Early the next morning, Sasuke woke up groggily and rubbed his eyes.
Only then did he realize— [This isn’t the room Tōru and I share.] He looked to both sides.
His older brother was sleeping on his right, while his twin younger brother was sleeping on his left.
It couldn’t have been any more perfect.
And the three of them were all sleeping in Itachi’s room.
[Oh, right…] Sasuke had only a hazy recollection of last night.
He seemed to remember someone carrying him here with one arm.
But because he had been so sleepy, he had assumed it was a dream and hadn’t paid much attention.
[Did Big Brother carry me here?] Two faint blushes appeared on Sasuke’s cheeks.
After all, he was the one sleeping in the middle!
That meant that compared to Tōru, Big Brother really did like him a little more!
[Yes!] [If things could always stay like this, and Mom didn’t mind, that would be even better.] Sasuke had completely misunderstood the situation.
Beside him, the noise of Sasuke covering his face and rolling around woke Tōru.
The mysterious voice also appeared in his mind as expected.
[Eight hours of close contact with Uchiha Itachi.
Flame Breathing analysis progress +0.06%; Wind Breathing analysis progress +0.02%; Moon Breathing analysis progress +0.004%.] [Ten hours of close contact with Uchiha Sasuke.
Flame Breathing analysis progress +0.07%; Thunder Breathing analysis progress +0.03%.] Though outsiders would never have noticed, a rare trace of joy seemed to appear on Tōru’s face.
[As expected.
If I have Sasuke sleep beside Itachi, the progress will be even faster.] Over the course of a single night, his Flame Breathing analysis progress had increased by 0.13%.
At this rate, even if Tōru did nothing more than sleep in the same room as the two brothers, he could revive Kyojuro Rengoku within two years.
And that wasn’t even counting the time they would spend training together during the day…
If Itachi could advance his Fire Nature Transformation further, increasing the analysis progress gained per hour by another 0.01%, the process of reviving Rengoku would become even faster.
Still, using his two brothers so silently made Tōru feel somewhat guilty.
[After all, Sasuke is already this old.
Perhaps he doesn’t want to sleep with Itachi anymore.] (Sasuke: I strongly advise you to mind your own business!) Tōru decided that he could make their meals a little more elaborate in the future as compensation.
Alternatively, he could use the Transparent World to guide them during training, helping them avoid unnecessary detours.
Tōru raised his right hand and carefully examined it.
The swelling caused by excessive chakra coating the previous day had completely disappeared.
As he recalled what had happened, he now had a rough understanding of the extent of his own strength.
When he had clashed with those three Genin yesterday, he had relied purely on his physical strength to counterattack.
Even so, his destructive power had been quite impressive—probably around the level of a Chūnin.
However, when he used Breathing Styles while simultaneously channeling chakra, his Breathing Forms could be released in the form of ninjutsu.
The destructive power seemed to depend on the amount of chakra consumed.
In that state, the power of his Forms was simply too great.
Therefore, Tōru decided that he should avoid using them casually.
If not for Shisui, Uchiha Enka might very well have been killed on the spot by his Tenth Form: Constant Flux.
[Right.
I also need to learn how to dispel Genjutsu as soon as possible.] Tōru clenched his fist, his gaze firm.
The same thing absolutely could not happen again.
“Are you both awake?” Itachi sat up as well.
His eyes briefly rested on Tōru before he reached over and ruffled Sasuke’s hair.
Sasuke happily buried his face in his brother’s chest like an affectionate cat.
When Tōru had carried Sasuke in with one arm the previous night, Itachi had still been awake, thinking about what would happen after Father sent him into the ANBU.
He had assumed Tōru had come to talk to him about what happened that day.
Instead, Tōru had put Sasuke down and immediately gone to sleep.
Itachi couldn’t figure out why Tōru had done that and could only conclude that this was Tōru’s unique way of expressing affection.
After all, many of Tōru’s actions in their family were impossible to explain.
Itachi was already getting used to it.
“Big Brother, are we going back to Training Ground Four today?” Sasuke was still bothered by the fact that he hadn’t learned the Fireball Jutsu properly the previous day.
“No.
Starting today, we’ll train at the Uchiha training grounds.” Itachi smiled faintly.
“Uchiha Enka was punished by Father.
He’ll be assigned to the Military Police Force for the next month.” What Itachi didn’t mention was that after seeing off the medical ninja who had treated Tōru the previous night, he had intercepted the nearly chakra-depleted Uchiha Enka on the way home and thoroughly beaten him using his exquisite Shurikenjutsu.
Uchiha Enka would probably need another three days of rest before he could report for duty at the Military Police Force.
Sasuke was delighted when he heard that they no longer needed to travel so far.
“Great!
Then we can stay out late and it won’t matter!” “Training requires a balance between work and rest, Sasuke.” Itachi lightly tapped Sasuke on the forehead before changing the subject.
“However, I’ll only be able to train with you every day for the next month.
So perhaps spending some extra time together isn’t a bad thing.” “Huh?” Not only Sasuke, but even Tōru looked up at Itachi inquisitively.
“Why?” “I’ve already agreed to Father that I’ll participate in the Chūnin Exams in August.” Itachi explained, “After becoming a Chūnin, I may have to undertake missions outside the Land of Fire.” “Will you be gone for a long time?” Sasuke looked at him with pitiful, starry eyes.
Without his brother around, life had no meaning.
“I’ll try to finish my missions as quickly as possible.” Itachi smiled.
“I just won’t be able to stay with you and Tōru every day.” “If you leave the village, won’t it be dangerous?” Naturally, it was Tōru who asked this.
From those words alone, Itachi could sense the difference between his two younger brothers.
Compared to Sasuke, who simply wanted to stay glued to him, Tōru was more like an adult.
His first concern was Itachi’s safety.
Itachi had naturally overheard Tōru’s lengthy explanation about why he didn’t want to become a shinobi while he was observing Father in the forest the previous day.
No matter how he looked at it, the future Tōru had described for a shinobi was far too realistic—and far too bleak—for a child.
It was difficult to imagine that someone who had never been on a battlefield could say such things.
“Don’t worry about my safety.
Before any mission is assigned to me, Father will screen it first.” Itachi knew very well that most of the missions he would eventually undertake would involve the qualities required of ANBU shinobi, such as surveillance and assassination.
As long as he had enough time to plan and prepare, he was confident he could complete such missions.
Border patrol missions were actually more dangerous.
Unexpected encounters could occur there, and for someone his age whose body had not fully developed, such encounters might pose a real threat.
“That’s good.” Tōru only believed half of what Itachi said.
He still couldn’t forget the time Itachi had lost a teammate at the age of eight and returned home covered in blood.
Once Itachi left the village, the dangers he might encounter would increase severalfold.
Worried, Tōru wanted to say, “Can I go with you?” But even with his limited knowledge of the shinobi world, he understood that neither the rules governing shinobi nor his parents would ever allow such a thing.
Still, he had to do something for Itachi.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to remain at home in peace.
After thinking for a long time, Tōru lowered his head and finally spoke.
“If you’re going to participate in the Chūnin Exams, would you like me to train you?” “Hm?” Both Sasuke and Itachi abruptly looked at him.
One had witnessed it firsthand, while the other had heard Shisui’s account.
They both knew that this younger brother possessed physical abilities that allowed him to easily defeat Genin.
[He was able to react to those two juniors’ attacks in time without even using his Sharingan.] [And those experienced, decisive attacks…
Unless someone knows the human body’s weak points extremely well, there’s no way they could do that.] Shisui’s assessment still echoed in Itachi’s mind.
[In terms of Taijutsu and ninjutsu, calling Tōru a genius wouldn’t be an exaggeration.] [But his heart is too soft.
Even after defeating an opponent seven years older than himself, he didn’t show the slightest joy.
Instead, he seemed almost guilty.] “Are you really willing?” Itachi stared into Tōru’s eyes.
“I thought you didn’t like anything related to shinobi.” “I don’t like it.
But I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Tōru’s answer was direct, without the slightest attempt to hide his feelings.
Itachi’s heart, which had gradually grown harder because of his missions, felt as though a ray of warm sunlight had pierced straight through it.
“Then I’ll be counting on you, Tōru.” “Mm.” “Hey!
Don’t leave me out!
I want to help train Big Brother too!” Sasuke puffed out his cheeks and inserted himself between their lines of sight.
And so, for the next twenty-odd days, a secluded section deep within the Uchiha training grounds became the three brothers’ private training area.
In the mornings, Itachi taught Sasuke the Three Basic Techniques, the Fireball Jutsu, Phoenix Sage Fire, and other ninjutsu.
Tōru sat less than two meters away, extracting chakra.
Because they stayed close together, they returned home for lunch.
To speed up cooking, Tōru used the Transparent World to learn the Shadow Clone Technique from Itachi.
With Tōru’s chakra reserves, however, he could create at most four Shadow Clones at once.
From this, Itachi concluded that Tōru’s chakra reserves were probably only slightly lower than his own.
However, Itachi believed that if Father discovered Tōru had learned the Shadow Clone Technique, it might attract his attention again.
So he taught Tōru the Water Clone Technique instead.
Although Water Clones could not share memories, had insufficient offensive power, and could not travel very far from the original, they were perfectly adequate for small tasks like cooking.
Most importantly, Water Clones consumed very little chakra.
In the afternoons, Itachi would create a Shadow Clone to teach Sasuke Shurikenjutsu while his original body practiced close-quarters combat with Tōru using wooden swords.
Itachi’s own swordsmanship had been taught to him by Shisui.
To be honest, aside from speed, there wasn’t a huge difference between the various styles of ninja blade techniques.
But when fighting Tōru, Itachi gradually realized that Tōru’s fighting style belonged neither to conventional ninja swordsmanship nor to the swordsmanship of the samurai of the Land of Iron.
Instead, it was a combat style created for fighting powerful, monstrous opponents.
As a result, its movements were extraordinarily exaggerated.
Every one of Tōru’s strikes mobilized the strength of his entire body, leaving absolutely no room for restraint.
For example, techniques such as Water Wheel, Whirlpool, and Constant Flux were accompanied by extremely difficult, almost acrobatic body movements.
To be honest, there was something about them that resembled swordsmanship imagined by a child.
That was how Itachi characterized the sword Forms of Water Breathing.
Without using chakra, Itachi didn’t believe he could perform those high-difficulty movements within such a short period.
Yet Tōru could.
Swordsmanship that would be filled with fatal openings in the hands of an ordinary shinobi appeared completely natural when performed by Tōru, making it almost impossible to find a weakness.
And after performing an entire sequence, Tōru’s breathing wasn’t even labored.
In other words, without Tōru’s unique Breathing Style, his swordsmanship was almost impossible to reproduce.
However, when Itachi actually began using his Sharingan to imitate Tōru’s breathing, he sensed a strange force invading his chakra.
He immediately stopped.
“Either don’t create chakra when using Water Breathing,” Tōru told him, “or make sure the power drawn in through breathing from the outside is mixed evenly with your physical energy and spiritual energy.” “But you’ll need Constant Total Concentration before you can do that.” Thus, every night after dinner, Itachi gained another task.
Under Tōru’s supervision, he practiced Water Breathing without incorporating chakra.
The moment Itachi discovered that breathing could instantly enhance his physical abilities and control, he immediately understood the value of Breathing Styles in emergencies.
As a result, he practiced with extraordinary seriousness.
Whenever he ran low on chakra, he could rely on Breathing to fight his opponent.
Total Concentration Breathing provided a comprehensive temporary enhancement to the body.
It was faster and more convenient than using chakra to activate the body, eliminating many unnecessary steps and losses during energy conversion.
After roughly a week, he finally mastered the first nine Forms of Water Breathing: Total Concentration.
He had done so countless times faster than Tōru had in his previous life.
As for the Tenth Form, Constant Flux, it required extremely high physical capabilities, and he couldn’t perform it yet.
The Eleventh Form, Dead Calm, required Constant Total Concentration before it could be used.
The day before Itachi was scheduled to participate in the Chūnin Exams, Tōru said to him: “Water Breathing is a swordsmanship style meant to protect others.
I hope you can use it to protect yourself, but try not to harm innocent people.
Can you do that?” There was no Demon Slayer Corps in this world.
And Itachi was his family.
That was why Tōru could bring himself to teach him the Breathing Style.
Still, Water Breathing had originally been created to protect people from demons.
Tōru hoped that it would be used to take as few lives as possible.
“I’ll remember.” Itachi lowered his head and pressed his forehead against Tōru’s.
“Thank you, Tōru.” Although it might sound a little strange…
During those twenty-odd days of training with Tōru, Itachi’s progress in Taijutsu had been far greater than when he trained with Shisui.
At times, he even suspected that Tōru possessed something similar to the Byakugan, allowing him to easily see the flow of energy within his body and make his training several times more efficient.
After learning Breathing, Itachi had also successfully made up for his weakness in physical strength.
At this point, he finally felt that he had reached the threshold of becoming a “well-rounded shinobi.” The Chūnin Exams, which had already seemed virtually guaranteed, now held no suspense whatsoever.
The next day.
Itachi’s Chūnin Exams were being held in Sunagakure.
All three stages would take roughly a month to complete.
Without his brother around, Sasuke was rather depressed.
Even when training with Tōru, he lacked his usual energy.
Considering that their mother and the squad she led were also going to the exams, Tōru wasn’t particularly worried about Itachi’s safety.
The only thing he regretted was that the rapid growth of his Flame Breathing analysis progress would probably slow down.
During those twenty-odd days, the three brothers had spent roughly twenty-two hours together every day.
On top of that, Itachi and Sasuke had also been training Fire Release.
As a result, Tōru’s Flame Breathing analysis progress had skyrocketed by at least 0.8% per day.
It had now reached an astonishing 36%.
But without Itachi for the next month, maintaining that rate would be extremely difficult.
[Could I go to work with Father?] The absurd thought had barely entered Tōru’s mind when a clear ringing sound reached his ears.
He followed the sound and discovered three people awkwardly staring at the transparent threads beneath their feet.
They were the three Genin who had come looking for trouble alongside Uchiha Enka that day.
“You three again?!” Sasuke was initially a little flustered.
But when he saw Tōru standing expressionlessly nearby, his face immediately returned to normal.
“Did you come here to take our training area?
You haven’t forgotten what happened the last time you disturbed us, have you?” “Please don’t misunderstand.” The three Genin were all handsome, with the thin lips and sharp eyes characteristic of the Uchiha.
But right now, their expressions were remarkably gentle.
The one in front stepped over the warning bell Itachi had set up and rubbed his nose.
“Actually, we’ve come to thank you.” “Thank us?” Sasuke asked in confusion.
“Who are you thanking?
And why?” “Of course we’re thanking all of you.
You’ve kept what happened that day to yourselves for so long, preserving our dignity.” Another one spoke, his expression somewhat ashamed.
He looked at Tōru.
“When we went to the hospital for treatment, the doctor said that you must have deliberately held back and controlled your strength.
Otherwise, we’d have suffered serious injuries.” “That’s another thing we wanted to thank you for.” Tōru remembered him.
He was the Genin who had tried to tie him up with a rope.
The boy bowed deeply to Tōru.
“And you’re really strong.” The other two nodded in agreement.
After that day, Uchiha Enka had first been thoroughly beaten and then assigned to guard duty with the Military Police Force.
Meanwhile, the three Genin had spent their days living in fear that the humiliating incident of “three against two and losing to a five-year-old” would be exposed.
The Uchiha Clan was a united clan.
Whenever one of their members was targeted by an outsider, they would unite against the outsider, regardless of who was actually in the right.
But the Uchiha were also a sharp-tongued clan.
When it came to failures and weaklings within the clan, their fellow Uchiha would never pass up an opportunity to mock them— often under the guise of “helping you awaken your Sharingan.” The three Genin had hidden at home for an entire week.
Only after confirming that no unfavorable rumors involving them had spread did they finally venture outside again.
That was when they remembered that the clan head’s son, who had beaten them so badly, had apparently promised to keep the matter secret.
Thus, partly out of gratitude for Tōru’s generosity and partly out of respect for his strength, the three of them had been looking for an opportunity to thank him personally.
Unfortunately, during this period, the three brothers had been practically inseparable at the training grounds.
Although Uchiha Enka had never said who had beaten him so badly, the three Genin could more or less guess.
It had to be Uchiha Itachi.
Only after Itachi left to participate in the Chūnin Exams did they finally find the courage to come and offer their thanks.
“This is a small gift.” The leading Genin waved his hand.
The one at the back immediately took out an exquisite gift box of premium sweets from Amaguriama, the Konoha sweets shop.
“It’s for you and your younger brother—” “I’m the older brother!” Sasuke shouted indignantly.
Yet his eyes were fixed on the picture on the sweets box.
When he saw that it contained his favorite flavor, Sasuke asked: “Tōru, should we accept it?” “This probably costs more than a hundred thousand.” As the one responsible for cooking, Tōru was the most financially knowledgeable child in the household and could naturally tell how expensive the sweets were.
“That’s really expensive.” “This is money we’ve saved from doing missions recently.” The leading Genin said, “If you don’t mind, please accept our sincerity.” Seeing the three boys and Sasuke all looking at him earnestly, Tōru finally accepted the gift box.
The next moment, the familiar notification sounded again.
[You have become friends with Uchiha Cui, Uchiha Wen, and Uchiha Gan.
Analysis progress can now be obtained from them.] Tōru froze.
He immediately shoved the gift box into Sasuke’s hands before abruptly asking the three boys: “Would you like to train with Sasuke and me?” And so, even with Uchiha Itachi away, Tōru’s Flame Breathing analysis progress continued to increase at an astonishing rate.
When Itachi returned, the rate increased even further.
Then, four months later, on the eve of the New Year, Uchiha Tōru finally completed the analysis of Flame Breathing.
All that remained before he could revive the Flame Hashira, Kyojuro Rengoku, was to cultivate Flame Breathing to Constant Total Concentration.