Chapter 3

He knew perfectly well that with his current chakra reserves, which barely reached genin level, he would still fall short in a head-on fight against a proper genin. But against a bunch of academy kids who had yet to graduate? That was easy.

Sasuke, on the other hand, stood there in a daze, his eyes blank. He had never imagined he would lose to Uchiha Yi.

Night fell over the Uchiha Clan compound.

When Fugaku Uchiha heard that his younger son had been defeated by Uchiha Yi, he was briefly stunned. But after hearing the details of the match, he did not think much of it.

In his view, Sasuke had most likely lost because he had been too arrogant.

He was somewhat surprised that Uchiha Yi could use the Great Fireball Technique, but that was all. He did not give it another thought afterward.

In truth, thanks to Sasuke's opening remark, nearly everyone believed he had lost only because he had been careless. As for Uchiha Yi, at most he had pulled off an upset. No one truly took him seriously.

After all, if anyone found out that Uchiha Yi had already awakened those eyes, it would be a completely different matter.

Uchiha Yi had calculated precisely that, which was why he had dared to defeat Sasuke without holding back. Honestly, it had been a risky move, but for the sake of his plans going forward, he had no choice.

At dawn the next day, Uchiha Yi left home.

He slipped into a small forest. The moment he arrived, he heard an overly passionate roar. "Excellent! I've just finished my warm-up of one thousand push-ups and three hundred frog jumps! Now, the real training begins!"

One thousand push-ups and three hundred frog jumps... that was a warm-up?

Uchiha Yi's mouth twitched, and he felt a little intimidated. But when he thought of his Eight Gates proficiency, he gritted his teeth and walked over.

The next second, he spotted a figure dressed head to toe in green. "Yo, Uncle Guy! Morning!"

Might Guy had been about to begin training. Hearing the voice, he turned around and immediately broke into a wide grin. "Hahaha! Isn't this little Yi-Yi!"

Uchiha Yi knew Might Guy, and Might Guy knew Uchiha Yi. To be honest, the two did have some history together. "Yo, Uncle Guy. Good morning!"

Might Guy was halfway through warming up when he heard the commotion and turned to look. A broad smile immediately spread across his face. "Haha, isn't this little Yi-Yi!"

Uchiha Yi and Might Guy were old acquaintances. It went back to the previous generation—Uchiha Yi's father had once been on a team with Might Guy and carried out several missions alongside him. Back then, Uncle Guy's Eight Gates had not yet been fully mastered, and Yi's father had saved him more than once.

Because of that friendship, the two families had always remained close.

Uchiha Yi had come today with a clear purpose—he wanted Might Guy's physical training methods. In all of Konoha, when it came to training taijutsu and building fundamentals, who could claim to be better than Uncle Guy?

If he wanted to train his body, Guy was the right person to find.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Uchiha Yi did not beat around the bush and directly stated his purpose. "Oh?" Might Guy froze for a moment, surprise in his eyes. "Little Yi-Yi, you want to train your body with me?"

That was unusual.

Everyone knew the Uchiha Clan had little to do with taijutsu. They were not the Hyuga Clan, where the Byakugan paired with taijutsu was standard. The Uchiha relied on the Sharingan and followed the path of genjutsu and chakra control. They did not have much need for bulging muscles.

So Might Guy truly had not expected Uchiha Yi to ask to train his body. "Yes, I do."

Uchiha Yi nodded and continued, "Yesterday, I fought Sasuke and won by luck when he let his guard down. But after the fight, I thought—if I were just a little faster, then even if he did not get distracted, I could still beat him."

He paused, his voice filled with determination. "I believe that as long as I work hard, I'll catch up to that genius Sasuke one day."

Might Guy had also heard about yesterday's match. Uchiha Yi's words were particularly pleasing to his ears, especially that last line—hard work could catch up to talent. "That's right, little Yi-Yi!" Might Guy grinned, struck his signature pose, and raised a thumb as his teeth flashed. "Hard work will never ** you!"

Uchiha Yi had seen that scene more than ten times, yet every time he saw it, he could not help complaining inwardly. "Uncle Guy, could you stop calling me 'little Yi-Yi'? Yi or Little Yi is fine!"

Uchiha Yi nodded. "When I fought Sasuke yesterday, he let his guard down, and I happened to win. Afterward, I thought it over. If I were just a bit faster, I could still take him down even if he did not get distracted."

He paused, then added, "I'm confident that with enough training, I'll eventually leave Uchiha Sasuke in the dust."

Might Guy had heard about the match from the day before yesterday long ago. Uchiha Yi's words were right up his alley. That final declaration in particular struck a chord with him. "Exactly! Little Yi-Yi is absolutely right! Talent can be caught up to with sweat, because hard work never lets people down!"

Growing more animated, Might Guy once again struck his signature pose—flashing a toothy grin and raising a thumb.

Although Uchiha Yi had seen it countless times already, he still could not stop himself from grumbling inwardly whenever he saw it. "Uncle Guy, please stop calling me little Yi-Yi, okay? Yi or Little Yi, either is fine!"

"No problem, little Yi-Yi!"

"...Forget it. Let's just get training."

"Right, get moving! First, run twenty laps around the rising sun!"

"...Little Yi-Yi, burn! Youth~~~! Burst forth! Youth~~~"

"Oh! I can feel my youth crackling as it burns!~~~ Oh~~~!"

After a round of howling that sounded like ghosts and wolves, Uchiha Yi turned and threw himself into training.

Hellish special training.

By evening, as the sun sank and the sky turned orange-red, Uchiha Yi had finally endured a full day of torment.

He was so exhausted that his bones felt ready to fall apart.

When he returned home, his entire body felt completely numb. Even raising a hand took effort.

But when he lowered his head and checked today's gains, he felt the hardship had been worth it.

Eight Gates: Level 0 (7/10). Enhanced by the Extreme Sharingan, this taijutsu allows him to permanently open the Gates without harming his body.

Current level: 0. No Gates have been opened yet.

Six points!

That was right. A full day of training had forcefully increased this taijutsu's proficiency by six points.

At this rate, he would level up tomorrow.

Fortunately, the ninja academy was currently on summer break. That was exactly what Uchiha Yi had planned—to use this period to raise his strength.

The next day, he continued training.

Training like mad.

At last, he got the result he wanted. "Proficiency +1. Current Eight Gates proficiency has reached 10 points. Would the host like to level up?"

"Level up."

"Congratulations, Host. The Eight Gates has leveled up. Current level: 1. The Gate of Opening has been permanently opened, increasing chakra by three times."

Boom!

Uchiha Yi's entire body shuddered. It felt as though something had exploded within him, and a scorching force surged outward from his abdomen.

He understood that this was the sensation caused by his chakra suddenly skyrocketing.

A threefold increase meant, simply put, two times more than before.

Previously, his chakra had barely met the threshold for genin. Now, purely in terms of chakra reserves, very few genin could compare with him.

Eight Gates: Level 1 (0/100). Enhanced by the Extreme Sharingan, permanently opening the Gates does not harm the body.

Current level: 1. The Gate of Opening has been permanently opened, increasing chakra by three times.

"The next level needs one hundred proficiency points?"

He glanced at the system panel, his eyes flickering, then followed closely behind Might Guy.

Opening just one Gate was nowhere near enough.

He had to keep raising the Eight Gates.

More than a month later, deep in the mountains. Uchiha Yi was gritting his teeth through a three-hour weighted long-distance run.

He had come alone. Might Guy was not there.

Guy had long since become a jonin. How could he have so much free time to accompany him? Uchiha Yi had begun training by himself a month ago.

Eight Gates: Level 2 (820/1000). The Eight Gates enhanced by the Extreme Sharingan can permanently open all Eight Gates without harming the body.

Current level: 2. The Gate of Rest has been permanently opened, and chakra has increased tenfold.

Over the past month, Uchiha Yi had not only trained the Eight Gates to Level 2 and successfully opened the Gate of Rest, but was also only one step away from **.

Once the Gate of Rest was opened, his chakra directly increased tenfold.

In fact, his own chakra had also increased considerably during this period.

Especially after the Extreme Sharingan leveled up, his chakra reserves rose sharply as well. He was now roughly at the threshold of chunin level.

Then multiplied tenfold, it had directly soared to the peak of chunin level.

And Uchiha Yi knew that before long, his chakra would rise again.

Because his Extreme Sharingan was also close to leveling up.

Host: Uchiha Yi

Extreme Sharingan: Level 2 (965/1000). The Extreme Sharingan possesses limitless potential for evolution. Current level: 2. Two-tomoe Sharingan.

Skills: 2/2 (Two skills can be equipped)

Eight Gates, Fire Release

Level 2 Evaluation: Kid, you're already Level 2! You've finally escaped the rookie title and evolved into a little kitty!

So! Kid, keep working hard and level up!

Uchiha Yi had already grown too lazy to pay attention to the system's lousy evaluation.

That was right. His Extreme Sharingan had already reached Level 2, and he was not far from Level 3.

With his current amount of chakra, if he focused entirely on grinding Extreme Sharingan proficiency, he could fill it up in at most two or three days.

So Uchiha Yi decided to set aside his physical training for now and focus on raising the Extreme Sharingan.

There was another reason—summer break was already over, and he had to return to school tomorrow.

Life returned to normal.

But unlike the other six-, seven-, and eight-year-old brats, Uchiha Yi wore quite a bit of extra weight while attending school.

Although training this way did not increase his Eight Gates proficiency much, it was still better than doing nothing.

During class, Uchiha Yi and Naruto huddled together and slept soundly.

Last night, he had exhausted all his chakra twice, raising his Extreme Sharingan proficiency by six points.

With his current chakra reserves, the two-tomoe Sharingan could last for half an hour.

But that half hour could only earn him three proficiency points.

The higher the Extreme Sharingan's level became, the more the required proficiency doubled. Even earning a single point of proficiency required keeping the Sharingan active for longer.

But Uchiha Yi was not in a hurry.

In his view, he still had plenty of time.

By his estimate, the remaining time might even be enough for him to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan.

From Level 3 to Level 4, the Extreme Sharingan would definitely require over ten thousand proficiency points.

At his current pace, ten thousand proficiency points would keep him occupied for quite some time.

Three days later, the system notification sounded, and Uchiha Yi's Extreme Sharingan finally leveled up.

Host: Uchiha Yi