Three years passed in the blink of an eye, Sasuke and Shinnosuke had attended the academy and trained as part of their daily routine.
Shinnosuke also had included making his social circle bigger, with his good looks and easy going personality, he had quite the fan following built up.
All in all, Shinnosuke didn't just immerse himself in training like Sasuke did, he was living his life enjoying the views of Konoha.
Even doing that, to the surprise of Sasuke, Shinnosuke was always ahead of him.
Taijutsu genius, that was Shinnosuke's epithet, for training purposes he used only Taijutsu in his daily life, when he had defeated Hyuga Neji in a personal scuffle out of academy, his name had all but solidified.
Today was the academy holiday, both brothers were training in their yard.
Sasuke looked at his brother punching a wodden post, with gloves for additional support.
Shinnosuke was doing this for an hour now, many different forms Sasuke could make out, there were also some he had never seen before.
Understanding that Shin was doing something he couldn't even understand, Sasuke decided he needs to know, going upto Shin Sasuke spoke.
" What are those katas..? "
Shinnosuke continued his punching practice as he spoke, during his breathing moments.
" These are. "
*Bam *
" Uchiha katas "
* Brush *
" Father taught me. "
* Tong *
Sasuke nodded, their father was not as close to them because he was under too much pressure due to coup, but his brother always managed to get him to teach him stuff anyway.
Looking for a while longer, realising how amazing his moves were, Sasuke decided to finally put down his pride and ask Shinnosuke, he requested a little uneasily.
" Can you teach me? "
Shinnosuke nodded as he gave the post one last kick.
" Sure! "
He was panting slightly as he stood in place to get his breathing in order.
Sasuke meanwhile continued with his kunai throwing.
After resting for a while longer, Shinnosuke walked towards Sasuke as he wiped his sweat off with a cloth.
" Come at me, you can use anything, kunai, Taijutsu, ninjutsu, I will only respond with Uchiha style Taijutsu, look at me and learn my moves, practically, alright? "
Sasuke slightly raised his eyebrows as he heard Shin telling him to come at him with everything he has.
But then nodded as he figured Shinnosuke was just trying the show him how uchiha style works in every situation.
Sasuke got ready as he spoke to Shin.
" Alright. "
Shinnosuke didn't tell him he could go full force and not even touch him, it was because Shin has the Sharingan activated, it was just under a colour changing genjutsu, making his eyes look like usual.
This cannot hide from seasoned Ninja's eyes but hiding from Sasuke was still possible.
" Sure "
Giving a start sign, Sasuke stepped in with his right side, spun on his heels and delivered a spinning kick to Shinnosuke's head.
* Tap *
Which Shinnosuke easily deflected with his hands, causing Sasuke to overextend and almost fall down.
But Sasuke swiftly managed to balance himself upon his left hand as he fell down.
" Ha! "
Putting the entire body's weight on his hand, Sasuke delivered one more kick straight to Shinnosuke's sides, if it connected it will be a kidney shot.
Shinnosuke with ease put his hands on top of Sasuke's incoming leg, and immediately jumped in place with his leg as the platform.
" Aah "
Which caused Sasuke's leg to once again change course as it collided with the ground.
Looking at Shin smiling at him, Sasuke scrambled to make some distance, he wasn't feeling very safe infront of an opponent who had the leisure to smile at him during their bout.
Taking his distance Sasuke swiftly went through the signs of his clan's signature jutsu.
" Fireball jutsu! "
* Foosh *
Shinnosuke's Sharingan was spinning as the fireball slowly came towards him, in his vision, everything was in slow motion.
' There they are '
Shinnosuke found the weak points in Sasuke's fireball jutsu, every jutsu has a weakness, fireball can be split if not formed perfectly, and Sasuke's was far from perfect, so-
* Puffff *
Before Sasuke's shocked eyes, Shinnosuke poked the fireball jutsu with two fingers coated in chakra, and the fireball as if all it's cohesiveness was lost, scattered all around him.
* Tuff tiff tiff *
Every single scattered spark fell around or away from Shinnosuke, he didn't move an inch, it was as if the sparks purposefully avoided him, that was how great Shinnosuke's control over his techniques were.
Sharingan truly gave Uchiha an unfair advantage, any Uchiha who was even remotely competent can't lose to a regular ninja of similar strength.
Shinnosuke was much more than just competent, his training under copying abilities of Sharingan let's him skip many steps and master everything well.
Sasuke took out his kunai and decided to go back to Taijutsu confrontation, but with a weapon this time around.
Looking at Shin standing wide open without bothering to put his guard up, Sasuke gritted his teeth in frustration, but rushed either way.
As Shinnosuke's emotionless eyes got closer, Sasuke ducked down swiftly to catch him off guard and stabbed the kuani in Shin's stomach.
Tap.
A light tap at his elbow made Sasuke loose all his balance and go tumbling down his side, as his body once again missed Shinnosuke by an inch, not even managing to touch him as he fell.
* Thud *
Sasuke didn't get up this time, he simply punched the ground in incompetent fury.
" Why! Why can't I even touch you Shin? Am I not training hard enough?! We are twins! Why are you so talented but I am not even close?! "
Sasuke was beginning to weep, he knew Shin was stronger than him, but Shin was always the stronger one amongst the two, so he didn't put much thought into it.
But Sasuke started doubting himself when he heard Shinnosuke get his title.
' Taijutsu genius '
That was the beginning of everything for Sasuke, he was happy that his brother was getting stronger, they will get their revenge sooner, but he wasn't happy he was not progressing just as fast.
" Why?! That man was so strong when he was thirteen, father was stronger than everyone else, now even you are so much ahead of me! What am I doing wrong! "
Sasuke didn't understand, it was clearly not a matter of talent, he was basically a clone of Shin, but Shin was up there and he remained down here.
It wasn't fair!
Shinnosuke looked at Sasuke breaking down as he understood he had a reality check, he knows for sure he isn't strong, Shinnosuke can now comfortably build Sasuke towards a stable direction, away from all the hatred.
And the first thing is giving him motivation.
" It isn't about talent Sasuke.. it is something else. "
Sasuke looked at Shin with hope as he muttered.
" What is it..? "
Turning off his Sharingan and genjutsu hiding it, Shinnosuke decided to show for the first time, the fruits of his three years of hard work.
" Sharingan! "
Sasuke's eyes opened wide as he saw Shinnosuke's eyes slowly turning red, and one by one tomoe started forming in them.
Sasuke counted absent-minded.
' One.. two.. three.. '
Sasuke was out of words, he looked at Shin standing before him as if looking at his own reflection.
With one single difference.
A three tomoe Sharingan was glowing eerily in Shinnosuke's eyes.