected in the mirror.
Uchiha Asuka grinned, revealing eight pearly white teeth, then casually began squeezing toothpaste onto his toothbrush.
"Good morning, myself."
After a good night's sleep, he felt refreshed from head to toe.
The exhaustion caused by yesterday's high-intensity training had completely disappeared.
This was one strange thing Uchiha Asuka had discovered after signing a contract with Shukaku.
His physical strength and recovery ability were both much stronger than before.
As long as the intensity of his training didn't exceed his body's limits, he could usually recover to peak condition after a single night's sleep.
Uchiha Asuka was extremely fast.
By the time he finished washing up and reached the forest, less than ten minutes had passed.
The morning light was still faint.
At this hour, the forest belonged to the early-rising birds.
When those birds couldn't find food, they would perch on branches and cry pitifully in their own language, saying that they were hungry.
Uchiha Asuka hung his jacket and ninja tool pouch from a branch.
Then he flicked a worm that had woken early to eat leaves directly into a bird's beak.
He sat cross-legged on the ground and began practicing his ocular abilities according to the method Madara had taught him.
"Whoosh~"
The process of activating the Sharingan itself was silent—the pupils simply changed from black to red.
However, when Uchiha Asuka had watched the anime in his previous life, he had noticed that whenever the Sharingan evolved into the Mangekyō Sharingan, it was always accompanied by a dramatic background sound effect.
Since he was alone, he had recorded the sound effect himself.
Men were like this.
No matter how old they were, when they were alone and nobody was around, they would secretly do incredibly chuuni things.
Of course, Uchiha Asuka would never readily admit that.
He firmly believed that it was simply a way of creating a sense of ritual before practicing with the Sharingan.
Yes.
A sense of ritual.
Looking at the tree branch suddenly shaking in the distance, Uchiha Asuka's expression darkened.
He immediately stood up and said expressionlessly,
"The person on the second branch of the third large tree to the south."
"Come out."
Although the leaves blocked his view of the person's face, the inexplicable shaking of the branch just now proved that he wasn't alone.
You came to the forest at four in the morning.
Are you sick?
Hearing that Uchiha Asuka had already identified her hiding place, the branch shook again.
Then someone jumped down from it.
With her hands behind her back, the person looked up at the stars glittering in the night sky and said casually,
"Jōnin Asuka, what beautiful weather we're having today!"
Uchiha Asuka looked at the person walking toward him.
The corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
He wondered why he hadn't noticed her when he first arrived.
It turned out to be that slightly dark-skinned girl from Kumogakure.
The darkness of night had perfectly concealed her figure.
"Mabui, don't you usually sleep late at night?"
Mabui awkwardly turned her head away.
"I couldn't sleep, so I came out for a walk."
After saying that, she secretly observed Uchiha Asuka while thinking to herself.
She wasn't ignorant.
After moving into an enemy's den, how could she possibly sleep peacefully?
Not being able to sleep was a perfectly normal reaction, right?
Besides, she was clearly the first person to arrive here.
Uchiha Asuka raised his head and looked around.
The forest was unusually quiet.
He frowned.
"Where's the shinobi assigned to watch you?"
"Where is he hiding?"
Mabui blinked her large eyes at Uchiha Asuka and innocently said,
"The people of Konoha are really kind."
"The Hokage personally gave the order that we don't need to be monitored."
"He even marked out the restricted areas beforehand. We can go anywhere we want."
Uchiha Asuka nodded.
He really hadn't found any trace of anyone else.
At that moment, Uchiha Asuka walked over to Mabui and placed one hand on her shoulder.
A murderous aura immediately spread from him.
"Don't come to the forest at four in the morning next time."
"Getting more sleep is good for your development."
Mabui's eyelid twitched.
She nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at grain.
Remembering the silly sound Uchiha Asuka had made while rubbing his eyes with both hands earlier, Mabui nodded even faster.
The intelligence was accurate.
Some members of the Uchiha really did suffer from severe chuuni syndrome.
Seeing how readily Mabui agreed, Uchiha Asuka gave her a suspicious look.
Then he disdainfully pointed toward the forest exit.
"I don't like strangers watching me while I train."
"I understand. I get it."
At this moment, Mabui completely understood what Uchiha Asuka meant.
This kind of chuuni training method obviously required a secluded place.
After secretly glancing at Uchiha Asuka, Mabui thought to herself,
I didn't expect him to be this hardworking.
No wonder he achieved so much at such a young age.
This guy…
Watching Mabui's departing figure, Uchiha Asuka remembered the scene during the Fourth Great Ninja War when Mabui attempted to teleport a Tailed Beast Bomb.
He couldn't help shaking his head.
She's so beautiful.
What a shame she died.
Uchiha Asuka sat back down in his original position and refocused his attention on practicing with the Sharingan.
According to Madara, strengthening the ocular power of the Sharingan was a process of continuous stimulation.
He had made decent progress at first.
But it wasn't enough.
The rate at which his ocular power was improving was too slow.
"Three tomoe…"
Remembering the process of activating and evolving his Sharingan, a trace of sadness flashed through Uchiha Asuka's eyes.
Before transmigrating, he had thought the Sharingan was incredibly cool.
It could summon Susanoo and possessed all kinds of special abilities.
But when he actually awakened the Sharingan, Uchiha Asuka discovered that he resisted it.
He resisted the process of awakening.
He resisted the fact that he had awakened it.
With every increase in his visual prowess, fewer people remained by his side to support him.
The classmates, comrades, and mentors who had once fought alongside him…
Now, only he remained.
An hour later.
"Huff!"
Uchiha Asuka repeatedly practiced the method Uchiha Madara had taught him, breathing heavily.
His blood-red pupils gradually returned to black as he finally came out of his concentrated state.
He noticed that his physical strength and chakra had been rapidly depleted.
Leaning against a tree, he stood up and touched his clothes, which were completely soaked with sweat.
He had to admit, the results were quite good.
But after every training session, he felt as though all the strength had been drained from his body.
In his current condition, he probably couldn't even be considered a chūnin.
"This is driving me crazy."
"I wonder if this system will provide any way to restore my stamina in the future."
Muttering to himself, Uchiha Asuka walked out of the forest.