Chapter 6
"Good hit! You're getting better."
(Sosuke) said, blocking (Obito)'s strike.
The crisp thwack of forearm meeting forearm echoed in the quiet training ground.
The six-year-old boy was now able to move with a fluid grace after just a week of physical training.
His potential for physical development, a trait possessed by clan children, truly left me in a state of awe. It was a bitter, metallic taste of envy on the back of my tongue. Their bloodline was a head start I could never have.
"Teacher, I'm going to hit you this time!"
(Obito) declared, his small voice brimming with a determination that was almost comical.
He lunged forward, a blur of childish energy.
First, he sent a punch.
(Sosuke) deflected it easily with a lazy flick of his wrist. The motion was effortless, a dismissive gesture against the boy's full-force assault.
Then, (Obito) sent several more punches in quick succession, a flurry of tiny, furious fists.
Tap. Tap. Thwack.
But this time, (Sosuke) stopped each and every punch individually, his hands moving with a bored, practiced precision, parrying them aside like annoying insects.
The disparity in their skill was a chasm as wide as the sky.
After the last punch was neutralized, (Sosuke) grabbed (Obito)'s wrist.
His grip was like iron, unyielding.
With a simple, almost negligent twist of his hips, he used the boy's own momentum against him.
Whoosh—Thud!
He threw (Obito) far away.
The six-year-old boy landed hard on the grassy ground, the air rushing from his lungs in a pained gasp.
He lay there, panting, staring up at his teacher with wide, frustrated eyes that shimmered with unshed tears of exertion.
Lying on the ground, (Obito) panted out his words, each one a struggle for breath.
"Teacher... you're too strong... I can't even touch your clothes..."
A faint, almost imperceptible smile touched (Sosuke)'s lips for a moment.
He brought his index finger to his lips, a contemplative gesture.
Hush.
"I'm not strong," he said, his voice a low murmur that carried clearly in the quiet air. "You are just weak right now. But don't worry. You won't remain in this state. With training, your strength will increase, bit by bit."
He wasn't lying.
In the end, the person before him would become the Fourth Great Shinobi War's mastermind.
The man who would sneer at his enemies,
"Am I sweating? Impossible. How could this mere ants make me sweat?"
(Sosuke) tried to recall that scene from his memories, a shiver of primal fear tracing a cold finger down his spine.
But he did not let it show to (Obito), who was already scrambling back to his feet, dusting off his shorts with gritty determination.
The boy took off running again from a short distance, his small legs pumping with renewed, if weary, vigor.
(Sosuke) couldn't help but release a gaze tinged with a little envy, even though he tried to hide it deep inside.
The gap between a civilian-born ninja and a clan child was like the heavens and the earth.
Even with chakra assistance, an ordinary six-year-old boy simply couldn't sustain this kind of training and continuous running.
But (Obito) was capable of doing it for weeks.
He seemed to have stopped pulling his usual pranks, too.
His entire focus was here, on this field, on getting stronger.
And now, after all that, (Sosuke) returned to the thought of why he had accepted this boy as his pupil.
It had happened for one reason, and one reason only.
He remembered the future events.
He had recognized the character (Obito) would become in the future.
(Tobi).
The person who would bring about the world's destruction through his Moon Eye Plan.
The one with the ability to become intangible.
When he first realized it, he felt as if his heart was about to explode.
The feeling was akin to standing beside a mad, homicidal killer.
Even if you knew that killer was currently a child, at this very moment, you would feel an intense, soul-deep chill.
A coldness that seeped into the very marrow of your bones.
But, after a little more thought...
"Why don't I try to use this young boy?"
(Obito) was still small at this time.
And if he could be manipulated skillfully, he could obtain a very powerful person.
A character capable of protecting him in the future.
All he needed to do was help him a little with training.
Of course, it would be difficult.
It would require immense discipline to get close to the boy.
But this was a golden opportunity for him.
Unlike other time travelers who were reborn into another world, he hadn't received any grand rewards.
His meager ability to control chakra was only slightly above the average for civilian-born children.
Still, he couldn't say this was a kind of cheat he had obtained through reincarnation.
It was pitiful, really.
Therefore, at this moment, he could only conclude that (Obito) might be his future cheat device.
Especially if he could train him.
"Teacher, I'm tired now. Can I rest?"
He heard his voice speaking.
There was a clear, undeniable exhaustion in his tone.
(Sosuke) thought for a moment, weighing whether he should let him rest or not.
The boy's shoulders were slumped, his breath coming in ragged pants.
Then, (Sosuke) shouted in his direction, his voice cutting through the boy's fatigue.
"No stopping! There's one week left until the Ninja Academy starts. You need to be a top student, isn't that right, (Obito)?"
The next moment, the young boy who had been sitting on the ground, resting, sprang up.
He began running again, and this time with a renewed passion burning inside him.
(Sosuke) thought sardonically—
Truly, anime characters are strange creatures.
They can recover their stamina with just a few simple words.
But that might be useful for him.
He had trained him for a week.
It was true, this period might be short.
But for a character who was a future machine, destined to control the ninja world, to start a full-scale war against the entire world...
If he didn't possess his full power, especially that eye he gave to (Kakashi), he alone would have been capable of subduing the entire ninja world.
But the idiot didn't do it because of his shallow problems and thoughts.
Thinking about this from his own perspective, he found the matter ridiculous.
If he had obtained the Kamui, things would have been different.
But in the end, that no longer mattered.
He had to make use of what he had now.
By training him and making him stronger at the Academy, he would win his trust.
And when he became stronger, he would be able to gain a member for his team.
As for (Madara)'s plan and his intervention in it, that required more thought.
Regarding (Madara), he probably didn't even know who (Obito) was at the present time.
Perhaps he would think of taking another Uchiha.
And as for him, he would keep (Obito).
A person like this, in the future, with such immense power...
If he reached even half the level he was at by the end of the Naruto anime and manga, he would be free to do as he wished in the future.
He would be a shield, a weapon.
When the clock neared 11, (Sosuke) approached (Obito), who had stopped, his small body gleaming with a thin layer of sweat under the sun.
"Alright, you can rest now," he said, his voice losing its earlier sharpness. "Next week, we'll train in chakra control. We need to raise your level."
(Obito)'s eyes lit up like twin suns.
He spoke with excitement, completely ignoring the exhaustion wracking his small frame.
"Really, Teacher?! Will I finally be able to learn how to make that lightning you can summon?!"
From the very first moment he witnessed that lightning, (Obito) had felt a powerful attraction to it.
He wanted to learn how to summon lightning to his hand, just like his teacher did.
But the teacher had refused to teach him that, making him train his body to be stronger instead.
The six-year-old boy had no way to convince the man otherwise, so he had sighed and agreed.
Until now.
Now he heard his teacher's words.
"Really. I will teach you chakra control. Not that."
The teacher said.
But (Obito)'s smile didn't disappear; it grew even wider, splitting his face into a brilliant grin.
"But this is a step, Teacher! And steps will let me reach my dream! So I agree! Let's train in chakra control!"
He stood up, raising his hand high into the air.
"YAHOOO!" he screamed, his voice a piercing shatter of the morning's calm.
(Sosuke) grabbed his own ears from the screaming.
Screech!
He felt that he had to change this habit of his student's, this screaming.
Otherwise, he would become deaf sooner rather than later.
But for now, he could only offer a wry smile.
If (Obito) became stronger, his own future would also become stronger.
It was a simple, cynical equation.
At the end of the day, he let (Obito) go home.
He watched the small, bouncing figure disappear down the path before he himself began walking through the village streets.
He thought of something different.
He had trained to a good level, becoming capable of controlling chakra almost subconsciously.
Walking on trees had become a mundane task for him.
Not only that, but he was now able to control chakra to use a lightning-style technique: the Lightning Clone, a D-rank technique that allowed him to form a clone capable of training on its own.
And the possibility of obtaining the clone's memories after it dispersed.
By doing this, he could increase his training speed by at least twice the normal rate.
He could now divide his chakra between himself and the clone.
About 30% for himself—enough to remain conscious and train his body—and 70% for the clone, allowing it to train chakra control.
The clone couldn't increase physical strength, but it would allow him to accelerate his understanding of chakra and increase his control over it.
Using it, he would also train in the other techniques.
He had trained the C-rank technique, the Close Lightning Strike, to a sufficient level.
He could use it fairly well now.
Through training focused on concentrating chakra to deliver an electric shock to a tree, he had succeeded after weeks of effort in reaching a good proficiency with it.
At the very least, he could use this technique after three to five seconds, depending on the amount of chakra he wanted to imbue within the shock.
He stopped thinking when he stood in front of his apartment.
The wooden door seemed flimsy, a stark contrast to the fortified mental walls he was building.
He entered inside and began to rest.
He went to the bathroom because he smelled bad.
Even while training (Obito), he had been training himself.
He couldn't let go of this precious time to train and increase his own power.
The feeling he had now was different.
The obligatory sensation of needing to increase strength had become a part of him.
An addiction.
To raise power, to understand the essence of chakra, and to constantly challenge himself.
After finishing his shower, the steam clinging to his skin, he grabbed the technique scrolls.
He began to read them, his eyes scanning the intricate diagrams and script.
He needed to understand his techniques more deeply, and even think of ways to improve them, if that was possible.
Improving a technique didn't just require a huge amount of chakra; it also required understanding it.
Plus, understanding the hand seals associated with it.
For example, a C-rank technique needed at least seven or eight hand seals.
Meanwhile, a B-rank technique might require ten seals or more.
Depending on your level of understanding of the technique, you could reduce the number of seals.
Techniques like the Clone Technique, which sometimes required only two or three seals.
The reason was that you were simply transferring chakra.
How did he know this?
Not from the anime or manga.
Through deduction, naturally.
A -rank techniques were like Genjutsu, illusion techniques.
Using these techniques didn't require many hand seals.
It might even require just one seal to perform.
This fell under the classification of a Kekkei Genkai, like the Rasingan.
The technique of the Fourth Hokage required only one seal, transferring chakra to a single point to activate a technique capable of leveling a hill to nothing.
Meanwhile, another technique, like the Chidori, which was on the same level as a Rasingan technique, required many hand seals to execute.
This was because most of these techniques required opening hidden pressure points in the body, or in a specific point.
The hand seals helped transfer chakra to those areas faster.
This was what made the number of seals, even for his own techniques, perhaps much less than for C or B-rank techniques.
He practiced the techniques and their seals a hundred times.
Snap. Clap. Twist.
His hands moved through the motions until he could perform them involuntarily.
This was to guarantee execution speed and precision of control.
Ensuring he could use a technique at the appropriate moment could make the difference between his death on a battlefield or his survival.
Therefore, he made sure to give a lot of time to fully understanding the seals.
He even tried to eliminate the need for extra seals by making himself understand the flow that occurred during the transfer of chakra to execute a technique.
It was a tedious, painstaking process.
Like trying to rewrite his own muscle memory.
At the end of the hour, around 12:00, he decided it was time to sleep.
He went to the bed and lay down.
He felt its softness beneath his back, a stark contrast to the hard ground of the training field.
A full-body weariness settled over him, a heavy, satisfying blanket of exhaustion.
His last thought before sleep claimed him was a simple, grim mantra:
"Another day of training and preparation is over."
---
──────────────────────
Author's Note:
Thank you for reading, my beloved readers! I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into the twisted mentorship of a man trying to cheat fate. Your support is the chakra that fuels this story!
(´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡
──────────────────────
End of Chapter.
──────────────────────