Failed Attempt

Pant, pant.

Heavy breathing echoed through the dark room. Uchiha Kei opened his eyes and stared at the pair of scarlet Three Tomoe Sharingan in the mirror, unable to help sighing.

Another failure.

Uchiha Kei had lost count of how many times he'd failed. Though disappointed, he forced himself to keep going and jotted down some of his thoughts in his notebook.

He wasn't writing in Japanese, but in pure Chinese. He wasn't from this world. Uchiha Kei had originally been an Earthling, but due to an accident, he had come to this world—a rather bloody one.

After arriving in this world and learning he belonged to the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Kei had been pleased with himself for a while. But what came next had dealt him some brutal blows.

In this world, being weak was a sin!

Perhaps because he was a modern person, Uchiha Kei had never been able to stomach the cruelty of this era. And as far as talent went, he seemed to be only average.

If he hadn't been a transmigrator, with naturally stronger spiritual energy than other people, he might not have survived his close calls on the battlefield with the help of his Sharingan. By now, the grass over his grave would probably be several feet tall.

Sometimes, he truly admired the Ninja of this world. They were often capable of killing by the age of six or seven, and going to war around the age of ten was commonplace. Kakashi was even more extreme: by twelve, he was already a Jonin who had killed countless enemies.

Uchiha Kei knew his own limits, so he'd never dared show his Sharingan carelessly, even as a child. Even on the battlefield, he was extremely careful not to let anyone see his eyes.

Without enough strength to protect himself, Uchiha Kei didn't think he could afford to let loose. At the very least, he'd need the Mangekyō Sharingan to have some ability to protect himself, wouldn't he?

As for what to do after getting the Mangekyō? Uchiha Kei hadn't even considered it. If he couldn't even obtain the Mangekyō, what right did he have to worry about anything else?

"Was the stimulus not intense enough?" After recording what he'd felt this time, Uchiha Kei couldn't help wondering.

Uchiha Kei could be said to know the Sharingan inside out. Naturally, he understood where it came from and how it evolved.

Simply put, it was awakened and continually evolved through intense emotional stimulation. There was a reason so many people called the Uchiha Clan a bunch of lunatics.

The Mangekyō Sharingan, in particular, required even more extreme emotional turmoil. Chakra in the brain stimulated the eyes, causing them to awaken.

The feelings one experienced during awakening resonated with the brain, reorganizing the chakra in the eyes and granting the corresponding abilities.

Knowing this was why Uchiha Kei wanted to try awakening his eyes on his own.

Compared with those people from the neighboring Hyuga Clan, awakening the Sharingan was simple. If he'd really transmigrated as one of those neighboring Hyuga with their blank eyes, Uchiha Kei might already be dead.

As he remembered it from his previous life, the Hyuga Clan's genius, Hyuga Neji, had been a gloomy character who did nothing but stand around in the background throughout the whole story, only to die for no clear reason in the end. The other Hyuga Clan members had fared no better.

That was without even considering the Clan Downfall.

"Where exactly did I go wrong?" Uchiha Kei rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Was the emotional stimulation not intense enough? Or was my Genjutsu not good enough? Or do I know all this so well that I instinctively assume the Genjutsu is fake?"

Uchiha Kei was truly frustrated. He had found a special way to cast Genjutsu on himself, then tricked himself into falling under it without "knowing" what was happening.

But he'd tried many times and still hadn't succeeded—not that it had no effect. His Three Tomoe Sharingan had at least proved that the method could work.

Uchiha Kei didn't know whether this method only worked for him. In any case, he'd never seen another Uchiha use it.

But after using this method to a certain extent, Uchiha Kei had never been able to get past that final hurdle.

On top of that, the fighting outside seemed to be nearing its end. Perhaps it was the last desperate push: aside from the villages that had already surrendered and agreed to a ceasefire, the remaining villages had begun launching their final attacks against Konoha.

This was arguably the most dangerous time. Uchiha Kei had survived all the battles so far, but he couldn't be sure he'd make it through the next ones alive.

"Could I have hit a threshold?" As Uchiha Kei tidied up his journal, he wondered to himself. "Or has my spiritual energy developed an immunity? No, that can't be right. Spiritual energy doesn't have white blood cells or anything like that."

Uchiha Kei couldn't make sense of it. The only thing he could be sure of was that the days ahead would be anything but peaceful.

It was already the forty-seventh year of Konoha. The Fourth Hokage would take office in another year. And the war was probably at its most troublesome point now, too.

The Battle of Kikyo Pass was over. Suna had been defeated and surrendered. Now Konoha had only one opponent left—Iwagakure.

Iwagakure deserved some thanks for its bizarre decisions. If they hadn't attacked Kumogakure from behind, forcing the Third Raikage to hold off ten thousand Iwa Ninja alone so his comrades could escape, only to fight for three days and nights before dying of exhaustion, then Konoha would now be caught between Kumogakure and Iwagakure.

Instead, they had tried to maximize their gains, while Namikaze Minato held off the Fourth Raikage and his brother alone.

Otherwise, Konoha would be in even more trouble. Neither Kumogakure nor Iwagakure was easy to deal with.

"At the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, that guy Kakashi will get Obito's Sharingan and become the Copy Ninja, won't he?"

After organizing all his notes, Uchiha Kei formed a hand seal and sealed them in a scroll. Then he carefully put the scroll away.

Japanese and Chinese had many things in common. If the scroll got lost, Uchiha Kei would be in serious trouble.

To keep his memories from fading, he'd written down every part of the Naruto story he could remember.

That way, Kei could know roughly what was going to happen at any point in time, and use that knowledge to avoid disasters or gain some advantage.

When he was done, Uchiha Kei sighed. The Three Tomoe Sharingan really wasn't enough.

Without the Mangekyō Sharingan, how was he supposed to face those people who had already surpassed the limits of ordinary humans?

Forget about them. The Uchiha Clan Massacre a few years from now would be more than enough to give Uchiha Kei a headache.

"I have to think of something else. Otherwise, I'll just end up as another guy Uchiha Itachi kills with one slash."