The Power of the Sharingan

After Teacher Inoue finished his demonstration, he had the students begin trying out the Three Basic Techniques.

Uchiha Nagi didn't try. He had used up quite a bit of chakra, and even if he did want to practice, he wouldn't do it here at school.

According to his plan, he absolutely couldn't master the Three Basic Techniques right away. It was best to keep all his performances thoroughly average.

Still, as he watched Namikaze Minato beside him, he thought that with Minato's talent, learning the Three Basic Techniques wouldn't be difficult at all.

But Minato's performance didn't seem all that impressive either. Was he hiding his abilities again?

Just then, a wave of startled cries rang out.

It turned out that Uchiha Enichi had successfully performed the Transformation Technique.

However, even without using his Sharingan, Uchiha Nagi could spot the flaws in Enichi's transformation from across the room.

The technique had worked, but it would still have been considered a failure in the graduation assessment.

Even so, being able to reach that level on his first try meant Enichi was already more talented than most people.

Teacher Inoue clapped.

"Enichi, it's impressive that you managed to perform the Transformation Technique on your first try."

"Of course." Uchiha Enichi turned his head aside, his face full of pride.

Seeing this, Teacher Inoue seized the opportunity and continued.

"Students, I'll let you in on something: the Three Basic Techniques are what you'll be tested on when you graduate. So I hope you'll practice them diligently from now on."

At that, Uchiha Enichi looked even more pleased with himself.

The students continued trying to practice the Three Basic Techniques. As expected, most of them failed. Even those who succeeded ended up looking dreadful—far worse than Uchiha Enichi.

Teacher Inoue shook his head. How could a bunch of children who had only just been introduced to chakra learn the Three Basic Techniques so easily?

If they could, the Three Basic Techniques wouldn't be used in the graduation assessment.

Uchiha Nagi waved his hand, clearing away the smoke before him. It had formed from the chakra leaking out of the other students.

Just like Uzumaki Naruto in the original story, whose jutsu released a great deal of excess chakra, the students' attempts produced these white clouds of smoke that dispersed after a few seconds.

Still, judging by the smoke in front of him, there probably wasn't as much of it as Uzumaki Naruto produced with a single Transformation Technique...

"Just as you'd expect from Uzumaki Naruto."

Uchiha Nagi shook his head. The Uchiha Clan might have a decent amount of chakra, but it couldn't compare to the Uzumaki Clan.

He'd wait until he got home to try the Three Basic Techniques. He had a feeling the Sharingan would surprise him.

Just then, Namikaze Minato performed the Transformation Technique beside him.

"Hm?" Uchiha Nagi stared at the other version of himself that had suddenly appeared. It was still possible to tell them apart, but only with a careful look—not at a glance, like with everyone else.

The new "Uchiha Nagi" lasted only a moment before turning back into Namikaze Minato.

"Minato, if the teacher found out how talented you are, he'd be shocked," Uchiha Nagi remarked.

Minato shook his head. "You're joking, Nagi. The Transformation Technique is fairly simple. The Clone Technique and Substitution Technique are harder."

He wasn't worried that Uchiha Nagi would reveal his talent.

Besides, he only wanted to keep a low profile. It wasn't as though he couldn't stand out at all.

Uchiha Nagi smiled and shook his head. Namikaze Minato didn't have the reputation of a child prodigy that his student, Hatake Kakashi, would later have, but he had graduated from the academy and joined Team Jiraiya.

That suggested Minato had probably kept a very low profile at school, then graduated in a blaze of glory during the war and revealed his talent.

"The Fourth Hokage was quite the wolf in sheep's clothing."

At last, Uchiha Nagi returned home.

Looking at the empty house, he sighed. He had no idea how long Eri's latest mission would take.

Generally, a Genin's missions weren't too difficult. They could be over in a few days, but if something unexpected happened along the way, a month or two away was normal too.

"Time to try the Three Basic Techniques."

Uchiha Nagi took a deep breath. He recalled the chakra flow he had seen with his Sharingan and began trying to control his own chakra, replicating Teacher Inoue's method exactly.

However, Teacher Inoue had performed the techniques very quickly. To make sure he copied the movements accurately, Nagi naturally slowed down.

At last, Uchiha Nagi formed the Snake hand seal.

"Transformation Technique!"

The next moment, no smoke appeared from excess chakra. Uchiha Eri simply appeared before him.

Uchiha Nagi looked at his reflection in the mirror, surprise in his eyes. He had actually managed to transform successfully—even though he and Eri were quite different in height.

That difference in height only made the technique consume more of his chakra.

"The chakra consumption isn't important. What matters is..."

Uchiha Nagi could barely tell whether the person in the mirror was himself or Uchiha Eri.

The transformation was so precise that it could fool anyone.

"So I directly copied Teacher Inoue's level of proficiency?" Uchiha Nagi suddenly realized that the Sharingan was even more powerful than he had imagined.

And this might still have been because his chakra control wasn't good enough. If his chakra control surpassed Teacher Inoue's, wouldn't using the same method make his jutsu even more effective?

Once his chakra control became exceptional, he wouldn't just be able to copy jutsu—he could surpass them.

Now that was incredible!

"But copying proficiency is thanks to the Sharingan. The precise control of chakra, though, comes from my own talent."

Uchiha Nagi nodded in satisfaction. It seemed he had a decent talent for chakra control.

After using the Transformation Technique a few more times to get used to it, he should be just as proficient as Teacher Inoue.

"This is great! I've just saved myself more than ten years of practice."

Teacher Inoue might not have been very proficient with other jutsu, but he had to be highly skilled in the Three Basic Techniques he specialized in teaching.

Next, he tried the Clone Technique and Substitution Technique. He succeeded with both on the first try, and his proficiency in them was just as high.

"Judging by the assessment, I've already passed the jutsu portion. Graduate as soon as school starts?"

Uchiha Nagi couldn't help laughing. Being in the first grade with a Two-Tomoe Sharingan was just too overpowered.

Unfortunately, he couldn't show off such talent if he wanted to live a peaceful life.

As a member of the Uchiha Clan, standing out too much wouldn't sit well with the Hokage's faction.

And he didn't want to get involved in the Uchiha Clan's messes, so he could only keep hiding his abilities.