Chapter 5: What the Eye Already Knows
On the morning of the third day, the depot already had a place for him.
Gondo said nothing when Raiden arrived. He only pointed with his chin at a crate on the floor, the size of a bench, and went back to shouting at the young men about the sacks of grain. The crate weighed more than the one from the first day. Raiden noticed, and so did Kira.
[Load: 14 kg. An increase of 2 kg, as planned.]
[You lifted it without trembling. That is new.]
I trembled a little.
[A little is far less than before.]
He made his deliveries, repeated the chakra thread in his feet (thirty-two seconds on the last climb), and passed the training ground without stopping. Today he did not need to. Today he had another appointment.
At noon, he ate the Uchiha sector's ration: rice, grilled fish, and a bowl of vegetable soup. It was more than he had seen in a single meal since waking in this world. He ate slowly, head down.
"Eat everything," Chie said, sitting across from him with her own bowl. "Soichi is going to make you run this afternoon."
"I run every morning, carrying crates."
"It's not the same thing." She smiled sideways. "You'll see."
* * *
The Uchiha sector's training ground lay behind the red lanterns, a packed-dirt courtyard ringed with a row of logs. It was smaller than the main field, but far better organized. There were wooden targets along the edges, circles drawn on the ground in chalk, and a large basin of water in one corner.
When Raiden arrived, about a dozen Uchiha were waiting, genin and chunin. Some sat, others stretched. Several looked at him with curiosity, and none with ill will.
Soichi stood in the center, arms crossed, beside a low table with a stack of thin papers.
"Raiden. Over here."
Raiden went to him. In the front row sat Takeru, the spiky-haired cousin, cross-legged. He nodded at him with a wide smile.
"First thing," Soichi said. "Chakra paper. Did you do this at the Academy?"
"Yes. A long time ago."
"Then do it again. An Uchiha with an awakened Sharingan needs to know his own chakra nature, and a lot has changed since the Academy."
He took a sheet from the stack and handed it over. It was thin, almost transparent, with a faint smell of wood.
[Chakra nature: the paper reacts to the type of energy you release.]
[Fire: burns. Lightning: crinkles. Earth: crumbles. Water: dampens. Wind: cuts in half.]
[Release only a little. Do not force it.]
Raiden held the paper between his fingers, closed his eyes for a moment, and brought chakra to his fingertips. It was the first time he had done this with so many people watching, and the thread slipped away twice before it held.
The paper caught fire.
It was a small flame, with no ash or smoke, and it consumed the sheet in two seconds. A few Uchiha nodded, unsurprised. It was what they expected.
"Fire," Soichi said. "Natural. Every Uchiha has it. Yours is weak, but it's fire."
"There was something else, in the middle," Chie murmured beside him. "Did you see?"
"I saw," Soichi said, looking at the scrap of paper trembling in the boy's hand. "Take another."
Raiden took one. Repeated it. The paper burned again, but this time, in the instant before it caught, its edges crinkled, as if something had squeezed them.
The courtyard went quiet.
[Detected: secondary affinity, Lightning. Intensity: low. Unstable.]
[This is unusual in an Uchiha, but not impossible.]
"Lightning," Soichi said slowly. "Weak. But it's there."
"Lightning is rare in the clan," someone remarked from the back.
"Rare, not impossible." The jonin looked at the boy. "Did your father have a lightning affinity?"
"I don't know," Raiden said, and it was the most complete truth he could give.
Soichi scratched his chin.
"Record that, Chie. Secondary nature, lightning, low." He looked back at him. "Now show me the eye."
* * *
Raiden felt his stomach drop.
"Now?"
"You awakened in the field. I need to see what awakened."
[Rule: two seconds, never more. No analysis, no clock in your vision. Only the eye.]
[Activate, let them see, deactivate.]
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and when he opened them, the red was already there.
The pain came, thin, and passed. The whole courtyard opened into layers in front of him, twelve Uchiha faces wreathed in pale chakra trails, some brighter than others. Soichi was the clearest, a dense and controlled fire. Chie had a finer, quicker glow. Takeru blinked, excited, and his trail trembled.
Two seconds later, Raiden deactivated it.
"One tomoe," Soichi said. "Stable."
"That was fast," Takeru complained, laughing. "I barely saw it."
"It's what I asked for." The jonin looked at the boy with something that might have been approval. "He has control for a first day. Some take weeks to deactivate without the eye burning."
Raiden did not answer. The eye did burn, but only a little.
"Second thing," Soichi continued. "Fire Release. The clan's nature. Chie."
Chie stood, cracked her knuckles, and walked to the center of the courtyard. She made six seals in sequence, quick and clean: Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger.
She drew a deep breath, and exhaled.
A fireball the size of a cart rolled through the air, roaring, and slammed into the farthest wooden target, which exploded into flames. The heat struck Raiden's face like a slap.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique," Soichi said, when the flames died down. "The technique every Uchiha must master before he is considered a shinobi of the clan. Rank C."
Raiden activated the Sharingan for two seconds, only two, and saw everything: the six seals, the flow of chakra rising from the abdomen through the chest and out of the mouth, the angle of the chin, the exact timing of the inhale.
[COPIED: Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.]
[Rank C. Cost for a trained shinobi: 15 CP. Estimated cost for you: 24 CP.]
[Status: recorded, not installed.]
[Warning: do not use the Sharingan again for the next two hours.]
He deactivated the eye and pretended to rub his vision, like someone getting tired.
I did it.
[Yes. The technique is stored. But your channels are not ready. Any attempt to reproduce it now would be painful and dangerous.]
"You try," Soichi said, looking at him.
"I... can't yet."
"I know you can't." The jonin did not smile. "But an Uchiha starts by trying. Make the seals. No chakra. Only the form."
Raiden joined his hands and made the six seals, slowly, fumbling the third, correcting it, reaching the end. His fingers knew the sequence: he had been practicing seals under the blanket, and Kira had stored every movement.
When he finished, there was a short silence.
"You missed the Monkey," Takeru said.
"I did."
"But the rest was right."
"It was," Soichi said. "For someone who has never practiced, it was too right."
Raiden felt his face grow warm.
"I saw Chie do it."
"Once."
"Once."
"The Sharingan memorizes," Chie said, without malice. "It's part of it. But even so, it takes us weeks to get the sequence right with our eyes closed."
[Attention. You got more right than you should have. Make more mistakes next time.]
[Make it look natural: small errors, hesitation.]
Understood.
"Very well," Soichi said. "Last exercise. Takeru, stand up."
* * *
Takeru rose with a broad grin, adjusted his headband, and walked to the chalk circle in the center of the courtyard.
"Taijutsu," Soichi said. "No Sharingan, no jutsu. Only the body. One minute, or until someone touches the ground. Raiden."
"Me?"
"Did you think I'd let you leave here without seeing how you fight?"
Raiden went to the circle. Takeru was already on guard, his body slightly tilted, his feet planted. He looked merely curious, and a little excited.
"I'll go easy," he said, winking.
"You don't have to," Raiden replied, and he did not know why he had said it.
Takeru laughed.
"Then let's go."
The first blow came fast, a right-handed punch straight at the shoulder. Raiden saw Takeru's shoulder open a centimeter beforehand, like the genin he had watched on the main field, and almost smiled. He dodged. It was not clean: the fist grazed past, and the blow to his arm hurt more than it should have.
The second strike, a leg sweep, took him down.
Raiden fell on his back, the air leaving his lungs. The courtyard went silent for half a second, and then someone let out a muffled laugh. He rolled, got up, and Takeru was already backing away, unhurried.
"You're weak," he said, without cruelty. "But you dodged the first one."
"I saw it coming."
"How? You had no eye."
Raiden hesitated.
"The shoulder. You open your shoulder before a right-hand punch."
Takeru blinked, and looked at his own shoulder as if he had just discovered he had one.
"I do?"
"A little."
"Ah, so that's why Soichi is always scolding me!" He burst out laughing. "Thanks, cousin."
Beside the circle, Soichi raised an eyebrow, but only let a short smile escape.
[Observation recorded.]
[Pointing out a fighting habit without using the Sharingan is plausible for someone who watches a lot.]
[Keep the story: "I watch people fight while I carry crates."]
"Second round," Soichi said. "Raiden, you have thirty seconds."
The next thirty seconds were the worst and the best of his life. Takeru attacked in sequence, punch, kick, punch, and Raiden dodged two, blocked one with his forearm, and took three. He fell once, got up, fell again. In the last second, he managed to land a blow on Takeru's chest, weak, almost a push, that made him step back half a pace.
"Time," Soichi said.
Takeru looked down at his chest, where Raiden's hand had touched, and then at Raiden, and smiled.
"You hit me."
"It was luck."
"It was," Takeru agreed, holding out a hand to help him up. "But it was the kind of luck that happens to people who pay attention."
Someone clapped twice, slowly, and it was Chie, with a wide smile.
"The newcomer has an eye," she said.
"The newcomer has the stamina of a rabbit," Soichi corrected. "And two months of good food ahead of him. But he has an eye. Yes, he does."
He turned to the others.
"Dismissed. Same training tomorrow."
Takeru gave Raiden a friendly slap on the shoulder and left with the others, already telling someone, laughing, that he had taken a hit from a boy who carried crates.
* * *
When the courtyard emptied, Soichi stayed nearby. Raiden was sitting on the ground, back against a log, panting, his whole body sore. The water basin in the corner seemed miles away.
The jonin crossed the courtyard, took a cup from the basin, and handed it to him.
"Drink."
Raiden drank. The water was ice cold and tasted of stone.
"You never asked the clan for anything," Soichi said, sitting on a stump beside him. "Not food, not training, not a bed. In the last fifteen years, no one has seen you ask."
"I didn't need to."
"You did. You just didn't know you could ask."
Raiden looked at the cup.
"The sector has a lot of people. No one had a reason to..."
"No one did." Soichi spoke quietly. "And that isn't anyone's fault, it's just how things work. But now there is a reason. And I want you to know, so you aren't caught off guard: an Uchiha with an awakened eye is worth something to the clan. He's worth something to Konoha, too. They'll watch you. They'll want to know what you can do. And they'll send you wherever the clan thinks you're useful."
"I know."
"Do you? Then listen to this. When you are sent, you won't be sent alone. We look after our own. That's how it works here."
Raiden did not answer. Something warm rose in his throat, and he held it down.
Soichi got up from the stump, brushed the dust from his trousers, and looked at the sky, where the first stars were beginning to appear.
"Rest. Tomorrow, again. And, Raiden."
"Yes, sir."
"I'm glad you came back."
He left without waiting for an answer.
Raiden stayed where he was, the empty cup between his hands, and for a long time he could not think of anything.
* * *
That night, in the corner bunk, with everyone asleep around him, he lay on his side, looking at the canvas, and called, in thought only.
Kira.
[I am here.]
[Report for day 3.]
[FIELD METHOD: Day 3 of 42.]
[Load carried: 70 kg across 5 deliveries.]
[Chakra control: Level 1. Best duration: 32 seconds.]
[Sharingan: 4 seconds used. Ocular overload: 1%.]
[Techniques copied today: 1. Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique (Rank C).]
[Total techniques copied: 2 (Substitution, Great Fireball).]
[Chakra nature: Fire (primary), Lightning (secondary, low, unstable).]
[Chakra reserve: 44 CP.]
[Endurance: slightly above baseline.]
It was a good day.
[It was an ordinary day, and for our method, that is the best possible result. No one suspected anything.]
[I also recorded something in your favor: you have a Lightning affinity. It fits your name. It is little, but it is a foundation.]
Raiden laughed, very softly, inwardly, without moving his lips.
Thunder. I have thunder.
[You do. Weak, unstable, but you do.]
[And one observation: Soichi said "I'm glad you came back." That was said in earnest.]
I know.
[Sleep, Raiden.]
He closed his eyes. Outside, far off, the thunder of the war rolled again, but inside the tent there were only calm breaths and the smell of burning wood.
[FIELD METHOD: Day 3 of 42. Complete.]
[Good night.]
Good night, Kira.
He slept.