Uchiha Shunichi had made his choice.
Sarutobi Hiruzen felt a sense of regret, yet he did not interfere with Shunichi's decision.
Deep down, Hiruzen harbored a degree of concern toward Shunichi. His judgment itself was sound—but even so, he did not wish to see the Uchiha clan grow too powerful.
Even if… only two members of the Uchiha remained.
After all, the existence of the Mangekyō Sharingan was simply too terrifying.
Shunichi himself, however, paid it little mind. Or rather, he had already achieved his immediate goal. As for techniques like the Flying Thunder God, those could wait until Tsunade became Hokage.
That woman was far easier to deal with than Sarutobi Hiruzen.
After obtaining a copy of the Eight Gates Technique from Hiruzen, Shunichi returned home directly.
When he arrived, Sasuke had already finished cooking. He was eating alone, his expression dark and distant, clearly lost in thought.
"What're you thinking about?"
Shunichi served himself a bowl of rice and spoke as he ate.
"You're back! Can you talk about the mission?" Sasuke asked with curiosity.
"No mission today," Shunichi replied casually. "The Third Hokage just gave me a jutsu. Unfortunately, it's not very suitable for you. By the way—who's your jōnin instructor?"
"Some guy named Hatake Kakashi," Sasuke said with mild dissatisfaction. "He looks pretty weak…"
Shunichi paused, then said,
"That guy's actually fairly strong. Maybe not your brother's equal—but not far off either."
"In fact, he's a genius too. Just incredibly unlucky. One blow after another nearly crushed him completely."
There was a trace of regret in Shunichi's voice.
Hearing this, Sasuke immediately recalled the scene of Kakashi getting hit by a blackboard eraser and found it hard to believe.
"That… guy? He's really that strong?" Sasuke asked hesitantly.
"Yes," Shunichi nodded. "If the Sharingan hadn't limited his development, he'd be even stronger than he is now."
Sasuke instantly caught onto the keyword.
"Sharingan…"
Shunichi had no intention of explaining further. He simply said flatly,
"During the Third Great Ninja War, a fallen Uchiha clan member left it to him."
That answer left Sasuke feeling disappointed.
Shunichi quickly finished his meal and returned to his room, where he began studying the training method for the Eight Gates Technique.
In principle, this forbidden technique was quite simple:
one only needed a body strong enough to withstand violent chakra, then open the Eight Gates within the body one by one.
However, the most fundamental requirement was a powerful physical body.
At present, Shunichi could already be considered an exceptionally strong taijutsu ninja.
But because of the Mangekyō Sharingan, his body was unable to fully unleash its true potential.
Still…
If he were to disregard everything else, Shunichi believed he could force the Eight Gates open. The price, however, would be far more severe side effects than what ordinary ninja would suffer.
Of course, Shunichi hadn't requested the Eight Gates merely as a last-ditch trump card.
His true goal was to research where the chakra released by the Eight Gates actually came from.
After all, even in the world of shinobi, the law of conservation of energy remained absolute.
Chakra could not simply vanish—and it certainly could not appear out of nothing.
If he could uncover the source of the chakra unleashed by the Eight Gates, Shunichi's strength would rise dramatically.
…
The next morning, Sasuke left early without eating breakfast. Shunichi tried to persuade him to eat, but Sasuke refused outright.
Shunichi's assignment was to protect Uzumaki Naruto in secret. During the day, with Hatake Kakashi present, additional manpower wasn't necessary.
Shunichi's duty was at night—and he would have a partner assisting in Naruto's protection. Though he didn't yet know who it was, he could already guess.
After waiting at home for a while with no one arriving, Shunichi began training the Eight Gates on his own.
The first three gates were not especially difficult. With sufficient physical conditioning, they posed no real problem—technique was the only thing requiring care.
Starting from the Fourth Gate, however, chakra became violently unstable. Even Shunichi couldn't control it. His first attempt at opening the Fourth Gate ended in injury.
The Eight Gates Technique actually recorded detailed guidelines—when to stop, when injury was likely, and when retreat was necessary.
But Shunichi wasn't afraid of getting hurt.
In fact, he deliberately wanted to experience the sensation of his meridians being violently冲击ed by rampaging chakra.
Unfortunately, even after this injury, he failed to determine where the sudden surge of chakra originated.
Still, thanks to firsthand experience, Shunichi quickly grasped the feeling required to open the Fourth Gate.
As for the Fifth Gate…
His body simply wasn't capable of sustaining it yet.
Training the Eight Gates itself was actually straightforward:
strengthen the body, then repeatedly familiarize oneself with the process of opening the gates.
The truly difficult part was taijutsu training.
This was something no taijutsu specialist could ever avoid. Physical growth came only through relentless daily training.
Because the Eight Gates scroll also recorded numerous taijutsu training methods used by past practitioners, Shunichi's training time that day increased significantly.
When he later arrived at the laboratory as usual, red warning lights were already flashing inside.
A massive, mutated experimental mouse was on the verge of breaking free from its reinforced cage.
Strictly speaking, this creature could already be considered a ninja mouse.
However, compared to animals summoned through ninjutsu, it possessed no intelligence—only a maddened urge to attack everything in sight.
A blade appeared in Shunichi's hand out of thin air.
Without the slightest hint of mercy, he decapitated the creature in a single strike. Blood splattered across the cage, terrifying the remaining unmutated mice into trembling heaps.
An out-of-control specimen was nothing more than a failure.
Shunichi had no use for uncontrollable trash.
From a deeply concealed corner of the laboratory wall, he retrieved two syringes of serum. Selecting another white mouse, he injected the contents without hesitation…
The mouse soon began convulsing violently, its body undergoing drastic changes.
What had once been an ordinary laboratory mouse
Now began to emit chakra.