No Sense of Time in the Mountains

For two straight days, Uchiha Yo spent his time felling trees, chopping firewood, and occasionally helping build houses. Early on the third day, his grandfather brought him a garment made of bamboo strips and hung several small bells from it. "Put it on. We're going hunting in the mountains today," his grandfather said. As Uchiha Yo walked, the bells jingled all the way.

Uchiha Yo wore a helpless expression. How am I supposed to hunt with bells hanging off me? They'll scare all the animals away. Once they had gone deep into the forest, his grandfather said, "Begin. Catch them barehanded, whether they're rabbits, pheasants, or deer. Of course, if you're confident enough to catch a tiger, you can do that too. Remember, you must know how to conceal yourself. If you do not move, do not move at all; but once you move, be swift as the wind. Take down your prey in a single strike. You have little bells on you, so adjust your body and become one with your surroundings."

After an entire day, Uchiha Yo had caught only one rabbit. He felt that he had simply been lucky—the rabbit he caught probably did not want to live anymore, running straight at him and delivering itself right into his hands.

And so, every morning he chopped wood, every afternoon he hunted, and every night he practiced with a sword while blindfolded. Time passed unnoticed in the mountains, and six months flew by. Over those six months, Uchiha Yo had learned to clearly see the grain of bamboo and wood. Every cut and chop landed perfectly. Each strike was like a dancing note, composing a unique melody of his own.

Uchiha Yo took the wood he chopped each day to a nearby mountain village, exchanging it with the villagers for small items. The villagers were simple and honest. If he helped them chop firewood, they would give him little things in return. Sometimes, Uchiha Yo felt that there was no scheming or intrigue here, only a life close to nature. Even his mood became lighter.

Over the past month, his grandfather and father had made many training devices for Uchiha Yo and built a wooden cabin in the mountains. Beside the cabin stood a plum blossom post formation, surrounded by all kinds of mechanisms. Every day, the two of them changed the positions of those mechanisms in different ways. At first, Uchiha Yo had been beaten black and blue, but lately, the number of times he was knocked down had clearly decreased.

His grandfather began changing the routine again: he had to cross the posts blindfolded. A wind chime hung from every wooden post, and he had to listen to the sounds to know where to jump. Uchiha Yo fell miserably. There were simply too many posts for him to keep track of them all...

Thus, Uchiha Yo spent every day felling trees, chopping firewood, and delivering it to people's doors; crossing posts, hunting, and practicing swordsmanship blindfolded. Time trickled by bit by bit. In this tranquil place, he barely felt it passing, and before he knew it, a year had gone by. Uchiha Yo's training had long since changed as well. He sparred with wooden swords, trained against weighted iron dummies, carried water for villagers with iron buckets, and practiced swordsmanship in the water...

One day, his grandfather told Uchiha Yo that he could begin practicing Uchiha-style Swordsmanship. That meant he could use chakra now, and he could also activate his Sharingan to speed up his training.

Uchiha Yo felt as though a lifetime had passed. Over the past year, he had nearly forgotten that he was an Uchiha. His grandfather's training methods had made him feel as though he had transmigrated again—this time to Shaolin Temple, where he lived like a young monk every day, chopping firewood, carrying water, bearing weights, crossing posts, and hunting...

Although he had often been puzzled by his grandfather's methods, the gains had been considerable. His foundation had become even more solid, and his chakra control had reached a level he himself considered freakish. He had grown much taller and stronger, and his reactions had become sharper. With his eyes closed, he could even sense the slightest movement within twenty meters. In battle, his sword strikes had become more decisive and composed. His grandfather's training regimen was more like a modified version of basic samurai training.