"Sasuke-kun, let us walk home together." After school, Hinata shuffled up to him and spoke in a soft, sticky whisper.
He was not Naruto with a loose screw. Since she was interested, he would move fast. A wife should be raised from childhood.
After the Uchiha were wiped out, their district stayed empty for years. No one wanted to live in a place that far out, where every house held a death.
With Hiruzen Sarutobi's help, Sasuke moved near the academy. By chance, that lay along Hinata's route home, so they began walking together.
Back at his place, Sasuke took out several Fire Release scrolls he had stashed long ago. After the massacre, the village recovered almost all Uchiha resources, leaving him money and a few Fire Release jutsu.
The money would last him comfortably until graduation.
"Start with Phoenix Sage Fire." He considered that Dragon Fire required steel wire. He had not learned to handle it safely yet.
Once he learned Phoenix Sage Fire, he could pair it with shuriken to form Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson.
That version hit harder, detonating on impact with piercing force.
INHALE...
EXHALE...
"Too bad. When casting ninjutsu I have to stop the Breathing Style." Most elemental arts spewed from the mouth. You took a deep breath before firing, which disrupted the rhythm and paused the Breathing.
Especially Great Fireball. Most users sucked in so hard their chests jumped to an E-cup before the flame.
Sasuke tried to keep Total Concentration going even in sleep, but without anyone watching him at night, the breathing slipped once he dozed off.
A month had passed, and he still had not reached Total Concentration Constant.
Age might be a factor. Tanjiro had been in his teens when he learned.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire!"
At the familiar riverside, he finished the signs, drew a deep breath, and blew a mouthful of black smoke over the water.
"Cough, cough. Not happening. This will take longer than a day or two." He drank some water to soothe his throat.
"Right. If ninjutsu will not stick for now, train chakra control." He remembered the tree-walking drill. In the original, Kakashi taught it after graduation because Naruto and Sasuke were orphans and Sakura's parents were civilians. None of them knew the trick earlier.
He did.
With Shadow Clone later, he could even reverse engineer the Rasengan. He had watched the full training method in videos.
"Yosh. Start with trees." He returned to the abandoned Uchiha grounds, where no one would interrupt.
"Attach a little chakra to the soles, then step on the trunk..."
BANG!
"Too much chakra." Seeing bark explode under his foot, he hopped back and redistributed the flow.
WHOOSH!
"Too little again. Why is this so hard to control?" He cursed under his breath and kept adjusting.
At last, after a full month of persistence, he did it.
Unlike the twelve-year-old from the original, he was seven, with less chakra and weaker control, while also learning Fire Release daily.
Even failed casts burned chakra. Sometimes flubs cost more than success.
"Whew. Finally on top." He stood on the trunk and grinned.
His chakra control now matched the original Sasuke at twelve. Fire Release would come faster from here.
Night had fallen, but instead of going home, he followed the moonlight back to the riverside where he practiced.
He had cleared tree-walking and recovered a bit of chakra. Time to try Phoenix Sage Fire again.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire!"
Dozens of orange fireballs streaked with a WHOOSH, splashed into the river, and guttered out.
"Yes. Finally." He plopped down by the bank and dug into the late-night snack he had packed.
Food replenished chakra quickly. Soldier pills worked faster, but too many were hard to digest. He ate supper every night. Switching to pills would wreck his stomach.
When his chakra had recovered enough for another cast, he stood and readied a stack of shuriken.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson!"
...