The training pits were a study in grit and sensory overload. The Uchiha didn't believe in padded mats or wooden swords; they believed in the "Truth of Steel." The air was thick with the scent of ionizing Lightning-release and the iron tang of blood that had been baked into the mud. I stood in the center of the primary pit, my bandaged hands now wrapped in leather-reinforced gloves I had treated with a dielectric resin.
Opposite me stood Madara. He wasn't wearing his crimson plates; his bare chest was a map of scars and pulsing meridian-channels. His spirit-pressure was a physical weight, pushing against my own.
"Show me the 'Overload', Kaito," Madara commanded. He held a training tantō with a grip that suggested he was ready to kill me if the experiment went wrong. "Show me how you break a man's mind without a single hand-seal."
"The technical term is 'Optical Buffer Overflow', Madara-sama," I said, my Sharingan spinning in a slow, hypnotic cadence. "Standard genjutsu relies on the 'Eye of Hypnotism' to suggest an illusion. It is a software attack. It can be bypassed if the target has enough 'spirit-clarity' or a partner to disrupt their flow."
I stepped forward, my sandals crunching on the sun-baked mud. The heat was relentless, 35 degrees Celsius with 10% humidity. Perfect for high-speed synaptic transmission.
"My method is a hardware attack. I am not suggesting an illusion. I am using the Sharingan to transmit a sequence of visual pulses that exceed the brain's ability to process data. I am forcing your nervous system to experience a sensory-motor mismatch that induces a localized seizure. It is the exploitation of the human mind's 80ms processing delay."
"And if I close my eyes?"
"The pulses travel via the spirit-radiation of your own chakra network. Closing your eyes only increases the latency of your response, making the eventual crash more catastrophic. You are currently standing in the center of my transmission field."
Madara grinned—a sharp, predatory expression. "Try it."
I didn't move my hands. I simply accelerated the rotation of my three tomoe.
Internal Logic: The Strobe Effect. By oscillating my chakra-frequency between 15Hz and 60Hz while maintaining a high-intensity visual feed, I could trigger the 'chronostasis' effect in Madara's visual cortex. His brain would try to 'freeze' time to process the conflicting data-packets.
Madara's Sharingan spun frantically, trying to track the invisible pattern. I saw his pupils dilate as the 15,000 MB/s of data flooded his prefrontal cortex. Then, he froze. His hands, which had been reaching for his sword, twitched and fell to his sides. He made a sound like a man who had forgotten how to breathe—a ragged, wet gasp.
Technical Result: Synaptic Lock. The subject's motor control has been deprioritized to preserve vital organ function. Total time to failure: 0.8 seconds.
I counted to three. Then, I released the pressure.
Madara collapsed to one knee, gasping, sweat pouring down his face as if he'd just run a marathon in the Land of Wind. He clutched his head, his teeth grinding together with a sound like crushing gravel.
"What... what was that?" Madara wheezed, his eyes slowly returning to their dark hue. "It felt like... like the world was a painting that was being torn into pieces in front of me. I couldn't even feel my own hands."
"It was a hardware failure, Madara-sama," I said, offering him a hand. My own hand was steady—a result of the dielectric resin insulation. "I didn't trick your mind. I crashed your processor. In a high-stakes engagement against someone like the Senju prince, a 2.5-second 'crash' is equivalent to a terminal kill-ratio. Why use 'love' or 'hate' when you can use 'buffer overflow'?"
Madara looked at my hand, then back at my eyes. A look of profound realization—and a dark, hungry ambition—spread across his face. "You don't fight like a ninja, Kaito. You fight like a God who's bored with the rules of the world. You're turning us into something else."
"The rules are just data, Madara-sama," I replied. "And data can always be corrupted. Now, let us work on your weight distribution. You are currently 4% off-center, which is a significant kinetic vulnerability that a Senju brute will exploit within three frames of engagement."
We trained until the moon was high, two boys rewriting the laws of Uchiha combat in the dark. I could feel the progression ticking upward. My Sharingan was no longer just an eye; it was a weapon that saw the world as a series of technical errors. And I was finally starting to like the frame-data.