He pushed open his front door and locked it behind him.
There was no one at home; his parents had passed away early, leaving only him.
That was fine too, as it was quiet.
Uchiha Makoto walked over to the mirror and took a deep breath.
Then, he mobilized his Chakra and directed it toward his eyes.
Hum!
The world before his eyes changed.
The colors became more vibrant, the details clearer, and even the dust floating in the air could be seen clearly.
Is this the Sharingan?
Uchiha Makoto blinked.
In the mirror, his eyes were still black, but a ring of tiny tomoe had appeared around his pupils.
A single tomoe.
One-tomoe Sharingan.
He tried moving his eyeballs, and his field of vision shifted along with them.
He tried focusing, and the texture of the distant wall was instantly brought into close-up view.
A fly buzzed by with a “bzz, bzz”.
Uchiha Makoto instinctively looked over.
Then, he froze.
In his eyes, that fly was flying…
exceptionally slowly.
It wasn’t actually slow; it was that his eyes could clearly see every single one of its movements.
How the wings flapped, how the legs moved, and even the flight trajectory could be anticipated.
Uchiha Makoto reached out his hand and made a casual grab.
The fly was caught in his hand.
“…” Uchiha Makoto looked at the fly in his hand and fell silent.
In the past, catching a fly depended on luck.
Now, a casual grab caught it right away.
“Is this dynamic vision?” He released his hand, and the fly flew away with a “bzz”, “This is somewhat interesting.”
But immediately afterward, he felt something was wrong.
Chakra was being consumed.
Although not much, it was indeed being consumed.
It was like turning on a faucet; even though it was only opened a tiny bit, the water kept flowing.
Uchiha Makoto quickly turned off the Sharingan, the world before him returned to normal, and the consumption of Chakra stopped.
“No wonder Kakashi is always short on blue.” Uchiha Makoto suddenly understood, “If this thing can’t be turned off, isn’t it leaking all the time?”
He thought of Kakashi from the original story.
The Copy Ninja, the man who fights to a draw with anyone, the unit of Chakra measurement.
“Actually, Kakashi’s talent isn’t bad.” Uchiha Makoto thought, “A Jonin at 12, creator of Chidori, and smart too. If it weren’t for this Sharingan dragging him down, he wouldn’t look like he’s being drained dry all day long.”
But then again, without the Sharingan, Kakashi couldn’t have become the Copy Ninja either.
There are pros and cons, I suppose.
But then he thought of his own situation.
“The Uchiha Clan…” Uchiha Makoto muttered, “Konoha…”
He knew how delicate the relationship between these two sides was.
The Uchiha felt that Konoha was pushing them out.
Konoha felt that the Uchiha wanted to rebel.
With Danzo caught in the middle, plotting all day long on how to annihilate the Uchiha.
“I need to be careful.” Uchiha Makoto closed the window, “Awakening the eyes at 6 is still too eye-catching.”
He walked over to the bed, sat down, and began refining Chakra.
Opening the Sharingan was a good thing, but it was also a trouble.
What he needed most right now was still to grow stronger.
To become stronger than anyone else.
On the training ground of the Ninja Academy, a group of six-year-old children stood in a row, their eyes wide open like copper bells.
Today they were going to learn the Three Basic Techniques.
“Transformation Technique! Clone Technique! Substitution Technique!”
Teacher Nakamura roared at the front, flying spit everywhere.
“These three techniques are the foundation of a Ninja! If you don’t know the Three Basic Techniques, you won’t even be able to graduate from the Ninja Academy! Did you hear that clearly?”
“Understood!” the students shouted at the top of their lungs.
Nearby, Obito and Guy were whispering to each other.
“Guy, do you think the Transformation Technique can turn someone into Hokage-sama?” Obito asked in a low voice.
“It probably can.” Guy stroked his chin, “But I think turning into youth is cooler!”
“How do you turn into youth?”
“It’s… it’s that kind of burning feeling!”
Listening to the dialogue between these two absolute masterminds, Uchiha Makoto almost couldn’t help laughing.
What the hell do you mean turn into youth, why don’t you turn into a ball of fire?
“Alright, let’s start practicing!” Teacher Nakamura clapped his hands, “Groups of two, supervise each other!”
The students dispersed to find partners.
Obito and Guy naturally got together.
Uchiha Makoto looked over and walked up beside them.
“Brother Makoto!” Obito’s eyes lit up, “Are you going to practice with us?”
“Mhm.” Uchiha Makoto nodded, “Just supervising each other.”
Actually, he wanted to observe these two clowns up close.
And by the way, think about how to fleece them.
The Three Basic Techniques sounded simple.
Transformation Technique: form hand signs and turn into someone else.
Clone Technique: form hand signs and create a clone.
Substitution Technique: form hand signs and replace oneself with a log.
But Uchiha Makoto knew that the upper limit of these three techniques was ridiculously high.
Naruto could use the Transformation Technique to turn into a Fuma Shuriken and coordinate attacks with Sasuke.
He could also turn into a beauty, baffling Kaguya completely.
Not to mention the Clone Technique, Multi-Shadow Clone was even a forbidden technique.
The Substitution Technique was even more ridiculous.
Pulling out logs at will during battle and instantly shifting positions.
Uchiha Makoto hadn’t been in a rush to materialize “Soru” earlier precisely because Naruto had the Substitution Technique and Body Flicker Technique.
The effects were similar, and there was no need to explain it.
“But just knowing them isn’t enough.” Uchiha Makoto thought while forming hand signs to practice the Transformation Technique, “I have to spice it up.”
Obito was stunned for a moment, then smiled.
“Brother Makoto, your transformation is so alike!”
“Duh, I modeled it right after you.”
“But it feels…
a bit different.” Obito scratched his head, “I can’t quite put my finger on it.”
Uchiha Makoto’s heart stirred slightly.
It truly was different.
His Transformation Technique was much more delicate than that of ordinary students.
The texture of the skin, the gloss of the hair, and even that silly glint in the eyes were all imitated to perfection.
This was the gap in talent.
With a genius template as his foundation, Uchiha Makoto learned everything quickly.
For basics among basics like the Three Basic Techniques, a few days of practice for him caught up to what others practiced for months.
But it still wasn’t enough.
He wanted to push these Three Basic Techniques to an inhuman level.
However, recently he always felt like eyes were staring at him.
It wasn’t an illusion; someone was genuinely monitoring him.
Most likely Danzo’s Root.
Those rats in the gutters were omnipresent; his original plan to materialize “Moonwalk” had also been postponed.
If Uchiha Makoto were to perform walking in the air right in front of Obito and Guy today, Root Ninjas would show up at his door tomorrow.
“I need to figure out a way.” He pondered while practicing the Clone Technique, “To fleece them without getting caught.”
In fact, Uchiha Makoto’s strength wasn’t weak right now.
Every day, he would say to Obito or Guy: “My Chakra cultivation speed is very fast.”
Every week, relying on the system, he would materialize a little bit of Chakra from both Obito and Guy.
A little bit of Chakra was roughly equivalent to one Grand Fireball.
Or two ordinary Shadow Clones.
It sounded like not much.
But you had to know that an ordinary Genin only had enough for three or four Grand Fireballs a day.
After using them up, they would be utterly exhausted and have to lie down for half a day.
How much did Uchiha Makoto have now?
Ten points.
Ten Grand Fireballs.
And every week he could fleece a bit more from Obito and Guy.
The rest of the week.
On Obito’s side, he fleeced “Uchiha Shuriken Throwing Proficiency” and “Uchiha Flowing Style Technique”.
On Guy’s side, he fleeced “Taijutsu Talent” and “Physical Strength”.
The remaining day depended on his mood.
Sometimes he went to find Kurenai to farm some favorability.
Sometimes he fleeced a bit of physical fitness.
Sometimes he fleeced proficiency in other Ninjutsu.
After two months, Uchiha Makoto’s strength was already enough to effortlessly trounce any Genin.