Concealing His Ability in Basic Class

The temporary basic class was held in an old warehouse that had been cleared out.

The warehouse had originally been used to store miscellaneous clan items, and traces of where wooden crates had been moved still remained along the walls. The windows had been hastily repaired, their paper panes patched with pieces of different ages and colors. Morning light leaked through the gaps, falling across the floor like several chopped-up white lines.

The children sat on cushions.

Uchiha Che sat near the back, his right shoulder still unable to move much. Kiyo sat in front of him, sitting ramrod straight as if he feared being thrown out for leaning crookedly. Saori sat to the left with a small wooden board on her knees, her fingers pressing against its edge.

The instructor was not Uchiha Jian, but an older female ninja.

Her name was Uchiha Mione. Her hair had already begun to turn gray, and she wore a thin black wrist guard on her left hand. She neither released chakra nor deliberately put on a stern expression when she entered, yet the children in the warehouse still fell quiet.

Some people did not need a loud voice to command authority.

Mione placed a stack of papers on the low table and looked around the room first.

"Today isn't an official Ninja Academy class," she said. "Some of you are injured, some of you haven't slept well, and some of you have troubled minds. The clan won't demand that you learn much today."

Several children visibly relaxed.

But Mione followed up quickly.

"Not being expected to learn much doesn't mean you don't have to learn anything."

The shoulders that had just loosened quietly tensed again.

Uchiha Che lowered his head and looked at the paper before him.

Several large words were written on it.

Uchiha.

Konoha.

Will of Fire.

Military Police Force.

Clan rules.

Placed together, these words carried the distinct flavor of this world. Che stared at the words "Will of Fire" for a moment, a complicated feeling he could not put into words rising in his heart.

The Will of Fire was not fake, of course.

Last night, the Fourth Hokage had protected the village with his life, and many ninja truly had died for Konoha. But fire could illuminate people, and it could also bake certain shadows even deeper. When the Uchiha clan was driven toward annihilation in the future, there would be no shortage of lofty-sounding reasons either.

Mione began the literacy lesson.

She did not begin with complicated clan rules. Instead, she first had the children learn to recognize how to write their own names.

"Knowing how to write your own name is important," Mione said. "Your name will be written in mission records and Ninja Academy registration forms. It may also be written on casualty lists. You'll see many names in the future, but remember your own first."

The warehouse was very quiet.

Her words were not gentle, but they were honest.

Mione walked to the blackboard and wrote the four characters for "Uchiha Che."

The moment the final stroke landed, Che felt several children in front turn to look at him.

He blinked.

"Teacher, I feel like my name is getting a little too much screen time today."

Mione glanced at him.

"Because your name has a moderate number of strokes."

"Then I'll thank you on its behalf."

Kiyo held back his laughter so hard that his shoulders trembled.

Mione did not let him derail her. Pointing at the blackboard, she said, "Che means clear water. It can also mean transparency and brightness. Your parents probably gave you this name in the hope that you wouldn't live a muddied life."

Uchiha Che looked up at the blackboard.

Those four characters suddenly no longer felt like a label.

After someone explained them, it was as though his parents had left behind another trace of their voices in this old warehouse.

Che fell silent for a few breaths.

"That's a bit of pressure," he said softly. "I'll start by trying not to write the characters into a blur."

Mione put the chalk back.

"Write first."

Each child received a sheet of paper and copied their own name from the blackboard. Uchiha Che paused slightly as he held the brush.

This body's muscle memory for writing was faint.

The Chinese writing in his modern memories differed from the script of this world, but there were common points. After looking once, he could tell the stroke order, and he could write more steadily than an ordinary child.

The question was, how steady was reasonable?

He lowered his head and deliberately made the first attempt slightly crooked. The second was a little better, and the third better still. There had to be improvement, but he could not seem like he had suddenly become a different person.

Mione walked over and took a look.

"The third attempt is steadier than the first."

Che looked up. "That means my brush and I are building trust."

"If that trust builds too slowly, the Ninja Academy will make you rewrite it ten times."

"Then the feelings between my brush and me may heat up quickly."

The corner of Mione's eye seemed to twitch. It was unclear whether she wanted to laugh or scold him.

In the end, she merely tapped the paper. "Continue."

After literacy came clan rules.

Uchiha Mione did not read the entire scroll of clan rules to the children. She only selected a few relevant to them now.

"Do not trespass into restricted clan grounds."

"Do not reveal the locations of clan ninjutsu scrolls."

"Do not practice dangerous ninjutsu without permission."

"Do not disclose internal arrangements of the Military Police Force to outsiders."

When she reached the last rule, the air in the warehouse changed subtly again.

Uchiha Che keenly noticed that several of the older children sat even straighter. Mione's voice also slowed slightly.

After Nine-Tails Night, this clan rule did not sound like an ordinary regulation.

It sounded more like a line of defense.

Mione closed the scroll.

"You are still young. You don't need to understand too much. But remember, you cannot say whatever you want. Especially regarding what you saw or heard last night, don't casually tell outsiders."

One child asked, "Are people from Konoha outsiders too?"

That question was more dangerous than the last.

Mione looked at him and fell silent for a moment.

"Konoha is the village," she said. "The Uchiha are also part of Konoha."

It was a standard answer.

And a careful one.

Uchiha Che lowered his head, pretending to study the paper intently, while committing those words to memory.

In a village where the relationship did not need explaining, no one would repeatedly emphasize that they were "also part of it."

Next came basic chakra knowledge.

Mione drew a simplified diagram of the human chakra pathways on the blackboard. Lines extended from the abdomen to the limbs, then split into countless smaller branches.

"Chakra does not come from nowhere," she said. "Only when physical energy and spiritual energy combine does chakra form. Extract too little, and a technique cannot be activated. Extract too much, and the body cannot bear it. Unstable control is more dangerous than having too little chakra."

Uchiha Che sat a little straighter.

This was something he needed to listen to carefully.

Mione took out a sheet of chakra paper.

"Formal testing for chakra nature transformations must wait until you are older. Today is only to let you understand that different chakra natures produce different reactions."

A thread of chakra gathered at her fingertips.

The edge of the paper wrinkled slightly, and one corner developed a scorched mark.

"Fire-nature chakra makes chakra paper burn or char," Mione said. "Most Uchiha have a tendency toward fire nature, but not everyone is the same. Remember, a tendency is not an order. What nature you have does not mean you can only learn certain things, nor does it mean you can master them immediately."

Che looked at the scorched mark along the paper's edge.

That door in his mind wanted to open again.

The chakra output from her fingertip was very small, and the nature transformation had been kept at a very low level. This was not a Fire Release ninjutsu, merely a demonstration of fire-nature affinity. The scorch mark was slightly offset from the point of chakra contact, which meant the chakra had passed into the paper fibers before completing that faint transformation.

He understood it.

His body wanted to try it too.

Che immediately pressed his fingers against his knee and lightly dug a fingernail into his palm.

The pain suppressed that impulse.

Mione's gaze swept over him.

Che raised his head with a faintly innocent expression.

"Teacher, is chakra paper expensive?"

Mione looked at him. "What do you want to do?"

"I want to know whether I should wash my hands beforehand when I test in the future, if it's expensive."

Several children laughed again.

Mione said flatly, "It costs more than your lunch today."

"Then I'll treat it with respect."

Mione looked away.

Uchiha Che quietly relaxed.

He had nearly exposed himself just now.

His analytical ability was more active than it had been yesterday. Maybe his mind had recovered somewhat after resting, or maybe after seeing more ninjutsu and chakra manifestations, his brain had instinctively begun searching for patterns. Whatever the reason, it was not good news.

Concealing his ability did not just mean hiding his grades.

He also had to hide the look in his eyes that said he wanted to learn.

Mione had several of the older children try to sense chakra. The younger ones only needed to place their hands over their abdomens and feel their breathing and body heat. Che did the same.

There was a faint warmth in his abdomen.

He did not gather chakra in his palm as he had last night. He only observed it, like watching a distant lamp without reaching out to touch it.

Kiyo sat in front of him, frowning as he muttered, "I can't feel anything at all."

"Me neither," Saori said.

Che lowered his voice. "Congratulations. Chakra won't bother you for now."

Kiyo turned around. "You felt something?"

Che immediately shook his head. "I felt hungry."

"Didn't you eat this morning?"

"A growing Uchiha needs his appetite respected."

Saori looked at him, then suddenly spoke. "You're always changing the subject."

Uchiha Che's heart skipped a beat.

This girl did not talk much, but that did not mean she did not observe.

He turned to look at her.

Saori's eyes were very dark. They did not hold Kiyo's straightforward dependence, nor Itachi's sharpness—only quiet observation.

"Am I?" Che asked.

"You are."

"Then maybe I'm just good at taking detours."

Saori did not smile.

"You can get lost on detours too."

After saying that, she lowered her head to look at her hands again.

Uchiha Che tucked those words away in his heart.

The children today were all rather good at talking.

Every one of them knew how to hit where it hurt.

Before the basic class ended, Mione had each person say one thing they remembered from today. This part had clearly been added on the spot, as though she wanted to make sure they had not been daydreaming the whole time.

Kiyo said, "Even if you have chakra, you can't use it recklessly."

Saori said, "You can't speak recklessly."

When it was Che's turn, he thought for a moment.

"I remember that names should be written clearly, words should be thought through clearly, and chakra should be taken slowly."

Mione looked at him.

"And?"

"And chakra paper costs more than lunch."

Laughter finally rang out in the warehouse.

Mione lightly tapped the table with the scroll.

"Uchiha Che."

"Here."

"Being clever is not a bad thing," Mione said. "But if you only use that cleverness to make others laugh, you'll waste it."

The smile on Che's face faded slightly.

That did not sound like a reprimand.

It sounded more like a reminder.

He lowered his head. "I'll remember it."

Mione put away the scroll.

"Class dismissed."

The children left one after another. Uchiha Che was the last to go. Just as he reached the door, Mine called out to him.

"After the third time, you deliberately slowed down your writing."

Che's back tensed slightly.

He turned around, still wearing a childlike look of confusion.

"I was afraid of making mistakes."

Mine watched him for several breaths.

"Being afraid of making mistakes isn't a bad thing. Just don't be so afraid that you don't dare write correctly."

Uchiha Che did not answer at once.

Mine handed him the sheets he had written on.

"Take them home. Write your name five times tonight. No more, no less."

No more.

No less.

This teacher's eyes were sharp too.

Che accepted the paper and said quietly, "Thank you, Teacher Mine."

By the time he left the storeroom, the sunlight had already slanted westward. Kiyo was waiting for him outside the courtyard gate, while Saori stood beneath a tree, holding a wooden board.

Kiyo asked, "Why did the teacher keep you behind?"

Che waved the paper. "She told me to keep cultivating my relationship with my name."

Saori looked at him. "Are you going to write really well?"

Uchiha Che sighed.

"I think you two have some misunderstanding about me. I just look like someone who can write."

Kiyo gave him a serious look. "No, you don't. There aren't any words on your face."

Che fell silent.

The corner of Saori's mouth twitched ever so slightly.

That probably counted as a smile.

After returning to his room, Uchiha Che spread out the paper and wrote his name five times, just as Mine had instructed.

The first time, he made the strokes seem slightly clumsy.

The second time, the horizontal and vertical strokes became a little steadier.

The third time, he wrote at the level he could truly control consistently.

The fourth time, he did not improve any further.

The fifth time, he did not regress either.

After finishing, he stared at the five versions of "Uchiha Che" for a long time.

Hiding one's abilities was not the same as playing dumb.

Playing dumb was too easy for clever people to see through. Truly effective concealment meant making progress seem reasonable, making mistakes seem reasonable, making the version of yourself others saw explainable.

He needed to design a rate of growth that people could accept.

It could not be too slow. Too slow, and he would lose resources and be unable to protect himself.

It could not be too fast. Too fast would draw attention, especially from the Anbu, the clan elders, and Danzo, who might one day reach out from the shadows.

Uchiha Che put the paper away and suddenly felt that this was harder than practicing chakra.

At least with chakra practice, he could feel himself improving.

With hiding his abilities, the sign of improvement was that no one noticed.

That was seriously lacking in a sense of accomplishment.

Leaning against the wall, he muttered, "Lesson one in surviving the ninja world: how to be ordinary in just the right way."

Outside the window, Kiyo was being reminded by Nao not to run around in the courtyard. Saori sat on the steps sewing ears onto a cloth doll, her stitches crooked and uneven, but earnest.

Uchiha Che watched for a while, then lowered his head again.

From memory, he roughly sketched on the back of the paper the meridian diagram from class that day. It was not complete, only the section from the abdomen to the palm.

The lines were ugly.

But recognizable.

He wrote several words beside it.

"Observation is fine."

"Imitation must be slow."

"Chakra reactions must be suppressed."

After writing that, he added another line.

"Even cleverness has to be reasonable."

The sentence looked a little awkward.

But Uchiha Che knew that he would have to rely on those words to survive for a long time to come.

That night, Nao came to check his homework.

She saw the five versions of his name and nodded.

"Teacher Mine said you did fairly well today."

"Just fairly well?"

"What did you want to hear?"

"Something like 'a heaven-sent genius.'"

Nao's expression remained blank. "She said you talk too much."

Uchiha Che clutched his chest. "So accurate it hurts."

Nao put the paper back on the table, her gaze falling on the rough meridian sketch on the reverse side.

Che's heart skipped a beat.

Nao did not ask why he had drawn it. After only one glance, she flipped the paper back over.

"Classes continue tomorrow. Go to sleep early."

She walked to the door and paused.

"Che, wanting to learn isn't a bad thing."

Che looked up.

Nao had her back to him, her voice quiet.

"But in Konoha as it is now, especially in the Uchiha as they are now, wanting to learn too much and learning too quickly will make people look at you a few extra times."

The door closed.

Uchiha Che sat at the table and slowly let out a breath.

All right.

There were quite a few clever people around.

That was not a bad thing. At least it meant he was not completely alone.

But it was not a good thing either, because every step he took from now on would have to be steadier.

He folded the meridian diagram and tucked it beneath his father's family records.

Then he put out the light.

In the darkness, Uchiha Che closed his eyes. The test paper from today, Mine's chalk writing, Saori's words—"You can get lost at a fork in the road too"—and Nao's final warning all surfaced in his mind.

None of these things had existed in the timeline he remembered.

Yet they were changing him.

Che suddenly realized that the advantage of being a transmigrator might never have been as broad as he had imagined.

He knew where the great river of the future would flow.

But every stone beneath his feet, he had to step on himself.