Familiarity

Lin Feng stood in the middle of his family's courtyard.

Morning sunlight spilled over the courtyard wall, casting a long shadow across the ground.

He rolled his wrists, rotated his ankles, and took a deep breath.

Then he dropped to the ground and began doing standard push-ups.

One.

Two.

Five.

Ten.

His movements were steady and powerful, each rise and fall carefully controlled. Memories from his previous life told him that although this body looked only twelve or thirteen, its muscle density and bone strength were quite good.

Twenty.

Thirty.

After finishing the push-ups, he did another thirty sit-ups, then stood and dusted the dirt from his hands.

"Speed test."

The courtyard was not large, but it was enough for a straight sprint. Starting from the base of the wall, he dashed at full speed toward the opposite fence, braced a hand against it to turn around, then sprinted back.

The instant the soles of his feet pushed off the ground, he could feel the explosive force in his leg muscles.

"Roughly... around the average genin level."

Standing in the middle of the courtyard, Lin Feng quickly assessed his body's condition. His strength was adequate, and his speed was decent, but he was still short of being a qualified combatant.

Next came the chakra test.

He walked beneath the old tree in the corner of the courtyard—the trunk was thick, the bark rough, and it stood at least ten meters tall.

Tree climbing.

This was the most basic chakra-control training at the Ninja Academy: concentrate chakra in the soles of the feet and adhere to a vertical surface while walking upward.

Lin Feng closed his eyes and focused.

He could sense the warm current of chakra inside him, flowing through his meridians like a stream. He guided it toward the soles of his feet, then raised his right foot and stepped onto the trunk.

Steady.

Second step.

Third step.

He climbed upward one step at a time. He was not fast, but every step was firm. Five meters, eight meters, ten meters—he reached the fork near the treetop and stopped, tilting his head back to look at the sky.

"My control precision is decent."

But Lin Feng's brow furrowed slightly.

While climbing the tree just now, he had needed to keep his attention focused at all times. The slightest lapse made the chakra beneath his feet unstable. That meant maintaining chakra control while fighting might prove difficult.

He jumped down from the tree and landed steadily.

Next came the most crucial test.

The Sharingan.

Lin Feng stood beneath the tree, clenched his fists, closed his eyes, and focused.

Activate.

He could feel the nerves around his eye sockets throbbing as chakra surged frantically toward his eyes. The next second, he opened them.

His vision changed.

The world became unbelievably clear. He could even see the veins on leaves in the distance. Within his pupils, a black tomoe slowly emerged.

One-Tomoe Sharingan.

Lin Feng blinked, feeling the cost of keeping the Sharingan active. It was as if a stone had been placed on his brain, and a constant heaviness spread from behind his eyeballs.

He maintained it for more than ten seconds before deliberately shutting it off.

The Sharingan did not disappear immediately.

The tomoe in his pupils paused, seeming to struggle, before slowly fading away. The whole process took roughly one or two seconds.

"There's a delay?"

Lin Feng's heart sank.

If he needed to switch the Sharingan on and off quickly in battle, that delay could be fatal.

He tried activating it again.

The tomoe appeared.

Maintained.

Ten seconds.

Twenty seconds.

This time, he did not rush to turn it off. Instead, he deliberately felt the drain on his mental energy. It was like a thin needle constantly pricking his brain, while fatigue slowly accumulated.

Deactivate.

The delay remained. This time, it took nearly three seconds before the Sharingan completely vanished.

Lin Feng leaned against the trunk and rubbed his temples.

A headache.

A mild but distinct stabbing pain.

Just as he was about to continue testing, a memory suddenly flashed through his mind—the office from his previous life, with a Naruto manga page displayed on the screen.

At that moment, his chakra lost control.

The Sharingan suddenly activated on its own.

"Damn—"

Lin Feng felt as though his eye sockets had caught fire. This passive activation consumed several times more than an active one. The needles in his brain instantly became nails, hammering in again and again.

He hurriedly suppressed that memory and forced himself to calm down.

But the Sharingan did not turn off.

It remained active, continuously draining his mental energy. In his vision, the whole world seemed covered by a faint red filter.

Lin Feng gritted his teeth, focused, and told himself over and over:

Turn off. Turn off. Turn off.

The Sharingan finally trembled, and the tomoe slowly disappeared.

Lin Feng leaned against the tree trunk, gasping for breath.

Cold sweat trickled down his forehead and along his cheeks.

He wiped it away with the back of his hand, then closed his eyes and assessed the state of his mental energy—roughly one-tenth had been consumed.

One-tenth.

Just a passive emotional trigger, along with maintaining it for over twenty seconds, had consumed one-tenth of his mental energy.

"Trouble."

Lin Feng opened his eyes and looked at his hand.

The Sharingan was indeed powerful, but its cost was also enormous. If this passive activation happened during a patrol, not only would it expose his abnormality, it would also severely affect his combat condition.

He had to learn to control it proactively.

At the very least, he needed to activate and deactivate it at will.

"A-Feng—"

A gentle female voice came from the corridor.

Lin Feng turned and saw Uchiha Mikoto standing in the doorway, wearing an apron and smiling warmly.

"Breakfast is ready. Come in and eat."

As she spoke, she remembered something and added, "The clan head said you should join the Security Force's routine patrol today. Gather at the assembly hall this afternoon."

Lin Feng froze for a moment, then nodded.

"Got it, Mom."

Mikoto smiled and turned to head into the house first.

When Lin Feng entered the kitchen, a steaming breakfast had already been laid out on the table—miso soup, grilled fish, rice, and some pickled vegetables. Resources were not especially abundant in this era, but the meal felt exceptionally warm.

He sat down and picked up his chopsticks.

Mikoto sat across from him, poured herself a cup of tea, and watched him eat.

The atmosphere was quiet for a while.

"Is the patrol area inside the clan grounds?" Lin Feng asked after taking a sip of soup. "About how long will it take?"

Mikoto paused, seemingly not expecting him to take the initiative to ask about such details.

"Yes, mainly checking the barriers and suspicious activity within the clan grounds. It should last until evening." After answering, she studied him carefully. "You look a little pale. Didn't sleep well last night?"

Lin Feng's hand paused as he reached for food.

Naturally, it was not because he had slept poorly. It was because the Sharingan test had drained his mental energy. The headache still lingered faintly, but he could not tell her the truth.

"I'm fine." He smiled and picked up a piece of fish. "I just finished training, so I'm a little tired."

Mikoto looked at him for several seconds, a trace of scrutiny in her eyes, but ultimately did not press further.

"Eat more. Your health comes first," she said softly.

Lin Feng nodded and lowered his head to continue eating.

After breakfast, he cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks, then stood.

"I'll be there on time."

Mikoto stood at the kitchen door and watched him leave the dining room. Her lips moved, but in the end, she only said, "Be careful."

Lin Feng looked back and smiled at her before walking out of the house.

He stood in the corridor, looking at the old tree in the courtyard. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting mottled shadows across the ground.

The headache had not completely faded, and his mental energy was recovering very slowly.

He took a deep breath.

The patrol was in the afternoon.

There was still time.

He had to quickly practice proactive control of the Sharingan, at least enough to ensure it would not activate passively during the patrol.

Otherwise—he touched his eyes, where a faint stinging pain still remained.

Otherwise, exposing his abnormality within the Uchiha Clan Grounds would bring unimaginable consequences.

Lin Feng stepped down from the corridor and headed back toward the middle of the courtyard.