Chapter 8

The ground blasted apart, and Sasuke's figure turned into a streak of lightning as he lunged fiercely at Itachi. "This body... this taijutsu..."

Itachi was stunned again.

[2/10]

However, Uchiha Itachi was still a genius-level guy. After that brief daze, he immediately steadied himself and met Sasuke's attack head-on.

With Lightning God Mode empowering him, this exchange between Sasuke and Itachi was as clean as a knife slicing through tofu.

There was not the slightest wasted movement.

Every move landed steady and sure.

Once the Sharingan opened, his accuracy was maxed out. Even the slightest miss would not do. "Thud!"

Sasuke failed to hold steady for one moment and exposed an opening. Itachi showed no mercy at all and slapped him flying.

At that moment, Itachi's eyes were filled with light. He had not expected his little brother to last this long. "Sasuke, you..."

"Bzzzt—"

"Boom!"

A bolt of lightning suddenly struck down, cutting off every word Itachi had been about to say.

Immediately afterward, Sasuke, his whole body wrapped in lightning, charged up again.

The lightning-natured offensive was ridiculously fast, packed with force, and carried a numbing current.

With all these boosts stacked together, Itachi had no choice but to focus and respond seriously.

[3/10]

Itachi was shocked once more and immediately formed hand seals, using ninjutsu to help maneuver around him.

Lightning Release, Fire Release...

In the blink of an eye, the training ground was filled with smoke and dust.

But the fight did not stop at all.

Both of them had their Sharingan active. This bit of blocked vision was nothing to them.

By the time the smoke dispersed, Sasuke was lying on the ground again.

With this all-out fighting style, given his current amount of chakra, he really could not sustain it for many rounds.

He could not help envying those guys whose chakra seemed so plentiful it cost them nothing. "Sasuke, when did you train this fighting style?"

Itachi walked over and sat beside his little brother, his tone full of surprise and joy. "I discovered it a while ago when I was testing lightning-nature chakra conversion."

"Brother, do you have anything on you that can replenish chakra?"

"I still haven't used all my skills yet."

Sasuke put on an unconvinced look. "I do."

"This is a special medicine issued by the Anbu."

"After drinking it, you can recover chakra very quickly."

"Together with your own refinement, you should be full again in about two hours."

"I'll wait here for you."

Itachi handed the medicine over and patiently explained...

"Brother, what do you think of the Hokage's way of thinking?"

After drinking the medicine, Sasuke sat up straight and asked casually. "The Hokage's thinking?"

"Using yourself to protect the village, I suppose."

Itachi thought for a moment, then gave the answer he believed in. "Then whose village is the one being protected?"

Sasuke pressed again. "Whose village?"

"It's definitely Konoha, everyone's..."

At this point, Itachi suddenly froze.

The answer he had once thought was perfectly natural now made even him begin to doubt it. "Brother, the Uchiha are also part of the village, so there should be a place for the Uchiha in the village too."

"The thing you're risking your life to protect right now—does it really include the Uchiha?"

After Sasuke said that, he did not speak again.

Because he saw the progress bar jump to [4/10]. The answer was already perfectly clear.

Looking at Sasuke before him, who had closed his eyes and started refining chakra, waves churned through Itachi's heart.

If Sasuke were still that little brat who only followed behind him shouting, "Brother, train with me," he would not have thought too much about it.

But the Sasuke now...

A seed he could not describe quietly fell into Uchiha Itachi's heart.

Before long, Sasuke's chakra recovered.

Without another word, he directly yelled that he wanted to keep fighting.

Of course, Itachi had no objections.

But Sasuke's performance afterward refreshed Itachi's understanding of this little brother again and again.

Fire Release: Great Fireball could be used like this?!

Wasn't this range way too big? Was this really just a C-rank technique?

How could a five-year-old brat control chakra with such precision?

A five-year-old child could actually keep the Three-Tomoe Sharingan active the whole time? This mental strength was simply absurd.

When the third sparring session ended, Sasuke lay sprawled across the training ground, unable to lift even a finger.

Even with the system's help, plus all the desperate training he had done lately, the gap between him and Uchiha Itachi was still laid out clearly before him. "Sasuke, were those words from earlier something Father asked you to pass on to me?"

Itachi had originally come over to train with his little brother and incidentally draw their sibling bond closer. But now, his heart was already in turmoil.

This little brat in front of him—his talent had exploded to a monstrous degree, and the thoughts in his head were especially novel.

Even Itachi, someone once praised as a genius, felt somewhat ashamed of his own inferiority. "I thought of them myself."

Sasuke's voice carried obvious exhaustion, but it was still clear. "Father... may still be holding some kind of fantasy about the village even now."

"Otherwise, he wouldn't have let you enter the Anbu, Brother."

Itachi raised a finger and gave a low shout. "Release!"

The barrier around them dispersed in response.

He bent down, carried Sasuke on his back, and walked toward the room.

After settling Sasuke on the bed, Itachi turned and left. "Still two times short..."

Sasuke stared at the system panel, a little depressed.

If he could have held out for one more round, he would have cleared this mission today.

Forget it. With that brother-con old brother's personality, he would definitely come to find him on his own very soon.

The most important thing right now was still raising his strength.

Thinking this, Sasuke directly began training his cellular activity and chakra refinement.

Elsewhere, Uchiha Itachi had already put on his mask and appeared in the Hokage's office. "How did the investigation go?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi held his pipe in his mouth, wearing a kindly expression. "I'm quite curious about this little brother of yours. With such good talent, he needs proper guidance, so that he can become a reliable force for the village in the future."

"It's not impossible to train him into the Hokage someday."

"Sasuke asked me today about methods for taijutsu training, as well as some of my views on Fire Release."

Itachi stood before the Third, his tone carrying no emotional fluctuation. Because the mask blocked his face, no one could see his expression at that moment. "Compared with ordinary children, he is indeed a little stronger. But to call him a genius, he is still far from it."

"At the very least, the things he can do now are things I could also do when I was five."

"As for making him change his thinking... that will have to happen slowly."

"Mm..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded.

"All right, then I'll leave this matter to you, Itachi."

"If you need the village to cooperate in the future, tell me at any time."

"Also—don't get in contact with Danzo."

After saying that, he waved a hand.

Itachi gave a nod, then his figure flashed and vanished from the spot.

Hiruzen Sarutobi did not notice at all that Itachi's attitude had already changed.

On the contrary, because of Itachi's words, he completely let go of his attention on Uchiha Sasuke.

With such a good elder brother around, what was there to worry about?

Just as Shisui could influence Itachi, if Itachi wanted to sway Sasuke's thoughts, wouldn't that be easy?

The one truly giving him a headache right now was that old thing Danzo Shimura.

Though he still was not clear on the specific reason, Danzo's targeting of the Uchiha seemed to be growing more and more urgent.

It seemed he would have to properly warn the Root Organization.

Late at night.

His stomach suddenly let out a rumbling ** sound.

Sasuke was dragged out of his training state by this hunger.

Bad. He had forgotten to prepare a late-night snack tonight.

Sasuke refined chakra while tempering his cellular activity.

The energy in his body leaked outward as if a floodgate had been opened.

This training consumed too much.

At this hour, finding something to eat would not be easy.

Besides, Sasuke did not want to wake his mother just because he wanted to fill his stomach. "Right, Ichiraku Ramen is still open at night."

"I can drop by and see what that relative of the Otsutsuki Clan is like."

Having made up his mind, Sasuke got out of bed, opened the door, and left.

Following the path in his memory, he headed over, and sure enough, the lights at Ichiraku Ramen were still on. "Someone else is here?"

Behind the curtain, a small shadow was reflected.

Unexpectedly, there was someone like him, running out in the middle of the night to look for food. "Owner, ten bowls of signature ramen."

Sasuke lifted the curtain, sat down heavily, and ordered as soon as he opened his mouth. "Ten bowls?"

"Eating that much at night... forget it, kids these days all have big appetites."

Teuchi had originally wanted to advise him a little, but when he glanced at the little girl from just now, he swallowed his words again.

Then he turned and went to cook the noodles. "Hinata?"

"Sasuke?"

The two of them froze at the same time.

The little princess of the Hyuga Clan had actually run out in the middle of the night for an extra meal too.

Neither of them had expected to run into each other here. "Training until now?"

"Doesn't the Hyuga Clan even take care of late-night snacks?"

Sasuke teased casually. "No."

"I... I just..."

Hinata already had thin skin to begin with.

She had come out in the middle of the night to eat, only to be caught by a classmate, with ten empty bowls piled beside her.

Her face instantly flushed red to the tips of her ears, and she could barely speak properly. "Can you still eat more?"

"We're classmates. My treat."

Sasuke spoke generously.

Ever since he had displayed extraordinary talent, the pocket money Uchiha Fugaku gave him had been no small amount. "I'm not hungry. I've already eaten enough..."

"Is it really okay?"

Hinata had originally wanted to refuse.

But looking at the two bowls of noodles Teuchi had already brought over, she somehow blurted out those words. "Of course it is."

Sasuke found it rather interesting.

This girl, in the original work, was a glutton who could eat even more than Naruto and Choji.

He had not expected her talent for eating to awaken this early.

But it was normal too. Training consumed a lot, and Hinata was also the inheritor of the Byakugan bloodline limit, so her energy requirements were naturally high.

Adding in this girl's personality, she was probably too embarrassed to eat freely within her clan.

That was why she had ended up being so sneaky.

However, Sasuke only found it interesting for a little while.

Very soon, he froze.

Hinata, who had already eaten ten bowls of noodles, finished another five.

The key point was that her face still looked as if she had not had enough.

As for Hinata of the Hyuga Clan, no one had ever taken her skills seriously.

She had not had enough to eat since childhood, was timid, and could not raise her head because of those Byakugan... Under conditions like that, she had still managed to train the Gentle Fist into something decent. Just from this alone, it was clear this girl's innate talent was the real deal.

If he could fully stimulate this potential of hers, she would definitely become a helper capable of shouldering things in the future.

Winning her over would be a guaranteed profit.

One after the other, the two of them arrived at the gates of the Hyuga Clan. "I'll see you off to here."

Sasuke waved at her and turned to leave. "Then... see you tomorrow."

Hinata's "thank you" circled her lips several times, but by the time she finally said it, he was already gone.

She clenched her hands in front of her chest, her cheeks burning red. "He... really is a good person."

"People from the Uchiha Clan aren't that scary after all."

Back in his own room, Sasuke mobilized his chakra again and began polishing his cells bit by bit.

For the following stretch of days, Itachi seemed to vanish from the face of the earth.

More than half a month had passed, yet he still hadn't seen him. "Sasuke, what are you spacing out for?"

A pair of enormous red eyes suddenly loomed in front of him, and their ocular power surged. The surrounding space twisted and warped with it.

The genjutsu Sasuke had just set up—Forest of Thorns—was crushed clean in an instant.

He snapped back to himself with a jolt. Uchiha Fugaku was staring at him with a stern face. "Father, I... I was thinking about my big brother."

"Why haven't I been able to see him lately?"

"Sorry. I shouldn't have let my mind wander during training."

Sasuke honestly admitted his mistake and, in passing, poured out the question weighing on his mind. "Itachi is out on a mission."

"Keep practicing."

"With genjutsu, whether it's strong or not depends entirely on mental strength, but when it comes to controlling mental strength, it's far harder than controlling chakra."

"When you're just getting started, don't ever treat this as a small matter."

Uchiha Fugaku patiently taught him bit by bit.

The more time he spent with this younger son of his, the more shocked he felt.

No matter what ninjutsu he threw at him, Sasuke picked it up quickly, and the power he produced was a large cut above most people's.

Sometimes, his control over chakra was so refined that even Fugaku himself felt ashamed of his own inferiority.

That was also why, the moment Sasuke said he wanted to learn genjutsu, he nodded without a second word.

Being the father of two geniuses brought pride, but it also meant worrying about how to raise them.

Itachi had come into contact with the battlefield too early, and a pathological aversion to killing and war had taken root in his heart...