After awakening the Sharingan, Linbei added two more regimens to his training.
Chakra control.
This was the foundation of all Ninjutsu.
No matter how large one’s Chakra reserves were, it would all be for naught without proper control—much like a bucket with a hole in the bottom; it doesn’t matter how much water you pour in if it all leaks out.
The most classic and effective methods for training Chakra control were two-fold: tree climbing and water walking.
Linbei decided to start with tree climbing.
Early Sunday morning, just as the first light of dawn broke, Linbei headed out with Tom on his back.
They passed through the flagstone road of the Uchiha clan’s West District, walked through a small grove, crested a low hill, and arrived at the riverbank where Tom usually went fishing.
The river wasn’t wide, maybe ten meters across, and the water was clear enough to see the pebbles at the bottom.
On the far bank stood a dense forest of tall, straight trees with rough bark—perfect for practicing tree climbing.
Linbei set Tom down on a rock by the river and walked up to a large tree about as thick as two men could wrap their arms around.
He took a deep breath.
“Alright, let’s begin.”
He focused his Chakra into the soles of his feet and stepped onto the trunk.
Step one: steady.
Step two: also steady.
Step three—the Chakra at his feet suddenly flickered.
It felt as if he had stepped on oiled glass.
He lost his balance and plummeted from a height of two meters.
*Thud.*
Linbei lay flat on his back near the roots, his spine digging into a protruding knot.
He grimaced in pain.
“It’s fine.
Again.”
He scrambled up, brushed the dirt and bark fragments off his clothes, refocused his Chakra, and stepped back onto the tree.
One step, two steps, three, four—on the fifth step, his feet slipped, and he fell again.
This time he was three meters up.
Linbei tried to adjust his posture mid-air, but he still landed butt-first.
The impact made him see stars.
“Again.”
The fifth time.
The eighth time.
The thirteenth time.
Linbei lost track of how many times he had fallen.
The sun rose from the east to the middle of the sky, the river’s surface shimmering with light.
His clothes were covered in mud and shredded bark, his palms were blistered, and his back was a mosaic of black and blue bruises.
He fell from the tree once more, and this time, he didn’t even have the strength to get up.
He lay on the grass, chest heaving, gasping for air as sweat rolled down his face and into his collar.
“I can’t…
let me rest a bit…” Linbei wheezed toward the sky.
No one answered him.
He turned his head and looked toward Tom.
Tom wasn’t on the rock.
Linbei sat up and looked around.
Then he saw it.
About five meters up on a branch directly above him, Tom was hanging upside down.
Its tail was coiled around the branch, its body suspended in mid-air, and its front paws were crossed over its chest.
It swayed back and forth like a bat.
It was watching Linbei with those Sharingan eyes.
The red irises and black tomoe, combined with that upside-down posture and the faint, mocking curve of its mouth—it looked for all the world like it was laughing at him.
Blood rushed to Linbei’s head instantly.
“Tom!!!” He jumped up from the ground, pointing at the cat in the tree.
“When did you learn how to climb trees!”
Tom flipped down from the branch, performed a perfect three-sixty rotation in mid-air, and landed steadily on the grass in front of Linbei without even kicking up dust.
It pulled out its familiar small blackboard from behind its back and scribbled a line with chalk.
[Does this even need to be learned?]
Linbei stared at the words.
His mouth opened, then closed.
His face went from white to red, then to purple, then finally to a dark, simmering black.
He was reaching his boiling point.
He had fallen over a dozen times, covered himself in injuries, and couldn’t even climb two meters.
Yet this cat—this damn cat—had somehow climbed five meters up and was hanging there like it was the easiest thing in the world.
“You…
you…” Linbei pointed at Tom, his finger trembling.
Tom tilted its head, looking innocent.
It erased the words on the board and wrote another line.
[Want to learn?
I’ll teach you.]
A strange sensation surged up from his dantian.
It wasn’t Chakra.
He always had Chakra.
It was…
a sense of control.
It felt as if an invisible pair of hands had grasped the Chakra flowing within his body, helping him adjust its direction, speed, and intensity.
The Chakra that had previously been like a wild, runaway horse became docile and obedient under the guidance of these hands.
Linbei could feel his Chakra control proficiency improving several times over in that single instant.
It wasn’t something he had practiced himself.
It was feedback from Tom.
Tom knew how to climb trees.
Tom had incredible Chakra control.
And Tom had shared that ability with him through their bond.
Linbei stood in place, eyes closed, feeling the changes in his internal energy.
Previously, whenever he gathered Chakra at his feet, a small portion would always leak out.
Now, he could clearly perceive the flow of every wisp of energy, precisely controlling it to concentrate exactly where it was needed.
He opened his eyes and walked to the tree.
He lifted his foot and stepped onto the trunk.
Step one: solid.
Step two: solid.
Step three, four, five—
Linbei walked upward step by step.
He wasn’t fast, but every footfall was as steady as a mountain.
The Chakra at the soles of his feet acted like glue, anchoring him firmly to the trunk without a hint of instability.
Three meters.
Five meters.
Eight meters.
Linbei reached the canopy, found a sturdy branch to sit on, and looked down.
Tom stood at the base of the tree, looking up at him.
It held its paws over its head and clapped—though a cat’s paws didn’t make much sound, the gesture was clearly “applause.”
Linbei jumped down from the tree.
His legs felt a bit weak upon landing, and he nearly twisted an ankle, but he didn’t care.
He scooped Tom up and held it over his head.
“Great job, Tom!
You really are the best cat ever!”
Tom dangled in the air, its tail swishing back and forth, its expression clearly saying, “As if you even had to say it.”
Linbei set Tom down and put his hands on his hips, looking up at the tree with a grin that nearly reached his ears.
Then, a thought suddenly occurred to him.
“Tom.”
“Meow.”
“How long were you sitting there watching me fall?”
Tom tilted its head, thought for a moment, and held up three claws.
Three seconds?
No.
Tom pointed its paw at the sun—it had moved from the east to the middle of the sky.
About two hours had passed.
Two hours.
It had watched for two hours.
It had watched its master fall over a dozen times without lifting a paw to help.
It had waited until Linbei was exhausted and collapsed before lazily appearing upside down and writing that “Does this even need to be learned” sign.
Linbei’s fists clenched.
“Tom!!!
You were watching the whole time!!!”
Realizing things were about to go south, Tom turned to bolt.
But Linbei was faster.
He grabbed Tom by the scruff of the neck and hoisted it up, his other hand forming a fist aimed at Tom’s head—
*Bonk.*
He delivered a punch.
Tom’s head actually dented inward for a moment, and its paws flew up to cover the spot.
But it only took half a second for it to return to normal.
It wriggled out of Linbei’s grip, hopped to the ground, and used its paws to rub the dented part of its head back into shape.
Then it stuck its tongue out at Linbei.
“Meow.”
The expression clearly said: *You can’t catch me, you can’t catch me.*
Linbei laughed out of sheer frustration.
“Fine.
You just wait.”
With tree climbing mastered, Linbei struck while the iron was hot and began practicing water walking.
Water walking was much harder than tree climbing.
Tree climbing only required fixing Chakra to the soles of the feet to overcome gravity.
Water walking, however, required a constant, steady release of Chakra to interact with the water’s surface tension, maintaining enough buoyancy to keep from sinking. New chapters come out on g.com first.
If too much Chakra was released, the user would be launched upward; too little, and they would sink.
One had to find the exact point of equilibrium.
Linbei took off his shoes, rolled his pant legs above his knees, and walked to the river’s edge.
The water was cool, and the pebbles poked the soles of his feet.
He took a deep breath, gathered Chakra at his feet, and cautiously stepped onto the water.
His left foot stayed up.
His right foot stayed up.
And then—
*Splash.*
Linbei sank straight into the water, kicking up a massive spray.
He poked his head out of the water, his wet hair plastered to his face like a drowned rat.
Tom sat on a rock by the shore, doubled over with laughter.
It held its belly with one paw and slapped the rock with the other, its mouth wide open.
Though it made no sound, the sheer mockery in its expression was deafening.
“What are you laughing at!” Linbei wiped the water from his face.
“If you’re so tough, you try it!”
Tom stood up and walked to the water’s edge.
Dressed in its little tuxedo and wearing its small leather shoes, it simply stepped onto the surface.
Step one: solid.
Step two: solid.
Tom took a couple of steps across the water, then stopped and turned to face Linbei.
It reached behind its back and pulled out a miniature parasol, popped it open, and rested it on its shoulder.
Then, it reached back again and produced a drink with a straw, holding the glass in its paw.
It just stood there on the water, holding its umbrella, sipping its drink, and looking down at the soaking wet Linbei.
The sunlight caught the edge of the parasol and shone on Tom; the tuxedo was pristine, and the leather shoes were polished to a mirror shine.
Linbei was submerged in the river, with only his head showing.
Man and cat stared at each other for three seconds.
Then Linbei slammed his hands onto the water, sending a massive wave splashing toward Tom.
Tom took the hit full in the face.
The parasol fell, the drink spilled, and the tuxedo was soaked.
It froze for a second, then set the parasol down and pulled a water gun from behind its back.
It wasn’t a normal water gun.
It was one of those oversized “Water Cannon” types sold in parks, nearly half as big as Tom itself.
Linbei’s eyes widened.
“Where did you get—mph—”
Tom pulled the trigger.
A jet of water hit Linbei like a cannonball, blasting him backward through the water.
He did a somersault before plunging back into the river.
Linbei surfaced, wiped his face, and yelled furiously, “Just you wait!”
He started splashing water back.
Tom countered with the water gun.
One person and one cat—or rather, a boy and a cat—engaged in a fierce battle on the river.
Water sprayed everywhere, jets of liquid flew across the surface, and the local water birds took flight in a panic.
Linbei’s water walking training had completely devolved into a water fight.
However, he noticed something—in the process of the fight, his Chakra control was actually improving faster.
Because he had to dodge Tom’s water cannon, he was forced to constantly adjust the Chakra output at his feet, maintaining balance while moving rapidly.
Learning efficiency is highest when pushed to the limit.
The saying was certainly true.
By the time the sun began to set, the pair crawled back onto the bank.
Linbei was drenched, his clothes clinging to his skin and his hair dripping.
His shoes had been washed away to who-knows-where, so he walked barefoot on the grassy bank, his soles covered in mud.
Tom wasn’t doing much better.
Its tuxedo was soaked through, its bowtie was crooked, and its leather shoes were filled with water, making a “squelch-squelch” sound with every step.
Its tail dragged on the ground like a wet rope.
Man and cat walked side-by-side on the road home, leaving a trail of wet footprints.
The passing villagers couldn’t help but do a double-take at the sight.
A six-year-old boy, soaking wet and barefoot.
A cat in a tuxedo, also soaking wet, with water bubbling out of its shoes.
And yet, both of them had smiles on their faces.
“We continue tomorrow,” Linbei said.
“Meow,” Tom nodded.
The setting sun stretched their shadows long across the ground.
One tall, one short; one human, one cat.
Their shadows overlapped, creating a strange silhouette.
Linbei looked down at the shadow, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly.
The Sharingan was awakened, and he had the basics of Chakra control down.
The next step was to learn Ninjutsu.