The roar of the waterfall seemed to fade into the distance.
Uesugi Sasuke slowly opened his eyes. The searing agony in his right eye had vanished, replaced by an unprecedented coolness.
The world was different.
He raised his head and looked at a peach tree nearby.
Before, he could only make out blurry outlines and colors.
Now, the veins of every leaf were clearly visible.
At the edge of one leaf, a crystal-clear dewdrop slowly rolled along. He could even see his own astonished face reflected on its surface.
Dust invisible to the naked eye drifted through the air in the first light of dawn, tracing slow, graceful paths.
A flying insect swept past him.
In his vision, its movements slowed to an infinite crawl. Every beat of its wings looked like a series of individual frames, each perfectly clear.
This was not simply better eyesight.
This was insight.
It was the essence of seeing through the movements of everything in the world.
"Sharingan..."
Sasuke's lips moved slightly, uttering a word that existed only in the memories of his previous life.
An indescribable ecstasy burst from his heart like an electric current, instantly coursing through every limb.
He all but stumbled and scrambled to the water jar in the courtyard, then lowered his head to look at his reflection.
His left eye was still a deep black.
His right eye, however, had taken on an entirely different appearance.
Against the blood-red white of his eye, a single black tomoe slowly revolved around his pupil.
Mysterious, eerie, and filled with a power that made the heart tremble.
This was it.
The Kekkei Genkai that was the Uchiha Clan's greatest pride.
With it, Chidori's fatal flaw would be remedied.
With it, the attacks of evil demons would hold no more secrets.
With it, he had finally reached the true starting point of his road to vengeance.
Sasuke drew a deep breath, his chest heaving with excitement.
The aura he could not fully rein in after his breakthrough in strength was like a pebble cast into a still lake, sending ripples across Mount Momoyama at dawn.
Creak-
The wooden door behind him was gently pulled open.
Jigoro Kuwajima stood in the doorway. Instead of scolding his disciple for making a racket in the courtyard so early as he usually would, he scrutinized him sharply with his aged eyes.
He had sensed it.
Just moments ago, an unfamiliar aura, powerful and cold, had flashed from Sasuke's body.
"Sasuke."
Kuwajima's voice was low and grave.
"Your aura is very unsettled. Come here."
At those words, Sasuke slowly straightened and turned his head.
The instant Jigoro Kuwajima saw Sasuke's face clearly, he froze.
That blood-red eye was like a ruby set into the boy's face, radiating an ominous, uncanny light.
"Your eye!"
Kuwajima's expression changed drastically. He strode up to Sasuke and seized his shoulders.
He thought something had gone wrong while Sasuke was practicing that strange lightning, injuring his eye.
"What happened? Are you feeling unwell anywhere?"
There was a trace of anxiety in the old man's voice that even he did not notice.
Looking at the undisguised worry on his master's face, Sasuke's gaze shifted slightly.
But he merely shook his head calmly.
"Master, I'm fine."
He did not evade Kuwajima's gaze. Looking him straight in the eye, he spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.
"This is our family's 'Kekkei Genkai,' a special constitution passed down from generation to generation. It awakens when our strength achieves a breakthrough."
"Kekkei Genkai?"
Jigoro Kuwajima mulled over the unfamiliar term.
He had served as the Rumble Hashira for years and had encountered all kinds of swordsmen with unusual abilities, but he had never heard of anyone whose family possessed a constitution that could change the color of their eyes.
He released his grip, then cupped Sasuke's face instead, examining that eerie eye with great care.
The red was deep, as though it had been steeped in blood.
The black tomoe slowly revolved, as if it were alive.
Kuwajima sensed not the slightest trace of a demon's evil aura in that eye.
Yet it felt more dangerous to him than the eyes of any demon.
It held a sharpness that could pierce every lie and see through every disguise.
It was as though none of his sword techniques, none of the secrets of his Breathing Style, could remain hidden before that eye.
Kuwajima's heart sank little by little.
He did not know whether this power would ultimately prove a blessing or a curse for Sasuke.
Just then, another set of footsteps came from inside the house.
"Master... it's so noisy. It's not even light yet..."
Zenitsu Agatsuma shuffled out, bleary-eyed, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
Before he could finish complaining, he saw Sasuke, whose face was being cupped in their master's hands.
And Sasuke's blood-red eye.
Zenitsu froze halfway through his yawn, his mouth still open.
The sleepiness on his face instantly vanished without a trace, replaced by utter terror.
Time seemed to stand still for a second.
The next instant.
"Aaaaaaaah-!"
A scream loud enough to lift the roof rang out across Mount Momoyama.
"A-a monster!"
So frightened that tears and snot came spraying out together, Zenitsu scrambled behind Kuwajima and clung desperately to the hem of his master's clothes. Daring to peek out with only one eye, he pointed a trembling finger at Sasuke.
"Master! Master, look! His eye! Sasuke's turned into a monster!"
Sasuke frowned slightly at Zenitsu's pathetic display.
He closed his right eye. When he opened it again, it had returned to its normal black.
It was as though that uncanny blood-red color had been nothing but an illusion.
He withdrew his gaze, paying no further attention to his trembling senior fellow disciple or his grave-faced master.
The power was already his.
What others thought did not matter at all.
The boy turned and walked alone toward the wooden training posts, his shadow stretching long and narrow in the morning light, aloof and cold.
All that remained in the courtyard were Zenitsu's cries of lingering terror and Jigoro Kuwajima's heavy sigh.
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