Chiri's All-Out Teaching

Had Izumi not been concentrating her mental energy to the utmost at this moment, she would have almost overlooked this tiny disturbance blending into the night wind.

Izumi's ocular power stalled abruptly, her figure vanishing from the spot like a phantom, appearing outside the tent in the next second.

The surroundings were deathly silent, without even a trace of residual enemy chakra.

Only a kunai tied with a piece of coarse cloth remained, driven into a wooden stake at the edge of the camp.

Izumi pulled the kunai out vigilantly and, by the moonlight, unfolded the cloth.

On it was a single line written in fresh blood:

[Thirty miles south of Falling Cherry Valley, meet at Moon-Severing Cliff at the hour of the Rat tomorrow night. --The two students you once taught the Great Fireball Technique]

Seeing the words "two students," Izumi's Mangekyō Sharingan instantly deactivated, as if the impending storm she had just sensed had never existed.

"Hikari... Yue..."

Her hunched frame trembled slightly, and the nerves she had kept taut to the breaking point finally developed a hairline fracture.

They were not dead!

These two children had actually survived the lethal sealing arrays of the Senju and Sarutobi clans, and had lived on despite being heartlessly abandoned by their own clan!

Heaven has mercy.

Izumi closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath of cold, earthy air, her eye sockets growing slightly warm.

"Since the young embers are still burning, this old woman's remaining life does not seem to need to be surrendered here just yet."

The next day, at the hour of the Rat in the deep of night.

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

The terrain here was treacherous, with wild winds weaving through the steep cliffs, emitting wails that sounded like ghosts crying and wolves howling.

At the top of the cliff, Izumi Uchiha stood alone, draped in a wind-breaking grey-black cloak, standing quietly under the moonlight.

She brought no attendants, nor did she make any effort to conceal her weapons; she simply waited with composure.

"Senior Izumi."

From the shadows of the cliff face, a slender black figure slowly emerged.

Yue Uchiha wore his tattered combat gear, his left eye still wrapped in blood-stained bandages. In his remaining right eye, a Three-Tomoe Sharingan swirled eerily in the darkness, carefully scrutinizing the old woman before him.

Izumi looked at the youth before her, a flash of shock crossing her eyes, but her expression quickly returned to calm.

With her peak-level mastery of Yin Release, she saw through the reality of the figure before her the very first second he stepped out.

"To distribute chakra so perfectly that even this old woman was almost deceived... such an exquisite Clone Technique is unheard of in the Warring States period. It seems this is the trick you used to evade the perception of the Senju and Sarutobi clans, isn't it?"

Izumi looked at Yue, her tone devoid of any anger at being guarded against, but instead filled with undisguised admiration.

"Forgive me, Senior. We are dead men on the clan registry and thorns in the side of the Senju clan; we have no choice but to hide in the gutters like rats. This clone is the only means I currently possess."

"Very cautious, and very clever. In this man-eating era, only those who carve vigilance into their very bones, like you, can protect a child like Hikari."

After a brief pause, she looked into Yue's eyes.

"Speak. If there is anything this old woman can help with, I certainly will, if you trust me."

He had not expected her to be so direct.

Yue bowed, and without hesitation, stated exactly what was on his mind: "Senior, I want two things."

"Which two?"

"First, I want the underlying array blueprints and construction principles of the Spring of Returning Light."

"You wish to replicate that man-eating evil art?!"

"No, quite the opposite. I intend to decipher it and improve it. Only then can my eyes be healed, and only then can I possess the strength to protect Hikari."

Izumi's gaze flickered slightly.

Protect Hikari, you say?

Izumi pondered silently, not rushing to answer.

"And... what is the second thing?" Izumi asked in a deep voice.

Yue's shadow clone stared fixedly into Izumi's eyes and said, word for word:

"The second thing... I want to learn from you, the world's most profound Yin Release mysteries and the secret arts you have accumulated over these years."

Silence, another long silence.

"I can agree to the second request, but for the first, please forgive this old woman for being unable to help."

Although it was not perfect, being able to learn Izumi's secret arts and Yin Release mysteries directly was still a bountiful harvest.

"This junior understands Senior Izumi's concerns, but to be able to learn your Yin Release mysteries is something Yue is deeply grateful for."

Izumi took a long, deep look at the youth before her.

"Calling you 'Senior' feels a bit distant; how about I just call you 'Grandma'?"

"Huh?"

"Come here to retrieve the scroll at the hour of the rat tomorrow. From then on, wait here at the hour of the rat every night. If I am free, I will come here to instruct you personally."

Such kindness!

Gratitude welled up in Yue's heart, and his tone softened involuntarily.

"Understood, Grandma Chiri."

Two months had passed since he obtained Chiri's secret scroll.

During these two months, Yue Uchiha seemed to have truly transformed into a ghost dedicated to his studies.

Whenever night fell, two figures—one old and one young—would occasionally appear on the precipitous Moon-Severing Cliff.

Chiri did not break her promise; whenever she was free, she truly came.

She was indeed a stern teacher who held nothing back.

From the most fundamental theory of Yin Release chakra—"creating something from nothing"—to the materialization and shaping of spiritual energy, and even how to use the faintest ocular power to manipulate an enemy's five senses... she poured out her lifelong insights into the Sharingan and spiritual power without reservation.

"Yin Release is not merely genjutsu; it is the art of using spiritual energy as a source to create 'form' out of thin air."

Chiri stood at the edge of the cliff, her thin, withered finger tapping lightly in the void.

Without any hand seals, merely through the flow of chakra, the violent night wind surrounding them stilled in an instant, then transformed into countless translucent black butterflies, dancing gracefully.

"Yue, although your ocular power is formidable, it is far too crude. You are accustomed to using the Mangekyo to brutally crush the rules, but you do not understand how to weave them."

Yue's shadow clone stood to the side, his single eye filled with shock and fanaticism.

He was like a dry sponge, frantically absorbing this top-tier knowledge that had long been lost to later generations.

The logical thinking of a modern man and the experiential wisdom of a Warring States master collided and fused violently within his mind.

Meanwhile, several kilometers away from the Moon-Severing Cliff, in that hidden, damp underground tree hollow.

"Urgh...!"

Yue Uchiha's original body, which had been sitting cross-legged in meditation, suddenly hunched over, his hands clutching his head tightly as he let out a stifled groan of extreme intensity.

The memory feedback following the dispelling of the shadow clone, accompanied by a massive amount of mental exhaustion and profound, obscure insights into Yin Release, surged into his brain like a torrential flood.

It felt as if something were forcibly expanding his mind.

"Haa... haa..."

Just then, a cool, slightly clumsy little hand holding a somewhat rough, damp cloth pressed gently against his forehead.

Yue struggled to open his only remaining right eye.

By the dim candlelight, he saw the small face of Uchiha Hikari, mere inches away.

Two months had passed, and Hikari still wore that ill-fitting combat uniform, but the suffocating dead silence and scent of blood that once clung to her had faded significantly.

The emptiness in her eyes had diminished by more than half, and a trace of emotion called "worry" now filled them.

"Does it... hurt again?"

Hikari's voice was very soft, no longer as cold and monotonous as it had been before.

During these two months, apart from learning through his shadow clone, Yue had spent almost all his remaining time in this cramped tree hollow with Hikari.

There were no clan missions, no orders to kill.

Yue would teach her how to grill fish until the skin was crispy and the meat tender instead of charred, how to distinguish which mushrooms in the forest were edible and which were poisonous, and even in his spare time, he would carve a few rough little trinkets for her out of wood.

This life, so mundane it was almost boring, had planted a seed called "living" in the heart of this weaponized girl.

"I'm fine... just a bit uncomfortable."

Yue took a deep breath and, using the Yin Release techniques he had just learned from Chiri, slowly mobilized the spiritual energy within his body to soothe the intense headache bit by bit.

He grasped the hand Hikari was using to hold the cloth; he did not push her away, but instead closed his eyes, leaning into that touch of coolness.

"The mysteries of Yin Release are even more profound than I imagined."

What is the essence of the soul? What connection exists between spiritual energy and the soul? And what of ocular power?

The more he learned, the more questions he had.

Unfortunately, these were things Chiri likely could not answer for him.