Passing Down Knowledge

It was noon.

Golden sunlight danced intensely through the beaded curtain, sweeping away the darkness within the tent. The interior seemed to be covered in a layer of golden brilliance, sparkling and exuding the scent of the sun.

"Ao!"

At this moment, Uchiha Kagami on the bed suddenly sat up and shouted.

He quickly looked around.

He saw that the entire tent was empty, with not the slightest trace of Ao.

"As expected... it was a dream?"

Uchiha Kagami placed his right hand on his forehead and murmured softly.

This made him wonder how he would explain to his aunt and uncle when he returned to the village, by the monument of martyrs...

Hehehe... My only relative has also disappeared...

Snap!

Unconsciously, the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his eyes began to spin wildly, with a faint sense of convergence.

"Hot, hot, hot! This kitchen is really something, they should have given me a cloth to wrap it with!"

Just then, a flippant voice came from outside the door.

"We Uchiha are skilled in Fire Style, we didn't pop out of the fire."

As he spoke, Uchiha Ao entered, holding a bowl of steaming ramen in one hand and pushing open the beaded curtain with his backside.

"..."

Uchiha Kagami sat on the bed, staring blankly at everything before him.

He gave a self-deprecating laugh, "It seems I'm still dreaming," and then slapped himself.

A crisp sound of slap.

"Huh?"

He raised his head and looked again: "Why are you still here?

It seems I didn't slap hard enough."

Slap! Slap...

His hands were moving so fast they were a blur.

"Whoa, whoa, bro, bro, no need, bro."

Uchiha Ao had just placed his ramen bowl on the table when he heard a series of slaps from behind. He turned to see Brother Jing frantically slapping himself and quickly rushed forward to stop him.

"Anyone who calls you a pervert is just an individual in the Village who doesn't understand romance. You just said 'mother's scent,' what's the big deal! If this fetish of yours were in a certain island nation, it would be a pure little kiss!"

"Huh? Are you really Ao?"

The familiar voice, along with the warm touch of Uchiha Ao's hands, finally made Kagami realize what was happening. He raised his swollen face and asked, his words slurred:

"You, you're really still alive?!"

"Ah? Oh, oh..."

Uchiha Ao seemed to realize something and reacted quickly, adding, "Yeah, bro, I'm still alive. I just went to the kitchen to order two bowls of ramen. Hahaha... it was all a misunderstanding... haha..."

He said this with an awkward laugh.

Damn it, I let it slip.

Afterward, Uchiha Ao quickly changed the subject, recounting in full how he had infiltrated the Land of Lightning and coincidentally learned information about Kinkaku Ginkaku.

"So that's what happened... I thought I saw your figure before I passed out."

Kagami Uchiha murmured, then, as if remembering something, suddenly looked at Uchiha Ao, who was currently inhaling ramen at an astonishing speed.

"Right, what did you mean by that 'mother's scent' you just mentioned?"

"...Mmph"

Uchiha Ao looked up with his cheeks bulging, blinked his eyes, and after struggling to swallow the noodles, he gave a sheepish laugh and said:

"N-nothing, I just blurted something out in a moment of panic."

"..."

Kagami Uchiha gave him a strange look.

He noticed that his cousin had changed a lot recently, both in personality and in his actions and demeanor. However... for now, it all seemed to be developing in a positive direction. At the very least, the distance between them had lessened.

It seems the near-death experience last time really changed him a lot.

With that thought, he also started to slowly eat the somewhat cold ramen.

"Hey, brother, I forgot to tell you something."

Uchiha Ao wiped his mouth, placed the bowl on the table with a "bang," and chuckled:

"What is it?"

"I awakened my Sharingan."

Pfft!

Noodles shot out of Kagami Uchiha's nose and mouth simultaneously. He choked, his face turning red, and it took him a while to speak normally.

"Cough, cough, cough... When did this happen?"

"A few days before coming to the Border. I awakened it by chance."

"...Is that so."

Kagami Uchiha was silent for a long time, and after a while, he squeezed out a sentence from his mouth, sighing:

"Qingyi Lang died, didn't he? What a shame, such a good young man...

So young... and then... alas..."

He knew the characteristics of the Sharingan very well, having awakened his Three Tomoe. Ao wouldn't have awakened it without a huge emotional stimulus.

"...Uh"

Uchiha Ao knew his cousin had misunderstood. After hesitating for a moment, he still told the truth.

"Brother, you've misunderstood. Qingyi Lang isn't dead. He's alive and well within the clan."

"We'll go pay respects together another day... Huh? Not dead?! Then your Girlfriend died? Or your boyf—"

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Damn it, does someone have to die today... Uchiha Ao thought to himself, while quickly interrupting him: "No one died. I think it was the despair accumulated from being assassinated earlier, and then one day something really annoyed me, and my eyes just awakened with a 'pop'."

He had prepared a reason before telling Kagami, fearing he wouldn't be able to explain himself otherwise.

After all, everyone knew the nature of the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan. It wouldn't awaken without the death of someone precious or something similar.

"So that's how it is..."

Kagami Uchiha frowned. "This has never been recorded in the clan's history."

"Don't you have one now?" Uchiha Ao replied smartly.

Besides... some of the records in the Uchiha Clan's history are even more outrageous than mine!

Those guys are a bunch of lunatics!

"So you're saying..."

Kagami Uchiha didn't bother to dwell on it. After all, awakening the Sharingan without anyone dying was a good thing. He set aside his half-eaten bowl of ramen and said with a smile:

"You want to ask me about how to use the Sharingan and how to improve it, right?"

Many clanmates who had just awakened their Sharingan would come to him with the same question. He was used to it.

However, Ao was his cousin, so he would naturally impart deeper experience. After all, everyone had their own selfish motives.

"Yes."

Uchiha Ao nodded, then added: "And genjutsu."

"Hm?"

Kagami Uchiha looked at him in surprise. "You're interested in genjutsu too? That stuff isn't easy to learn."

Even for a genius like himself, it had taken nearly four or five years to achieve the current level of mastery over the Sharingan's genjutsu.

"Hehe, just curious," Uchiha Ao scratched his head and chuckled sheepishly.

"..."

Kagami Uchiha wanted to advise him a few words, but he didn't want to dampen his confidence. After a moment of silence, he took out a blank scroll from his懷, performed a hand seal, and put most of his knowledge onto the paper.

"This is the genjutsu I've exchanged from the clan over the years, along with some experience in its release. The secret to evolving the Sharingan is also on here, but I'll teach you some key points later."

"Thanks, brother."

Uchiha Ao took the scroll, a warm current flowing through him.

He could feel that this Brother Jing truly treated him as family.

That's how people of the Uchiha Clan were. When they recognized you as family and genuinely cared for you, they were truly devoted.

He remembered that in the original story, Kagami Uchiha died in the Tail End of the First Shinobi World War, the same year as Tobirama.

"But since I'm here now."

Thinking this, a trace of determination flashed in Uchiha Ao's eyes.

"Then your predetermined death in the future... I will change it for you!"