Eye Cultivation, Heart Cultivation

After a long while.

Uchiha Izumi's eyes showed a hint of reluctance, but his voice reached Katsuo's ears with icy indifference.

"Get up. The eyes of the Uchiha Clan aren't as fragile as you imagine. You won't go blind."

Enduring the excruciating pain, Katsuo struggled to his feet. One hand covered his left eye, his face twisted in discomfort, tears and snot streaming down his face. It was not because he was crying, but a side effect of having his eyeball repeatedly stimulated like this!

"Are you afraid?"

Uchiha Izumi asked sternly, his voice cold.

"N-No!"

"Say it while looking at it!" Uchiha Izumi said coldly, pointing at the young eaglet.

"No!"

"Say it with your eyes open!" Uchiha Izumi showed no mercy.

Katsuo lowered the hand covering his eye. With unwavering determination, he ignored the agonizing pain and redness in his pecked left eyeball, opened his eyes wide, and shouted at the young eaglet:

"No!"

"For the days ahead, you will repeat this training until it submits. Don't worry, our eyes are very strong. Today it pecked your left eye; tomorrow, you'll use your right eye. Keep repeating this until you complete the training task."

"Of course, you don't have much time either. It is still a young bird, and it will naturally grow day by day—and quickly. That means if you cannot complete the task, its pecks will only grow heavier!"

"Also, Third Elder has given the order: if you cannot complete this training task, he will give up on you!"

"Within our clan, anyone who cannot complete this training is unqualified to become a Jonin. Their achievements in life will not amount to much either, so they naturally aren't worth cultivating."

Katsuo's entire body trembled at those words. After a moment of silence, he asked:

"Izumi-sensei, have you also undergone this eyesight training?"

Uchiha Izumi answered without hesitation:

"Of course!"

Katsuo lowered his head and remained silent for a long time.

Seeing that Katsuo had no reaction, Uchiha Izumi suddenly snorted coldly.

"You don't want to continue? Are you afraid?"

Katsuo did not answer. He shook his head in denial.

"Weakling. Trash!"

"Those who give up halfway will never amount to anything, much less deserve power!"

Uchiha Izumi directly trampled all over Katsuo's ambitions and goals. His usual gentleness vanished, replaced by extreme coldness in both expression and attitude. He used the words most capable of piercing Katsuo's heart to strike at him!

He even activated his own Three-Tomoe Sharingan, and an invisible pressure wantonly crushed Katsuo's spirit!

The atmosphere became incomparably grave, even tense enough to draw swords!

Katsuo kept his head lowered, his eyes bloodshot. When he looked up, a pair of Two-Tomoe Sharingan appeared unconsciously, the two tomoe slowly spinning. Uchiha Izumi had struck his sore spot, and that hurt even more than the injury to his left eye!

In Uchiha Izumi's eyes, those bloodshot Two-Tomoe Sharingan were filled with ferocity and savagery. They looked like the eyes of a wild beast!

Although that terrifying gaze was already frightening enough, what horrified Uchiha Izumi even more was...

The way those tomoe were spinning was clearly a phenomenon that appeared only when one was about to break through to Three-Tomoe!

"How is this possible..."

The moment he thought of that, Uchiha Izumi cried out in shock.

His cry seemed to awaken Katsuo from his special state. Without warning, Katsuo closed his eyes, withdrew his Sharingan, and returned them to ordinary black pupils.

"If others can do it, then so can I!"

His voice was soft, but it carried an unshakable conviction!

Uchiha Izumi finally came back to his senses. Looking at Katsuo's black eyes, he felt that he must have seen wrong just now... Katsuo had not broken through to Three-Tomoe!

He had been making too much of it. It truly was impossible.

"Very good. This is a special medicinal solution needed for your training. Besides easily healing peck wounds, applying it will bring many benefits to your eyes. You'll experience them shortly."

"I won't be coming for a while. I have a mission that requires me to leave the village. At night, continue training with this little fellow on your own. Remember, you may only undergo this kind of trial once per day. Although our eyes are very strong, they are still fragile and vital parts of the body. Do not act recklessly."

"Also, the key to this training is not to glare at it, nor is it a contest of who can endure longer. It is to make it wary of you, make it fear you, make it dare not attack you so easily."

"Wild beasts understand how to avoid danger and seek safety. For example, when facing a carnivorous beast in the wild that is not much larger than you, the more you run, the closer death comes. The correct method is to face them directly. The firmer your will, the more uncertain they become, and the farther danger moves away from you. Sometimes, with just the slightest movement from you, they will tuck their tails and flee."

Listening to Uchiha Izumi, Katsuo nodded seriously. He had seen this sort of wilderness survival knowledge in his previous life and understood what Uchiha Izumi meant.

Watching Katsuo nod and ponder, Uchiha Izumi pointed at the young Ninja Hawk with satisfaction and continued:

"Whatever kind of will you hold in your eyes will determine its reaction. I told you already, it is a very special Ninja Beast. It can perceive your heart, and fear has nowhere to hide before it!"

"That is all I have to say. I don't have much theory to teach you lately. Your main direction of training remains body cultivation, and you have done well in that regard. But remember, body cultivation must also be done in moderation..."

He was not afraid that Katsuo would fail to work hard. He was afraid that the boy would work too hard and accidentally train himself into ruin...

Katsuo nodded in response.

"In that case, we'll leave it at that tonight. I'm going now."

Before Katsuo could answer, Uchiha Izumi vanished with a standard Body Flicker Technique. Katsuo stared at the empty spot for a long while before murmuring:

"Uchiha Izumi never underwent this kind of training, and it never appeared in the Original Work either. What should I do?"

He was certain Uchiha Izumi had lied just now. With such a special training method, with pain like having one's eyeball pecked, anyone who had experienced it would never forget it. At the very least, they would recall it for a moment instead of answering without thinking!

But knowing that was meaningless. Katsuo believed that since this training existed, it had meaning and value. Uchiha Izumi would not harm him; he was not valuable enough for anyone to plot against.

Since that was the case, he would trust him. If Uchiha Madara could do it, Katsuo believed he could too!

At this moment, he fully believed that Uchiha Madara had undergone this training...

Several kilometers away, Uchiha Izumi walked side by side with Third Elder Uchiha Feng. Uchiha Izumi spoke up and asked:

"Third Elder, does this kind of training method really exist? How come I never knew about it..."

Uchiha Izumi felt that Katsuo had been thoroughly duped, competing with a beast... Was there any point to that?

"It does exist. It was indeed developed step by step by the predecessors of our Uchiha Clan. But it is perfectly normal that you do not know about it."

"..."

Uchiha Izumi felt that Third Elder's words were somewhat contradictory. If this training method really existed, there was no way he would not know about it!

Could it be that his authority was truly too low?

"The reason you do not know is because this training method was eliminated. It had too many restrictions, was too dangerous, and was simply too difficult!"

"The one who discarded this training method was Lord Madara!"