The Great Fireball Technique Was for Cooking

He forced him awake by stimulating several pressure points.

"Big brother, I have too little chakra. This technique isn't right for me yet." Izuna looked for the problem in himself. A technique this complex couldn't possibly be at fault. It had to be because he lacked chakra.

"Mm. Go collect your spoils." Indra looked at the fish floating on the water and the birds on the ground. There were a few birds and a dozen or so fish.

"So many!" Izuna, who had been completely drained of strength, climbed to his feet and started collecting his spoils.

Meanwhile, Indra lit a fire where he stood, using the Great Fireball Technique. Instead of breathing it out of his mouth, he flung it from his palm.

When Izuna returned and saw it, he asked in confusion, "Big brother, what technique is that? Doesn't it need hand seals?"

"The Great Fireball Technique." Indra used chakra of various natures to prepare what Izuna had brought back, then set it over the fire to roast.

"Huh? The Great Fireball Technique? Is that how you use the Great Fireball Technique?" Izuna looked even more bewildered. He was discovering that his big brother had a very unusual way of using ninjutsu.

"The Great Fireball Technique is a cooking technique. Haven't you noticed that no matter how big a fire it makes, it never burns anyone to death?"

It was simply the first technique he had developed, specifically for roasting wild boar. No one understood this technique better than he did.

"Huh? Isn't it... a basic ninjutsu for distracting enemies because it uses so little chakra?"

Izuna felt his entire worldview being shaken. The ninjutsu he had painstakingly practiced was for cooking.

Why had his father called it the most basic ninjutsu? Because it consumed so little chakra that even children like them could learn it.

"Has your chakra recovered at all?" Instead of answering, Indra asked a different question.

Izuna checked his condition. He had recovered a tiny bit, so he nodded with a pout.

"Good. Come here and keep using the Great Fireball Technique on the fish on the rack."

Indra used Wind Release to rotate the rack holding several skewered fish, then stood to one side and gestured for Izuna to use Fire Release.

Izuna still refused to believe that the Great Fireball Technique he had studied for so many years was meant for cooking. He formed hand seals and unleashed it, stopping just before his chakra ran out.

Wearing gloves, Indra took down the grilled fish and inspected it. Crisp outside and tender inside-just right. He tore off a piece and put it in Izuna's mouth.

"How does it taste?"

Izuna ate the fish roasted with his own Great Fireball Technique. As he ate, tears began pattering down like beans spilling out of a sack.

Then he grabbed a fish and stuffed it into his mouth, crying as he ate. Once he was full, he cried even louder.

"Waaah, big brother, I practiced this technique for years! Waaah... It's the only technique I've learned."

Izuna's tears poured down as he let out all the hurt he had been holding inside.

"Didn't I just teach you five kinds of ninjutsu? Make a few adjustments and use them separately. They won't consume so much chakra."

Indra frowned. He really hadn't made the boy cry. He had only told the truth.

"Your swordsmanship is good. If you don't have enough chakra for ninjutsu... just coat your sword with chakra."

He was doing his best to find a remedy now, something that would stop Izuna from crying.

"B-but this is the ninjutsu I'm best at. Five seals in one second." Izuna grew even more upset. He had never tried any of the techniques he had researched before, because he simply didn't have enough chakra to sustain them. All he had was theory, with no practical experience.

"Then... I'll teach you a technique that doesn't need hand seals." Indra began trying to recall a ninjutsu that required no seals and wouldn't strain Izuna's chakra reserves, which were smaller than the amount he had in a single palm.

After much thought, he finally settled on the balls Asura made.

Wind-natured balls, which he could make a dozen or more of in one go.

If Asura could do it, Izuna should have no problem either, right?

As he considered it, he raised his palm, and a ball of wind-natured chakra appeared in it. Judging its chakra consumption, it seemed about the same as the Great Fireball Technique he used for cooking.

At least, they seemed about the same to him.

He had originally used this one to bore holes in the ground.

But it was more powerful than the Great Fireball Technique and could hurt people.

Still sniffling, Izuna stared at the sealless ninjutsu in Indra's hand. Seeing his interest, Indra slammed it into the ground. With a rumbling crash, a pit as wide as a well opening appeared before them.

This time, Izuna's worldview completely collapsed. Between the shock and his excessive chakra expenditure, he cried himself unconscious.

Indra was speechless. Sure enough, little brothers were the worst.

Indra cooked all the fish and birds, packed them up, and sealed them into a Space Formula he drew on the spot. Then he slung Izuna over his shoulder and returned to the Uchiha Clan Compound.

Before that...

Madara Uchiha's arrival through the window gave Uchiha Chiri, who was studying Chakra Extraction, quite a fright.

Someone had suddenly been thrown into the room-and it was the Heir. The naked Heir.

She couldn't very well interfere, but ignoring him wasn't right either. After hesitating for a few moments, she called out, "Heir? Heir, do you need me to find you a doctor?"

She called for quite a while without receiving a response. She kept her distance from him and even moved the low table between them.

The abuse Madara Uchiha had suffered was gradually improving his recovery. He had already regained consciousness when Uchiha Chiri called to him, but his body still couldn't move. Only after he circulated chakra through himself several times did sensation slowly return.

Once he could move freely again, he sat up awkwardly. Seeing Uchiha Chiri reading, he asked, "What are you doing here?"

"These are the notes on Chakra Extraction that my lord gave me. I have to extract chakra within a day and become a ninja."

Uchiha Chiri's firm resolve made Madara Uchiha pause. He looked at the fairly thin notebook. "Could I have a look, please?"

She slid the notebook across the low table into his hands. He opened it to find a very detailed explanation of how to sense chakra, how to train and use it after extracting it, and further notes on its use...

After reading it, Madara Uchiha returned it to Uchiha Chiri. He felt he had wasted her time, since his big brother had only given her one day, so he explained what he had learned from his own experience.

"That's all there is to it. You don't need a day. You can feel chakra flowing within an hour. You just do this..."

"Huh? Heir, what do you mean by 'this'?" Uchiha Chiri was utterly bewildered. What was he even talking about? She couldn't sense chakra at all. Did she really have no talent whatsoever as a ninja?

"Just like this. From here to here, then through your whole body. The thing flowing like water is chakra." Seeing that she didn't understand, Madara Uchiha stood and began gesturing at his own body.

"Water? Flowing?" Uchiha Chiri fell silent. She didn't understand at all. Unless she was mistaken, wasn't the Heir demonstrating the process of urination?

"What nonsense are you teaching her?"