Early the next morning, Uchiha Ning bundled her son up snugly and led him out by the hand.
In the winter of Konoha Year Four, the wind chilled to the bone. A breath of white mist vanished into the air almost as soon as it was exhaled. Few people walked the streets. Occasionally, a few ninja figures flashed past, traces of chakra still lingering on the hems of their clothes.
Uchiha Yinglang walked with his head lowered, looking obedient and sensitive to the cold, while his eyes swiftly scanned his surroundings.
The Naka River lay east of the Uchiha Clan Compound. Its waters flowed down from the mountains, and in winter, the falling water level exposed broad stretches of riverbank. He had last come here in autumn to pick wildflowers with his mother. Back then, he had noticed a cliff upstream, where hanging vines concealed a recess.
Today, he wanted to see whether that place could actually hide someone.
Once they reached the riverbank, Uchiha Yinglang acted like a child, bending down to pick up a few pebbles and tuck them into his pocket. Then he pointed at the vines upstream and called out in a childish voice, "Mom, look! There are so many vines over there! They look like curtains! I want to go see!"
Uchiha Ning followed his pointing finger, frowned, and said:
"Langlang, the path over there is rough!"
"I'll just take a look! I won't climb!" Uchiha Yinglang was already running toward it, his steps just unsteady enough to look like an ordinary child brimming with curiosity.
Uchiha Ning followed helplessly.
Only when he drew closer did Uchiha Yinglang discover that there really was a recess behind those vines, roughly two meters deep and three meters wide. At the very back was even a small patch of level ground, dry and sheltered from the wind, almost impossible to spot from outside.
A natural safe house.
His heart gave a sudden leap, but outwardly, he merely reached out curiously to touch the vines. "Mom, there's a cave here!"
Uchiha Ning walked over and took a look, a little surprised herself, but quickly caught hold of him. "Don't go inside. It's dark in there, and there might be bugs."
"Okay." Uchiha Yinglang obediently backed out, then glanced back, looking just like an ordinary child reluctant to leave a "secret base."
On the way home, he kept thinking.
The location is secluded enough, some distance from the village. Most people wouldn't go out of their way to come here. The vines cover the entrance, so nothing looks unusual from outside. It's dry and ventilated inside. Staying for three days won't be a problem.
This is the place.
Next, I need a suitable excuse-"I'm going to play at my secret base. Don't follow me, Mom"-that's perfectly normal for a three- or four-year-old. The only problem is that I need three uninterrupted days.
That will require Mother's cooperation.
Uchiha Yinglang thought for a while and came up with an idea.
Uchiha Ning woke up with a headache that morning, perhaps from the wind by the river the day before. Uchiha Yinglang circled around her several times in "concern," bringing water and medicine, then said cautiously, "Mom, get some rest. I'll play in the courtyard by myself. I won't go far."
Leaning against the bedside, Uchiha Ning watched how considerate he was, her heart warm yet aching. "Be good, Langlang. Mommy's going to sleep for a while. Don't leave the courtyard."
"Okay!"
He went outside and "played" in the courtyard for about fifteen minutes. Only after confirming that his mother was asleep did he quietly climb over the side wall.
Scaling the wall with a four-year-old's height took some effort, but with his current physique, it was not difficult.
As soon as he landed, he jogged along the route he had scouted beforehand.
Out of the compound, through the alleys, across the Naka River, then up the mountain.
Half an hour later, he stood before the vines.
He glanced back. Konoha's outline was gray and hazy in the distance, its details indistinct. No one had followed him.
He parted the vines and slipped inside.
The cave was a little deeper than he had thought on his last visit, extending about two and a half meters at the back. The ground was dry sand and soil, with rock overhead keeping out the wind. The only light filtered through gaps in the vines. It was dim, but enough.
Uchiha Yinglang sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.
"System, begin."
[Ding! Chakra Seed replacement procedure initiated.] [Step one: condense life essence. Host, please circulate "Hibernating Dragon Breath" and gather all the "qi" in your body into your dantian. The system will assist with compression.]
Uchiha Yinglang drew a deep breath and began circulating the breathing method he had practiced for three years.
This time, it was not nourishment, but extraction.
He could feel the warm "qi" that had always flowed slowly through his body being gripped by an invisible hand, squeezed inch by inch toward his dantian.
It hurt badly.
This was not pain in his skin and flesh, but a dull ache surging from the gaps between his bones, from deep within his organs. As though something were trying to wrench his life out of his body.
Uchiha Yinglang clenched his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead, yet his breathing remained perfectly steady.
Gritting his teeth, Uchiha Yinglang shouted inwardly, I've waited far too long for this day!
["Qi" gathering progress: 10%... 30%... 60%...]
He did not know how much time passed. Perhaps half an hour, perhaps an hour. When he felt as though his entire body had been hollowed out, leaving only a ball of blazing light in his dantian, the system's notification finally sounded.
[100%. Life essence condensation complete. Host, please confirm.]
Uchiha Yinglang opened his eyes and glanced down at his belly. Of course, he could see nothing, but he could feel something like a tiny sun in his dantian, burning until his whole body felt hot.
"Confirm."
[Step two: implant the seed framework. This process requires no active input from the host, but there will be... discomfort.]
The moment the system finished speaking, Uchiha Yinglang understood what "discomfort" meant.
That sun exploded.
Not literally. It was a tearing sensation from the inside out, as though every inch of his flesh were being dismantled and pieced back together. He opened his mouth but could not make a sound, as though someone had clamped a hand around his throat. His vision kept darkening, and a buzzing roar filled his ears.
Instinctively, he wanted to curl up, but a voice in his head held him firmly in place: Don't move. If you move, everything will have been for nothing.
He did not know how much time passed. Perhaps an instant, perhaps ten thousand years.
The pain suddenly vanished.
As though someone had flipped a switch.
Uchiha Yinglang gasped for breath, drenched in sweat from head to toe, as though he had been hauled out of the water. He looked down at his hands. They were still the same hands, the fair, clean hands of a four-year-old. But he could feel that something was different.
In his dantian, that "sun" was gone.
In its place was a... seed.
Tiny and quiet, it gave off a light with the same origin as the "qi" in his body, yet more condensed. It floated there silently, like a seed freshly planted in the soil, waiting to take root and sprout.
[Seed framework implantation complete.] [Current status: new seed generated. Old seed (Chakra Seed) has not yet been devoured.] [Host, please confirm whether to proceed immediately to step three: devouring replacement.] [Warning: this process is irreversible. If it fails, backlash from the old seed may cause chakra to go out of control. Severe cases may be life-threatening.]
Uchiha Yinglang leaned against the cave wall and took a few breaths, the corners of his mouth slowly curling upward.
"Hurry up and start. I want to wait some more!"
[Step three initiated. Host, please remain conscious and guide the new seed toward the old seed's location...]
This time, it was not pain.
It was hunger.
An overwhelming hunger surged from the depths of his soul. His new seed was like a newborn beast, instinctively scenting the old seed-that thing that had always lain deeper within his body, which the system called the "Chakra Seed"-and pouncing on it.
Uchiha Yinglang shuddered all over, feeling as though he were being drained empty. The new seed devoured, the old seed struggled, and he was caught between them like a piece of cloth being pulled from both ends.
The old seed refused to yield.
It could sense that the "newcomer" wanted to replace it. It had lain within this body for four years. Although its host had never activated it, it was the "legitimate" one-the legitimate power of this world, passed down by the Sage of Six Paths.
By what right?
Sensing the old seed's resistance, Uchiha Yinglang gave a cold laugh.
By what right? Because you're the chain the Sage of Six Paths left around everyone's neck, keeping ninja from living past forty, leading the Uchiha toward extermination, and making my father die beneath the Flying Thunder God Slash.
That's why.
Your very birth was a crime!
He clenched his teeth, wrapped his will around the new seed, and gnawed away bite by bite.
The old seed wailed and trembled, making its final resistance. But without its host actively molding chakra to support it, it was like a city without a source of troops. No matter how sturdy it was, it could not withstand a siege.
[Devouring progress: 30%... 50%... 70%...]
Uchiha Yinglang's consciousness began to blur.
He could feel his temperature soaring, his heart beating so fast it seemed about to explode, blood trickling in his ears. Perhaps it was a nosebleed, perhaps it came from his ears. He could no longer tell.
But he could not pass out.
If he did, it would all be over.
He bit the tip of his tongue. The taste of rust spread through his mouth, and the pain barely kept a thread of his awareness clear.
[85%... 90%...]
The old seed gave one final, soundless shriek. Like a crushed pearl, it broke into countless tiny points of light, which the new seed swallowed in a single gulp.
[100%. Devouring complete.] [Chakra Seed replacement successful.] [New seed status: stable. Host's vital signs: stable.] [Congratulations, host. You have escaped the innate constraints of the Sage of Six Paths' chakra system. From this moment onward, your power belongs to you alone.]
Uchiha Yinglang fell onto his back on the sandy ground by the cave wall, gasping for breath as his vision kept darkening.
Sweat mixed with blood from his nose ran down his cheeks and dripped into the sand, spreading into several dark flowers.
Staring at the blurry patch of light filtering through the vines above him, he suddenly smiled.
Silently, weakly, but unmistakably, he smiled.
Three years! Do you know how I lived through these three years?
From this day forward, he was no longer a pawn to be manipulated on the Sage of Six Paths' chessboard. From this day forward, the path he, Uchiha Yinglang, walked belonged to him alone. No one could bind him anymore.
Outside the cave, the cold wind gradually subsided. Gentle sunlight pierced the vines and fell across his pale, sweat-soaked face, carrying a faint yet real warmth, like his mother's gentle palm. Uchiha Yinglang slowly closed his eyes, letting his exhausted consciousness sink into darkness.
Winter, Konoha Year Four.
Uchiha Yinglang was four years old.
At last, he had broken free of his cocoon and become a butterfly.
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