After the merchant left, the training ground returned to its usual silence.
Sasuke formed two shadow clones and sent them off to handle the food and supplies. He remained behind, finishing the last stretch of his morning conditioning as if nothing had interrupted him.
The Shadow Clone Technique was not something the Sasuke of memory had known. He had found the scroll in the study, mixed in among Uchiha fire-style techniques and throwing arts. The technique itself was widespread, uncomplicated, and honest about its cost. He learned it in one reading.
He could not afford excess. Three, at most four clones, was his limit.
Beyond the field, two more clones worked separately, feet pressed to bark, practicing chakra control in steady silence.
He did not rush them.
Once he committed to a direction, he followed it without shortcuts.
Physical conditioning built stamina and body energy. Chakra control refined precision. Both mattered, not just for strength, but for the future paths he had chosen. Medical techniques demanded more than knowledge. They demanded a body that could endure mistakes.
By the time the sun climbed higher, the session was finished.
Sasuke released the clones.
Information and fatigue rushed back into him at once. He stood still until the dizziness faded, then reached for a towel and cleaned the sweat and shallow scrapes along his arms.
As he worked, he reviewed the past week.
Progress was faster. Across the board. Ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu theory, even memorization. Chakra moved more smoothly through his pathways, gathered faster, responded quicker.
It wasn't difficult to guess why.
Stronger mental energy sharpened everything else. The Uzumaki and Senju were known for bodies that endured. The Uchiha were different. Speed of thought. Speed of learning. Speed of execution.
Talent did not appear from nothing.
Chakra control, however, remained its own mystery.
It didn't scale cleanly with strength or intelligence. Some had it. Some didn't. Sakura's aptitude stood out even now, impossible to ignore. He remembered how quickly she had mastered tree walking compared to both Naruto and his younger self.
For now, he would keep practicing.
When the academy reopened, he would ask her directly.
There was no shame in learning from someone better.
Leaving the training ground, Sasuke walked through the empty streets of the Uchiha district toward the eastern edge, where the river curved through stone and forest.
The Naka River.
He had already stripped the compound of anything worth selling. That was finished. This trip had nothing to do with money.
He was looking for knowledge.
At the river's upper reach stood a shrine built in the old Uchiha style. Weathered, quiet, and overlooked.
Sasuke stopped before it.
He remembered the words spoken to him before he lost consciousness.
From the seventh tatami mat on the right.
He moved without hesitation, lifted the panel, and found the hidden passage beneath. The air cooled as he descended, footsteps echoing softly along stone.
The chamber opened wide.
Fan crests lined the walls. At the center stood a stone monument, half his height, its surface pale and unmarked. Above it, a pattern of black tomoe circled in silence.
Sasuke stood before it, eyes steady.
The stone revealed nothing.
That, too, was expected.