Chapter 14: Awakening the Sharingan Through Genjutsu, The Shinobi World Is Not a Gentle Place

Reiji still failed to open the Third Gate that day.

It was not until the sun began to set that Might Guy finally breathed a sigh of relief.

With the momentum Reiji had shown earlier, Guy had actually thought he might be able to completely master the Eight Gates in a single day.

It seemed that his age was still too much of a limitation.

The first two gates of the Eight Gates merely allowed one to fully unleash the potential of their body.

The only side effect was fatigue for a period afterward.

But from the Third Gate onward, there was a possibility of causing actual damage to the body.

"As expected, the Eight Gates isn’t something that can be mastered easily."

Reiji sighed tiredly.

"Of course!" Might Guy said matter-of-factly. "I’ve trained for so many more years than you, and even now, I can only open the Sixth Gate at most."

"Still, with your talent, Reiji, I imagine you should be able to master the Third Gate within a month at most."

At this point, Might Guy’s expression became serious as he warned him,

"Remember, when using the Eight Gates, you must always pay attention to how much your body can withstand. Never force a gate open."

With Reiji’s talent, there was a good chance that he would go farther along the path of the Eight Gates than Guy himself in the future.

It would be a terrible waste if he rushed ahead, forcibly opened a gate, and ended up dying prematurely.

However.

Seven days later, when Might Guy saw Reiji open the Third Gate, he was once again left speechless in shock.

Reiji, on the other hand, was not particularly surprised. Instead, he frowned slightly.

After opening the Third Gate, the Life Gate, the blood beneath his skin could be seen flowing at tremendous speed, causing his entire body to flush red with blood.

After maintaining it for only a minute, Reiji closed the Third Gate and immediately felt an overwhelming wave of exhaustion.

This should be the limit his body could reach at his current age.

If he wanted to continue opening the gates, he would have to wait for his body to develop further.

Over the following period.

Reiji followed Might Guy in high-intensity daily training and occasionally sparred with him in taijutsu.

His strength increased day by day.

Every so often, he would also take a C-rank mission to eliminate bandits and thieves outside the village, completing each one without incident.

Sometimes, he could not help marveling at it.

The bandits within the Land of Fire were like weeds. No matter how many times they were wiped out, they would grow back again before long.

Reiji did not feel any different after taking his first lives.

He had long understood the cruelty of the shinobi world.

The threat of the clan massacre was still hanging over his head, after all.

What surprised him was that after killing people, his pupil power increased slightly once again.

It had already reached the threshold of the Two-Tomoe stage.

It seemed his Sharingan would evolve again soon.

At the Uchiha clan’s training ground.

"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"

A massive fire dragon erupted from Reiji’s mouth, easily smashing into the target dummy and destroying it, leaving the ground scorched black.

Reiji’s expression remained calm.

As expected, even with a B-rank technique like the Great Dragon Fire Technique, he only needed to look at the scroll once and memorize the chakra flow before he could effortlessly perform it.

And once again, he did not need hand seals.

All he could say was that Indra’s talent truly lived up to its reputation.

"Before reaching Jonin-level strength, I probably have enough ninjutsu to work with. But genjutsu..."

Reiji frowned slightly.

Ninjutsu did not require anyone else to practice with him.

But genjutsu needed a target.

A certain figure with long, straight black hair appeared in his mind. Suppressing the slight pang of guilt in his conscience, Reiji headed toward Izumi’s house.

...

"...Did you recently do something to me that you feel guilty about?"

Izumi stared warily at Reiji.

In front of her was an entire spread of her favorite foods: three-colored dango, senbei from the Hands-on Uncle’s shop, chilled mung bean soup, and more.

"What kind of thing is that to say?!"

Reiji said guiltily.

"I just want you to help me practice genjutsu."

"Really?"

"Of course!"

Izumi picked up a skewer of three-colored dango and took a small bite. Feeling the sweet taste spread through her mouth, she said somewhat dejectedly,

"...I feel like I’m just Reiji’s training tool."

Reiji felt even guiltier after hearing that, but he still firmly denied it.

He took out several scrolls—the genjutsu scrolls Uchiha Fugaku had given him earlier.

Demonic Illusion: Fox Spirit Possession, Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings, Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique...

As for the others, such as Binding Visions Technique, which caused tremendous pain to the target, he would not test those on Izumi.

"First, Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings!"

Following the chakra flow recorded on the scroll, Reiji activated the genjutsu without using hand seals.

He looked at Izumi curiously, unsure whether the genjutsu had worked.

"Huh?"

A hint of confusion appeared on Izumi’s face. She rubbed her eyes and looked toward a tree in the courtyard.

"Reiji, why did you suddenly go over there?"

Seeing this, Reiji naturally understood that his genjutsu had succeeded.

The effect of Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings was to alter the target’s perception of their surroundings.

For example, right now, from Izumi’s perspective, the tree in the courtyard was Reiji.

"The effect is pretty good."

Reiji nodded in satisfaction.

Although he did not intend to make genjutsu his primary means of combat, the genjutsu talent granted by the bloodline of Indra was still quite impressive.

Next, he tried Demonic Illusion: Fox Spirit Possession, making Izumi believe that she had entered a maze and causing her to wander around the courtyard for a while.

Finally, there was Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique.

After reading the description of this genjutsu, Reiji hesitated.

Its effect was to make the target see the scene they feared most.

Would using this on Izumi be a bad idea?

Suddenly, a certain possibility occurred to him. Reiji silently apologized and decided to give it a try.

"The next genjutsu might make you see something unpleasant."

"Remember, everything you see afterward is fake!"

Reiji warned her seriously.

He wanted to see whether he could use genjutsu to trigger Izumi’s Sharingan awakening.

If Izumi awakened her Sharingan as well, then after seriously training her, she would at least have some ability to protect herself in this dangerous shinobi world.

At the very least, she would not end up being casually killed by Tobi like she was in the original story.

But more importantly, Izumi herself mattered more.

He could not allow something to happen to her just because he was experimenting with a genjutsu.

Izumi nodded seriously. When she saw Reiji activate the genjutsu, the scene before her eyes suddenly changed!

The full moon hung high in the sky, while an ominous atmosphere permeated the village.

The Nine-Tails’ Night!

The enormous body of the Nine-Tails easily crushed every building in its path, sending massive stones flying in all directions!

The flying rocks smashed down both her home and Reiji’s.

Blood flowed out from beneath the collapsed walls.

She was left alone, facing the ruins of her home.

"Dad, Mom!"

"Reiji!"

Having completely forgotten that this was a genjutsu, Izumi’s mind went blank as she rushed toward the ruins before her.

Her body was suddenly stopped by someone.

A finger touched her forehead, and chakra flowed into her body. The scene before her eyes changed once again.

Cool chakra surged into her eyes.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Reiji alive before her, with her own home standing beside them. The atmosphere around them was peaceful and natural.

She could not help reaching out toward Reiji, touching and caressing his face.

"Reiji, you’re still alive. That’s wonderful..."

"Mhm, I’m here. Uncle and Auntie are fine too. Everything you saw before was fake."

"That’s wonderful..."

Seeing Izumi fall directly into a deep sleep, Reiji’s feelings were extremely complicated.

He did not know whether what he had done was truly good for Izumi.

Still.

Looking at the little girl sleeping in his arms, Reiji could not help sighing inwardly.

This shinobi world truly was not a gentle place.