Chiri's Unreserved Teachings

If Chiri hadn't been so intensely focused at that moment, she might have missed the faint sound blending into the night breeze.

The power in Chiri's eyes faltered. Her figure vanished from the spot like a ghost, and the next second, she had appeared outside the tent.

The surroundings were quiet. There wasn't even a trace of enemy chakra.

Only a kunai tied with a rough piece of cloth was stuck in a wooden post at the edge of the camp.

Chiri warily pulled out the kunai and unfolded the cloth in the moonlight.

There was only one line written on it in blood:

[Thirty miles south of Falling Cherry Valley. Meet at Moon-Severing Cliff at midnight tomorrow.--The two students you taught the Great Fireball Technique]

At the words "two students," the Mangekyō Sharingan in Chiri's eyes instantly shut, as if the storm about to break had never been there at all.

"Hikari... Yue..."

Her hunched body trembled slightly. At last, a crack appeared in the nerves she had kept taut to their limit.

They weren't dead!

Those two children had somehow survived the Senju and Sarutobi clans' deadly sealing formation—and the merciless abandonment of their own clan!

Heavens be praised.

Chiri closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath of cold air tinged with the smell of earth. Her eyes grew a little warm.

"If the young flames are still burning, then perhaps this old woman's life doesn't need to end here just yet."

The next night, at midnight.

Thirty miles south of Falling Cherry Valley, at Moon-Severing Cliff.

The terrain was treacherous. The wind rushed between the steep cliff faces, wailing like a ghost.

Atop the cliff, Izumi Uchiha stood alone beneath the moonlight, wearing a gray-black cloak against the wind.

She had brought no attendants, and hadn't even bothered to conceal her weapons. She simply waited, unguarded.

"Lady Chiri."

A tall, slender figure in black slowly emerged from the cliff's shadow.

Yue Uchiha wore his tattered combat uniform. His left eye remained wrapped in a bloodstained bandage, while the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his sole remaining right eye glimmered faintly in the darkness as he studied the old woman before him.

Chiri looked at the boy before her, surprise flashing in her eyes. But soon, her expression returned to calm.

With her mastery of Yin Release, she had seen through the truth at almost the very moment Yue appeared.

"Your chakra is distributed so perfectly that even I was nearly fooled... Such a subtle Clone Technique is unheard of in the Warring States period. So this is how you fooled the Senju and Sarutobi clans' senses?"

Chiri looked at Yue. There was no indignation at being kept on guard in her voice; instead, it was full of undisguised praise.

"Please forgive us, Lady Chiri. We're dead according to the clan register, and thorns in the Senju Clan's side. We have no choice but to hide in the gutter like rats. This clone is the only means I have at my disposal right now."

"Very cautious, and very clever. In this era where people devour one another, only someone who has made vigilance second nature can protect Hikari and keep her alive."

After a pause, she looked Yue in the eye.

"Go on. If there's anything this old woman can do to help, I'll do it, if you trust me."

He hadn't expected her to be so direct.

Yue bowed, and without hesitation, stated what he wanted. "Lady Chiri, there are two things I'd like."

"What are they?"

"First, I want the underlying formation diagrams and construction principles for the Spring of Returning Light."

"You want to recreate that evil jutsu that devours people?!"

"No, quite the opposite. I'll break it down and improve it. Only then can my eyes heal, and only then will I have the strength to protect Hikari."

A faint flicker passed through Chiri's eyes.

Protect Hikari?

Chiri considered this in silence, making no move to answer right away.

"Then... what's the second thing?" Chiri asked gravely.

Yue's Shadow Clone stared into Chiri's eyes and spoke slowly, word by word:

"Second... I want to learn the finest Yin Release secrets in the world, along with the secret techniques you've accumulated over the years."

Silence. Then a long stretch of silence.

"I can agree to the second request. As for the first, I'm afraid this old woman can't help you."

Though he wouldn't get everything he wanted, being able to learn Chiri's secret techniques and Yin Release secrets was already a considerable gain.

"I understand your concerns, Lady Chiri. But I'm still deeply grateful for the chance to learn your Yin Release secrets."

Chiri took a long look at the boy before her.

"Calling me 'Lady Chiri' feels a little distant. Why not call me Grandma?"

"Huh?"

"Come here tomorrow at midnight to collect the scrolls. After that, wait here every night at midnight. If I have time, I'll come and teach you in person."

Such kindness!

Yue was grateful, and his voice grew warmer.

"Of course, Grandma Chiri."

It had been two months since he received Chiri's secret scrolls.

Over those two months, Yue Uchiha had truly become a ghost devoted to his studies.

Whenever night fell, two figures—one old, one young—would sometimes appear atop the perilous Moon-Severing Cliff.

Chiri had kept her word. Whenever she had time, she really did come.

She was indeed a strict teacher who held nothing back.

From the basic theory of Yin Release Chakra—"creating something from nothing"—to shaping spiritual energy into tangible forms, and then to using the faintest trace of ocular power to manipulate an enemy's senses... She taught him everything she had learned about the Sharingan and spiritual energy over her lifetime.

"Yin Release isn't simply genjutsu. It's the art of using spiritual energy as its source to create form out of nothing."

Chiri stood at the edge of the cliff and lightly tapped the air with a withered finger.

Without a single hand seal, just the flow of chakra, the raging night wind around them came to a sudden halt. Then it turned into countless translucent black butterflies, dancing in the air.

"Yue, your ocular power is strong, but too crude. You're used to using the Mangekyō to force your way through the rules, but you don't know how to weave them."

Yue's Shadow Clone stood to one side, shock and fervor filling his sole eye.

He was like a dry sponge, greedily soaking up this top-tier knowledge, long lost by later generations.

The modern logic in his mind collided and fused with the wisdom of a Warring States master.

Several kilometers from Moon-Severing Cliff, inside a hidden, damp underground tree hollow.

"Ugh...!"

Yue Uchiha's real body had been sitting cross-legged, but he suddenly doubled over and clutched his head with both hands, letting out a groan that was stifled to the point of pain.

The memories flooding back after the Shadow Clone disappeared, along with the immense mental fatigue and profound, abstruse insights into Yin Release, struck his mind like a raging torrent.

It felt as if something were strengthening his brain.

"Haah... haah..."

Just then, a small, cold, and slightly clumsy hand pressed a coarse, damp cloth against his forehead.

Yue struggled to open his one remaining right eye.

By the dim candlelight, he saw Uchiha Hikari's small face right in front of him.

Two months had passed. Hikari was still wearing that ill-fitting combat uniform, but the suffocating silence and scent of blood about her had faded considerably.

Much of the emptiness in her eyes was gone, replaced by an emotion called worry.

"Does... it hurt again?"

Hikari's voice was soft. It no longer had the cold, flat tone it used to.

Over the past two months, Yue had spent nearly all his time in the cramped tree hollow with Hikari, apart from the hours he spent studying through his Shadow Clone.

There were no clan missions anymore, no orders to kill.

Yue taught her how to roast fish until it was crisp on the outside and tender within, without turning it to charcoal. He taught her how to tell which mushrooms in the forest were edible and which were poisonous. In his spare time, he even whittled a few crude little toys for her.

These days, so mundane they were almost boring, had planted a seed called "life" in the heart of this weapon-girl.

"I'm fine... It just hurts a little."

Yue drew a deep breath and used the Yin Release techniques he had just learned from Chiri to slowly guide the spiritual energy within him, easing the fierce headache bit by bit.

He took Hikari's hand, still holding the cloth. Instead of pushing it away, he closed his eyes and let the coolness soothe him.

"The secrets of Yin Release are deeper than I imagined."

What was the nature of the soul? What was the connection between spiritual energy and the soul? And what about ocular power?

The more he learned, the more questions he had.

Unfortunately, Chiri probably couldn't answer those questions either.