The Night of the Uchiha Massacre Came This Soon?

Although Sasuke had his genius older brother, Uchiha Itachi, overshadowing him, he was formidable in his own right. Itachi simply eclipsed him so completely that he never had a chance to shine. Uchiha Yi knew that perfectly well, but that was all in the past. Now...

He glanced at Uchiha Sasuke across from him, putting on a cool, indifferent act, and sneered inwardly.

Sasuke, it's finally my turn to put you in your place!

On the training ground, the previous matches had ended, and it was finally Uchiha Yi and Sasuke Uchiha's turn. Just then, the crowd erupted.

A bunch of girls shouted at the top of their lungs, "Go, Sasuke-kun!" "Sasuke-kun will win!" "Wow, Sasuke-kun is so handsome!" "Ah, I love you!"

Uchiha Yi's mouth twitched. He had to admit that kids in the Naruto world matured early. They hadn't even hit puberty, and they were already shouting about love. With a soul pushing thirty, he found it a little embarrassing.

"You go first, so no one can say I'm picking on someone younger."

Sasuke stepped onto the field with an impossibly cool expression and opened with that line.

You're letting me go first? You're asking for it!

Uchiha Yi's gaze hardened, and he immediately charged.

With two sharp whistles, two kunai flew straight at Sasuke, but he deflected both with the kunai in his hand.

"That's it?" Sasuke shook his head, looking unimpressed by such a weak attack.

But the next second, Sasuke's expression changed. Uchiha Yi had suddenly darted right in front of him.

He's fast! A flicker of panic crossed Sasuke's eyes. He immediately retreated, instinctively forming hand seals.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

A huge fireball burst from Sasuke's mouth, hurtling straight at Uchiha Yi. This is bad! Iruka, who was watching from the sidelines, tensed and moved to intervene. In his eyes, Uchiha Yi couldn't possibly withstand Sasuke's Great Fireball Technique. Everyone else thought the same.

But the next second, everyone was dumbfounded. Uchiha Yi had begun forming hand seals too.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" With a boom, the two fireballs collided, sending out a wave of heat.

At that very moment, Uchiha Yi darted in front of Sasuke and kicked him flying before he could react.

"What... Uchiha Yi actually beat Sasuke?" Everyone stared in disbelief.

"Hahaha, Yi, you're awesome! You actually beat that smug Sasuke! Just what I'd expect from my greatest rival on the road to becoming Hokage!"

Only someone as oblivious as Naruto could have said that.

His laughter snapped everyone out of their daze. Iruka cleared his throat twice and announced, "The winner of this match is Uchiha Yi!"

Uchiha Yi shrugged, looking unconcerned. Honestly, his chakra was only at Genin level right now. His combat ability was a little lacking, but it was more than enough to deal with these Ninja Academy students.

Sasuke Uchiha, however, struggled to accept it. He stood there in a daze, never having imagined he would lose to Uchiha Yi.

That evening, in the Uchiha Clan compound, Uchiha Fugaku was also taken aback when he heard that his younger son had been defeated by Uchiha Yi.

But after hearing how the fight had unfolded, he no longer found it strange. He simply thought Sasuke had been too arrogant. Uchiha Yi's ability to use the Great Fireball Technique surprised him a little, but that was all. He gave it no further thought.

In fact, because Sasuke had offered to let Yi attack first, many people thought Sasuke had merely been careless. Uchiha Yi was a little surprised by that, but he didn't dwell on it.

Of course, if outsiders knew Uchiha Yi had already awakened his Sharingan, things would have been different.

Knowing that was precisely why Uchiha Yi had dared to beat Sasuke with "peace of mind." It was a bit of a gamble, but he had to do it for the next stage of his plan.

Early the next morning, Uchiha Yi left home. He headed to a small grove and heard a passionate shout as soon as he arrived.

"Excellent! The morning warm-up of a thousand push-ups and three hundred frog jumps is complete! Now the real training begins!"

A thousand push-ups and three hundred frog jumps were just a warm-up? Uchiha Yi's face twitched, and he actually began having second thoughts.

Despite beating Sasuke yesterday, Uchiha Yi hadn't let it go to his head. Instead, he had set his sights on Taijutsu. After all, in a real head-on fight, little Sharingan tricks wouldn't be enough. Training blindly on his own would get him nowhere, so he had thought of Uncle Guy. Gritting his teeth, he continued toward the grove.

Upon arriving, he found a guy in green bouncing around.

"Hey, morning, Uncle Guy!"

Might Guy turned around, his eyes lighting up. "Well, well! Little Yi-Yi is here!"

Uncle Guy and Yi's family had actually known each other for years. Yi's father had taken Guy on missions and even saved his life several times, so the two families had kept in close contact.

Yi had come to Uncle Guy for one reason: to learn how to train his body. When it came to Taijutsu in all of Konoha, if Uncle Guy claimed second place, no one would dare claim first. After exchanging greetings, Yi got straight to the point and said he wanted to train with him.

Uncle Guy paused in surprise. The Uchiha Clan relied on Sharingan Genjutsu, not Taijutsu, so Yi seeking him out for physical training was quite unusual.

Yi nodded. "I beat Sasuke yesterday because he was careless. If I get faster, I can beat him even when he doesn't let his guard down. I want to catch up to that genius!"

Uncle Guy slapped his thigh. "Exactly! No matter how talented someone is, hard work can close the gap! Hard work never betrays you!" Then he struck his classic pose, flashing his teeth. Yi inwardly rolled his eyes but was too embarrassed to say anything.

Yi frowned. "Uncle Guy, stop calling me Little Yi-Yi. Just call me Yi or Little Yi."

"No problem, Little Yi-Yi!"

"..." Yi sighed. "Forget it. Let's start training."

Uncle Guy clapped his hands. "Right! First, twenty laps toward the rising sun!"

Yi's face twitched. Before he could speak, Uncle Guy was already bellowing, "Move it, Little Yi-Yi! Burn, youth! Boil, youth!" His voice was so loud that the entire grove seemed to shake. Yi could only grit his teeth and follow.

By the end of the day's training, the sun had set, and Yi was limp as a rag, unable even to walk. But the strength coursing through his chakra delighted him. His Eight Gates proficiency had increased by six points. At this rate, he could level it up tomorrow.

The Ninja Academy was on summer break, giving Yi the perfect opportunity to rapidly improve his strength. At dawn the next day, he was back in the grove right on time, training himself senseless with Uncle Guy.

Before long, his proficiency reached ten points, and the system prompted him to level up. He immediately accepted. A surge of power flooded his body, and his chakra tripled! He glanced at the system panel. The Eight Gates had reached level 1, allowing him to keep one gate permanently open and granting a threefold chakra boost.

That still wasn't enough. One open gate was a far cry from opening them all. He had to keep training, catch up to Uncle Guy, and catch up to Sasuke.

Over a month later, Uchiha Yi was running laps through the mountain woods in a full set of training weights. Might Guy wasn't there. After all, he was already a Jonin and hardly had time to train with a child every day. A month earlier, he had finalized Yi's solo training plan.

With the buffs from the limit Sharingan maxed out, his Eight Gates had reached level 2, with a progress bar of 820/1000. He could keep the Eight Gates permanently open without destroying his body. He had already opened the Gate of Healing, increasing his chakra tenfold. His chakra reserves now approached peak Chunin level, far beyond what he'd had when he first started training.

His limit Sharingan was also close to leveling up. It was currently level 2, with progress at 965/1000, in its two-tomoe state, and came with an infinite evolution buff. His skill slots were at 2/2, still occupied by the Eight Gates and Fire Release.

He was already immune to the system's evaluations. Things like, "Hey, kiddo, you're level 2 now! You've finally stopped being a weakling and evolved into a little kitten!" He didn't even want to look at the punctuation.

Yi had wanted to grind a little more Eight Gates proficiency, but summer break had just ended, and he had to return to the Ninja Academy tomorrow. He could only pause that training and focus on grinding Sharingan proficiency instead.

Although his current training didn't increase his Eight Gates proficiency as much as before, it was better than nothing. He still wore his training weights, making him stand out among the other six- and seven-year-olds.

In class, he was paired with Naruto. The two slumped over their desks and went straight into synchronized sleep mode. Yi had stayed up all night, exhausting his chakra twice to raise his Sharingan proficiency by six points.

He could now maintain his Two-Tomoe Sharingan for half an hour, which gave him exactly three proficiency points. But as the Sharingan's level increased, it required more and more proficiency, and he would have to maintain it longer to gain a single point. Yi wasn't in a hurry, though.

He had done the math. There was enough time left to max out his Sharingan. Raising the three-tomoe state to level 4 required ten thousand points, and at his current pace, he could fill that in two or three days at most. Yi knew perfectly well that as long as he awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan before the Night of the Uchiha Massacre, he would at least be able to weather whatever happened.

Three days later, the system chimed, and Yi's limit Sharingan leveled up.

Host: Uchiha Yi

Limit Sharingan: Level 3 (0/10000), still with the infinite evolution buff, now in the three-tomoe state.

Skill slots: 2/3, now able to hold three skills, with the Eight Gates and Fire Release still equipped.

The system's mechanical voice spoke as usual. "Hey, kiddo, you're level 3 now! A budding Jonin with a Three-Tomoe Sharingan! But you're still a million miles from the Mangekyo Sharingan, so keep pushing!"

Yi rolled his eyes, ignored the system's nonsense, and immediately activated his Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

Right after leveling up, he felt his chakra increase, bringing him straight to the threshold of Jonin level. He wanted to see how long he could maintain the three-tomoe state now, and how long it would take to gain proficiency.

Ten minutes later, the system chimed again. "Proficiency +1. Current level 3 limit Sharingan: 1/10000!"

Yi froze. Why had it only increased by one point?

Ten minutes later, the system chimed again. "Proficiency +1. Current level 3 limit Sharingan: 1/10000!"

Yi froze. Why had it only increased by one point?

His level 2 limit Sharingan had gained one proficiency point every ten minutes. Back then, he had assumed level 3 would take longer, but now that he'd reached it, he realized he'd been overthinking things.

Uchiha Yi muttered, "Still one point every ten minutes? That's a great deal. Perfect chance to see how long my Jonin-level chakra can keep the three-tomoe state active."

Fortunately, school had ended early, and he had gone straight home. He wouldn't have dared activate his Sharingan at school. Two tomoe becoming three would be far too conspicuous, exposing him in no time.

Five hours passed. His eyelids were almost stuck together, but inside, he felt like a toad was dancing wildly in his chest. He was absolutely thrilled.

He clenched his fists and murmured, "Five hours! I actually lasted five hours!"

This special training method had actually let him maintain the three-tomoe state for five hours. At one point every ten minutes, that meant thirty proficiency points. Ninety points a day would get him to ten thousand in a little over three months, wouldn't it?

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. Without the chakra boost and physical enhancement from the Eight Gates, he wouldn't even have managed three hours before needing to recover fully. Maybe he could go even faster.

His eyes brightened, and he muttered, "Maybe I really won't have to wait three months?"

But his happiness didn't last long. The next day, after school, he had a meal at Ichiraku Ramen with Naruto, then returned to the clan compound and immediately sensed something wrong.

The air throughout the compound was thick with tension. He frowned. Could they be planning the coup?

But that's not right. It's not time yet! He suddenly slapped his forehead as he remembered. The Uchiha Coup had been brewing for a long time, but after Shisui died, the plan had been delayed by two years. It was exactly two years later now. Shisui had already been dead for two years.

His heart sank, and he cursed inwardly. Damn it, is it really time already? The Night of the Uchiha Massacre came this soon?