Teaching

It was midday.

Golden sunlight danced fiercely through the beaded curtain, banishing the gloom inside the tent. The room seemed to glow beneath a layer of golden light, filled with the scent of sunshine.

"Ao!"

Kagami Uchiha suddenly sat up in bed and shouted.

He hurriedly looked around.

The tent was completely empty. There wasn't the slightest trace of Ao.

"So it really was... a dream?"

Kagami Uchiha held his forehead with his right hand and murmured softly.

How was he supposed to explain this when he returned to the village and stood beside the memorial stone, facing his uncle and aunt?

Heh heh heh... My only relative is gone, too...

His eyes snapped open!

Before he knew it, the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his eyes began spinning wildly, the tomoe seeming to draw together.

"Ow, ow, ow! The kitchen staff are unbelievable. They could've at least wrapped it in a cloth!"

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

"We Uchiha are good at Fire Release. That doesn't mean we were born in a fire."

As he spoke, Uchiha Ao carried a steaming bowl of ramen in one hand and pushed the beaded curtain aside with his backside as he walked in.

"..."

Kagami Uchiha sat on the bed, staring blankly at everything in front of him.

He gave a self-deprecating smile. "Guess I'm still dreaming," he said, then slapped himself.

The sharp crack rang out.

"Hm?"

He raised his head and looked again. "Why's he still here? Guess I didn't hit myself hard enough."

Smack! Smack...

His hand moved so fast it left afterimages.

"Hey, hey, bro, bro, there's no need for that!"

Uchiha Ao had just set the ramen bowl on the table when he heard a flurry of slaps behind him. He turned around, saw Brother Jing furiously slapping himself, and hurried over to stop him.

"The people calling you a pervert are just a few villagers who don't understand romance. So what if you said 'Mother's scent'? What's the big deal?

"If you had that kink on a certain island nation, it'd be a Little kiss!"

"Hm? Are you really Ao?"

The familiar voice and the warm touch of Uchiha Ao's hand finally brought Kagami to his senses. He lifted his swollen face and asked through his bruised lips,

"Y-you're really still alive?!"

"Huh? Oh, yeah..."

Uchiha Ao seemed to realize what was going on and quickly played along. "That's right, bro. I'm alive. I just went to the kitchen to order two bowls of ramen.

"Ha ha ha... It was all a misunderstanding..."

He gave an awkward laugh.

Damn! I let that slip.

Uchiha Ao quickly changed the subject. He told Kagami everything about sneaking into the Land of Lightning and coincidentally learning about Kinkaku Ginkaku.

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

Kagami Uchiha murmured, then suddenly turned to look at Uchiha Ao, who was rapidly wolfing down his ramen.

"By the way, what did you mean earlier by 'Mother's scent'?"

"...Mmph."

Uchiha Ao looked up, cheeks bulging, and blinked. After struggling to swallow, he gave an awkward laugh.

"N-no, it's nothing. I was in a panic and just said the first thing that came to mind."

"..."

Kagami Uchiha gave him a puzzled look.

He'd noticed that his cousin had changed a lot lately, both in personality and in the way he acted.

But... so far, it was all for the better.

At least they weren't as distant anymore.

It seemed that coming close to death really had changed him.

Thinking this, he began eating the somewhat soggy, cold ramen, little by little.

"Oh, bro, I forgot to tell you something."

Uchiha Ao wiped his mouth, set his bowl down on the table with a clank, and grinned.

"What is it?"

"I awakened the Sharingan."

Pfft!

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

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

"A few days before I came to the border. I awakened it by sheer luck."

"...I see."

Kagami Uchiha fell silent for a long while before finally forcing out a sentence. He sighed.

"So Qingyi Lang died, huh? What a shame. He was such a good kid...

"So young... and then... sigh..."

He'd had the Three Tomoe for years and knew the Sharingan's nature well. Without some huge emotional shock, Ao wouldn't have awakened it for no reason.

"...Uh."

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

"You've got it wrong, bro. Qingyi Lang didn't die. He's alive and well back with the clan."

"We'll go pay our respects together sometime... Hm? He didn't die?! Then did your girlfriend die? Or your boyfri—"

"Stop, stop!"

Damn, did someone have to die today no matter what? Uchiha Ao grumbled inwardly, then hurriedly cut him off. "Nobody died. I figure it was all the despair I'd built up from being ambushed a while back. Then one day, something really got me down, and my eye just—pop!—awakened."

He'd prepared an explanation before telling Kagami. Otherwise, it would've been hard to make his story add up.

After all, everyone knew how the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan worked. Unless someone precious to you died or something, that eye simply wouldn't awaken.

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

Kagami Uchiha frowned. "There's no record of anything like that in the clan's history."

"There is now, isn't there?" Uchiha Ao quickly replied.

Besides... some of the stories in the Uchiha clan history are even more ridiculous than mine!

Those people were a bunch of crazies!

"So..."

Kagami Uchiha didn't bother to dwell on it. Awakening the Sharingan without anyone dying was a good thing, after all. He set aside the half-finished bowl of ramen and smiled.

"You want me to teach you how to use the Sharingan and how to improve it, right?"

Many of his clansmen had come to him with that question after awakening their Sharingan. He was used to it.

But Ao was his cousin, so he'd naturally teach him more than he taught the others. After all, who didn't have a little favoritism in them?

"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 a genius like him had needed nearly four or five years to master the Sharingan's genjutsu and use it freely.

"Heh heh, I just want to learn a little about it." Uchiha Ao scratched his head and grinned sheepishly.

"..."

Kagami Uchiha had meant to talk him out of it, but he didn't want to undermine his confidence. After a moment's silence, he pulled a blank scroll from his robes, formed a hand seal, and transcribed most of what he knew onto it.

"These are the genjutsu I've learned from the clan over the years, along with some tips on using them. I've also included the secrets of evolving the Sharingan. I'll explain some of the key points to you properly in a moment."

"Thanks, bro."

Uchiha Ao accepted the scroll, warmth rising in his chest.

He could tell that Brother Jing truly treated him like family.

That was how the Uchiha Clan were. Once they accepted you as family and genuinely cared for you, they'd give you their hearts and souls.

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

"But now that I'm here..."

A resolute glint flashed in Uchiha Ao's eyes.

"Your destined death in the future... I'll be the one to change it for you!"