9 Chapter 8: Water Dragon Bullet? No, Tenth Form: Constant Flux! (3786 words)
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Chapter 8: Water Dragon Bullet? No, Tenth Form: Constant Flux! (3786 words)
In the forest of Training Ground 4.
The chakra test paper, completely soaked and softened by water, fell to the ground like a lump of white mud, making a "pat" sound.
The three brothers took a step back, each with a different expression on their faces.
"Giyu," Uchiha Sasuke, still not understanding what had happened, said somewhat regretfully, "How did you ruin this paper? Now we can't take it back to show Dad."
Giyu withdrew his empty hand, his face showing innocence.
"...I don't know what happened either. It just suddenly turned out like this."
"You don't need to worry. The test paper was meant to be disposable."
Uchiha Itachi shook his head gently, "However, Giyu, your situation is quite unique. The coexistence of water and fire, two opposing chakra natures, rarely occurs in the same ninja. Moreover..."
He looked at Giyu's eyes with a serious expression, his tone becoming grave.
"Your chakra has an extremely high affinity for water, to the point where it surpasses the Uchiha clan's inherited fire affinity. It's unlikely that anyone would believe it if we were to tell them."
"Is that a bad thing?"
Sasuke looked at Itachi with a strange gaze, filled with curiosity. "Brother, why do you look unhappy?"
"If Giyu is willing to become a ninja, then it might be fine."
[But it won't be without its drawbacks.]
Itachi crouched down and explained to the two of them, "Water Release ninjutsu may not have strong offensive power, but it excels in its wide range. It can easily change the terrain, destroy structures, and with Giyu's high affinity for water, as long as he has enough chakra, he could probably treat B-rank ninjutsu as forbidden jutsu. And that's not even considering the presence of natural water sources in the surroundings. Can you imagine how excited our clan members would be if they knew about this?"
He began to imagine Giyu manipulating a torrential river behind their father, causing it to wash away the entire Konoha village, while their father laughed heartily in front.
According to the clan's records, before the founding of Konoha, when the Senju and Uchiha were still enemies, the Second Hokage, who was not yet the Hokage at the time, used a water-based ninjutsu resembling the ocean to attack the Uchiha's former residence, completely destroying their living area and causing a great deal of casualties.
Now they had the opportunity to turn the tables in the same way, and those vengeful clan members wouldn't miss this chance.
More importantly, if Giyu's Water Release became powerful enough, it would also greatly restrain the Sarutobi clan, who were skilled in Fire Release.
And within Konoha, there were few Earth Release ninjas skilled at countering Water Release.
Even if ninjas could survive in the water or fight on the water's surface, what about the civilians and the lower-ranking shinobi who lacked such abilities?
Itachi dared not continue to think further.
"Let's make a promise."
He looked at Sasuke and Giyu, saying, "If father asks about today's situation, let's just say that Giyu has both Water and Fire Release chakra, without going into the specifics of what happened with the chakra test paper."
Then he turned to Giyu alone and cautioned him, "If father tries to test you again with the paper, just refuse as usual."
Giyu nodded understandingly.
"But why do we need to hide it from Dad?"
Sasuke didn't quite understand.
Isn't it a good thing to have their father's attention?
Before, Giyu didn't care about their father's opinion, but now even his brother was encouraging this behavior?
Is their father's approval really not worth mentioning to them?
"Sasuke, once father knows about this, Giyu won't have any freedom left."
Itachi sighed, realizing that there were many things they couldn't explain to each other, and Sasuke wouldn't understand either.
"Father would be pressured by the higher-ranked ninjas in the clan to train Giyu and use him as a secret weapon. Then you wouldn't be able to see him anymore, or taste the food Giyu cooks."
[Not to mention what the clan members might do to enhance his visual powers...]
He paused for a moment, his gaze focused on Sasuke. "Do you really want that to happen?"
"N-No, I don't want that."
Sasuke shook his head palely, "But Dad wouldn't do that, right?"
"He is first and foremost the Uchiha clan head, and only secondly our father. He has to consider the future of the clan."
Itachi's words seemed to show some understanding for Fugaku, but his tone became colder.
He remembered the time when he awakened his Sharingan at the age of eight, when his teammates, Tenzō and Kokoro, were killed by the masked man, and his father didn't care that lives were lost. He just fed the fish while happily congratulating Itachi on awakening, "Becoming a true member of the Uchiha."
Since then, he had never expressed any true thoughts in front of his father, only quietly observing.
But the more he saw and heard, the more he felt resistance towards the so-called "Uchiha pride."
If it weren't for his attachment to Sasuke and Giyu, he really wanted to leave this family.
Really wanted to.
"Sasuke, if you plan to become a ninja, remember this."
Itachi gently touched Sasuke's young face, his eyes filled with tenderness. "Sometimes, being better than others will only make you be exploited and consumed more quickly. If possible, I really wish you were born in the Land of Fire, rather than a ninja village and the Uchiha..."
With such an unusual wish, Sasuke suddenly felt like he had entered an icy cave, unsure of how to respond.
Giyu took a deep look at Itachi, recalling the many times Itachi had refused their father's invitation to participate in the Chunin Exams. It was clear that Itachi also understood that once he became a Chunin, he would have to get involved in more complex conflicts.
[He's only ten years old...]
[And yet, he already sees the nature of a ninja as expendable?]
For the first time, he felt that Itachi was working harder than he did when he was thirteen or fourteen.
At that time, consumed by hatred for the demon and by guilt towards his sister and Sato, he could still use those emotions to propel himself forward, with an inexhaustible drive, without having to consider the question of "why he was living."
But Itachi understood on an intellectual level that he was a "disposable" product, and yet he persisted and lived without being affected by that despair and sense of meaninglessness...
This couldn't be summed up with words like "maturity" or "precocity." It came with a touch of paranoia, ready to rebound at any time.
He grabbed Itachi's sleeve and sincerely said, "Don't push yourself too hard."
Itachi looked puzzled for a moment, then after a while, he revealed a bright smile.
With that, the morning training came to a complete end.
After finishing lunch, Itachi said to his brothers, "Resting is also part of training. You can take a nap here or go swimming in the nearby shallow lake. I'll be leaving for a while and will return in the afternoon."
"Huh?"
Sasuke suddenly realized, "Brother, do you have a mission today?"
"Yeah, it's a C-rank mission."
Uchiha Itachi nodded, "It's an assignment from the Daimyo, so I have to go on time."
The Daimyo's residence was in the capital of the Land of Fire.
But most of the family members, except for the eldest son, liked to vacation in Konoha.
For example, the Daimyo's wife. Every day, several of her cats would go missing, and finding the cats had become a daily task for the lower-ranked Konoha shinobi, with generous rewards.
"Then, brother, make sure to come back early."
Sasuke said reluctantly.
Being alone with Giyu while being conscious, for him, was quite a test of endurance.
He wanted to talk and communicate with Giyu, but Giyu always said things that made him angry.
"I'll do my best."
Itachi rubbed Sasuke's head and said, "After I come back in the afternoon, I'll teach you the secrets of the Great Fireball Technique."
"During this time, don't argue with Giyu or be in a bad mood with him."
"Oh."
Sasuke imitated Itachi's tone and said, "I'll do my best too."
Itachi smiled, patted him on the head, and was about to leave when Giyu stopped him.
"Wait a minute."
Giyu opened the bottom layer of his food container and took out a fox mask, handing it to Itachi. "This is for you."
"A mask to ward off bad luck?"
Itachi immediately understood Giyu's intention, "Thank you, Giyu."
After saying that, he waved goodbye to his brothers and disappeared from the spot with the Body Flicker Technique, astonishing Sasuke, who couldn't help but exclaim how cool it was and express his desire to learn it.
However, what the two of them didn't know was that although Uchiha Itachi had left, another pair of crimson Sharingan eyes erupted with bursts of red light from the depths of the dark forest, observing their every move.
...
"Giyu."
Under a shady tree, Sasuke lazily leaned against the trunk, skillfully throwing and catching his kunai in his right hand, hoping to elicit an expression of "envy" and "desire to learn" from Giyu.
But Giyu, bored, lay down at the end of the shade, his eyes reflecting the white clouds in the sky, seemingly contemplating their shapes.
[The resolution of the Moon Breathing Technique is ten times that of the Flame Breathing Technique, so the Sun Breathing Technique should be similar.]
[Itachi has three tomoe, analyzing three parts of a hundred thousand per hour. Even if I can collect the resolution of the Moon Breathing Technique three times a day, it would take me more than ten thousand days, which is over twenty years. That's too long...]
[Except for Itachi, father, mother, and Shisui also have three tomoe.]
[If I find some excuses to let them use genjutsu on me, the progress might be much faster...]
Giyu was thinking when suddenly his field of vision was filled with the face of his twin brother Sasuke.
The latter was kneeling on the ground, staring intently at Giyu's eyes, as if trying to see through him.
"What are you doing?"
Confused, Giyu asked, "If you want me to train with you, please forgive me for refusing. We are too far apart."
With the strength of this body, I should be able to punch a large hole in the circular stone on the mountain where Master Sakonji placed it (the one Tanjiro cut before taking the assessment)."
"Who told you not to train? How could you possibly be my opponent?"
Sasuke snorted arrogantly, completely misunderstanding Giyu's meaning, but a trace of loneliness soon appeared on his face.
"But if you start taking it seriously, you'll surpass me immediately, won't you?"
"Your body is so good, you have great strength, and even your chakra attribute is so exaggerated."
Sasuke's voice grew smaller as he spoke, making Giyu sit up to hear clearly.
Sasuke pouted and stammered, "You, you might..."
"What might I do?"
Giyu patted Sasuke's shoulder. "Make it clear."
"I mean!"
"Are you trying to say that you already knew I was useless, so you pretended not to want to be a ninja, pretended not to care about Dad's attitude towards you?"
Sasuke finally spoke out his true thoughts.
"If that's the case, I don't need your pity."
The summer breeze rustled through the treetops above their heads, creating a pleasant rustling sound. After the cool breeze passed, Sasuke lowered his head, feeling ashamed, his eyes turning red.
Sasuke had always been a competitive child.
When Giyu started doing household chores, he also wanted to show himself, but he ended up making a mess of things.
When their father criticized him, he would panic and couldn't even sit still, while Giyu would interrupt and ask when he could start preparing dinner.
Although Sasuke never said it, he truly envied Giyu for being able to easily do things that he and his brother couldn't.
But as he grew older, Sasuke understood that what Giyu excelled at was not what their clan and father admired.
This was a village of ninjas, a place where only the strong had a presence.
To have power and become a ninja, like his brother, was the way to earn their father's approval.
Around the age of four, Sasuke started pestering his brother to teach him shurikenjutsu, shadow clones, and Uchiha's fire release.
After a year passed, he felt he finally had something in which he was stronger than Giyu.
He even pitied Giyu a little because he pretended not to want to be a ninja and had to endure their father's disapproving gaze every night.
Until last night, Sasuke couldn't understand why his inexperienced younger brother suddenly awakened his eyes. When their father said, "Giyu's talent is stronger than Itachi and Shisui," Sasuke felt somewhat annoyed.
This morning, when Giyu effortlessly lifted the food box and ran a long distance without even panting, Sasuke finally understood their father's intention and realized that he hadn't been mistaken.
Gradually, the details that he had never considered before started flooding his mind.
For example, every time Giyu bought vegetables, their size and weight.
For example, every summer, he would sweat profusely while Giyu remained cool.
For example, every time he went out, their mother would caution him to be careful, but she rarely said the same to Giyu, even though he carried so much money with him.
Because their mother had long realized that Giyu had always been strong, not just since yesterday.
Thinking about it carefully, in this family...
He was the only one treated as a child and a weakling!
"Why are you crying?"
Giyu became a little annoyed.
He wasn't a babysitter; he couldn't console children.
"You answer my question first."
Sasuke stared at Giyu stubbornly. "Did you pretend not to want to be a ninja just to make me seem less pitiful?"
The Sharingan in the depths of the forest shrank, clearly wanting to know the answer to the question.
With the way Giyu treated Sasuke with "affection," he was capable of doing such a thing.
Giyu took a deep breath and solemnly spoke a few words. "Absolutely not."
"Why?"
Sasuke paused. "Why don't you want to become a ninja?"
"You should ask yourself why you want to become a ninja."
Giyu lifted his head and responded with a rhetorical question.
"Um, because Dad, Mom, and Itachi are all ninjas—"
"So, you're only imitating them?"
"But Dad also wants us to become ninjas—"
"In other words, you're just following the family tradition and their expectations of you."
Giyu looked at Sasuke with a profound gaze. "Even if you're not clear about what you want to do as a ninja, as long as you have power, as long as you gain recognition from Dad and the clan, as long as you make the Uchiha name known, is that all that matters?"
"..."
Sasuke looked at Giyu in astonishment.
It was the first time he heard such a long string of words from him, as if he wanted to make up for all the words he hadn't said in the past few years.
"Is there something wrong with this way of thinking?"
Isn't that what every clan member is doing?
From a distance, Uchiha Fugaku frowned, afraid that Giyu might be instilling some strange ideas into Sasuke.
Giyu didn't answer immediately; instead, he gazed at the clouds in the sky for a while.
The shape of one cloud resembled the posture of Inosuke's palms pressed together in despair.
"Sasuke, you chose to become a ninja, but do you know what you're more likely to face than others?"
Giyu turned his head to look at his fellow brother, who bore some resemblance to him.
"Have you ever thought about facing a scene where you are surrounded by rivers of blood and corpses lying everywhere, as you engage in a fierce battle with enemies who cannot be reasoned with?"
It was a scene from the Infinity Castle, when they had to tread on the bodies of their comrades to move forward.
"Have you ever thought about watching your close friends and family being killed mercilessly by irrational enemies right before your eyes?"
The bodies of Nezuko and Kanao, in a state of dismemberment, appeared before his eyes.
"You only see the respect that ninjas in the clan receive, but do you know that they are just the ones who managed to survive?"
"Choosing to become a tool in the hands of others as a profession, easily sacrificing oneself without knowing the pain of losing loved ones and friends, all for the sake of 'fame,' 'glory,' and 'pride,' these empty words, and being intoxicated by them."
Giyu raised his head, squinting his eyes against the sun.
"They use beautiful words to deceive children who know nothing and have no other choices, and once these children see the brutal truth, they use the hatred and pain caused by the sacrifice of their loved ones and friends to keep them on the path of being a tool for generations, until it becomes common sense."
"Why don't I want to become a ninja?" Giyu glanced at Sasuke, whose mind was already clouded by incomprehensible words.
"That's the reason. I'm not ready to destroy lives I don't understand with a simple command. I just want to have enough power to protect the life I have now, and that's enough. But I can achieve that without becoming a ninja..."
Clap, clap, clap.
Applause echoed, but it wasn't Sasuke clapping.
Giyu and Sasuke turned their heads to find a young man they didn't recognize crouching on a nearby earthen wall, about ten meters away from them.
But in the next moment, with a swish, that person appeared right in front of them.
His technique proficiency was not inferior to Itachi's Body Flicker Technique.
The person had the typical handsome appearance of the Uchiha, but his raised eyebrows made him look somewhat hot-tempered. He was the one who had been clapping.
"I never expected to hear such words from the son of the clan head."
He sneered contemptuously. "This kind of twisted reasoning couldn't possibly come from a child like you. Did you hear it from the clan head or that coward, Uchiha Itachi?"
"Don't you dare insult my brother!"
Upon hearing Itachi being called a coward, Sasuke stood in front of Giyu with an angry expression, holding his kunai in front of his chest.
"To avoid meeting me, he didn't even go to the training grounds in the clan and ran so far away. And yet, you say he's not a coward?"
He looked towards the space behind Giyu and Sasuke, where three young boys walked out. "What do you three think?"
The three exchanged glances, as if wanting to say something, but seeing the impatience in the leader's eyes, they quickly nodded in agreement.
"This guy is Uchiha Enka, who wanted to challenge my brother at the Uchiha training grounds but was stopped by the senior ninjas in the clan."
Uchiha Sasuke looked at Uchiha Enka, his eyes filled with anger.
If it weren't for this guy, he and his brother wouldn't have to run so far every day.
"Oh?" Giyu suddenly realized.
So, this guy was like Inosuke, always causing trouble for him, but without malicious intent?
But calling them a coward was much milder compared to what Sanemi would have said.
He activated his Transparent World and glanced at the four individuals. Based on the volume of chakra in their brains, Uchiha Enka possessed three tomoe Sharingan, while the other three had one tomoe.
In Itachi's words, these three individuals had chakra levels equivalent to that of Genin/lower-ranking ninjas and had already graduated from the Ninja Academy.
"Well, I don't want to waste time talking to you two clueless brats."
Uchiha Enka stared at Giyu and Sasuke defiantly. "I happened to overhear the senior members of the clan saying that Uchiha Itachi was here, so I came specifically for that. But I only see you two. So, where did he go? Did he know I was coming and decided to hide?"
"What does Itachi have to do with you?"
Sasuke retorted, "He's a Chunin at fifteen, what right do you have to yell here? Brother Shisui said that Itachi already has the level of a Jounin; he's much stronger than you!"
An angry expression appeared on Uchiha Enka's face, while the other three showed disbelief.
Although the elders in the clan didn't acknowledge Shidui's position, they did acknowledge the claim that he was the number one in the clan. If he made the assessment...
"You really dare to say that." Uchiha Enka stared at Sasuke and explained, "I was targeted by that guy, Elder Homura, which is why I couldn't become a Jounin. Besides, I've been looking for Uchiha Shisui for a long time. He's similar to your brother; he never dares to show up in front of me!"
"Wait a minute."
Giyu interrupted him and analyzed seriously, "If you're disliked by the people in the village and can't become a Jounin, why not mend relationships? By coming here to bother Itachi, you'll only make the clan members dislike you even more."
Uchiha Enka fell silent.
He stared quietly at Giyu, looking at his expressionless face that seemed to be mocking...
Suddenly, a string in his heart snapped.
He waved his hand towards the companion who had come with him.
"Tie them up and hide them."
Uchiha Enka's face twisted, and he grinned maliciously, "If Uchiha Itachi refuses to fight me, then let these two brats go hungry in the wilderness for a night."
Deep within the forest, Uchiha Fugaku, who had been watching, prepared himself.
Given Sasuke's personality, he would definitely resist and eventually be subdued.
When his two sons felt helpless and their desire for power surged within them, he would appear as their father, stopping things from deteriorating further, and punishing the troublesome junior at the same time.
As he took his first step forward, he saw the boy who had been holding the rope suddenly collapse to the ground, clutching his stomach without warning.
Giyu supported the boy's shoulder and gently guided him to lie down.
"Sorry, Itachi is tired lately."
In an instant, he had skillfully tied up the boy who had just tried to bind him.
"If you only want to challenge Itachi for the sake of it, please don't disturb him. Leave quickly."
To be continued...
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