A leap in combat power, two tomoe awakened

"Everyone in the Barrier Team, fall back thirty paces."

Sasuke stood in the center of the Uchiha Training Ground, the night wind lifting a corner of his Hokage Robe.

Shikaku frowned. "You just finished the fusion. Are you really testing your strength now?"

"The enemy won't wait for me to wake up." Sasuke raised his hand, three shuriken held between his fingers. "Kakashi, record my chakra consumption. Hiashi, watch my body's reactions. Fugaku, if I lose control, cut off my legs."

Fugaku looked displeased. "You certainly know how to delegate."

Kakashi held a Record Scroll, his eyes fixed on Sasuke. "Testing the Sharingan first?"

Sasuke said nothing and threw the shuriken.

Three black shadows collided in midair and changed course, each striking a different bull's-eye. The strings of three small bells hidden behind the targets snapped simultaneously, and the bells hit the ground at almost the same instant.

With his Byakugan active, Neji's expression tightened. "His movements are faster than last night."

Kakashi wrote the figures on the scroll. "Very low ocular power consumption. No lag in the three-tomoe Sharingan."

Sasuke raised his hand again. Lightning Release chakra coiled around the Kusanagi Sword, and the stone tiles cracked beneath his feet.

Fugaku's eyelid twitched. "Don't use your full strength."

"I know."

Before his words had faded, Sasuke was already on the other side of the training ground.

Standing at the edge, Yamada Naoto nearly dropped his teacup. "That's what you call knowing?"

Kakashi's Sharingan tracked the afterimage. "Your increased physical strength has improved your Body Flicker Technique's speed, too. Before, you relied on your eyes to anticipate movements. Now your body can keep up with them."

Sasuke stopped and sheathed the Kusanagi Sword with a reverse grip. "Where's Guy?"

Yamada Naoto blinked. "Instructor Guy? He just took the recruits out for morning exercises. He's coming from the east gate."

A familiar shout came from the distance.

"Don't waste the morning of youth! Ten more laps!"

Wearing his green jumpsuit, Might Guy led a squad of Konoha Military Police Force recruits charging into the training ground. Seeing Sasuke there, he gave him a thumbs-up. "Sasuke, I heard you completed some dangerous training last night! Burn bright! This is the progress of youth!"

Sasuke looked at him. "Fight me."

The recruits stumbled out of step.

Guy's eyes lit up. "Oh? The clan head himself is challenging the taijutsu instructor?"

"A demonstration for the recruits." Sasuke handed the Kusanagi Sword to Yamada Naoto. "No ninjutsu. No genjutsu."

Fugaku immediately said, "Sasuke."

Guy shook his head as well. "You're too young. I can't use my full strength."

Sasuke loosened his wrists. "Whether you use your full strength is your business. Whether you can hit me is mine."

Yamada Naoto grinned. "Instructor Guy, if the clan head tells you to fight, fight. Don't hold back too much, or you'll embarrass yourself."

Guy looked at Kakashi. "Kakashi, what do you think?"

Kakashi spread out the Record Scroll. "I'd recommend starting at twenty percent. Otherwise, you'll regret it."

Guy's expression grew serious. "If even Kakashi says so, I can't take this lightly."

The two took their positions.

The recruits formed a semicircle. Neji stood beside Hiashi, his Byakugan fixed on the muscles in Sasuke's legs.

Guy moved first.

A Strong Fist punch drove straight toward Sasuke's face, its wind sweeping his bangs back. Sasuke didn't retreat. He turned his shoulder just enough to slip past it and brought his left arm across to block.

Bang!

A ring of cracks spread across the ground.

The recruits sucked in sharp breaths.

Sasuke's heels sank into the earth, but he wasn't sent flying.

Guy's eyes shone fiercely. "What a powerful body!"

Sasuke swept out his right leg. Guy blocked with both arms and slid back three paces.

Kakashi's pen paused. "That strength..."

Fugaku's gaze changed as well.

Guy shook out his arms. "Sasuke, your taijutsu is already beyond an ordinary genin's level. I'm going to speed up!"

Sasuke raised his eyes, his three tomoe spinning. "Come on."

Guy's attacks accelerated, fists, elbows, knees, and kicks flowing into an unbroken barrage. Sasuke used no ninjutsu, meeting them with nothing but his Sharingan's predictions and his transformed body. He twisted aside, counterattacked, and cracked the training ground's tiles every time his foot came down.

The recruits watched, forgetting to breathe.

Yamada Naoto swore. "If anyone ever says our clan head only relies on evidence again, I'll shove his head against the ground and make him look at those craters."

Neji stared at the fight. "He isn't just taking the hits. He's redirecting part of the force every time."

Hiashi nodded. "His eyes see it, and his body does it. The latter is what the Uchiha always lacked most."

Guy brought down a heavy punch. Sasuke caught it on his raised arm, clamped his right hand around Guy's wrist, and rammed him with his shoulder.

Guy retreated half a step.

Only half a step.

Yet everyone at the edge of the training ground fell silent.

Eight-year-old Sasuke had actually knocked Might Guy back.

Once Guy steadied himself, he didn't get angry. Instead, he grinned, showing his white teeth. "This is youth! Sasuke, you have top-tier taijutsu potential. Starting today, the recruits' training is doubled!"

Several groans rose from the recruits' ranks.

Sasuke lowered his hands. "The record."

Kakashi handed over the scroll. "Seventeen taijutsu exchanges. Chakra consumption was below expectations. Your recovery is fast, too. The bruises Guy left on your arm have already faded."

Sasuke glanced down. Indeed, only faint red marks remained.

Fugaku walked up beside him. "That's enough."

"Not yet."

Sasuke opened his right palm.

The atmosphere at the edge of the training ground instantly tensed.

Hiashi scanned him with his Byakugan. "You're going to test Wood Release?"

"Only channeling it."

Kakashi frowned. "There are too many people here."

Sasuke looked at the watching recruits. "Move beyond the white line. Keep recording."

Yamada Naoto immediately shooed them back. "Everyone, move! Anyone who dares poke his head forward loses half a month's pay!"

Sasuke closed his eyes and drew out a tiny amount of life chakra along the pathways he had revised in the charts.

Green markings first appeared on his palm. Then a tiny green sprout pushed through the chakra glow covering his skin and slowly emerged.

Fugaku's breathing stopped for half a beat.

Kakashi's pen dragged a streak of ink across the scroll.

Hiashi fixed his Byakugan on the tender sprout. "Stable chakra. No backlash."

Neji murmured, "An Uchiha... with Wood Release?"

Sasuke opened his eyes and looked at the sprout in his palm. With a casual pinch, he dispersed it into chakra.

"It works."

Shikaku rubbed his brow. "Do you realize that if those two words get out, no one in the Hokage Building will sleep tonight?"

"Then let them stay awake."

Sasuke walked to the edge of the training ground, picked up his Hokage Robe, and draped it over his shoulders. "Yamada, starting today, double the police recruits' taijutsu training and barrier response drills. Guy handles taijutsu, Neji handles reconnaissance, and Kakashi handles live arrest exercises."

Guy immediately raised his hand. "I approve!"

The recruits looked miserable, but none dared complain. That sparring match had been more effective than any lecture.

Kakashi rolled up the scroll. "I'll have to submit a briefing to the Hokage Building."

Sasuke looked at him. "Write it."

"How much should I include?"

Sasuke adjusted his collar. "Write that my three tomoe are stable, my taijutsu has improved, and my Wood Release has shown no definite form."

Shikaku glanced at him. "The Third Hokage will be even warier."

"He already is." Sasuke turned and left the training ground. "Now he just has to learn to live with it."

Inside the Hokage Building, the Third Hokage tapped his pipe twice against the desk when he received the briefing, scattering ash across its surface.

"Eight years old, and he took Guy's Strong Fist head-on?"

The ANBU lowered his head. "The record came from Captain Kakashi."

The Third Hokage turned to the final page. His gaze stopped on the words "Wood Release has shown no definite form," and his eyelid twitched.

"No definite form," the Third Hokage repeated. "Which means he's already testing it."

No one dared respond.

The Third Hokage closed the briefing. "The disaster Danzo left behind has become a blade in the Uchiha's hands instead."

In another damp mountain cave, the one-armed Danzo read the intelligence from the black market. Blood surged into his throat, and he forcibly swallowed it back down.

The Final Cultivation Pod had been seized.

The Wood Release Charts had been sealed away.

Sasuke Uchiha was suspected of having completed the fusion successfully.

His cane struck cracks into the stone floor. "Impossible. How could that brat suppress the Hashirama cells?"

In the darkness, a Black Market Broker knelt with his head lowered. "Konoha has shut down all of Root's old channels. Lord Orochimaru has also refused any further contact with you."

At last, Danzo failed to hold it back. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

"That useless Sarutobi can't even keep a child under control."

With trembling hands, the broker offered another sheet of paper. "There's another report. A Red Cloud Mark has appeared on Konoha's outskirts. Its source is unknown."

Danzo raised his single eye. "A red cloud?"

Beyond the Land of Fire, in a gloomy cavern.

Zetsu emerged halfway from the ground, his voice mocking. "Something big happened in Konoha. The Uchiha Clan wasn't wiped out, Danzo became a traitorous ninja wanted throughout the Shinobi World, and that brat named Sasuke took over the police force. He may have gotten his hands on Wood Release research, too."

Pain sat motionless in the shadows.

Wearing his Tiger-Stripe Mask, Obito leaned against the stone wall. "Eight years old?"

Zetsu chuckled. "Eight. He even shook Uchiha Itachi's convictions."

In the corner, Itachi pressed his fingers against his knee.

He didn't look up.

Zetsu deliberately drew out his words. "Itachi, that little brother of yours doesn't seem to need your protection anymore. He publicly tried Danzo in Konoha, stripped the Hokage of his power, and even dared to meddle with Hashirama cells."

Itachi finally raised his eyes, the patterns of his Mangekyo turning briefly in the darkness.

"He fused with Hashirama cells?"

Zetsu spread his hands. "The reports say it's suspected. More interestingly, his three tomoe are already stable."

Obito turned his head, his gaze settling on Itachi through the opening in his mask. "The little brother you left behind is tearing apart the Konoha you fought so desperately to protect."

Itachi's lips moved, but no words came out.

Back then, he had believed that bearing the darkness himself would allow Sasuke to live in the light.

But now Sasuke had torn that veil of light apart with his own hands and shoved everyone's faces into the mud.

Pain finally spoke. "Konoha's balance has been disrupted."

Obito straightened away from the wall. "I'll take a look."

Zetsu's smile deepened. "You're going yourself?"

"An eight-year-old Uchiha knows too much and is growing too fast." Space began to distort around Obito's right eye. "If he's useful, we'll bring him in. If not, we'll silence him."

Itachi's fingers clenched the fabric over his knee, his voice hoarse. "Don't touch him."

Obito paused for half a breath, then turned his head. "Do you still have the right to say that?"

Shadows concealed Itachi's expression, leaving only the turning patterns of his Mangekyo visible.

Like a spectator enjoying a show, Zetsu sank back into the ground. "I'm afraid Konoha's barrier won't stop him tonight."

Above Konoha, dark clouds blotted out the moon.

In the study at the Uchiha Clan Compound, Sasuke sat behind his desk, Root's Wood Release Charts and a map of the Hokage Building's ANBU deployments spread before him.

The paper covering the window suddenly billowed gently.

There were no footsteps, no hint of a presence.

Only the candle flame in the corner of the study bent briefly, tugged by some kind of spatial ripple.

Sasuke turned a page of the file without even raising his head.

"Is entering without knocking a habit of you Uchiha traitors?"