That night, as soon as Houka got home, he found someone waiting to ambush him!
Uchiha Obito burst out of a dark corner with a fierce look on his face, grabbed Houka by the collar with both hands, and slammed him against the wall!
"Houka, you're such a jerk!" Uchiha Obito growled through clenched teeth.
"..." Houka stared at him, baffled. "Did you forget to take your medicine?"
"Huh?" Uchiha Obito's anger faltered. "What?"
"Don't give up on treatment." Houka patted him on the shoulder.
"Damn it, Houka! Don't change the subject!" Uchiha Obito's temper flared again.
"Seriously, what are you even talking about?" Houka looked exasperated.
"It's Rin!" Uchiha Obito shouted. "She said she wants to learn Medical Ninjutsu from you!"
"Oh." Houka nodded. In the original story, Rin did become a Medical Ninja. "That's a good thing," he said earnestly. "It's not good for girls to be fighting all the time. Wouldn't it be better for her to become a Medical Ninja?"
"Really? That's what I thought, too!" Uchiha Obito said with a silly grin. Then his expression darkened, and he shouted again, "Don't change the subject, you jerk! Rin can learn Medical Ninjutsu, but she can't learn it from you!"
"Why?" Houka froze for a moment, then understood. His expression immediately turned sorrowful. "I see. Sigh, you know I was born so beautiful I can't help it. Everyone loves me, flowers bloom when they see me. From eighty-year-old grannies to six-year-old little girls, I charm them all! But it's not my fault. I don't want to be this way, either. I just want to quietly be a handsome man, but my peerless looks shine like a dreamlike aurora, no matter how dark a corner I'm in. They're just so captivating..."
Uchiha Obito was completely dumbfounded. He was already at a loss.
"Do you understand how I feel?" Houka asked mournfully.
"You... you bastard! I'll fight you!" Uchiha Obito finally came to his senses. He felt Houka had insulted his intelligence and charged at him, howling.
Thud!
Houka dusted off his hands and looked at Uchiha Obito, who was sprawled two meters away in a free fall. "Kid, you've still got a long way to go."
"Houka, you bastard! I'm going to beat you one day!" Uchiha Obito got back to his feet without even a scratch.
"What are we having for dinner?" Houka turned and went inside.
Uchiha Obito immediately followed at his heels. "Houka, how about kung pao chicken tonight? I've had a long day. I need to build up my strength."
"Build up your head!"
The late-night breeze was cool, and the leaves of the little tree in the backyard swayed in the wind, whispering against one another.
A huge full moon hung in the night sky. Its clear light fell across people's faces like a gentle veil.
Houka walked into the courtyard, recalling the day's events.
At dinner, Houka had already learned from Uchiha Obito what had happened after he left the Ninja Academy.
Mizuki, who had angered everyone, had been transferred to another class by Shin Kiyono. And because Houka had treated Jingxia in time, Shin Kiyono had praised him by name. He'd managed to make a bit of a splash.
Then Might Duy had agreed to teach Houka Taijutsu, with training set for dawn and dusk. But Might Duy had a mission the next morning, so training would begin at dusk instead.
And finally, there was Tsunade.
That woman, saying, "I'll keep an eye on you." Heh. What a busybody. Did she have nothing better to do?
Houka paced around the courtyard. The more he thought about it, the more he felt a pair of sharp, spirited eyes watching him from the darkness. It made him uneasy.
"I really wish I knew Sensory Ninjutsu."
Houka paced around a few more times, then went inside.
In the pitch-black room, Houka lay on the tatami, curled up beneath his blanket.
He slowly opened his eyes. In an instant, everything beneath the blanket became clear, and Houka could easily make out its pattern.
Though there was no mirror, Houka could sense the change in his eyes. The sinister power of his gaze seemed to stir restlessly, calling to the darkness deep within him.
Single Tomoe Sharingan!
It had been nearly two months since he'd awakened it. He didn't know if it was because he'd crossed over from another world, but Houka's eye power had grown every day. By now, it was already quite impressive.
He even had a feeling that, if he experienced a strong enough shock, his Sharingan would surely evolve into the Two-Tomoe Sharingan!
But Houka had been hesitating.
"The Sharingan needs intense emotional stimulation to keep evolving, but..."
Houka remembered how Sasuke had awakened the Single Tomoe Sharingan on the day his clan was massacred, only for it to lie dormant afterward. Then, during a mission in the Land of Waves, he saw Naruto get completely overwhelmed by Haku's Ice Release while trying to save him. The shock brought his Sharingan back out. His left eye still had a single tomoe, but his right eye had already evolved to two.
And then there was Uchiha Obito. He'd watched Rin die right in front of him, and his Two-Tomoe Sharingan had shot straight up to the Mangekyou.
Sasuke and Obito had both been emotionally shaken, but fortunately, Naruto survived. Rin, on the other hand, died!
"If the Sharingan's evolution requires people important to me to keep putting their lives at risk..."
It would be fine if things turned out like Naruto's case, with everyone safe in the end. But what if it went like Rin's and someone died?
Houka couldn't accept that!
So, was there another way to trigger intense emotions without putting the people closest to him in danger?
Houka blinked. The Single Tomoe in his eye was slowly turning. "Hypnosis... should work, right?"
He could hypnotize himself into a tragic world. Maybe he could fail his entrance exams, get his ass stabbed, be tied up and tortured with candles, or have Teacher Takizawa flick his... all night long. Tsk, that would definitely give his emotions a huge shock!
That raised the question: how could he hypnotize himself?
"Genjutsu!"
Houka's eyes lit up. He remembered that among the Genjutsu scrolls his parents had left behind, there was one technique called the Hell Viewing Technique. It could make an opponent see terrifying things they never wanted to witness.
"If I used the Hell Viewing Technique on myself..."
Houka narrowed his eyes, considering whether it might work.
Then he slowly shook his head.
It was like watching a horror movie. If someone else showed it to you, you might get scared. But if you made the movie yourself, no matter how frightening it was, you'd still know it was fake. It wouldn't stir your emotions much.
"Right, hypnotize myself so I lose my sense of self, then use Genjutsu to stimulate my emotions..."
That might actually work!
Houka slowly drew in the power of his Sharingan. Before long, his eyes returned to normal, and darkness once again covered the blanket.
He climbed out of bed, switched on the light, and found the Genjutsu scroll.
He'd never learned hypnosis, much less practiced Genjutsu. No matter how perfect the idea seemed, it was just a fantasy until he put it into practice!
The four Genjutsu in the scroll were all basic techniques, and none were particularly difficult to learn.
Houka formed the Hand Seals. After practicing a few times, he had them down. Then he cast the Hell Viewing Technique on himself.
Before you continue