Two-Tomoe

"Wow, you're a ninja, big brother?"

Katsuo's feigned amazement immediately made the Uchiha boy want to show off. In truth, he had only graduated from the Ninja Academy not long ago.

As if casually, he tugged down the zipper at his collar, revealing a Konoha Headband with a metallic sheen.

"Ah! Amazing! It's actually a Konoha Headband. Big brother really is a ninja. I'm impressed, truly impressed!"

"Ahem! Let's go." The Uchiha boy coughed lightly, though he looked immensely pleased.

Along the way, Katsuo asked him many questions, and he patiently answered them one by one—such as the terrain around their destination, where wild animals could be found, and where was suitable for camping.

Even after they reached their destination, the Uchiha boy happily helped Katsuo set up his tent before leaving. He could not have been more enthusiastic!

Katsuo, meanwhile, spat viciously as he watched the boy's retreating back.

He had originally planned to flatter the boy into teaching him how to extract Chakra. He would be able to learn it at the Ninja Academy in a few days anyway, and it was not some great secret, yet that bastard had extorted 500 ryo from him!

"Pah! The son of a profiteer is a profiteer too! I wasted half a day putting on an act."

Five hundred ryo—more than a Genin's share after completing a D-Rank Mission. After all, missions were usually carried out by four-person teams—one Jonin and three Genin—so the money naturally had to be split evenly.

Of course, if he had not been so impatient to learn it right now, he would not have been extorted.

Katsuo touched his pocket. In a single day, nearly three-quarters of the money inside had vanished, but in exchange, he had obtained supplies that could sustain him for the next two and a half years.

After organizing his knives, forks, animal traps, and other items, Katsuo looked around the campsite. It was quiet here, and few people came this way.

There was a river ahead, and the Ninja Academy lay a few kilometers away. Behind him stretched a vast forest. Beyond it stood layers of wire fencing like walls, and the land within those fences was the so-called Death Forest—the place where the Chunin Exams were held in the Original Work.

Katsuo had chosen this place for several reasons. First, it was sparsely populated and convenient for moving around, while also allowing him to avoid Uchiha Kari. Second, it was close to the Ninja Academy, only a twenty- to thirty-minute walk away. Third, it offered places to hunt and food to gather.

Looking at the river ahead, even in the worst case, he could fish and roast his catch. He would not starve to death.

Katsuo nodded, quite satisfied with the place.

Afterward, he found a shady spot and began extracting Chakra!

"Chakra is an energy created through the perfect combination of spiritual energy and physical energy. To obtain it, one must first extract physical energy from each of the 130 trillion cells, then combine it with the spiritual energy produced through cultivation, training, and accumulated experience. That creates what is known as Chakra!"

"Spiritual energy... My spiritual energy is vast and powerful, far beyond that of ordinary people. It isn't difficult to use. The main issue is physical energy..."

"Extract physical energy one cell at a time..."

Very quickly, the effects of his powerful spiritual energy became apparent. Katsuo successfully extracted Chakra within three minutes, but after thirty minutes, the amount of Chakra he had refined was still very small. Even after three hours, the amount remained scarce...

He vaguely understood what was happening!

"Sure enough, before my body recovers, I shouldn't expect to have much Chakra. And if I forcibly use my immense spiritual energy to extract it, I can certainly do so, but it will likely damage my cells. The losses outweigh the gains..."

While focusing on extracting physical energy, he had already begun to faintly sense the condition of his cells. His body was still as terrible as ever. This required time; there was no rushing it.

Three uninterrupted hours of extracting Chakra had nearly exhausted his physical energy. He was starving now. He pulled out a large bottle of milk and gulped it down, then bit into a piece of bread. Carrying several animal traps and a cage trap, Katsuo plunged straight into the depths of the forest.

He did not stop until he reached the wire fence around the Death Forest. There, he set up the animal traps. In addition, he used thin ropes and tree trunks to arrange more than ten traps.

The bait in the traps was quite varied: bread soaked in milk, apples with only the cores left, carrots, and even eggs... He had truly spared no expense.

After setting the traps, Katsuo returned to camp. Once he had filled his stomach, he carried out all kinds of basic physical training. Sometimes, he went down to the river to swim and catch fish. Sometimes, he practiced the accuracy of his Shuriken throws. Sometimes, he extracted Chakra.

It could be said that all his time was spent training his body, extracting Chakra, and eating.

Life was already difficult. Becoming stronger? Even more so!

All he could do was work hard, work harder, and work harder still!

As night approached, Katsuo returned to the area where he had set the traps to see whether he could get some meat for dinner.

Although it would have been better to wait until the next day to check the traps, what if he had caught something? There was no harm in taking a look... After all, more than half the day had passed.

Katsuo checked many traps without finding anything, and he could not help feeling a little disappointed. Then, at the final trap baited with an egg, his eyes lit up.

"Eh! What a huge snake! Hahaha!"

He laughed as he looked at an unknown python-like snake before him, its head severed by the trap.

This sort of trap was designed specifically for snakes. It was fast and powerful, but with that single strike, the egg had inevitably burst as well.

Still, among all the food he had bought, eggs were what he had purchased the most of. Trading one egg for ten to twenty pounds of snake meat was an incredible bargain!

And this was still daytime. If he could get such a harvest now, how many snakes would there be at night? His future meat supply was probably settled!

At that thought, Katsuo hurriedly set up several more snake traps, then dragged the unknown python back to camp with delight written all over his face.

Ten to twenty pounds of snake meat was enough to last him two or three days. With the food problem resolved, he could devote even more time and energy to training his body.

As he immersed himself in extracting Chakra, he gradually came to understand something.

Because his spiritual power was too strong, his Chakra extraction speed had become astonishingly fast. He could even unknowingly overdraw the energy in his cells, damaging them!

There were pros and cons to this situation. The best solution was to pause or reduce the time he spent extracting Chakra for now, then resume once his body was healthy and his cells had grown stronger.

"All the problems are concentrated in this young, frail body. It seems that only by training my body well can I solve many of these issues!"

Katsuo also knew that rushing was useless. He could only proceed step by step. Walking fast was not as good as walking steadily.

Sitting beside the campfire, Katsuo gazed at the moon in the night sky as it hung high overhead. Today was a full moon.

"This isn't the moon from my hometown. This... is merely a powerful Sealing Technique!"

"Father, Mother... are you well?"

Katsuo stared vacantly at the full moon. The figures of his parents seemed to appear within it—not only the parents from his previous life, but Uchiha Katsuo's parents as well.

All of them wore gentle, loving smiles as they silently watched him.

At that moment, it was as though he was Uchiha Katsuo, and Uchiha Katsuo was him. The two souls truly merged into one, no longer distinguishable from each other!

The barriers within his spiritual memories were completely erased, and his soul became incomparably pure!

The scant Chakra he had extracted that day unconsciously gathered in his eyes. Within each scarlet iris, two pitch-black tomoe quietly emerged!

The Sharingan! It had awakened!