I'll Make Him Backfire

Uchiha Obito's predicament had a very simple cause: his waist and leg strength were insufficient to support his body into a flat position.

He clearly had decent chakra and could stick his feet to the tree trunk, yet he simply could not straighten his back. Even circus clowns among ordinary people could do it.

Yu knew Uchiha Obito's fundamentals were terrible, but he had never imagined they could be this terrible—not even comparable to four- or five-year-old children in the clan.

How embarrassing.

Obito had disgraced the Uchiha clan. Even Uchiha Yu, who had no sense of clan identity whatsoever, felt his face burning.

Fortunately, Yu's skin was thick enough and his mindset steady enough. He successfully concealed his embarrassment, let out a long sigh, and said, "There's no helping it. You have to start with basic physical training."

"Pull-ups, straight-leg crunches, and hanging sit-ups. Start with those three exercises."

Uchiha Obito protested, "Those are exercises for children. I'm a proper genin..."

Yu gave a disdainful sneer. "A genin who's worse than a child? That's a first for me."

Obito was immediately left speechless. "..."

"Stop talking about awakening the Sharingan. The Sharingan is indeed the strongest Kekkei Genkai, but it only provides supportive dynamic vision, Genjutsu, and the ability to copy movements."

"To bring out the Sharingan's power, you still need your own fundamental strength. If the Sharingan could handle everything, other ninja would have no way to survive."

"With your physical condition, even if you luckily awakened the Sharingan, you would have no foundational strength to use it. You'd even ruin the Sharingan's reputation."

Yu's harsh words drained the color from Obito's face, completely crushing his hopes of getting lucky. He obediently began training as instructed.

"I don't care what you did before, but the debts you owe can only be made up through twice the effort. Get serious!"

"Do each exercise ten times per set. Rotate through ten consecutive sets. You can rest only after completing every exercise once."

"During your breaks, do planks. That counts as resting too."

Uchiha Obito turned completely pale, but he did not argue head-on. He merely muttered under his breath, "D-devil..."

Having dealt with the hardest troublemaker, Yu only needed to sweep his gaze over the other two obedient children. They immediately began practicing nervously, not daring to slack off in the slightest.

Miwa Masayo appeared on Yu's shoulder and quietly asked, "I remember you said you wanted to get along well with Obito, meow. Why are you being so strict with him?"

"I'm being sincerely good to him right now. What does being good to him have to do with my attitude?"

"Aren't you afraid he'll hate you and it'll backfire, meow?"

"Heh, excellent use of that idiom."

"Don't rush, don't rush. Uchiha Obito isn't an ordinary person. His talent is very good..."

"Meow?"

Miwa Masayo looked at Uchiha Obito as he raised his legs to do crunches—his face twisted in pain, his complexion white as paper, his legs trembling like a sieve...

Where was there even a trace of genius about him?

Yu quietly showed the Tabby Cat his Sharingan, which he had concealed with Genjutsu, then said, "I used to think he was trash too, that he merely had good Sharingan talent. But now I know..."

"His physical potential is truly exceptional. No wonder Uchiha Madara chose him as his tool. The Sharingan is not a tree without roots; it will not bloom from genuine mud."

"Masayo, watch the differences between Obito's sets. Look carefully."

With Yu's reminder, Miwa Masayo closely observed three consecutive sets of Obito's movements and discovered in shock that he improved with every set.

Suddenly, her gaze became dangerous.

"Yu, you said Obito was one of your most dangerous enemies. I believe you now. He really is a genius who's been held back."

"Kill him, meow?"

Yu shook his head and said, "No. The source of the problem isn't Obito, but Uchiha Madara, who's barely clinging to life. If we kill Obito now, that old man still has enough time to choose another Uchiha and train him into his substitute. So we can't kill him yet."

"I'll wait until Uchiha Madara acts on his own, then give him a gentle push and make it backfire. Once he no longer has time to start over, that will count as successfully eliminating the danger."

Yu fell silent for a while, then sighed. "The waters of this Ninja World run deep. Death is not the end of life. If Obito dies and Uchiha Madara truly cannot find a suitable replacement, he can pay a great enough price to revive Obito."

"I have no choice but to treat this with the utmost caution."

"I'll make everyone think that although I was the one who killed Obito, I was also the person who treated him best. Even Obito himself will have to admit it!"

Miwa Masayo: "..."

Yu asked, "What's wrong, Rika-chan?"

Miwa Masayo used her paws to close her hanging jaw and timidly said, "Rika-chan it is, then. Call me whatever you like, but you have to promise not to scheme against me. I'm scared..."

Only then did Yu realize that his idea of killing someone while making them feel grateful had frightened Miwa Masayo. He hurriedly reassured her, "Don't be afraid. You and I are close, aren't we? I'd rather slash myself than hurt a single hair on your body."

"I hope so, meow."

"Wait, you've plucked my fur before, and you even pulled out my whiskers. And—and my eyebrows!"

"And why didn't you say you'd stab yourself? You said it yourself: three slashes aren't as good as one stab!"

In less than a minute, Miwa Masayo had regained the familiar feeling of getting along with her poop-scooper. They laughed and played together, completely forgetting the fear and dread from a minute earlier.

A cat so innocent and pure-hearted, with a mind as clear as snowmelt from the Heavenly Mountains—how could anyone not love her?

The playfulness between Yu and Miwa Masayo softened Yu's stern demeanor, making the three genin breathe a sigh of relief. The training ground no longer felt so terrifying.

"Obito! You're slacking off. Three more sets!"

"Huh? No!"

"Say another word, and I'll add five more sets!"

Under Yu's harsh reprimands, the atmosphere on the training ground remained tense and serious, maintaining the best possible training results.

Uchiha Obito's talent truly was exceptional, but his mind before going dark truly was hopeless.

No matter how closely he was watched or how severe the punishment was, he simply could not concentrate. His thoughts drifted like a kite with a broken string. At most, five minutes would pass before he forgot every lesson, started daydreaming, and relaxed his form.

Yu felt that if Obito's Heart Monkey could manifest, it might well be the Great Sage Equal to Heaven himself at the moment he kicked over Laojun's Furnace—the wildest, most violent, and most unruly version of him.

It was nearly dark before Yu finally found Obito's weak point. When the punishment for his mistakes became collective punishment that Rin had to share, Obito's Heart Monkey was finally suppressed.

He honestly completed his punishment exercises. Once he gathered his thoughts, his movements became standard, the training results grew even more obvious, and he displayed unbelievable potential.

The two genin who had completed their scheduled training and had time to rest and eat were already too exhausted to stand after only two extra sets of frog jumps and four sets of weighted squats.

Yet Uchiha Obito, who had not rested at all and had eaten neither lunch nor dinner, still stood steadily after completing all his exercises on an empty stomach, though his entire body was trembling.

Yu and Miwa Masayo both wore somewhat complicated expressions as they watched Obito.

"That's it for today. Go back and take a good hot bath."

"Yes~" x3

"Don't slack off, or you'll suffer tomorrow morning."

"Oh, and don't be late tomorrow, or else..."

Rin suddenly laughed. "Or if one person is late, the whole team gets punished."

"Hehe, exactly right. Dismissed!"

"Yes!" x3