Fire Release Class Without Fire

A morning without masks did not mean there were no eyes watching. When Che reached the entrance of the training shed, a trace of last night's darkness still weighed on his shoulders like a hand that had only temporarily withdrawn.

When they heard that today's lesson would cover Fire Release, the children's eyes all lit up.

Even Uchiha children who had just lived through Nine-Tails Night could hardly remain indifferent to the words "Fire Release." It was the most immediate source of pride behind their clan crest, the firelight adults spat out during training, and the Uchiha hallmark repeatedly mentioned at the Ninja Academy.

Kiyo had run to Uchiha Che's door early that morning.

"Che, do you think they'll make us breathe fire today?"

Uchiha Che was tying his ninja tool pouch. He glanced at him.

"You nearly choked on your soup last night, and today you want to breathe fire?"

Kiyo considered it seriously. "Soup and fire are different."

"True. Choking on soup is uncomfortable at worst. Choking on fire might heat you up directly."

Kiyo's face went pale.

"Then I won't breathe fire."

Uchiha Che patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, they probably won't make us do it. If they really do, just say you're specializing in safety today."

Kiyo nodded, as though he had memorized some life-saving mantra.

The temporary Fire Release class was held in an open training ground at the edge of the clan compound. It had not suffered much damage last night. The ground was packed yellow earth, with buckets of water and wet cloths for putting out fires placed around it. Several adult Uchiha ninja stood at the perimeter, clearly not there to observe the lesson, but to keep some child from setting themselves on fire.

Uchiha Jian was still in charge of keeping order, while Mine stood nearby. Today's instructor was a young ninja named Uchiha Takuya.

Takuya looked to be in his early twenties. His hair was tied behind his head, and his expression was far more relaxed than Jian's. When he stood before the children, he raised both hands first.

"Let's be clear: I'm not teaching you how to actually perform the Great Fireball Technique today."

A wave of disappointed murmurs immediately rose through the yard.

Takuya smiled. "Being disappointed won't change anything. If you could really breathe fire right now, the clan would have to build another row of houses."

Uchiha Che nodded from the back row.

This teacher was practical.

Takuya continued, "Today, we're only covering three things: what fire-nature chakra is, why the Great Fireball Technique is dangerous, and why you shouldn't practice it recklessly on your own yet."

After saying that, he turned and drew six hand-sign symbols on the ground.

Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger.

Uchiha Che's heart skipped lightly.

The image of last night's Fire Release on the distant rooftop immediately surfaced in his mind. That Uchiha ninja had formed hand signs, drawn in breath, and breathed fire. The fireball blasted through the smoke and lit the escape route.

Now, the same six signs were drawn on the yellow earth, quiet as ordinary symbols.

Takuya pointed at them. "Many people know the hand-sign sequence for the Great Fireball Technique. But knowing the sequence does not mean you know how to use it. Hand signs are only the doorknob. What lies beyond the door is what truly matters."

He slowly formed the hand signs with both hands.

He moved so slowly that every child could see clearly.

"Snake."

His fingers crossed, his wrists lowered.

"Ram."

Chakra rose from his abdomen.

Uchiha Che saw the faintest movement beneath Takuya's clothes. It was not ordinary breathing, but chakra preparing his chest cavity. That door wanted to open again, its outlines beginning to emerge.

He immediately split off half his attention to press down on his own abdomen.

Watching was fine.

His body could not follow.

"Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger."

Takuya finished the signs but did not breathe fire. He merely held a breath in his chest, then slowly dispersed it.

"If you imitate this much right now, what do you think will happen?"

One child raised a hand. "We won't be able to breathe fire?"

"That would be the better outcome," Takuya said. "A worse outcome would be your chakra rushing around uncontrollably, burning your throat, hurting your chest, or even making you pass out."

Kiyo silently placed a hand over his throat.

Uchiha Che saw it and murmured, "Congratulations. You found the important part early."

Kiyo said softly, "I don't want it to get burned."

"It doesn't want that either."

Takuya began the actual demonstration.

He stepped back a few paces and faced a dirt pit at the far end of the clearing. Uchiha Jian moved to one side, and the ninja beside the water buckets readied themselves as well.

"Watch carefully. Do not imitate me."

The moment he said that, Uchiha Che had a bad feeling.

The more someone told him not to imitate something, the more his mind wanted to imitate it.

Takuya formed the hand signs much faster than before, though still slowly enough to observe. Chakra rose from his abdomen and gathered along his chest cavity. The fire-nature transformation compressed before his throat. This was not fire appearing out of nowhere. It was chakra completing a nature transformation in a short time, then using breath and the mouth as an outlet to form a blast.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Flames burst from his mouth, first as a stream, then suddenly swelling into a sphere that struck above the dirt pit. A wave of heat washed over them, and all the children took a step back. The fireball was not as massive as the one the Uchiha ninja had used last night, but it was enough to make the training ground's temperature spike.

Kiyo's mouth fell open.

Saori hugged her doll, her eyes widening slightly too.

Uchiha Che, meanwhile, was holding himself back.

His mind had already broken the technique apart.

The hand-sign sequence, the chakra pathway, chest compression, fire-nature transformation, the angle of exhalation, the expansion shift when the fireball took shape.

It was too clear.

Clearer than last night.

Because Takuya was demonstrating deliberately. He had slowed down, and he was not deliberately concealing his chakra. To Uchiha Che, it was like someone had spread the answers across a table and thoughtfully marked the key points.

His throat heated slightly.

His body wanted to follow.

Uchiha Che pinched the web between his right thumb and forefinger with his left hand, digging in until it hurt.

He could not follow.

After the fireball dispersed, Takuya turned around.

"Who understood it?"

Several children eagerly raised their hands.

"I understood the hand signs!"

"I know you have to breathe in!"

"I saw the fire come out of his mouth!"

Takuya smiled. "Very good. What you understood was all surface-level."

The children wilted a little.

Takuya pointed at his chest. "The truly difficult part is here. Chakra quantity, nature transformation, control, breathing, and how much your body can endure. Miss even one, and it's not a Great Fireball. It's a Great Coughing Fit."

Uchiha Che nearly laughed aloud.

That was an accurate description.

Takuya had a few of the older children practice coordinating hand signs and breathing, forbidding them from drawing out fire-nature chakra. The younger ones only practiced the gestures.

Che was assigned to the younger group.

Good.

Safe.

At least, safe on the surface.

He followed along with the hand signs.

Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger.

His fingers were too small, making the motions slightly awkward. He deliberately delayed his fingers by a beat on the Monkey sign, then pressed them into the wrong position on the Horse sign. Kiyo was even more of a mess beside him. By the third sign, he had twisted his fingers into a knot.

"Che, what does mine look like?"

Uchiha Che glanced over. "Like you're about to fight yourself."

Kiyo quickly let go.

Saori did them more steadily than either of them. She spoke little, but observed closely. The six signs were slow, yet none were obviously misplaced. When Takuya passed by, he praised her.

Saori lowered her head. "I just copied what you did."

"Even copying it isn't easy," Takuya said. "But remember, you are not allowed to practice chakra privately."

Saori nodded.

Takuya stopped in front of Uchiha Che.

"You got two signs wrong."

Che looked up. "I think they just haven't reached an agreement with my fingers yet."

Takuya laughed. "Then take your time negotiating. Just memorize the sequence first."

He did not look any closer.

Uchiha Che relaxed slightly inside.

Getting two hand signs wrong was perfectly reasonable.

But he knew his real problem was not his fingers, but his mind. His mind had already learned seventy or eighty percent of it, while his body could not keep up. That gap was dangerous. It could make someone feel as if they should be able to do it.

Many people in the ninja world had probably died because of that illusion.

For the latter half of the class, Takuya arranged a safe exercise: without completing the full set of signs, they were only to sense their breathing and the chakra in their abdomen. They were not to let their chakra rush up to their throats.

The children lined up, both hands on their stomachs.

"Don't lift your shoulders when you inhale. Chakra does not grow out of your shoulders," Takuya said from the front. "Even if you feel heat, do not push it upward. Your task right now is to know it is there, not to breathe it out."

Uchiha Che closed his eyes.

Warmth appeared in his abdomen.

It was clearer than it had been a few days ago.

And more restless.

Like a tiny flame, stirred by the demonstration of the Great Fireball and eager to leap upward. He held it down, refusing to let it enter his chest. Chakra swirled in his abdomen, scattering at times and gathering at others.

Kiyo suddenly coughed beside him.

Takuya immediately went over. "Did you draw it upward?"

Kiyo nodded, then shook his head in fright. "I don't know. It came up on its own."

"Disperse it." Takuya crouched and placed a palm against Kiyo's back. "Exhale slowly."

Kiyo's face flushed red. It took him a while to calm down.

Takuya was much more serious now. "See? This is why you are not allowed to practice recklessly. Chakra will not obey just because you want to become a ninja."

Uchiha Che opened his eyes.

Kiyo's coughing cooled the impulse inside him.

He was not afraid of pain, nor was he afraid of failure.

But he could not practice himself into the medical station out of a moment's curiosity, much less let anyone discover his analysis ability because his body showed something abnormal.

Takuya gave the children a break.

Uchiha Che sat at the edge of the training ground and took a sip from his water flask. The water was a little warm and carried the taste of the wooden stopper.

Saori sat beside him, looking at the scorch marks in the distant dirt pit.

"You were watching very carefully just now," she said.

Che nearly choked on his water.

He put down the flask. "Fire Release looks cool."

"You weren't watching the fire," Saori said. "You were watching Teacher Takuya's hands and chest."

Uchiha Che turned to look at her.

Saori did not avoid his gaze.

This child's powers of observation were a bit of a headache.

Che thought for a moment, then lowered his voice. "Because I was afraid he might choke."

Saori fell silent.

"Really?"

"Half."

"And the other half?"

Che looked at the scorch marks in the dirt pit.

"I wanted to know how the fire came out."

Saori lowered her head and touched one of the doll's sewn ears.

"I want to know too."

This time, Che fell silent.

He suddenly realized that wanting to learn was not his exclusive privilege. When Uchiha children saw Fire Release, who would not want to know how the fire came out? His desire to know was simply more dangerous, because he could truly see into it.

"Then let's both try not to burn ourselves first," he said.

Saori nodded.

"Mm."

When the Fire Release class ended, Takuya assigned the children practice: they were only to practice the hand-sign sequence and breathing, and were forbidden from drawing out fire-nature chakra. Uchiha Jian added from the side that anyone who practiced recklessly in private and got burned would first have to copy the safety rules ten times.

Kiyo whispered, "You have to copy things even if you're burned?"

Che said, "It's called treatment for both body and mind."

Kiyo looked horrified.

After returning to the temporary lodging, Uchiha Che closed the door.

He did not begin practicing immediately.

He first wrote down the structure of the Great Fireball he had seen today.

It was not a complete ninjutsu scroll, merely rough notes he could understand himself: the sequence of six seals, chakra moving from the abdomen to the chest, nature transformation completed before reaching the throat, breath providing the force, the angle of expulsion determining the fireball's shape, and no surging upward when chakra was insufficient.

When he reached the final line, he stopped writing.

No surging upward.

He circled those four words.

Only then did he sit by the bed, placing both hands over his abdomen.

He did not form the complete sequence of seals.

He only breathed.

Inhale.

Chakra rose.

Pause.

Press it down.

Exhale.

Let it disperse.

After repeating this ten times, he began to feel a tightness in his chest. It was not an injury, but the discomfort of repeatedly suppressing his chakra. His body seemed to be asking, why not continue? The path was clearly right there.

Uchiha Che answered softly, "Because continuing will get me put on a list."

After saying that, he found the idea of talking to his own body a little absurd.

But the ninja world was already absurd.

This hardly made it any worse.

As night deepened, he finally tried forming the seals.

Snake.

Ram.

Monkey.

Boar.

Horse.

Tiger.

After completing the six seals, he did not draw out fire-nature chakra. He only let ordinary chakra remain in his abdomen. Once his fingers had completed the motions, the structure of the technique lit up in his mind again, like an enticing lamp.

Uchiha Che closed his eyes and pressed that lamp out.

Once.

Twice.

On the third attempt, his throat still warmed slightly.

He stopped at once.

No taking chances.

No "just a little more."

He got up, poured himself half a bowl of cold water, and drank it slowly. The water slid down his throat, suppressing that trace of heat.

"The Great Fireball is temporarily out of the competition," he announced under his breath. "The contestant is underage, and his throat objects."

There was no one else in the room.

But after saying it aloud, the bit of unwillingness in his heart faded somewhat.

Understanding something did not mean he had to use it now.

That was the most important lesson of the day.

The next morning, when Nao came to call him, she saw the paper on the table.

"What did you write?"

Uchiha Che turned the paper over, showing only the side where he had practiced writing his name.

"Continuing to cultivate my relationship with my name."

Nao looked at him.

"Don't practice Fire Release in private."

"I didn't."

"Really?"

"Really," Che said. "My throat and I are on pretty good terms. I don't want us falling out this soon."

Nao stared at him for a few breaths, seeming to confirm that he was not lying, before she nodded.

"Basic lessons continue this afternoon. Rest this morning."

After she left, Uchiha Che turned the paper back over.

The rough structure of the Great Fireball was still there.

He looked at it for a while, then folded the paper and pressed it into the very bottom of the wooden box.

This was not a weapon for now.

It was more like a spark that could not yet be ignited.

He needed to hide it well.

When his body, chakra, control, and circumstances all allowed it, then he would let it shine.

Outside the window, wind swept through the clan grounds, passing over a half-scorched locust tree and carrying down a fleck of black ash.

Uchiha Che reached out and caught it, watching it crumble apart in his palm.

Fire could burn everything away.

It could also leave behind lingering warmth.

As for what kind of fire he would become, that remained to be seen.