Childhood Sweethearts

"Ren, this secret technique is far too valuable. I can't learn it."

Uchiha Mikoto gently shook her head, her expression unusually serious and solemn.

Before Naruto entered its later Gundam Era, most battles between shinobi were battles of intelligence.

One exceptional move could carry one through the world.

One extraordinary technique could decide the outcome.

When the Flying Thunder God Technique developed by Senju Tobirama first appeared on the battlefield, its unparalleled speed and unpredictability—

—dealt a devastating blow to Uchiha Izuna, the younger brother of Clan Head Uchiha Madara, who also possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan.

It was precisely this unprecedented space-time ninjutsu that caught Izuna off guard, allowing him to be cut across the waist with a single slash. He ultimately died from his severe injuries.

Mikoto feared that once she learned it, she might accidentally reveal traces of it during a future mission.

Worse still, if she were unfortunate enough to die on a battlefield where blades had no eyes, the enemy might learn the information from her mind.

If that made the enemy wary of Ren's trump card, or even allowed them to set a fatal trap... The mere thought made her heart tighten.

The girl would rather something happened to herself than see news of the boy's death.

"Enough. Don't overthink it."

After more than ten years spent together day and night, they knew each other inside and out.

Seeing Mikoto's resistant expression, Ren knew exactly what she was thinking.

Three tomoe appeared in his eyes in an instant, and without giving her a chance to refuse, he met her gaze.

Caught off guard, Mikoto felt the scenery around her sway. Before she could recover, she realized she had learned the dōjutsu.

Sharingan: Space Jump.

This dōjutsu was the same sort of ability as the Sharingan: Genjutsu that made the Uchiha Clan famous. A glare was all it took to use it.

It was not ninjutsu in the traditional sense, requiring hand seals and Chakra.

Nor was it taijutsu that required vast amounts of time to train.

Anyone with the Sharingan could use it. There was no other way to learn it.

It was like a flash of insight in mathematics. Once you understood, you understood; no amount of effort could force that innate spark of comprehension.

"Ren!"

Mikoto's cheeks puffed up slightly in anger at his high-handed behavior. At once, she assumed the elder-sister manner she rarely displayed.

She loosely crossed her arms before her chest, further accentuating her graceful curves. Her eyes glared sternly at Ren as she tried to suppress the particularly delighted smile on his face beneath the warm sunlight.

Yet her slightly pouting cherry lips instead revealed a trace of coquettish irritation that even she had not noticed.

After only a few seconds of eye contact, she was defeated by his smiling gaze.

In the end, she could only repeat herself helplessly in a voice with no intimidation at all.

"Don't do that again next time!"

Mikoto knew he meant well, but she wanted Ren to be safe even more. She was already planning to give herself a psychological suggestion later...

"Don't use psychological suggestion."

This woman was traditional and gentle to her bones, the sort who would sacrifice herself for her family. The moment her childbearing hips lifted, Ren knew what she was thinking.

Without giving her room to argue, he said,

"I was planning to gradually pass this dōjutsu on to the clan anyway. Before we march out, every trustworthy clansman who has awakened their Sharingan must master it."

"It will eventually become a required technique for every awakened Uchiha, just like the Great Fireball Technique."

Ren's gaze burned brightly, and his words carried unshakable certainty.

"So, Mikoto, there is no need to worry about intelligence leaking. The Uchiha Clan's strength has never depended on concealing one or two secret techniques."

"The foundation of our place in the Shinobi World is the power and pride inherited through our bloodline."

"It was so in the past, it is so now, and it will be even more so in the future!"

Mikoto raised her head to look at Ren. Her eyes shimmered slightly along with his animated speech.

That calm, confident bearing as he led the clan step by step toward prosperity was precisely the image she cherished most deeply in her heart.

"The little brother who used to follow behind me and call me Sister has already become a man who can shelter the clan from wind and rain."

While Mikoto felt happy, an indescribable trace of loss still seeped silently into her heart like cool dew.

So this powerful dōjutsu had not been a surprise gift prepared just for her.

That realization caused the smile at the corner of her lips, one raised for his sake, to fade ever so slightly.

Mikoto quickly lowered her lashes—she was greedy after all. She hoped her little brother would shine brilliantly, yet secretly wished for a unique favor reserved for her alone.

"I understand."

When she raised her eyes again, only gentleness remained in them. She carefully hid every subtle ripple in those clear eyes.

"I will study Space Jump properly and combine it with my other ninjutsu to create an entirely new combat system."

The fighting style of Uchiha clansmen who had awakened their Sharingan was built around the Sharingan as its core.

Whether one-on-one or one-against-many, the opening move was always to raise one's eyes and stare, seizing the initiative with Sharingan: Genjutsu.

At the same time, they would throw ninja tools such as shuriken and senbon to suppress or divide the enemy.

What followed was a barrage of Fire Release, Wind Release, and other ninjutsu. In close combat, they used Uchiha Style taijutsu or swordsmanship.

This combat pattern, tempered through the flames of war, was rigorous and efficient, with almost no room for error.

Now that space-time dōjutsu had been added, the Uchiha Clan's combat performance would undergo enormous changes.

"The activation of Space Jump relies entirely on ocular power." Ren explained to Mikoto with a serious expression. "The stronger your ocular power, the broader the range of your teleportation and the more times you can use it consecutively. Now, feel it out first."

In fact, before teaching this dōjutsu to Mikoto, the first person to master Sharingan: Space Jump had been the fiercely loyal Uchiha Yashiro.

Only after several days of repeated testing and fully confirming that the dōjutsu was safe did Ren decide to teach it to Mikoto.

Still, there was no need for Mikoto to know about that.

Hearing this, Mikoto smiled softly, the Three Tomoe in her eyes rotating brilliantly.

The next second, her figure teleported to Ren's side amid ripples in space.

Without the slightest hesitation, Mikoto leaned close and pressed her soft, warm cherry lips to Ren's cheek, her breath fragrant as orchids.

"Little brother, come catch me~"

Before her words had even faded, the Three Tomoe in Mikoto's eyes turned slightly. Her figure vanished like smoke, leaving only a faint lingering fragrance as she instantly appeared on the grass two meters away.

She looked back with a smile, her hair fluttering in the morning light and a sly provocation playing on her lips.

Ren lifted a hand to touch his cheek, which still held her warmth. His Three Tomoe locked onto her lively figure, and the corners of his lips rose into an expression that said the big bad wolf was about to eat Little Red Riding Hood.

"When I catch you, you'll be finished."

"We both have space teleportation, so you'll never catch me~"

As the two figures flickered one after another beneath the sunlight beside the Naka River, the atmosphere in the Hokage Building elsewhere was incomparably heavy.