Divine Pattern Eye

The wind swept through the training ground from night until dawn, yet Uchiha Ling had barely slept all night.

Not because he was tired, but because he was excited.

The change last night had been far too brief, so brief that he had nearly thought it was an illusion. But when he sat in the courtyard for the second time and focused his mind to circulate chakra again, that familiar prickling pain emerged deep within his eyes once more.

It was faint, yet undeniably real.

Ling faced his reflection in the water vat at the corner of the courtyard and slowly opened his eyes.

The mirror-like surface rippled slightly, reflecting a face that still looked young, along with eyes darker than usual. There were no fully formed tomoe at the edges of his pupils, but several faint, indistinct lines had appeared instead, like black branching marks spreading across his irises.

This isn't an ordinary Sharingan...

That judgment surfaced in Ling's mind.

Of course he knew about the Uchiha Clan's power. Even relying solely on memories from his previous life, he understood the basic development of the Sharingan. Yet what he was seeing was clearly different from a normal first awakening. It was quieter, stranger. There had been no intense emotional shock; instead, it seemed like another transformation slowly nurtured by that mysterious seed within him.

Ling did not panic.

Panicking would not help.

What concerned him more was what these eyes could actually do.

He closed his eyes again, then opened them. The world in his vision immediately separated into layers. The plants in the courtyard were no longer mere objects. When the wind swept through the leaves, even the faint vitality clinging to their veins appeared as blurry traces of light. When he turned his attention back to himself, the flow of chakra through his meridians became far clearer.

Every branch, every node, even where it was likely to lose control and where compression would cause an eruption—it was all laid bare before his eyes.

This was not merely dynamic vision.

It was analysis.

Ling raised a hand and gathered a weak mass of chakra in his palm, then deliberately skewed the output slightly. The next instant, he clearly saw the structure within that chakra mass begin to fall into disorder, its edges turning unstable as well.

Before, he could only rely on feeling and guess.

But now, he could directly see where the problem lay.

Ling tried to pull that disorder back into place, and his fingertips moved slightly.

The chakra actually steadied for an instant.

Though it lasted only a brief instant, it was enough to shake him deeply.

He lowered his head and stared at his palm in silence for a long while before suddenly giving a soft laugh.

Since coming to this world, this was the first time he had felt a clear sense of control over his future.

At breakfast, his father gave him a rare glance.

"You didn't sleep last night?"

"Training," Ling answered calmly.

The other man did not press further, merely saying flatly, "An Uchiha can be outstanding, but cannot lose control. Someone in the clan mentioned what you've been doing at school lately."

Ling looked up. "They think I've disgraced the Uchiha Clan?"

His father was silent for a breath and did not deny it.

That was the Uchiha Clan. Proud, cold, and often even harsher than outsiders. Ling was not surprised. He merely remembered those words and continued eating.

One day, he would make these people understand that so-called "abnormality" was not necessarily shameful.

When he arrived at school, the morning lessons remained as peaceful as ever. But to Ling, the entire world was different from yesterday.

As the teacher wrote chakra extraction theory on the blackboard, he could see the minute fluctuations of energy occasionally leaking from Iruka's fingers. When his classmates practiced hand signs, he could see how crudely their chakra moved through their meridians. Even when Hinata sat quietly at her desk, he could clearly see the chakra flowing within her—gentler and finer than that of the others.

These eyes were like a key, directly opening a world on another level.

But their burden was equally obvious.

Shortly after noon, Ling felt his eyes becoming painfully dry, as if fine grains of sand were scraping back and forth across his eyeballs. Only after he forcibly shut down that state of observation did the pain slowly recede.

They're still immature.

Ling came to that conclusion inwardly.

This ability was powerful, but he could not use it for extended periods in his current state. Otherwise, both his eyes and mind would be unable to bear it.

After school, as usual, he did not hurry home. Instead, he turned toward a secluded training ground to continue his experiments.

This time, he focused on compression.

Since those eyes could see the structure of chakra, he no longer needed to blindly gamble on luck. He could adjust it step by step. Ling raised his hand, first gathering the most basic mass of chakra, then slowly drawing it inward.

The first attempt lost internal balance and dispersed.

The second was compressed too quickly and nearly exploded.

On the third attempt, following the pressure emanating from the seed within him, he actively pushed the chakra another inch toward the center.

Buzz.

The air trembled faintly.

The chakra mass in his palm did not explode. Instead, it shrank into a speck the size of a fingernail. Its color deepened from pale blue, becoming like a bead of light condensed to the extreme.

Ling stared at it, and even the rise and fall of his chest slowed by half a beat.

He had succeeded.

Although the chakra mass dispersed after only three breaths because of a fluctuation in his focus, those three breaths were enough to prove that he was on the right path. Compression was not a curse, but a talent. The reason he had always lost control in the past was simply that he had not known how to turn that talent into controllable power.

He extended a finger and lightly touched the chakra speck that was on the verge of dispersing.

Pop.

After an extremely soft crack, his fingertip went slightly numb from the impact, and an inconspicuous little dent appeared in the surface of the wooden post before him.

Ling's eyes lit up slightly.

The amount of chakra was not great, but its destructive power was far stronger than an ordinary release.

If he used it on kunai, shuriken, or even Fire Release...

The thought had only just arisen when he forcibly suppressed it.

Don't rush.

When power had only just begun to take shape, the most dangerous thing was not weakness, but greed.

Ling took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and dispersed the chakra. When he opened them again, the sky had already darkened. In the distance, beneath the Ninja Academy's eaves, he could faintly hear children packing up their things. He stood and was about to leave when he suddenly sensed someone behind him.

He turned his head and saw a black-haired boy around his own age standing beneath the shadows of a tree not far away.

Sasuke Uchiha.

The other boy had clearly been watching for some time. His expression was far colder than that of an ordinary child, his gaze fixed directly on the small dent in the wooden post.

"What did you just do?" Sasuke asked, his voice calm.

Ling was silent for a moment before answering, "Training."

Sasuke frowned, seemingly dissatisfied with that answer, but he did not ask further. He only gave Ling a cold look for two seconds. "Next time, don't disgrace the Uchiha Clan outside clan territory."

With that, he turned and left.

Ling remained where he was, watching his retreating back, a flicker passing through his eyes.

This boy from his clan was more perceptive than the rumors suggested.

And the path he had only just begun to find clearly could not remain hidden for much longer.