Chapter 108: Using the power of the sharingan to build a secret lair.

His apartment although, it was his own and he had no one to share it with; was still in a very populous area.

It would not be suitable for the things Homura wanted to explore.

So he spent the last year mostly expanding his knowledge in crafting, reading, and the basic framework of what couldn't even be called civil engineering.

With the sharingan now available to him, it was much easier to learn how to do many things by watching master builders and craftsmen at work; whenever he had enough free time.

Originally he planned to use the power of the sharingan, whenever he would be able to awaken it to steal the moves from unsuspecting genins around the village, but even genins at the end of the day are trained shinobi.

It would be dangerous if he would get caught by one of them and now that he found some ninjutsu scrolls in the Uchiha clan, there was no need for such risky behavior.

So instead he chose to use his sharingan to learn from a variety of professionals around the village.

From farming to blacksmithing.

Such an unusual application of the sharingan perplexed him at first, he wasn't sure if he could use what he saw to truly replicate the techniques used by different craftsmen and workers around Konoha but to his surprise, as he tried to use the several skills he saw for himself.

It was as if his brain and body moved in sync as he tried to recall the techniques those men used.

Which was incredible.

Though not entirely perfect, he made several mistakes nonetheless, but it wasn't anything too outrageous.

His best guess as to why that happened was due to him, not adapting the men's movement to fit his body, they were after all professionals who had years upon years of experience.

But for an incomplete/at the first stage sharingan to be able to copy others movements to this degree was incredible.

It took him several weeks to fully adapt most of what he had copied to make it his own, for a clan to have such an overpowered ability was truly unfair.

Homura always felt that to some degree he was cheating to get ahead of others, but with the sharingan now available to him, it was truly unfair at the degree of progress he was able to make.

Too bad, it was not in something truly useful such as taijutsu or ninjutsu, instead they were skills that would help him become a jack of all trades when it came to civil engineering.

After a few months of trying to set everything up, by saving money and gathering all the materials for construction needed; Homura began to truly apply what he had now learned.

Though it did not go as well as he expected, learning techniques from watching people from afar is one thing but using it all he learned to plan an entire project was another.

Thus, many failures occurred with Homura's grand project.

At first, Homura built himself a cabin within the woods, although that itself was a rather easy endeavor for someone with the ability to run real-time simulations.

Homura having the body of a child made it far more difficult, for him to build anything too high.

So he first built several wooden staircases of different lengths.

When that was done he began to build the framework of a cabin, a few more weeks, the entire cabin was perfectly built.

Nonetheless, building a simple cabin was not what he wanted.

The real problems started after he began to try building and creating more complex things, such as several intricate mechanisms.

He had many items that needed to be kept hidden.

Everything he had done prior was all just an exercise in building a strong frame so that he could build an underground bunker with all the practice and knowledge he had gained.

So after 2 months of hardships, he built one.

Not even a week passed and it collapsed with him inside.

Thankfully such an eventuality was expected; thus he didn't die under a mountain of dirt and rocks.

It wasn't built too deep underneath the ground, and thanks to the collapse he was able to change the material he used for the roof and changed it from dried-up wood to a material ashcrete; a similar material to cement but cheaper and almost just as durable.

However, that also meant that new calculations were in order to account for weight distribution, and new materials or a larger amount of materials would be needed to account for the increase in weight.

Thus, on his next attempt at building the bunker, he used the aforementioned material and new calculations and… it collapsed; again.

The weight of the new material coupled with the weight of the soil on top of the roof was still far heavier than he expected, and Homura still not being too familiar with the material in question made mistakes in its application.

At least this time he learned his lesson, he avoided being inside when it collapsed.

So, from his now numerous mistakes, he built another bunker after another, and only on the 8th attempt did he manage to build something that did not collapse by replacing most of his previous planning and learning from his mistakes.

Even stress testing the bunker to see if it would collapse, came up positive.

Though according to his calculations, in 10 years or more, it would be less safe; due to materials inevitably deteriorating.

This series of failures once again showed that although supercomputing was a useful tool it wasn't all-powerful.

Human behavior and mistake made it hard to predict outcomes; though it still allowed Homura to make strides far more than he could have without someone guiding him,

Nonetheless, he had learned a lot and planned to learn more in the future to advance his own knowledge in crafting things.

At this point, he knew more about crafting and rudimentary civil engineering than ninja arts.

It wasn't surprising since it took him more than a year to become as good as he became at crafting objects and other materials.

However, by then he had already exhausted all of the money he made or that he was given as an allowance.

The reason why it took almost a year to build a base was mostly due to a lack of money and him spending time trying to learn ninjutsu.

It turned out that the man from whom Homura had obtained several scrolls from the night of the Uchiha massacre, over a year ago, was about ninjutsu and genjutsu.

He didn't know what the scrolls were about when he first saw those scrolls, he didn't even read them due to lack of available time during that night.

Not that he was able to do anything even with the jutsus written inside the scrolls.

Certainly not because ninjutsu of the caliber of the ones he found were too difficult, on the contrary, he found them rather simple.

Homura simply avoided practicing those, since he didn't know who may have been aware that he was present during the events of that accursed night.

He had certainly encountered a set of men that were most likely part of Danzo's root organization.

He expected them to make contact with him for months, but nothing happened.

Which made him wonder as to why nobody came to kill him off.

He thought it was because in his memories he remembered that the 3rd Hokage disbanded root after the massacre, but he was well aware that instead of disbanding they simply went deeper underground.

Evading even the 3rd's eyes and ears.

Perhaps, it was because of that event that no one came to try to take his life.

So, for an entire six months, Homura decided to simply not attract any more unwanted exposure toward himself.

Alas, as time passed he realized that he was wasting precious time and chose to take drastic actions.

He went back to the now abandoned Uchiha clan.

The clan was truly empty not a soul lived there anymore.

Not even Sasuke who now lived in an apartment reserved for him by the academy went there anymore.

It was truly abandoned.

Though, Homura ignored where Sasuke now lived since it didn't appear that they lived in the same apartment complex.

Those were already all fully occupied.

But it was certainly not within the Uchiha compound; which was now completely abandoned.

And slightly devastated by the fighting that took place.

Houses were partially destroyed, streets with clear markings or rubble from projectile weaponry; and several areas and items missing either due to the aftermath of a battle or removed by someone or a group of people.

It wasn't clear, since overall the entire estate was more or less just a ghost town now.

For those without knowledge of the events that took place within the area, it was not enough to tell what exactly had happened without having knowledge of how shinobi tend to battle.

The area was without a doubt desolated and plagued with traces of a fight occurring.

Nonetheless, it was still in overall good condition.

The fighting that took place was incredibly precise, the minor damage to the estate showed that most of the fighting had been one-sided.

Most houses had been somewhat searched but left more or less as they were after the mass slaughter of the residents that took place, safe for the areas where people's corpses were left behind or important sensitive information had to be erased.

Homura could tell as much since; people's personal belongings were mostly left there to rot.

Weapons, clothes, memorabilia, small amounts of money, and even other minor personal items were completely left behind.

Homura knew as much since he ransacked several items from the houses in the most remote locations.

He didn't take much.

Out of fear and regret perhaps, but also because it was more of a detriment to steal most items.

Several of those items, if resold, could be easily used to track him down and the rest would only cost more money for maintenance.

What seemed like a trove of treasures after reflecting for a while turned into more of a curse that would take more than it gave away.

So Homura simply took what had the potential to be useful to him; at least for now and in the near future.

In the end, it turned out to be anything that would matter to someone training to be a shinobi.

String wires, kunai/shuriken sets, discarded scrolls, health kits, and other miscellaneous items or weapons that he was not used to but was willing to try learning how to use or fight against them.

Most scrolls he found mostly contained several things such as the fireball technique or a few scrolls teaching about the principles of genjutsu.

Those could be considered to be incredible finds for Homura, but it was ultimately not what he was searching for.

He wanted powerful jutsus such as the Izanagi or other exceptional jutsus that were kept hidden by the clan but he never found those or any clues pertaining to them.

He already knew the seals pertaining to the fireball technique from his memories and reading the scroll just made him realize how pointless it all was.

Chakra is more complex and paradoxically more simple than one might think.

It didn't take a genius to figure out how to use certain types of jutsu; in the end, it always came down to chakra control and affinity.

If one possesses the ability or the chakra control and dedication to learning a specific jutsu; then it was far easier for them to learn that specific technique.

Not that anyone could learn any jutsu if they were taught.

However, there's a reason as to why some ninjutsu are chosen to be taught to children instead of others.

A sealing jutsu or a jutsu that needs a jutsu formula (Jutsu Shiki) such as the flying Raijin, is probably impossible for most children to perform even if those children in question happen to be unparalleled geniuses beyond common sense; however, a fireball jutsu which is based on a far more simple principle to understand and more accessible for anyone rationalize, is likely to be far easier for anyone to perform.

Genius or not.

Children were taught the fireball jutsu within the Uchiha clan, not because it was a complex jutsu that necessitated one to have a deep understanding of the principles of ninjutsu or chakra natures.

It was simply because the fireball jutsu was a simple jutsu for most children to understand and practice using.

Simple and easy for them for honing their affinity in fire release (Katon).

After they were taught how to harness their own chakra through different processes and techniques pertaining to chakra control.

They were then taught the right seals and order on how to use them in order to perform the jutsu in question.

If they had a basic understanding of how to use and harness chakra, through a few months or years of practice; it would be enough for them to use it in actual combat.

Since even if one can perform a jutsu, having mastery over that specific jutsu is normally something that takes years of intense practice.

Especially if the jutsu in question, happens to be based on having a specific chakra nature release or a nature release jutsu needing shape transformation to be applied to it in order to be performed; since both concepts are rarely used without the other.

Most elemental ninjutsu needs a certain degree of shape transformation in order to be used or a degree of control so as to not hurt the user.

Thus why the Uchiha clan used the fireball jutsu as a rite of passage into adulthood for children born in the clan.

This is simply because Uchihas are normally predisposed to using fire release as it is normally the chakra nature most members of their clan tended to excel in.

Allowing talented children to practice such a jutsu at an early age, was simply meant to allow them to quickly become more attuned to fire release; which most members of the clan are usually able to use quite easily.

It was the same as other clans trying to pass on their hidden jutsus to their young even before most of them attain the rank of genins; if they deemed that the child in question had the potential in learning their secret jutsu.

However, since hidden jutsus are hidden because they are rare, and powerful jutsus that are ultimately only used by a certain group of people, it is ultimately a much more complicated affair than learning a commonly used jutsu that almost anyone knows.

Still, the same concept applies to most clans.

Members within those said clans often want to pass on their specific techniques to those within the same clan; more often to family members or to specific individuals.

Since not everyone in a clan has to be related by blood or part of the same familial line; relationships and one's potential counts more than simply familial bonds in most cases.

The safety of the clan usually takes precedence above all else.

Age is a concept that hardly matters when one is recognized as a ninja or has the potential to become a powerful one in the future.

Ultimately power is what shapes the world, so those with the most potential children or not, family or not, are usually the ones that are trained to carry on the clan's secrets and techniques.

It was simply the norm in the shinobi world.

In a world where children can die on missions rather early; teaching those with the most potential as early as possible is the same as insuring the future of their respective clans.

Those lucky enough to show promise in their fighting skills and other abilities were usually taught much earlier than those who are lacking or those who show nothing promising about them.

Thus, the main reason why those born within clans tended to have an advantage over those hailing from normal families.

Most have someone assigned to cater their training to fit the individual they are meant to train.

Usually, it was a parent who passed down their own technique to their children, ensuring that their knowledge and techniques continue to prosper with the next generation.

That was understandable, abilities used by members of a certain clan can be passed through genetics or become so ingrained in their DNA or traits that it becomes easier for the next generations to use those said abilities.

However, not everyone within clans can be so lucky.

Those unlucky enough to have no one to take care of them, belonging to a clan or not, have to learn by their lonesome, the same as any other student at the academy.

Sadly, due to those reasons students that only learn taught at the academy start at a disadvantage.

The academy did not have the resources to do as much as those who came from a clan or had parents that could teach them about ninja arts. At the end of the day, they had to provide a curriculum that is fair for all students.

It was impossible to take into account every student's personal circumstances.

More or less ensuring that a gap persists between certain students.

Students from common backgrounds can on the surface appear at a clear disadvantage, but konoha has not been considered to be the mightiest ninja village in the entire world because it was home to powerful clans.

Ninjas from clans were on average stronger than most, but they could hardly be considered to be the core of Konoha's might.

The diversity of talents that the village hidden in the leaves had at its disposal, was its biggest strength.

Those not belonging to a particular clan usually could develop in unique ways, not limited to the set templates that those belonging to clans were often trapped.

Even if ninjas within a specific clan can be considered to be strong when compared to the average ninja within their village, due to members often learning the same techniques they are often compared to one another.

Only those that are a cut above the rest are seen as truly special.

Providing a nice balance between shinobi from respected families and those from common backgrounds.

Though, none of that applied to Homura.

He wasn't tied down to any style or any particular mindset.

As someone who has an idea of how future events will transpire, the powers of any clan or any individual will not be far from enough to stop the series of threats that will descend upon this world.

But for now, he was too weak to think too deeply about those things.

He simply needed to build his strength within the comfort and protection that the village offered.

What he mostly wanted as of now, was simply to be a better fighter.

A fighter strong enough to be able to face any kind of enemy.

Beware of all potential tactics he would face on the battlefield.

And for that, he spent days sleeping, or rather he spent worth of years training within his lucid dreams.

Fighting day and night.

Trying to correct every mistake, and every bad habit he had and try to copy the movements or techniques of individuals from other worlds.

Which was now much easier since he had awakened the sharingan.

It seemed that because the crimson eyes from the Uchiha clan were the eyes full of yin energy or yin release, they could be used even inside his deepest subconscious.

The eyes full of yin energy were a part of him.

Yin release being able to control one's imagination and mental energy.

As long as those special eyes of his were activated in real life, the chakra within his brain would materialize also in the fictitious reality he had created.

A powerful tool for his training that allowed his brain to memorize the movements of his opponents much better.

Though it wasn't without fault.

His real body could not truly replicate the same movements in real life.

The enemies he fought came in all shapes and sizes.

He had to train in real life as well to adapt to their movesets.

Another demerit was that he was not able to copy their supernatural attacks.

It didn't matter if they were created through chakra or not.

As hollow recreations, they were just that hollow.

With the power of the sharingan, the worlds and simulations he created inside his mind were laid bare.

The superpowers his virtual opponents would use, regardless of posture, regardless of subtle muscle movements, or any other extraneous means were mostly impossible to fully replicate.

Homura was not a master swordsman, weapon expert, veteran warrior, or experienced brawler.

He did not really understand much about fighting.

He knew how to fight and defend himself but that was the end of it.

All that C could do was interpret Homura's incomplete memories and run simulations based on probabilities or data available.

It was impossible to recreate everything with probability and data alone.

That much Homura knew, but even the slightest incomplete technique or the unusual set of movements was a blessing that could allow him to learn a new technique.

However, as previously mentioned.

Seeing through illusions did take its toll that techniques used by his created foes were not exactly safe to replicate or were outright impossible or at the very least were not possible for the current Homura's understanding of combat and martial arts.

-…Finally… I've arrived.

*Tap*

Homura dropped a set of crates that he was carrying prior.

They were the same crates he used to deliver the order he had delivered.

It was usual for him to deliver those as soon as he could whenever he had time; to make some quick cash.

However, it was something that took too much time away from his training.

He wanted to quit, but the lack of money was a source of problems as always.

-(It's a pain to have to take such a detour every time.)

Soon after he said that he pulled on a handle hidden next to his feet and a trapdoor opened beneath him as he pulled on the handle.

Homura then quickly went inside and close the door before he descended the ladder completely.

It didn't take more than 2 minutes before he arrived in front of a trapped door connecting to an underground room.

It took him about several seconds, to disable several of the mechanism put in place in order to avoid any prying eyes from getting close to his secrets.

They weren't meant to stop anyone from entering but to allow the entire base to crumble, so if someone didn't know the correct way to disable the mechanism; all the things inside would be destroyed.

It wasn't overthinking on his part, but some of the things he had inside could be very dangerous for him if they were ever to be found out.

*click*

As he finished disabling all the mechanisms set on the door; the door soon opened as the lock became undone.

Homura then proceeds to soon enter the room and close the door behind him.

- Ah! Here it is.

Since the room was quite dark he could not see everything inside the dark room, but he was able to soon find a set of matches that he used to light up several candles.

As that was done he then proceeded to set up the mechanisms he disabled and put them in place once again.

As that was done, he proceeded to take the box of matches with him and proceed to another room.

The base was composed of 3 different rooms.

One was a basic armory.

Where weapons and other objects such as clothes or other tools were kept.

The second was a basic room with a bed inside, and a workstation with several bookshelves containing several scrolls, books, notes, and many other reports or papers.

And the last room was a vault.

A vault with several items that he deemed to dangerous to be kept with others, not just because they were physically dangerous but because it contained things that are considered illegal to him to have.

It was a hidden room.

Difficult to get to it and set to be destroyed as well.

But it didn't apply to the room in question but the entire base.

So Homura rarely went inside.

Mostly to make sure that the mechanisms he had put in place did not break or become too rusty.

Thus, this time as well Homura did not go to the last room but instead, he dropped everything he was carrying on top of the messy desk.

Adding to the pile of mess.

As that was done, he proceeded to lay on top of the bed and closed his eyes.

- C; continue from the last set of batch saved from the storm program, and set an alarm for 6 A.M.

- (Understood) (C)

-…..

After a few minutes of trying to fall asleep, Homura finally once again was able to enter his subconscious.

Immediately batches, of blue lights that were actually in the shape of bundle sets or groups of aggregated numbers enveloped everything.

His body as it came in contact with the light changed as well to an older version of Homura.

Revealing a young man with raven hair wearing an almost complete jet-black shinobi attire from the mist village, with a sword strapped to his back.

It was the normal outfit from the mist anbu.

Perfect for stealth operations, hidden in the cold embrace of the night.

Especially now that the area around him was changing into one reflecting a dark forest. As all the particles of light around them melded into the background.

Soon revealing a woman in a dark green, albeit slightly strange shinobi attire that easily revealed the shape of her body, and wearing an eye patch over one of her eyes in the shape of a heart.

As the ones often seen in decks of cards.

- Finally, today I will put an end to this- Said Homura as he then proceeded to violently unleash the blade strapped to his back pointing towards the Kunoichi.

-…

However, the kunoichi in front of him did not say anything as she unsheathed her blade, in a beautiful motion that was as fast as it was beautiful as she entered a calm posture; ready to face Homura.

Easily displaying the mastery behind her craft.

Contrasting with Homura's personality that was easily became hot blooded due to his abundant flux of emotions, while she was as calm as still water.

-Tch!- seeing her strike a more composed form to his own, Homura calmed down and replicated her posture.

Demonstrating that this was not an opponent he could risk to face without a plan or a more composed frame.

He had faced and defeated many opponents before him that the virtual space provided, so much so that he was confident that he would not easily lose to most normal brawlers in hand-to-hand combat.

However, as he soon started fighting opponents wielding weapons, the kunoichi proved to be a strong opponent for him to defeat.

Loss after loss, shattered Homura's already bruised ego.

Showing that Homura still had much to learn when it came to the art of holding a blade, especially since he was not a real swordsman.

He tried to implement the movements he copied against other swordsmen but they were incomplete.

Making his technique even more incomplete, which he had no other choice but to adapt to his own fighting style.

But he persevered.

As one year passed in real life; more than 2 years of virtual training had passed from all the time he spent inside his mind.

Even though he didn't remember exactly every training sessions, he replayed the matches in real life and tried to copy his movements.

As time passed, he did not manage to replicate all the techniques he had learn or seen, but managed to find a rhythm that more or less fit his current body and fighting style.

Though it was clear that he still needed more years of training as his body did not move as well as he wanted.

A single year was just not enough to cause such a radical change to his combat abilities but in a few more years he was confident that his fighting style would reach a whole new level as he became faster and more battle savvy.

Regardless, that was in the future, now he needed to learn and defeat the opponent in front of him in order to move to new heights.

So as the match was about to start Homura's grip on his blade became tighter as his non existent blood pressure increased as he readied himself to face the foe in front of him.

-…

-…(???)

Both warrior looked at each other and waited till the countdown ended; and as it inevitably ended both adversaries dashed towards each other as their blade clashed.

Creating fire sparks, as both blade's metallic frame collided with enough speed and force from the impact.

Leaving the 2 warriors, staring into each other's eyes.

Chapter end