Sharingan Reawakening

"Whenever you're ready." I prompted, as I watched my opponent, Sasuke, tense his body. In the meantime, I activated my Sharingan, with a surge of chakra as my black irises morphed into bright red. My two tomoe Sharingan spun wildly in response to Sasuke's narrowed onyx eyes.

We stood motionless for a few seconds, both of us just watching and waiting. I was waiting for his first move, while he was analysing my stance, searching for weaknesses. He wouldn't find any, I made sure of it.

The silence wouldn't last long as without warning, Sasuke flew into handseals. Taking that as the signal to begin, I ran towards him.

When the Uchiha formed the last of his handseals, the tiger seal indicated to me that he was likely going to use a fire release technique. Not that I needed to guess anyways, recognized what he was about to use from the handseals alone.

"Katon: Hosenka no jutsu!" Sasuke spat out a volley of fireballs in to the air in different directions, but all were converging towards a single target – me.

'Whirlwind Steps!' An invisible and indiscernible flow of energy saturated my legs as I activated the Soldier's Swift Boots' item effect. Instantly, I felt myself moving faster. Twice as fast to be exact. I darted away from the volley of small fire balls flying at me with ease and resumed my advance towards my opponent, Sasuke.

I could see his eyes visibly widen at my increased speed, not used to such a drastic difference since I never used the item effect against him before. But this time, this time it was different.

The two us, Sasuke and I, have been engaging in intense fights for the past two years. I called them fights, not spars, because we always went all out with deadly intent. Well, him anyways, I usually performed just slightly above what he was capable of. We were already in the last year of the academy, yet despite our best efforts his Sharingan has still not awakened. I was genuinely baffled, to be honest. I was sure my theory was right, but something just wasn't clicking.

But recently I had an epiphany. In order to force Sasuke to reawaken his Sharingan, he had to truly believe he was in mortal peril. Therefore, today, I would utterly push him to death's door, or so I would have him think.

Sasuke backed off in response to my rapid advance, but I was too fast for him to escape. I could see his eyes twitching in thought, running through all the possible scenarios and simulations of this fight. We fought plenty enough for him to know that most of the skills in his repertoire were already proven to be useless against me. As a result, he also knew that it was only a matter of time before I caught him slipping and ended the match.

Yet that was the crux of the problem. The notion that I was eventually going to catch him and end the fight with him bruised but relatively unscathed meant that there was still a part of him that maintained the awareness that I was not genuinely trying to take his life. I speculated that it was this awareness that was holding him back from entering a state of mortal peril, which correspondingly hindered him from awakening his already existing Sharingan.

It was no longer the time for mercy and leniency. It was time for action.

Sasuke stopped backing away, realizing the futility of the action since my catching up to him was inevitable. The three basic academy jutsus were out, my Sharingan could see through them all. His collection of elemental jutsu were also useless against someone who could overpower them all with his own. Taijutsu, out of the question. He was aware that I outmatched him in every aspect of physical combat with or without the Sharingan. Genjutsu? Needless to say, completely futile.

What other options did he have left? Realizing that he had none, Sasuke stood his ground and unsheathed the wakizashi from his back. It was a weapon he had picked up after witnessing my own skills with it. I found it just a little cute that he was trying to imitate me, but his skills with the blade left much to be desired. I taught him the basics, but he declined to learn more from me, claiming that he wanted his kenjutsu techniques to be a secret from me, so he could take me by surprise during our matches.

Clever, but pointless and frankly disadvantageous to himself. There was a limit to learning kenjutsu by your ownself without a teacher to guide you. I was an exception, not the rule. The fact that he was not able to grasp that meant he still had more maturing to do. In his defence however, I was clobbering him pretty hard every time we fought, so it wasn't that surprising he wanted a hidden ace.

However, I didn't push the issue. I only trained Sasuke in the basics and fundamentals, as well as regularly acting as a sparring partner. Other than that, I was almost completely hands off with his training. I didn't want him to rely on me for power – not like how he relied on Orochimaru. Since I still wasn't sure if him defecting to the Snake Sannin would ultimately be better for his growth.

As I approached him, he swung the wakizashi at me, a layer of chakra coating the blade that was made of chakra metal. In response, I activated a skill that I had created with the Gamer System after some experimentation over the years – [Shinkyoken].

The skill was a result of some experimentation with [Chakra Enhancement] and was derived from a taijutsu style I found in the Uchiha Jutsu repository, called Shinkyoken, meaning True Void Fist. The bombastic name was what drew me to the martial art in the first place, but upon reading the scroll, I was slightly disappointed to find that the moves within as well as its philosophies closely resembled Karate.

It was a martial art that was created to replace the need for any weapons other than oneself, emphasizing the human hands as the deadliest weapon of them all. However, it was an insidious fighting style that incorporated eye gouging, throat punches, fish hooking and ear ripping. But at the same time, it also required the user to be able to harden their hands through conditioning to the point of being able to poke holes into concrete with just their fingers.

The premise of Shinkyoden was to strengthen one's hands and fingers such that any punch, knifehand or spearhand had the lethality to kill as easily as with a bladed weapon. On paper, it sounded like a taijutsu style that was extremely deadly. However, it only experienced a brief moment of glory before it faded into obscurity as the scroll explained that there were only two recorded masters of the martial art – the progenitor of Shinkyoden and his only disciple.

The problem with this style was that it was simply too difficult and took too long for someone to develop the required durability in order to practically utilize its techniques. Originally, practitioners of Shinkyoden, to condition their hands, would undergo Jari Bako training – thrusting their fingers into a bucket of sand and then slowly building up towards harder and harder alternatives. Normally, this would take years if not a decade to develop tough enough hands to punch through concrete without chakra.

No sane person would spend 10 years punching rocks, breaking their fingers, waiting for them to heal and only to break them again just to learn how to kill without a weapon when there were plenty of other alternatives shinobi could use for the same effect.

Initially, I dismissed its teachings as purely nonsensical as well. But after some time practicing and experimenting just out of curiosity during some downtime, the skill [Shinkyoken] was created. However, unlike other skills, this particular one, though it may seem strange, changed the physical properties of my body just with its inception. Without underdoing the necessary training, my hands and fingers were hardened to the point of being able to utilize Shinkyoken at a minimum standard.

However, the skill was still at level one so I wasn't able to do something as preposterous as poking holes into rocks yet; I could perhaps thrust a spearhand through inch thick plywood. But according to the skill description, the durability of my hands and fingers would increase in proportion to its level. And when used in conjunction with [Chakra Enhancement], it turned my hands into lethal weapons like a cleaver, needle or spear depending on which form I used.

As a result, I could easily do things like deflecting Sasuke's wakizashi with just my hand. The flat part of course, not the edge. We exchanged blows, me with a knifehand reinforced with chakra and him with a wakizashi sharpened with chakra. A third party observer might have commented that we looked pretty even, but only because I allowed it to be.

The biggest problem Sasuke had facing against me was his inability to use chakra enhancement to increase his bodily strength and speed. Thus, he would never be able to overpower my strength or surpass my speed. And without the Sharingan to negate such a disadvantage in a typical fight, it was a wall that could not be overcome without strategy or preparation.

I got bored of the monotonous exchange and decided to deprive him of his weapon, to extract some sort of a fearful reaction. I parried his last thrust with my left hand and with my right one I jabbed the tendon on his wrist, forcing him to release his grip on the wakizashi. Before Sasuke could react, I closed the distance and fluidly elbowed him in the nose, knocking him back.

As Sasuke nursed his now bleeding nose, I used [Observe] on the Uchiha's blade.

[Satori (Wakizashi) – Grade: Epic]

An heirloom short sword passed down in the Uchiha clan, only to be wielded by the leader of the clan. The sword has seen many battles and taken even more lives, reaping its way through multiple wars and over a hundred years of the world's history. It is the masterpiece of an extraordinarily skilful master blacksmith. The balance, edge and strength of the sword is unparalleled amongst its kind but only a master swordsman is able to bring out its full potential.

Durability: 340/340

Damage: S

STR +43

DEX +61

+33% to Physical Damage

+33% to Attack Speed

Item Skill: [Phantom Butterfly] – Active

CP Cost: 800

Allows user to flicker in and out of corporeality for 10 seconds at will. For every second spent incorporeal, user must spend 1 second corporeal. Cooldown 1 hour.

Holy fucking shit this was like a final boss loot drop level item appearing during the tutorial of a game. The bonus DEX stats it gave was even higher than my own DEX stat. Not to mention the increase in physical damage and attack speed. The item skill effect was even more preposterous.

Such a weapon was wasted on an academy student, who I presumed to have found it in the Uchiha clan armoury or in his father's possessions. He most likely took it for his own use seeing that there was no one around to stop him. He did have the right to use it since he was technically the Uchiha clan leader by virtue of being the only living and loyal member of his clan.

The fact that even with the badass sword Sasuke still stood no chance against me physical only confirmed my theory that the item effects, be they stat boosts or item skills, only affected me who was under the Gamer System. Anyone else would only see it as a very well made sword with a lot of history, but only I could use it to its full potential.

But as much as I lusted for the Epic grade wakizashi, it was not mine to covet. I was willing to admit that after spending so much time with Sasuke over the years, I had formed a sort of familial bond with him. I started seeing him as the brother I never had, and he saw me as the brother he would rather have. The short sword, as crazily overpowered as it was, belonged to the Uchiha clan. It belonged to my brother. I could never covet his possession unless he gave it to me willingly. I did have some integrity after all.

I picked up Satori and threw it back at him, the short sword embedding itself in the ground in front of him.

"Your skills with the blade is… dubious. It is an excellent sword, but it will only do you more harm than good to use it when you barely know how to swing and stab properly." I mentioned, "If you want to properly use it, improve your skills first before swinging it around like it's a broken branch."

Sasuke ignored my suggestion and removed Satori from the dirt it was stabbing into, before getting into a kenjutsu stance. Even now, I saw the fragility of his stance, a sign of his obvious unfamiliarity with it. I sighed at him ignoring my suggestion but shrugged it off. He would learn the lesson the hard way then.

Without waiting for a signal from him, I continued our fight. However, unlike our previous exchange, I decided to finish this with as much brutality as I could without being too damaging.

From his perspective I vanished mid-run and reappeared within his guard. I had used [Flash Step] to increase my movement drastically, moving fast enough to appear as though I teleported to the untrained eye. Shocked at my sudden appearance, Sasuke couldn't even react accordingly before I attacked.

Utilizing [Shinkyoken] I swiped at his torso, and with my extended index and middle finger I left two bloody gashes across his chest. I wasn't trying to kill him of course – I measured the distance and force of the strike so that I would just barely cut his chest. Maximum visual effect but ultimately non-fatal.

He was surprised at the sudden brutality of my offense and made to counter with an open palm aimed at my chin. I quickly intercepted his attack by jabbing his bicep which knocked away his arm and then with a clawing motion tore into his outstretched forearm.

Blood spurted out again, splattering on both of us, but I didn't relent. I continuously attacked him with [Shinkyoken], slicing into his flesh just deep enough to draw blood but nothing too dangerous. Whenever he tried fighting back, I countered and went at him harder. If he attempted to escape or move away, I would rapidly catch up and punish him for doing so.

After just 30 seconds, Sasuke was bleeding all over with open cuts littered on his torso, arms, thighs and with the last stab, a particularly deep gash opened up on his cheek just below his right eye. That last one he received in his attempt to retreat, which I let succeed.

The boy wasn't particular short on breath, since the fight had only been going on for a minute or two, but the continual blood loss had him weak and fatigued. His legs were wobbly, and body unsteady from the dizziness and nausea. His breathing quickened, a response from his brain to compensate for the sudden loss in oxygen intake due to the loss of blood, and the sheen from the film of cold sweat on him was apparent.

"Wait, stop. I yield." He said, surrendering. Sasuke's eyes were shaking, unused to the savagery and cruelty of my attacks. I usually had to prompt him to yield before he would be willing to swallow the bitter pill of defeat and concede. But this time he capitulated on his own accord, unlike our previous battles.

"You yield?" I levelled a cold glare on the Uchiha and hissed out.

He nodded, reluctant, but ultimately he understood the difference between our capabilities. To hold on persistently would only be counter-productive.

"No." I simply responded and continued my assault on the boy.

"Wa-wait! You-! I said I yield, are you crazy!" He panickily asked while desperately trying to evade the viciousness of Shinkyoken. He swung his wakizashi at me from an obtuse angle, trying to catch me off guard but I mercilessly sliced into the back of his hand holding the blade, forcing him to release it, and landed a fist on the open gashes of his torso.

I then threw a low kick at the side of his knee, sweeping him off his feet and sending him groaning in pain and on to the ground.

Looking down on the now 12 year old boy who cradled his knee and other wounds while laying flaccidly on the floor, I narrowed my eyes.

"Is this all your resolve amounts to? Surrender? How pathetic."

Sasuke returned a murderous glare at me, but the anger behind his look bounced off my armour of indifference and cold resentment ineffectively.

"After all this time, you still haven't awakened your Sharingan. You are just wasting my time." I coldly continued.

"You speak of lofty goals – killing Itachi and rebuilding your clan. But when the going gets tough, you yield? Your determination is weak. Your will is lacking. Your resolve, feeble."

With every biting word, I saw his resolve shaking. He glared, but the emotion behind them wavered. He knew what I said was true, no matter how much he wanted to deny them. As much as I was disappointed with him, he was even more disappointed with himself.

"You… you know nothing." He shakily replied, internally cursing his own ineptitude.

"Nothing? No, I know everything. I have been here for the last three years training with you. And I have seen all that I needed to see. You… are a disappointment."

"SHUT UP!" He growled, struggling to get back up to his feet, but I cut off his attempts by kicking him in the chest and sending him rolling on the ground.

"Weak… so weak. But I am let down not by your lack of strength. No, strength can be cultivated. What I despise is your sickeningly paltry resolve. Avenge your clan? Don't make me laugh. If you can't even stand up to me; if you surrender so easily, what hopes would you have against your brother." I stated while taking slow measured steps towards the boy.

"You bastard! Don't screw with me Shinji! You… You're just like him… I lack hatred, is that it? TELL ME!" Sasuke yelled in response, hammering the ground with a closed fist once and again tried to pick himself up. He swore at his trembling body and pounded himself in the chest, but it was of no use. His body, bloodied and beaten, refused to listen to him. Tears welled up in his eyes, as a scream of indignation left his mouth.

"Hmph! It is not hatred that you lack. It is courage. The will to keep fighting no matter what tries to stop you. The drive to succeed even if you had to die trying. Your determination is weak and fleeting. It pales in comparison to your brother's."

"Don't screw with me Shinji," He repeated, only this time it was no longer anger that fuelled him but a deepening despair. "Not you… why are you saying this…"

A pang of guilt struck my heart, but I had to continue. Otherwise all of this would have been for naught. "Tears? You make me sick." I spat out, as chakra swirled menacingly around my straightened fingers.

Please dodge this, I pleaded mentally in my mind, raising my hand in preparation to strike him down. "You are no Uchiha. You do not deserve that name. You… you should have died that day along with the rest of your family."

With that, I thrusted downwards, desperately praying he would avoid it. And at the last minute, he did. Sasuke rolled out of the way, his eyes looking back at me and his face twisted in unholy anger.

"HOW DARE YOU! You take that back! Take it back! I… I'm an Uchiha! I will kill Itachi! AND I WILL KILL YOU!" He roared out furiously and a second wind overtook his exhausted body. Running at me, he cocked back a fist and swung it at me.

Slightly taken aback, I opened my mouth to say something but was forced to parry his punch. Upon seeing his initial attack failing, he went down low and swept at my feet. I moved back and Sasuke followed up with a series of ferocious kicks and punches, all of which faster and more accurate than ever before.

Narrowly evading a back fist, I leaned back to make some space between us only to be caught by a spinning back kick that landed on my jaw.

-332 HP!

I got knocked back and barely had time to register the hit before Sasuke raged onwards, his attacks wild and savage but with a method to his madness.

Getting over my initial shock, I moved in to grapple him. I blocked a fist and my other hand snaked in to grab his wrist. Not letting him break out of my hold, I twisted his arm and locked his upper limbs into a tangled mess. But the boy did not relent, attempting to knee my torso with his free legs.

I took the hit with a clenched jaw but took the opportunity to trip his other supporting leg. I threw him down on the ground and continued a death grip on his arms as he violently resisted, trying to break free.

"Sasuke!" I shouted, trying to get his attention. But he ignored me, only focusing on trying to break free. I shifted my position so that I was mounted on top of him, sitting on his torso while holding down his arms.

"SASUKE!" I yelled again, and this time it worked. He stopped and glared at me.

"What!?" The boy angrily demanded but was then shocked to see a warm smile on my face.

"You did it." I simply answered and loosened my grip on him.

He looked back in confusion but still with some anger behind it, "Did what?"

I released him and stood back up, smiling down at the confused Uchiha still on the ground.

"Your eyes. Your Sharingan is awake."

He widened his eyes, the red and black of the Uchiha clan's bloodline limit staring back at me. One tomoe on his left eye and two on his right.

[Quest [Sharingan Reawakening] Completed!]

Help Sasuke awaken his Sharingan (√)

(Bonus) Complete quest before graduating from the Academy (√)

(Hidden) Complete quest within 1 year (X)

Rewards:

+5,000 EXP

Significantly Increased REP with Uchiha Sasuke

(Bonus) Skill [Genjutsu: Sharingan]

(Hidden) +2 LVL to [Sharingan]

[Genjutsu: Sharingan] (Active) LVL: 1

CP Cost: 400

User can trap an opponent within a genjutsu when establishing eye contact with the target. Does not work if target has a higher level Sharingan or other effects that grants immunity to ocular genjutsu.

Improved proficiency in the skill increases difficulty of breaking out of the illusion.