Winter, year six of Konoha.
The wind in the pine grove was cold enough to cut his face like little knives. A thick carpet of pine needles muffled their footsteps. Yinglang and Yutian sat beneath an old pine, their white breaths dispersing as they met.
"Wrist."
Yutian immediately raised his right hand, fingers loosely curled and arm held straight. A faint but distinctly steady pale-blue chakra glow flickered at his fingertips, carrying the sharpness unique to wind nature.
"Too slow." Yinglang's voice was flat. "From your lower abdomen to your fingertips, it should theoretically take 0.3 breaths. You took 0.5. Where was the problem?"
"The elbow." Sweat stood on Yutian's forehead. "When the chakra flows here... it scatters."
"You're overthinking it." Yinglang drew back his hand and sat down again. "You're training chakra, not doing embroidery. It isn't water. It doesn't 'flow.' You 'push' it forward with your mental energy. You think it should 'flow' through, so when it reaches here, your own concentration slackens first. Of course it scatters. Forget the paths of your meridians. Just think of pushing a bundle from your belly, through the 'pipe' of your arm, straight to your fingertips in one go. Whether the pipe gets wider or narrower, whether it bends, ignore it. The pipe is dead. You're alive. If you want to get through, it has to make way."
The explanation was crude and unreasonable. Yet Yutian found it clearer than what he heard in class. He closed his eyes and stopped thinking about "flowing." He thought only of "pushing."
Once, twice.
On the third attempt, the chakra glow at his fingertips gave a faint hum, suddenly brightened a little, and held together without dispersing.
"0.4 breaths. Still a long way off, but good enough." Yinglang nodded, took out a small cloth bundle, and tossed it over.
"Catch."
Yutian caught it and opened it. Inside were three ordinary shuriken with edges worn smooth, clearly used many times, and a shriveled, blackened chili pepper.
"A chili?"
"Eat it."
Yinglang took out a bigger, redder one himself, tossed it into his mouth, chewed twice, and swallowed. His face instantly flushed, and a vein at his temple twitched. His breathing remained steady, though a sheen of tears covered his eyes.
Yutian looked at the one in his hand, his Adam's apple bobbing. Gritting his teeth, he stuffed it into his mouth too. A fiery sting exploded from the tip of his tongue and shot straight to the crown of his head. Tears and snot streamed down his face as he covered his mouth and coughed violently.
"Stimulation." Yinglang waited until the heat subsided before speaking, his voice hoarse but clear. "When the body experiences intense stimulation, chakra reacts instinctively, briefly becoming more active. Controlling it at that moment is like looting during a fire. Difficult, but memorable. Chakra is part of you. When you hurt, it gets 'lively' too. Put it to work while it's 'lively.' That's how you make it obey."
He pointed at the three shuriken. "Now, while the heat's still there, use the method I taught you. Push chakra to your fingertips within 0.3 breaths, attach it to these three shuriken, then throw them. Your target..."
He raised a hand and pointed at a dead tree twenty paces away, its trunk as thick as the mouth of a bowl. "Make an equilateral triangle on the trunk, with sides no longer than three inches."
Yutian's face was bright red from the chili, his eyes brimming with tears and his mind still somewhat dazed, but he gritted his teeth and picked up the shuriken. The burning pain churned in his throat and stomach, forcing him into intense concentration as he "pushed" the chakra out as though squeezing it dry.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The three shuriken left his hand almost simultaneously, carrying a faint whistle of wind, and struck the trunk with three dull thunks.
A crooked triangle with sides over four inches long.
"One inch too far left, upper edge half an inch too high, wrong shape." Yinglang took just one look. "But the timing was good. 0.32 breaths. Even chakra coating, no waste. Not bad."
Yutian braced his hands on his knees and panted. The dizziness from the chili slowly faded, but a strange, clearer sense of control over his chakra remained. Looking at the three shuriken again, he felt as though he could "sense" the traces of his own chakra slowly dissipating on them.
"Th... thank you." He wiped his face, his voice still a little hoarse.
"No need. I'm teaching you. If you train badly, you embarrass me." Yinglang waved a hand, pulled out a waterskin, took a gulp, and tossed it over. "Have some water."
Yutian caught it and drank deeply. The icy water suppressed the burning, and he recovered.
"Oh, right." As though something had suddenly occurred to him, Yinglang casually turned toward Yutian. "Did you feel like there was something different about my eyes just now?"
Yutian froze and instinctively looked into his eyes.
They were still clear black and white, clean and calm. Yet the instant their gazes met, something exceedingly faint and dark red seemed to turn very slowly in the depths of Yinglang's pupils.
Yutian's breath caught, and his pupils abruptly contracted.
"You... you..." His voice tightened as he stared fixedly at those eyes. The dark-red color was no illusion. It was truly there, faint but glaringly distinct within those black eyes-a tomoe shape!
"You awakened your eyes?!" Yutian's voice rose, then abruptly dropped, as though he feared disturbing the birds in the grove. "How did you awaken them?! You're only five! Does Elder Xuan know?"
"No. Don't tell anyone either," Yinglang said evenly. "It's just awakening my eyes. Nothing major."
"That's not major?!" Yutian felt his brain could not keep up. Awakening at five was exceedingly rare even in Uchiha history. "How did you do it? An accident during training, or..."
"Neither." Yinglang interrupted him and tilted his head, apparently giving serious thought to how to describe it. "Hmm... I found a pretty high cliff, tied on a rope, then jumped off."
Yutian said, "What?"
"When I jumped, the wind was strong, there was nothing beneath my feet, and my mind went blank." Yinglang's description was objective. "Pretty scary. Maybe I'm still not brave enough. I only awakened one tomoe. Next time I'll try without the rope."
Yutian stood with his mouth open, unable to speak for a long time. This method... he had never heard of anything like it! Frightening himself into awakening his eyes?!
"I've thought of other methods too," Yinglang continued. "Like lighting a fire around myself with nothing but wet clothes on. High temperatures, thick smoke, the threat of death. The stimulation should be stronger."
"You..." Yutian's face turned green. "Stop thinking about it! Each one is scarier than the last! You could die!"
"Fear is a biological instinct. Intense instinctive stimulation can break through certain mental 'shackles,'" Yinglang explained. But judging by Yutian's expression, he probably had not taken it in. After a moment's thought, Yinglang pulled another little packet from inside his clothes and opened it. Inside were several bright-red chili peppers, even bigger than the earlier one. "Or try these?"
"What are those supposed to do?"
"Eat spicy food and use the heat as stimulation to see whether you can awaken your eyes," Yinglang said with complete seriousness. "Lately, I've been eating two before every meal. Maybe one day they'll awaken while I'm eating. It hasn't worked yet, but my chakra control really has gotten smoother. Didn't you just try it?"
Yutian looked at the packet of chili peppers, then at Yinglang's calm eyes with their single tomoe. Suddenly, he felt that what this five-year-old had in his head might be deeper than the Naka River, and even more... incomprehensible.
"Isn't there... a more normal method that won't get you killed?" he asked with difficulty.
"The normal method is witnessing the horrific death of close family or friends, or experiencing extreme pain and hatred. Does he want those?" Yinglang looked at him, little emotion in his eyes. "Does the pain of eating chili peppers not count as pain?"
Yutian was speechless.
"So," Yinglang put away the chili peppers, then slowly took out a neatly folded sheet of paper from inside his clothes and handed it to Yutian. "I wrote down every 'unorthodox remedy' I could think of that might be useful. When you have time, you can... use it for reference. They aren't necessarily right, but they can broaden your thinking."
Yutian hesitantly took the paper, then said, "But I don't think I have Uchiha blood."
Yinglang reassured him. "Not now... I'll give you a pair of Sharingan in the future."
After receiving Yinglang's reassurance, Yutian began reading the paper Yinglang had given him.
The paper was ordinary, the handwriting a child's neat script, but the contents...
"Expanding approaches to awakening Uchiha eyes (a discussion of nontraditional methods)"
I. Extreme disgust stimulation:
Eat shit. (Note: must provoke extreme disgust and a violent physiological rejection response. Might trigger mental defense mechanisms?)
Swim in a cesspit. (Note: same as above, compounded by fear of suffocation and revulsion toward extreme filth. Dual stimulation.)
Hold in urine. (Note: challenge physiological limits and seek a breakthrough in mental concentration on the verge of collapse?)
II. Humor/absurdity stimulation:
Tickle until laughing causes convulsions and suffocation. Attempt to find the threshold of emotional loss of control through extreme joy.
Read the most boring books or listen to the dullest speeches until mental collapse. Trigger the Sharingan's protective mechanism through extreme irritation? (Doubtful.)
III. Combined pain/discomfort:
Sit on a cushion covered in thumbtacks while eating raw bitter melon. (Note: dual torment of physical piercing pain and extreme bitterness. Awaken potential?)
Run naked through ice and snow, then immediately soak in hot water. (Note: extreme temperature differences test physical and mental endurance.)
(The following methods are more dangerous. Be sure to take safety precautions, preferably with a guardian present!!!)
Fall from a great height (rope recommended).
Experience a controlled fire (water and wet quilts required).
Experience extreme hunger/thirst (rehydrate at regular intervals to prevent organ damage).
Core concept: find ways to violently impact your emotions (fear, anger, disgust, joy, pain, etc.) or physiological limits, break your normal mental state, and attempt to establish a deeper, more intense resonance with chakra (especially its yin release component). Note: individual differences are enormous. Results are not guaranteed. Proceed at your own risk.
Yutian read every word, then raised his head to look at Yinglang. His expression shifted from shock to bewilderment, then to a profound helplessness.
"Yinglang." He shook the paper in his hand, his voice dry. "You... spend your time thinking about these things?"
"Yeah. Might as well do something with my free time." Yinglang nodded, perfectly at ease. "The Uchiha Sharingan, put simply, is an intense stimulation and manifestation of mental power. Family tradition ties it to extreme negative emotions. That's too narrow. Emotions are the keys, but 'pain' and 'hatred' aren't necessarily the only ones. In theory, anything that pushes your emotions or perceptions to their limits could knock that door open. It's just that 'fear' and 'anger' are the easiest to mass-produce."
He stood and brushed the pine needles and dust off himself. "I've given you the methods. Whether you read them or try them is up to you. Remember, the core is 'stimulation-response-control,' not getting yourself killed. Tie on a rope, prepare water, and stay within your limits. I don't want the 'backing' I just invested in to go and do himself in."
Yutian gripped the thin sheet of paper, feeling as though it weighed a thousand pounds. Each method on it was more outrageous than the last. Yet, for some reason, looking at Yinglang's calm eyes and their single tomoe, he suddenly felt that perhaps... there really was some wildly crooked logic to it.
"I... I'll keep it." He carefully folded the paper and tucked it close to his body.
"Mm." Yinglang turned and headed out of the grove. After two steps, he stopped without looking back. "Water Walking. Four days left."
"I understand."
The footsteps gradually faded, and silence returned to the grove, broken only by the rustle of wind through pine needles.
Standing alone beneath the old pine, Yutian touched the paper inside his clothes, then recalled the clear sense of chakra control the chili had brought him. Finally, the slowly turning dark-red tomoe in Yinglang's eyes appeared in his mind.
He drew a deep breath of biting air and clenched his fists.
There was never just one path.
Before you continue