Over the next few nights, Mount Momoyama remained peaceful.
Jigoro Kuwajima's teachings still rang in his ears, and Zenitsu Agatsuma's wailing continued as always.
During the day, Sasuke swung his blade, ate, and rested.
Like the most dutiful of disciples.
But when night fell, when everyone had fallen asleep.
A dark figure would slip into the darkness like a phantom, becoming the true master of these mountain woods.
One weak demon after another became a dead soul beneath his wakizashi before they could even react.
The battles grew increasingly like a one-sided slaughter.
Fear had long since been stripped from Sasuke's emotions.
Every kill made him feel his heart grow colder and harder.
Every time he watched a demon turn to ash, he would remember his dead family.
Hatred was the only fuel that drove him to swing his blade.
Finally, late one night, with moonlight cool as water.
After he disposed of a demon attempting to attack a traveler as he usually did, the long-awaited notification sounded in his mind.
[Ding.] [Revenge points have reached the upgrade threshold.]
Without the slightest hesitation, Sasuke darted away and reached a secluded cliffside in a few quick movements.
He opened the system panel.
The [Upgrade Sharingan] option was giving off a faint red glow.
He pressed it with his mind.
The next second.
A burning sensation several times stronger than when he first awakened it suddenly erupted from his right eye.
It felt as though a red-hot iron spike had been driven hard into his eyeball, then violently twisted.
Sasuke let out a muffled grunt and dropped to one knee, his left hand clamped tightly over his right eye.
The intense pain made his body tremble uncontrollably.
Yet there was not the slightest trace of pain on his face, only an almost twisted excitement.
He knew this was the price of power.
And its blessing.
After an unknown length of time, the burning sensation slowly receded, replaced by a cool feeling, as though the entire world had been filtered.
Sasuke slowly lowered his hand.
He stood up, walked to a pool beside the cliff, and looked down.
The eye reflected in the water was blood-red.
Within that blood-red pupil, two black tomoe sat symmetrically, slowly rotating.
They held an eerie, icy beauty.
The two-tomoe Sharingan.
It had worked.
Sasuke took a deep breath and activated his Sharingan again.
He needed a reference point to test this newfound power.
He thought of that waterfall.
When he stood before the roaring waterfall again, the world in his eye had become entirely different.
Before.
Through his one-tomoe Sharingan, he could clearly see every individual droplet splashing from the waterfall.
That was already a level of Dynamic Vision beyond ordinary comprehension.
But now.
What he saw were no longer isolated droplets.
They were lines.
Countless transparent, faintly shimmering lines formed by strings of water droplets.
He could clearly see each droplet's complete trajectory, from breaking away from the curtain of water to cutting through the air and finally falling into the pool below.
He could even predict which direction these droplets would move in the next second because of the wind and gravity.
In his eye, the entire world seemed to have been broken down into the most basic, primitive trajectories of motion and flows of energy.
It had been seen through.
Dissected completely.
"So... that's how it works."
Sasuke murmured under his breath.
This enhanced perceptiveness also brought his understanding of chakra to a new level.
If his control of chakra had previously remained at the level of "channeling."
Then now, he could "weave" it.
He raised his left hand.
Crackle-
Dazzling Lightning Release gathered in his palm once more.
But this time, not a trace of its violent aura leaked out.
All the chakra was precisely confined within an extremely small space, gathering and compressing.
The cries of those thousand birds rang clearer than ever before, as though they had taken physical form.
Chidori.
Sasuke's gaze fell on the boulder not far away that he used as a target.
He lowered his body slightly, assuming the opening stance of Thunder Breathing.
Then he charged.
His figure turned into a streak of Lightning Release, instantly vanishing from the spot.
He was faster than before.
But his vision was clearer and calmer than ever.
He even had time to observe how the dust stirred by the fierce wind beneath his feet swirled through the air.
The risk of losing control no longer existed.
Just as the Lightning Release was about to touch the boulder.
Sasuke's figure stopped abruptly.
He came to a steady halt before the boulder, his left hand less than an inch from its surface.
The Lightning Release in his palm still chirped merrily, yet not the slightest bit of energy fell into disorder because of the sudden stop.
He could unleash and rein it in at will.
Sasuke slowly dispersed the chakra in his hand, and the Lightning Release and birdsong disappeared together.
He raised his head and looked east, toward Mount Fujikasane.
The corners of his mouth curled into a cold, confident smile.
The Final Selection?
Here I come.
Before you continue