Chapter 5

"Hmm! What should we call it?" Tajima rested his chin on his hand, frowning in thought.

"How about Shadow Clone?" Mingye suddenly interjected, blurting out the original name of this clone technique.

"Uchiha Shadow Clone!" Madara also chimed in, appending the family name to the title Mingye had suggested.

"Do you have to add 'Uchiha' to everything?" Mingye raised an eyebrow at Madara, retorting with a speechless expression.

"This is a ninjutsu we created ourselves, so of course it should bear the family name!" Madara was only a teenager, and his heart was still filled with pride for his clan. Moreover, since this technique was created by his own father, it was only natural that it should carry the family name, as it was a product of the clan.

"Heh! Fine, I have no objections. Just stop looking at me like that, or my mouth will start itching!"

For some reason, ever since arriving in this world, he always felt an urge to pick a fight with Madara, especially when the latter was being overly doting on his younger brother. It made Mingye feel that brawling with Madara was an incredibly exhilarating experience, as the current Madara displayed a full range of expressions, unlike the character in the manga who always appeared with a stone-cold face, acting as if he were the most important person in the world.

"Mingye, if you use ninjutsu on me again, I'll dismantle you piece by piece!"

In the study, Mingye obtained the chakra-sensing paper left behind by his father. In this era, such paper was exceptionally precious; with war raging everywhere, it wasn't treated like toilet paper as it was in the manga. When his father took it out of a small box, there were only three or four sheets in total. After testing their chakra natures, Mingye, Madara, and Izuna left the study and headed to the training grounds for practical drills.

"Fire and Lightning. I didn't expect my affinities to be much better than yours, big brother!" The Shadow Clone technique wasn't particularly difficult; after observing it for a while, Mingye understood the formula. Having reached his limit by creating just one clone, he ordered it to go practice chakra control by walking on water, while he sat reading a book and teasing Madara, who had managed to create five clones.

"The number of affinities doesn't determine whether a ninja is strong or not. If you don't believe me, let's test it in a real fight!" Madara looked at Mingye with pride, showing no signs of anger, and instead challenged him to a spar.

"Heh! Give me ten years, and I'll definitely challenge you!"

"I'll be waiting!" Madara smiled dismissively, then turned his head to resume practicing taijutsu with one of his clones.

The morning light draped over the earth like a golden veil. A gentle breeze swept through the branches, and pale yellow leaves drifted down, as if whispering to the world that autumn had arrived.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

A figure suddenly flashed atop a ten-meter-tall tree, spitting a fireball that slammed into the trunk. The tree shook from the impact, and a figure leaped down like a chameleon to dodge the attack.

The youth who had released the fireball didn't let up, his hands moving rapidly through seals again.

"Fire Style: Hiding in Ash!"

High temperatures combined with thick, gray fog enveloped the youth. The moment his figure merged into the dust, three or four kunai shot out blindly, followed by another figure appearing and unleashing an attack into the mist.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

A massive fireball erupted from the figure, sweeping the mist away. As the fog cleared, the person's face was revealed—it was none other than Uchiha Madara himself. He wore a mischievous smirk as his body dissolved into white mist.

"Shadow Clone!"

The person attacking Madara was stunned for a split second, but Madara flashed behind him and kicked him in the waist, while another person jumped from the ground to catch the flying body.

"Enough, stop fighting. Izuna, you're too impatient. Your strikes must be fast, accurate, and ruthless. If you fail to land an attack on an enemy, the reaction you just made would be enough to get you killed a hundred times over. This time it was Madara kicking you, but on the battlefield, that would have been a sharp blade cutting you in two!" Tajima stood on a nearby tree, watching his three sons spar, and called out to stop them before lecturing Izuna, who was wincing and clutching his waist.

"Father, I win this time, right?" Madara gave Izuna a provocative thumbs-down before confidently asking his father.

"You would have been dead long ago!"

Tajima kept a straight face, pointed at the branch Madara was standing on, and then turned to Mingye. "Where did you get so many explosive tags to set off? You should know that explosive tags are only for real ambushes. You, on the other hand, buried all the tags I gave you right there. If you had actually detonated them, none of you three would have escaped!"

"Damn it! You actually buried explosive tags here!" Upon hearing this, Madara looked down and saw a bundle of tags stuck beneath the branch. His face turned green, and he lunged at Mingye, roaring in anger.

"It didn't go off! It didn't! If I hadn't used real ones, you would have just claimed I was bluffing and refused to admit defeat! I never intended to detonate them!" Mingye pushed Izuna toward Madara and hid behind Tajima, defending himself with a sheepish expression.

"The power of those tags is enough to blast an enemy within three meters into mincemeat. If you detonated them late, you wouldn't kill Madara, and if you did it too early, all three of you would be dead. You haven't learned the techniques for using explosive tags without harming yourself, so it's best not to use them recklessly. Shimizu will teach you all for the next few days. That's enough for today, let's go home!" Tajima patted Mingye on the head, gave his warning, and turned to walk toward the clan compound.

As the winners, Mingye and Izuna were allowed to play in the forest for another hour, while Madara, despite his protests, was dragged into the study by Tajima for a private lecture.

Mingye watched his brother, who was still fuming and shouting about revenge, feeling quite satisfied. For a whole year, even though he was the one who had conceived of the technique, Madara was the first to master it. And it wasn't just that; in everything, Madara was always first. He was the first to arrive at clan training, he held the record for the youngest ninja certification, and his training with the Shadow Clone had allowed him—a mere fifteen-year-old—to master it to perfection. While Mingye was still using Shadow Clones merely for chakra refinement, Madara had already begun using them for his own Fire Style training. Mingye knew clearly that he had reached his limit. Under Tajima's supervision, the three brothers woke up at six in the morning to train, spent only twenty minutes eating lunch, and after a one-hour break, trained without rest until seven in the evening. For an entire year, not only did Mingye feel no closer to standing at the same height as Madara and Izuna, but he felt the distance between them growing ever wider.

Watching Izuna deftly plunge a blade into a giant bear's throat, nimbly grab its fur to swing away from its claws, and then flip behind the beast to cleanly drive four kunai into its neck, causing it to collapse and die, Mingye sighed inwardly. An unknown, sharp pain suddenly made his eyes burn, but it was only a sensation of heat.

"What are you spacing out for? Hurry up and take out the storage scroll! This bear is enough for our whole clan to have a good meal. Didn't you say you were sick of eating salted vegetables every day? Father worked hard to take this territory from the Fuma Clan, you know!" After finishing off the bear, Izuna turned to look at the dazed Mingye, grinning as he urged him on.

"Right! Coming!" Mingye snapped out of it, nodded, and quickly pulled a scroll from his pack. He ran to the bear's side, bit his finger, and drew a symbol on its forehead identical to the one in the center of the scroll. He pressed his bloodied hand onto the scroll, and a surge of chakra flowed out, enveloping the bear's carcass and drawing it into the scroll.

Izuna checked the time. Although this forest was within Uchiha territory, that didn't mean other ninjas wouldn't sneak in. He said to Mingye, "It's about time. If we stay any longer, we might be discovered by ninjas from other clans. Time to go home!"

"Right!" Mingye nodded again, and the two of them quickly leaped through the trees, vanishing into the woods.