Experiment Successful

"Madara, Izuna, please come in," Mina called in her sweet voice.

Madara looked at the girl before him, whose childishness had been worn away by war, watching Izuna with quiet sweetness. He was already used to it.

Ignoring the two of them, he stepped over the threshold and headed for the table in the courtyard.

Seeing Madara sit down alone at the square table, Kosuke raised a hand and poured him a cup of water.

Madara glanced at the cup, a teasing note in his voice. "When did you pick up this habit? This is the first time you've poured me water. How unusual."

"Drink it or don't."

Kosuke let go, setting the kettle down heavily on the table. Ripples spread across the water in the cup.

Leaning back, he said calmly, "Now that I've started refining Chakra too, it was time to put that matter on the agenda. Otherwise, it would keep weighing on my mind."

Just as Madara was wondering when the experiment had begun, Mina's voice suddenly rang out.

"Madara, let me tell you, Kosuke's Chakra reserves were astonishing the very first time he refined Chakra!"

At the same time, Kosuke directly released the aura formed by his Chakra.

"How is that possible?"

Madara's pupils abruptly contracted. He braced both hands against the table and stood up, his face full of disbelief.

"That much Chakra? And you only just started refining Chakra, didn't you? How did you keep me from noticing anything at all? Your control over Chakra seems incredibly strong too."

Faced with Madara's startled questions, Kosuke seemed utterly unconcerned. He picked up the water on the table and took a sip. "You didn't really think all those years I spent reading, writing, and drawing were just for fun, did you?"

Uh... wasn't it?

Noticing Kosuke's teasing gaze, Madara blinked and immediately returned to his previous arrogant expression.

Using Chakra threads, he pulled up the chair he had knocked over in his excitement and sat down again.

Yet a monstrous storm still churned within him.

"Tch, how boring. Couldn't you at least let me show off properly?"

"Wow, Little Kosuke, you're amazing! That's like a little cow flying on a plane—so aweso..."

"Stop!! Please, have mercy and stop talking!"

Mina watched the scene, her eyes brimming with delight.

If only there were no war. Then we could fool around like this every day without a care in the world. What a shame... Damn Senju and Uzumaki!

"If you have nothing to do tomorrow, come to my Academy."

"Are we starting?"

"Yeah. I wanted to use this brief lull in the clan's fighting to test it. If it succeeds, your chances of surviving on the battlefield will be higher. If it fails, pretend I never said anything."

"Especially you, Izuna. You wander around all day. Do you think my house is your house? Every time you come back from the battlefield, you run over here every other day whenever you have nothing to do!"

Kosuke's gaze, full of disappointment, fell on Mina and Izuna, and he felt extremely irritated.

If he remembered correctly, Izuna was already nine this year.

Yet his strength was far inferior to his counterpart in the manga from Kosuke's previous life. If this kept up, Izuna probably would not even live to be twenty-four before that white-haired freak Senju Tobirama slapped him to death.

"Little Kosuke, what's with that look?? You're making me panic."

Panic? You knew how to panic?

"Fine, Madara, do you have anything to do this afternoon?"

"No."

Seeing Kosuke, who had just been frowning in worry, suddenly ask about him, Madara quietly answered.

"Have you awakened your Sharingan?"

Madara slowly nodded, activating his Sharingan. A single tomoe appeared distinctly within his scarlet pupils.

"Good. Then come with me to the Academy right now."

"We're coming too."

Seeing Kosuke and Madara rise as if to leave, Mina hurriedly called out, afraid that she and Izuna would be left behind.

In the basement of the Academy to the left of the Ancestral Hall.

Kosuke, Madara, Mina, and Izuna stood before the prisoner being held there.

Looking at the genin tightly bound to the rack, Kosuke did not hesitate. He immediately instructed Izuna to bring over a table and lay the revised Lesser Heavenly Circulation and Greater Heavenly Circulation diagrams, written so ninjas could understand them, where the prisoner could see them.

After finishing, Kosuke turned to Madara.

The meaning in his eyes was obvious.

Madara then slowly stepped forward. His scarlet one-tomoe Sharingan opened sharply, and powerful Dojutsu instantly seized the prisoner's mind, plunging him into a vortex of overwhelming terror.

At the same time, he reached for the long whip beside him and lashed it viciously.

"Ahh—evil Uchi..."

Before the prisoner's curse could finish, Madara's one-tomoe Sharingan was reflected in his eyes.

"Look!" Madara's voice was as cold as a blade, the tip of his whip pointing at the Lesser Heavenly Circulation diagram. "Circulate your Chakra again according to this route! Do as you're told, and you might save your life. Refuse..."

Madara did not continue, but the killing intent surging in his eyes said everything.

Under the oppressive force of the Sharingan's genjutsu and the threat of death, the prisoner's eyes gradually filled with terror. His gaze shifted between the scroll and the whip in Madara's hand, cold sweat soaking through his tattered clothes.

In the end, his instinct to survive overwhelmed everything. With despair and hatred, he began laboriously trying to guide the Chakra within his body according to the route on the diagram.

The next second, the Chakra that had been flowing steadily through his body suddenly surged wildly toward the Ren and Du Meridians, beginning an efficient circulation.

The change in his Chakra instantly freed him from the genjutsu's mental suppression. The Sharingan reflected in his eyes vanished in an instant, and clarity returned to his gaze.

He let out a desperate roar. "Ah...! Evil Uchiha! You will die terrible deaths! If you've got the guts, kill me! Don't even think... think I'll cooperate with you in some evil experiment again!"

"Make him quiet!"

Kosuke frowned as he gave the order, his mind rapidly analyzing the scene from when the ninja had altered his Chakra circulation.

Hearing this, Izuna immediately stepped forward and knocked the prisoner unconscious with a chop to the neck.

Kosuke hurried forward, mobilizing the Chakra in his body and sending it into the other's body for a careful examination.

Seeing Kosuke's focused expression, the other three tacitly stood quietly to one side and waited for the result.

Several cups of tea later.

Kosuke withdrew his Chakra and turned to the three of them. "The Lesser Heavenly Circulation route is safe. Circulating Chakra through this route reduces its loss through other Meridians, making it more concentrated and pure. I suspect it will directly improve the precision of ninjutsu and the explosive power of taijutsu."

He paused, then turned back and swept a grave gaze over the unconscious prisoner. "At the same time, because the Chakra is gathered together, it becomes harder for it to spread through the other Meridians. This may reduce the power of large-scale ninjutsu and slow its activation."

At that point, Kosuke's thoughts churned.

Then what about the Greater Heavenly Circulation route?

But that route was too complicated. As soon as it began, the Chakra within the body would undergo intense changes, causing the subject to regain consciousness.

It seemed he could only find someone willing to cooperate.

But who would be willing?

His clansmen?

The instant the thought emerged in Kosuke's mind, it swiftly took shape and became firm.

"But is there anything else?"

Madara narrowed his eyes, his cold gaze repeatedly sweeping over the prisoner.

Hearing this, Kosuke turned back and told them his idea. The expressions of the other three did not change in the slightest; there was not even a ripple of reaction.

They all understood that if the Greater Heavenly Circulation route succeeded as well, it would bring endless benefits to the clan.

As for failure...

They would simply pretend it had never happened.