Practicing Fire Style Ninjutsu

A few days later, in the backyard of the home of Houka.

"Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai!"

Houka recited each syllable one by one while forming the hand seals. Although he was stumbling, he finally managed to complete the twelve gestures successfully.

At night, Houka practiced tree climbing and water walking. After spending several days as a drowned rat, he was finally able to stand steadily on the surface of the water. The chakra under his feet felt like a part of his body; he could sense the flexibility of the water and a buoyant force. He walked and ran on the water, gradually mastering the rhythm. By the end, he had turned the practice into an instinct; as long as he touched the water, his chakra would automatically wrap around his soles, so he would no longer have to worry about falling in.

After these few days of frantic training, Houka also discovered that his body had indeed developed a "cheat." No matter how intense his training was the day before, he would wake up the next day fully restored to his best state. Of course, this did not help with healing any actual injuries.

Hoo!

His chakra control was no longer an issue, and the hand seals were mastered. Houka's eyes lit up, and he quickly formed the seals with his hands.

"Transformation Technique!"

Poof!

A puff of smoke flashed, and a young boy wearing goggles appeared. It was Uchiha Obito—no, it was Houka transformed into Uchiha Obito.

Houka took out a mirror to look at himself. He was identical to Uchiha Obito, even down to the subtle nuances in his gaze. He was very satisfied.

"Release!"

Afterward, Houka practiced the Clone Technique and the Substitution Technique, both of which he succeeded at on the first try.

After all, I have the mindset of an adult; the Three Basic Techniques are far too simple for me.

Houka's eyes glowed slightly. Unable to hold back any longer, he took out the Fire Release scroll and began to practice the fire ninjutsu within it!

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Si-Wei-Shen-Hai-Wu-Yin!

Houka formed the seals rapidly. The chakra within his body surged violently, and as he finished the seals, it quickly transformed into a scorching force gathering in his throat.

Houka's eyes widened. In an instant, he felt as if a ball of raging fire was contained in his throat, the intense heat continuously roasting him. Unable to bear it, he broke his hand seal posture.

In an instant, the high heat in his throat vanished into thin air.

"Hoo, hoo..."

Houka gasped for air, his heart still pounding with lingering fear. Just now, he truly thought he was going to be burned to death.

"One, two, three..." Houka stroked his throat and spoke softly, "Good, my vocal cords are not damaged."

"The Great Fireball Technique is truly worthy of being a Fire Release ninjutsu of the Uchiha clan."

Houka remembered that in the original story, Uchiha Sasuke often practiced this ninjutsu by the lake. If even the protagonist had to struggle like that, it was clear that the difficulty of mastering it was extraordinary.

Houka relaxed his mind and then continued to practice.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

"Urgh!!!"

A surge of powerful airflow suddenly welled up in Houka's throat, as if stomach gas were rising. He hurriedly dispersed his hand seals and began to retch.

"Damn it, could the seal sequence for this ninjutsu be wrong?"

After failing several times in a row, Houka couldn't help but feel a bit discouraged.

No, it's just a mere Great Fireball Technique. If I can't even learn this, how will I learn other high-level ninjutsu in the future?

"Continue!"

Houka settled his mind and kept practicing the Great Fireball Technique. Gradually, the sky grew darker, and a dark cloud blocked the moon, leaving him in total darkness.

Hoo!

Suddenly, a spark spilled from Houka's mouth, but it extinguished in an instant, as if it were a hallucination.

"Did I succeed?"

In the depths of his mind, Houka felt as if he had grasped something, but when he tried to press his advantage, he discovered that the chakra in his body had been completely exhausted!

"Sigh, it's still not enough."

Houka shook his head and sighed. Unable to hold on any longer, he returned to his room and fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

Perhaps because he had been practicing Fire Release ninjutsu so intensely before bed, Houka continued to practice even after falling into a deep sleep. Time held no meaning in his dream, and just as Houka was immersed in the joy of practice, a shuriken suddenly shot over from afar, piercing straight into his heart.

Houka looked up in disbelief. In the distance, a man wearing a spiral mask, revealing only a single, bloody Three-Tomoe Sharingan, was watching him indifferently.

"Uchiha... Obito? How could it be?"

In a daze, Houka snapped his eyes open, only to realize it was all a dream, but his back was already soaked in cold sweat.

"Hoo, hoo!"

It was not yet dawn, and the surroundings were silent, save for a few insects in the small courtyard chirping faintly.

Houka had completely lost his sleepiness. He put on his clothes and walked out into the courtyard.

Next door to the courtyard was the home of Uchiha Obito.

Seriously, the future super-villain boss lives right next door. The pressure is inexplicably high.

The current Uchiha Obito is a good person; no matter what excessive things Houka does to him, he chooses to forgive. But how long can this friendship last?

After experiencing the incident with Rin, Uchiha Obito was even capable of laying a hand on his own teacher's wife, Kushina. As for himself, a close friend from his youth...

He didn't feel safe at all.

"Wait, that's not right. The current Uchiha Obito hasn't even awakened his Sharingan, whereas I have already awakened mine!"

Houka focused his attention on his eyes. In an instant, a surge of ocular power acted upon them, and his clear black-and-white eyes immediately exuded a bloody and ominous aura.

One-Tomoe Sharingan!

Under the dim moonlight, the single tomoe in Houka's pupils was slowly rotating. Everything in his surroundings became crystal clear under this pair of Sharingan. In the grass a dozen meters away, a small insect opened its mouth wide to chirp, and Houka could even see the fragments of leaves inside its mouth.

A breeze blew by, carrying a few scattered leaves. Houka reached out almost subconsciously, and by the time he realized what he had done, those few leaves from the air were lying right in his palm.

"So powerful!"

Houka swallowed hard, feeling incredibly strong at this moment. A thought of being invincible surged from the deepest part of his heart, and the ocular power within the Sharingan seemed to be telling him to destroy, to ruin, and to conquer!

Houka took a deep breath, suppressed the throbbing in his heart, and slowly deactivated the Sharingan.

"It really is ominous. If one lacks sufficient willpower, I'm afraid they would be conquered by these eyes."

"Since heaven has given me a chance to start over, along with this pair of Sharingan, I must use my own will to control them and stand on the highest stage of this world!"

Will?

In the original story, what the Third Hokage always kept on his lips was the Will of Fire. To put it simply, it meant protection.

Protecting the village, protecting loved ones, protecting friends, and protecting the next generation.

This mindset of protection, while not necessarily increasing one's strength significantly, would strengthen a person's will, making them more heroic, fearless, and willing to sacrifice their life in battle!

However, Houka had just arrived in this world and this village; he didn't even know more than a handful of people. How could he accept such a will?

"In my past life, Gorky once said: 'Even a small amount of self-restraint can make a person strong and powerful.'"

"Perhaps I can train my own willpower while I cultivate!"

"Wait, why does this feel strangely familiar?"

Then, two men wearing dark green tight-fitting combat suits popped into Houka's mind. These two had eyebrows as thick as thumbs, smiled with faces as bright as chrysanthemums, gave a thumbs-up, and flashed a sparkling white tooth at the corner of their mouths.

Houka's eye twitched.

In the original story, Might Guy and Rock Lee trained exactly like this. Things like, "If I can't jump rope a hundred times, I'll do two hundred side kicks; if I can't finish two hundred side kicks, I'll run two laps around Konoha." It was through this kind of training that they not only gained immense strength, but their wills were also exceptionally firm, never wavering or losing their way, as solid as metal and stone!

"Damn it, I'm not going to turn into someone like them, am I?" (To be continued)