After leaving the Mission Assignment Room, the four members of Team 5 spoke amongst themselves for a while, hammering out all the details and voicing their excitement and nervousness.
Kazuya begrudgingly gave the order for them all to prepare and be at the main gates first thing in the morning.
Having nothing else to do for the day, Hikaru's first stop was the Uchiha clan training grounds. His arrival was met with smiles and polite greetings. It seemed that as the son of a lieutenant, he was afforded more respect than he'd have expected, or perhaps it was just that this was how the Uchiha clan was towards its members.
While searching for a suitable partner to train with, a man with silver hair made his way over to the young Uchiha.
"Hikaru, right?"
Immediately recognizing the owner of the voice, Hikaru internally groaned as he turned and politely greeted the man.
"Yes." He replied, bowing his head, "To what do I owe the pleasure, sir?"
"Ha, no need to be so formal. We're all brethren here. Unless it's a formal Military Police matter or a clan meeting, such formalities can be ignored." Waving away at the boy's stiff response, Yashiro let a small smile form on his face.
"I saw that you were looking for a training partner. So how about it? I might not be as good as Lord Fugaku or your mother, but I'm still considered an elite."
Hesitating for only a second, Hikaru happily agreed, "Thank you. I'm sure there is much to learn from such an experienced shinobi as you."
"Come," Yashiro said as he led the young Uchiha over to an empty space.
"Are you able to perform the Great Fireball jutsu, yet?" Asking this, he stopped several meters away from Hikaru and turned to face him.
"Yes, but I can only use it properly two times before running out of chakra."
"Oh-hoh, as expected of Ahma's son!" Taking a second to think, he then spoke once more. "It's a shame you are still too young to have awakened your sharingan as most of my personal tactics revolve around using visual-based genjutsu in combination with other jutsu and attacks."
"Sir, why don't we spar first? I'm sure that will be the best way for me to learn from you and for you to learn my current capabilities."
Finding this offer to be sensible, Yashiro nodded his head. "I will try to limit my power to someone slightly above your level."
Both Uchiha created some more distance between one another and got into fighting poses; Yashiro, with his kunai out and his sharingan, activated so that he could best analyze the boy; and Hikaru, with his tanto extended forward.
"Begin!"
Straight away, the two began to move. Hikaru pulled out a move he had been practicing for a while, throwing a dozen shuriken into the air. He then kept them spinning above him with wires as he eyed his opponent.
Yashiro, on the other hand, shrugged as he dashed towards the boy, kunai, at the ready.
As soon as the older man got within his effective range, Hikaru spat out a tendril of flame that instantly set the primary wire he held alight before quickly spreading out and setting the spinning shuriken aflame as well. With this step done, he then slipped the tip of his tanto into the center hole of four of the dozen flaming shuriken and flung his blade forward in one swift motion. Just like that, four flaming shuriken flew towards Yashiro, all winding around him as Hikaru manipulated the wires for maximum unpredictability.
Now in the eye of a deadly storm of steel and fire, Yashiro stopped dead and quickly darted his eyes in every direction before deciding on the most optimal action to take. Typically, such a trick would be child's play for him to deal with; however, he had already agreed to limit his own ability for the sake of effective sparring.
Injecting chakra into his legs, he crouched down and then sprung into the air, and in doing so, his eyes flickered back and forth, attempting to spot his opponent on the ground.
๐๐ด ๐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ต, ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ญ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ข๐ช๐ต, ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข๐ต๐ต๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ด ๐ ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ.
While in the air, he flung four kunai, splitting the wires controlling the shuriken and sending them spinning off and hitting the ground with a thud after several seconds. Yashiro then landed back on the ground, several feet away from his previous position.
Waiting for him was another four shuriken that attempted to entrap him once more, but he easily evaded them, or so he thought. What he saw as the trap was actually the bait of a secondary trap that sprung as soon as he escaped.
Hikaru had pulled out another eight shuriken while Yashiro was previously encircled and sent them behind the shrubbery past the clearing they were fighting in. The ones he sent were not set aflame, as they would be impossible to hide, whereas the fact that his previous ones were set aflame meant that they'd be a beacon, so to speak, distracting from the hidden danger lurking behind. Unable to handle so many with just one hand, he had to stick his tanto to the back of his hand using chakra to keep up appearances.
Four more flaming shuriken converged on his position as the previous four swung around his back and prevented any retreat. Sweating slightly from the increasingly hot air, Yashiro's beady eyes again analyzed all of the flying shuriken and their movements.
๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ณ๐ต ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฅ. ๐๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ฑ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด ๐ฆ๐ด๐ค๐ข๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฅ, ๐ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ซ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐'๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ง๐ญ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ง๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ง ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข ๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ฎ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ข๐ณ๐บ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต.
Quickly forming the necessary hand signs, he bellowed out eight small fireballs that struck each one of the encircling shuriken and jumped backward as soon as he was able to. Out of Hikaru's trap once again, Yashiro was just about to perform another attack before the boy surrendered.
With his hands up, Hikaru shouted his surrender as his remaining shuriken fell to the ground. "You've got me beat! I'm all out of tricks."
Smiling, the elite shinobi made his way over to his junior clansman. "You've got some real skill. Setting traps within traps is exactly the kind of thing a good shinobi can do while in a fight. When you awaken your sharingan and are able to perform genjutsuโฆ." He laughed, "Well, I pity your enemies."
"Thank you. As expected, my tricks were no obstacle for you, even while holding back."
๐๐ต'๐ด ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ช๐ต๐บ. ๐๐ง ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ, ๐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ-๐๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ซ๐ถ๐ต๐ด๐ถ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ.
"Eh, you're young. Just keep doing what you're doing, and I'm sure you'll honor the Uchiha name."
"I will do my best."
After that brief sparring match, Yashiro de-activated his sharingan and the two then engaged in close-quarters taijutsu for an hour or so.
"I think I have a good understanding of your abilities now," Yashiro said as he scratched his neck. "Next time you're free, come here, and you'll have suitable partners to train with. Ones that'll better draw out your strength."
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me. It was Lord Fugaku who arranged this whole thing; thank him by making full use of this training period.
"I will." Saying this, Hikaru bowed his head slightly.
Bidding his farewell to the clan elder, Hikaru decided to spend the rest of the day meditating and practicing chakra control.
Sparring with Yashiro had been surprisingly informative; it was also good to try out his tactics on an experienced and more powerful opponent. Indeed, training with an Uchiha was incredibly beneficial, as their eyes allowed them to perfectly understand your strategies, weaknesses, and strengths. Furthermore, the basic ability afforded to those wielding the sharingan far surpassed most other shinobi in terms of perception and reaction time, forcing you to fight at a higher level than you generally would when training.
Sitting on the roof of his house, Hikaru's eyes flickered back and forth beneath his closed eyes. He was attempting to forcibly awaken his sharingan using regular chakra. Given the sensitive nature of eyes, he had to be extremely careful as he probed and prodded at his optic nerves with tiny tendrils of chakra.
Some might consider it an act of futility; after all, no Uchiha had managed to achieve such a thing in over hundreds of years, so why should he?
Hikaru was no fool, he knew full well that the chakra needed to awaken one's sharingan was unique and came from the brain itself, but it couldn't hurt to experiment.
๐๐ฎ๐ฎโฆ ๐ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ญโฆ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ.
There was the faintest of sensations whenever he injected chakra into his eyes, so small a reaction that it took him several attempts to pick up on. It was almost as if the chakra triggered his eyes for a split second before they realized it wasn't correct.
๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ต๐ณ๐บ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ค๐ช๐ฃ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฆ๐น๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฌ๐ณ๐ข ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ? ๐๐ฐ, ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฌ๐บ. ๐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ท๐ฆ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฌ๐ณ๐ข ๐ช๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ณโฆ ๐ข๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข ๐จ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต ๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ช๐ง ๐'๐ฎ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ญ๐บ, ๐ช๐ต'๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต; ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ.
This was where the young Uchiha felt truly lost, as he didn't know any method that would trigger such genuine responses from him. Well, he could always kill his own parents, but there was no guarantee that such a thing would even work as intended.
As soon as Hikaru's eyes began to ache from the experimentation, he stopped all efforts to explore his doujutsu. Switching gears, he then went through the motions of spiraling chakra within his body and concentrating it on a leaf placed on his forehead. These efforts continued for several hours, with plenty of breaks to recuperate his mental energy and chakra throughout.
"Hikaru! Hey, Hikaru!"
Frowning, the boy whose name was just called opened his eyes and peered down at the source of annoyance below.
"Obito."
"I heard you're going on your first mission, tomorrow!" The boy cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted up at him.
Sighing, Hikaru jumped to his feet and off the roof, landing straight in front of Obito, chakra coating his body to soften the fall.
"Quiet down, will you?" He grumbled as he dusted himself off.
"Heh heh, sorry!" Grinning, Obito rubbed the back of his head without any real concern.
"Yeah, I'm gonna start my first mission tomorrow. What about it?"
"Wellโฆ I just wanted to wish you good luck! But don't think you're some hotshot just because you graduated before me! I'll soon catch up to you, just you wait!"
"Thanks. Right, right, I'm sure you'll effortlessly surpass me in a few years."
Obito almost thought he was being mocked, but the seriousness in Hikaru's tone made that seem unlikely.
"You really are a good friend! I won't let you down!" He declared with a clenched fist and eyes full of youthful determination.
Suddenly, another presence appeared, followed by a soft, melodic voice.
"Well now, just what is going on here, young men?"
"Oh, hey, Mrs. Ahma!"
Chuckling, Ahma patted Obito on his head. Then, she raised an eyebrow at Obito, waiting for him to answer her initial question.
Although he took a few seconds to understand, he soon smiled and answered. "I was just wishing Hikaru luck on his first mission tomorrow!"
"Oh, is that so?" She asked casually as she pointedly glanced at Hikaru. "Well, it's nice to know that Hikaru has such a good friend. However, you should probably get going, I'm sure your granny is already waiting for you to return home."
"Right, right! I wonder what's for dinnerโฆ." He pondered as he began walking off, "Oh, bye Hikaru! Mrs. Ahma." Giving a wave and a nod of his head to each of the two, he then quickly disappeared.
"He'll never make it to dinner in time," Hikaru remarked, shaking his head with a helpless expression on his face.
"Oh, and why is that?"
"He's an honest-to-god do-gooder. Always helping any person he comes across that needs even the tiniest bit of help. It'll be at least an hour before he makes it home."
"Haha, is that so? I'm starting to like him more and more." As an orphan who lived with an elderly Uchiha civilian who had little ties to the clan herself, Obito was particularly secluded from the clan, so naturally, Ahma held little knowledge of him besides the basics.
Chuckling, she turned toward her son, and her demeanor switched in an instant. "So, you've got your first missionโฆ tomorrow?" She was not a stupid woman; she knew that her son was assigned his first mission today and that no simple D-rank mission would warrant waiting an entire day to start.
"Y-yeah. Tomorrow." Hikaru could only nod and answer meekly.
"I'm guessing you're father doesn't understand the significance of that?"
He shook his head with a sheepish expression on his face.
She couldn't help but sigh, thinking that her son was too secretive and closed off from her and Sora. "Let's go inside, first."
Entering the house, the two walked into the kitchen, where Sora was almost finished preparing a meal for the family.
Brightly greeting his wife upon her return, Sora's demeanor swiftly changed as he noticed the strange air around his wife.
Ahma gestured him to sit beside her at the table, where the three found themselves all seated.
"Karu will be leaving the village tomorrow."
"W-what? So suddenly?" Sora's head swiveled over to Hikaru, both in surprise and thinly veiled hurt, because it was clear that his son had not opted to reveal such information to him.
Ahma nodded as she stared at her son's face. "On a C-rank mission, right?"
For his part, Hikaru spoke no more than necessary. "Yes."
"Hang on, just what is going on here? A C-rank mission outside of the village for his first mission?"
"Lord Hokage must have had no other choice. The amount of shinobi operating within the village is at an all-time low, and missions are piling up." Although her face was grave, her attitude was much too casual for Sora's liking.
"But, on his first mission?" He exclaimed, still unable to wrap his head around such a decision.
"The Hokage must have judged Karu's team to be of an adequate enough level to undertake such a mission." Saying so, she shrugged ever so slightly.
"And you're okay with this?"
"If it is the judgment of Lord Hokage, then I trust it completely. He is wise beyond all other men. Besides, I have faith in our little sunshine, don't you?" Now, her casual attitude dried up and was replaced by that of one inviting challenge, as one of her eyebrows perked up and an almost imperceptible degree of amusement flashed through her eyes.
"Wellโฆ" Sora's anger took a backseat as he glanced between both wife and son. He couldn't exactly say that he didn't believe in his son, right in front of him or his mother. "I guess, if Lord Hokage feels Hikaru is ready, then who am I to say otherwise?"
"Exactly, my thinking," Ahma replied with a broad smile. "Now, tell me the details of your mission, we need to make sure you're fully prepared."