Chapter 191: The Chirp of a Thousand Birds
A few days later, at Training Ground 7.
Night had long fallen. The training ground was a pool of ink, with only the sparse moonlight filtering through the dense canopy, casting long, skeletal shadows.
The air was cold and heavy. The only sounds were the ragged gasping of breath and the crackle-fizz of failing chakra.
Uchiha Sasuke's body was on the verge of its limit.
His chakra was almost completely drained, scraped from the very bottom of his reserves. The mental exhaustion, like a cold tide, crashed against his taut nerves in wave after wave.
Before him was a giant boulder, even larger than the one Kakashi had shattered as a demonstration. It was a dark, silent monolith.
The surface of the rock was covered in pockmarks—deep and shallow pits, blackened scorch marks, and splintered scratches.
These were all traces left by his frantic, desperate training over the past few days.
"Not enough… It's still not enough…"
Sasuke mumbled unconsciously, his voice a hoarse rasp. His entire body trembled.
In his mind, one image flashed, over and over, haunting him.
Uzumaki Naruto's annoying, triumphant, idiotic smiling face.
[I am a genius of the Uchiha Clan!]
[I have the Sharingan!]
[I absolutely cannot... will not... lose to him!]
"One more time…"
Sasuke jammed his fist against the ground, using the pain to prop himself up. He forcefully squeezed out the last, burning trace of chakra from his body.
He slowly raised his right hand. It was trembling violently from exhaustion. He spread his five fingers, palm facing forward.
He closed his eyes, forcing his mind to calm, to remember the feeling.
Zzz... FZZT!
The chakra gathered, sparked, and then dissipated, painfully shocking his own fingers.
He growled in frustration.
"No... again."
He tried again. Focusing.
Sizzle...
A small, weak light gathered. It was unstable. He tried to compress it.
Pop.
It vanished, like a blown-out candle.
"Damn it!"
In his mind, he recalled Kakashi's lazy, yet precise, words. The advice that had been repeated constantly, bored into his skull over the past few days.
"Nature Transformation is the foundation, Sasuke. You've wrinkled the leaf. You understand the vibration. That's the 'what'."
"But Shape Transformation is the key. That's the 'how'."
"Don't compress it with brute force; you'll just blow your own hand off. Feel it. Guide it! Treat the lightning as an extension of your arm, a spear point on the end of your fingertips!"
[Feel it... Guide it...]
Sasuke took a deep, shuddering breath. He opened his eyes.
He didn't glare at his hand this time. He just... looked.
He poured the last dregs of his chakra and his will into his palm.
"Condense… now!" Sasuke let out a low, beast-like growl, his teeth bared.
Sizzle…
The sound was weak.
Sizzle sizzle…
It grew. The light became a bright, pinprick of blue-white.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle—!
This time, it was different.
It didn't explode. It didn't fizzle.
The light-blue Lightning Release chakra transformed into thousands of tiny, microscopic electric snakes, frantically gathering, screaming as they compressed in his palm!
A piercing, deafening chirping sound erupted.
It was as if a thousand birds were singing in unison, trapped in his palm. The sound was so loud it made the air hum, his teeth vibrate.
The light was blinding.
[Inorin's Note: This is the Chidori (千鳥, One Thousand Birds). It is an A-rank assassination jutsu created by Hatake Kakashi, combining Lightning Release nature transformation and high-level shape transformation.]
"I… I succeeded…"
Feeling the wild, violent, yet perfectly restrained power emanating from his palm, an indescribable, almost manic ecstasy erupted in Sasuke's eyes.
This was it.
This was the Chidori!
He, Uchiha Sasuke, had succeeded!
"Huff… huff… huff…"
After the tidal wave of joy came a profound, crushing sense of exhaustion. Just maintaining the form of the Chidori made him feel incredibly strenuous. His arm ached, his chakra draining like a punctured waterskin.
[I must… I have to test its power!]
Sasuke suddenly looked up, his Two-Tomoe Sharingan spinning. He locked onto the giant rock not far away.
This is it, Naruto!
The next second, Sasuke kicked off the ground. He transformed into a white bolt of lightning, charging furiously towards his target!
His speed was unlike anything he'd ever felt. He wasn't running. He was projecting.
Under the high-speed, deafening sprint, the surrounding scenery—the trees, the moon—rapidly receded, turning into a blur of flowing light and shadow.
But in the Sharingan's vision, everything was perfectly, unnaturally clear.
[Kakashi was right… The Sharingan exists to master this jutsu! To control this speed!]
He was five feet from the rock.
"CHIDORI—!"
With a final, triumphant roar, Sasuke slammed the violent, screaming mass of lightning in his hand directly into the giant rock in front of him!
Boom—!!!
An earth-shattering, concussive roar echoed far into the silent night, rolling over the village.
Sasuke's right hand pierced effortlessly into the hard, cold stone, as if it were wet paper.
There was a half-second of total silence.
Immediately after, an unimaginable, contained destructive force erupted completely from Sasuke's palm!
Crack… Crack crack crack!
Centered on his hand, spiderweb-like cracks, glowing with blue-white energy, spread wildly in all directions, instantly covering the entire rock.
This giant rock, over two people tall, exploded with a deafening crash after less than a second of resistance!
BOOM!
Countless fragments of various sizes, from small pebbles to chunks the size of his head, carrying immense kinetic energy, shot out in all directions. They tore through the air, creating deep craters in the ground and shredding the bark from nearby trees.
A massive cloud of smoke and dust billowed, obscuring the moonlight and filling the air with the smell of ozone and pulverized stone.
"Cough… cough cough…"
Sasuke knelt before the shattered remains of the rock, coughing violently.
He slowly, painfully, pulled his arm back. He looked down.
His right hand and forearm were completely numb, devoid of all sensation. He couldn't even feel his fingers.
However, a nearly insane, triumphant smile was plastered on his exhausted face.
Sasuke looked at the utter destruction he had caused, his excitement and satisfaction almost overflowing.
"This is… my power!"
"Uzumaki Naruto… next time, I will absolutely… absolutely… step on you!"
"Not bad."
A lazy voice came from a tree trunk not far away.
Kakashi Hatake, who had been leaning against a tree, his single eye wide, pushed himself off.
He walked over to Sasuke, looking at the absolute mess before him—the crater, the shrapnel, the still-smoking center.
A hint of undetectable, profound surprise flashed in his visible eye.
[This kid… his first successful use, and it's already this powerful? He didn't just puncture the rock. He disintegrated it.]
[This... this obsession... it's truly a terrifying motivation.]
Kakashi glanced at Sasuke, who was now swaying, about to collapse. He helped the boy up from the ground.
"Alright, training for today ends here. You've overexerted yourself. You're running on empty."
Kakashi's voice was calm, but it held a new note of respect. "Continuing would only harm your body."
Sasuke didn't resist. He was too weak. He allowed Kakashi to sling one of his arms over his shoulder.
He truly had no strength left even to stand.
Sasuke, leaning heavily on his new teacher, looked up. His gaze passed over the layers of dark houses, towards the distant, massive rock face carved with the busts of past Hokage.
His eyes found the newest, sharpest carving.
The bust of the Fifth Hokage, Uchiha Akira.
"Hokage-sama…" he whispered, his voice a raw rasp.
"Naruto is your disciple, and I am also a member of the Uchiha."
"I, Uchiha Sasuke, will never lose to anyone!"
...The next morning, Hokage's Office.
The room was bright, filled with the clean morning light.
Uchiha Akira sat at the head of the table, his posture perfect, reviewing a report on the progress of the Ninja Academy reforms.
The office door was gently knocked.
"Enter."
Kakashi Hatake, looking surprisingly refreshed, pushed the door open and entered.
"Hokage-sama."
Kakashi walked to the desk and bowed slightly.
Uchiha Akira put down the scroll in his hand, looking up at him. His eyes were calm and unruffled, as if he already knew the outcome.
"Sasuke's training. Is it finished?"
"Yes."
Kakashi's answer was brief and affirmative.
"Just last night, he successfully mastered the Chidori."
There was a hint of undetectable admiration in Kakashi's tone.
"Although it's still very raw, and the chakra consumption is dangerously high, his first use... it shattered a rock two people high."
"Oh?"
This result was entirely within Uchiha Akira's expectations.
Sasuke's talent, combined with that unparalleled, self-destructive Uchiha stubbornness... Akira would have been disappointed if he couldn't achieve this much.
"Very good."
Uchiha Akira commented faintly.
"Truly worthy of an Uchiha clansman."
Kakashi was silent for a moment. The official business was concluded.
He seemed to be choosing his words carefully.
The atmosphere in the office, which had been light and professional, became somewhat subtle.
"Hokage-sama…"
Kakashi's voice was a few shades lower than before, the lazy lilt gone.
"Regarding… Obito's news. Has there been any progress?"
As soon as the question was asked, the air seemed to grow a little heavier. The name "Obito" was a heavy, unspoken burden in the new Konoha.
Uchiha Akira's gaze moved from Kakashi's face. He turned his chair slightly, looking out at the prosperous, bustling Konoha Village through the window.
"None."
His voice was flat, final.
"Ever since his identity was revealed at the Chūnin Exams, he's vanished as if into thin air."
"The organization named 'Akatsuki' has also become exceptionally low-key. They've ceased all major movements."
Akira tapped the desk. "He lost the disguise of his mask. He lost the mystery. That's his biggest loss."
"Now, he's more like a rat hiding in a gutter. He won't easily show his face until he finds enough power to overturn the Ninja World again."
These words were logical and showed no flaws. It was a perfect, political, and strategic assessment.
Kakashi lowered his eyes, a fleeting sadness in his visible one.
He understood this reasoning, of course.
It was just that... the obsession within him, the ghost of his long-dead teammate, made him unable to help but harbor a glimmer of hope. Hope for... he didn't even know what.
"I understand."
"Thank you for your hard work, Hokage-sama."
Kakashi bowed again, his mission complete, his personal query unanswered. He prepared to withdraw.
As the office door gently closed, silence once again returned to the room.
Uchiha Akira's gaze fell upon the large map of the Ninja World spread out on his desk.
His finger, dark and elegant, slowly traced the border of the Land of Fire. It moved past the Land of Wind, past the Land of Earth...
It finally stopped in the distant east, over that island nation shrouded in thick, perpetual fog.
The Land of Water (水の国, Mizu no Kuni).
The Village Hidden by Mist (霧隠れの里, Kirigakure).
[Inorin's Note: Kirigakure, the Village Hidden by Mist, was in a state of civil war and chaos, known as the "Bloody Mist" era. This internal turmoil, secretly instigated by Obito, would make it the perfect place to hide.]
"Obito…" Akira's voice was a soft whisper in the empty room.
"Do you think you can rest easy by hiding there, in the one place I have not yet brought under my control?"
A cold, faint smile touched his lips.
"You are not a rat in a gutter. You are a tool. And you are playing your part perfectly."
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