The next day, Uchiha Yuan's team once again headed to the water sources, completing the final patrol.
This time, they didn't encounter any Mist ninja, and the water sources were fine—marking the successful end of the long-term mission.
Hyuga Asana reported the mission status to Orochimaru. He was quite satisfied and gave the three of them two days off.
Originally, Uchiha Yuan had planned to use these two days to have Asana and Yamanaka Kagetsu help him get used to using Insight.
But Asana said Orochimaru would be sending a mud clone to train her personally over the next two days, so she wouldn't be joining the training.
Only Kagetsu was available, and Uchiha Yuan figured the training effect wouldn't be great with just one partner, so he went to ask some Uchiha clan seniors to help him train.
He initially wanted to find Uchiha Yin, thinking this senior seemed kind and easy to get along with.
Uchiha Yin readily agreed to help him.
But to Uchiha Yuan's surprise, despite having double tomoe Sharingan, Yin's strength was a bit underwhelming.
After a few exchanges, Uchiha Yuan defeated her quite easily.
Though her chakra reserves were roughly the same as his, Yin had poor chakra control, so her ninjutsu and taijutsu were mediocre.
However, like Yuan, Yin could use genjutsu-enhancing ocular power even at the two-tomoe Sharingan stage—suggesting her ocular power was relatively strong and she might soon evolve to three tomoe.
Her tactics clearly leaned toward genjutsu—everything she did was aimed at creating openings to use it.
Unfortunately for her, Yuan's ocular power was even stronger, allowing him to almost completely ignore her illusions.
With her trump card rendered ineffective, she couldn't continue.
So Yin decisively stepped down and called over Uchiha Cai to spar with him.
Cai had sustained injuries during a previous battle and had just recovered. When Yuan activated Insight, he could clearly see several weak points on her body—likely the areas that had been injured.
"Uchiha Yuan, staring at a girl's chest is very impolite," Uchiha Cai said after noticing his gaze.
"You've misunderstood, Cai-senpai! I just remembered that you were previously injured in the chest. I was worried that sparring might affect your recovery," Yuan quickly explained.
"If that's your concern, you can rest easy. I'm fully healed."
"Really?"
Cai didn't reply. She silently activated her Sharingan.
"Then I'll be in your care."
As soon as Yuan finished speaking, he felt a chill on his neck—Uchiha Cai had somehow already appeared before him with a kunai pressed to his throat.
"When fighting a member of the Uchiha clan, never look into their eyes," Cai said expressionlessly.
"I was caught in a genjutsu just now?"
"Yes. The moment you looked into my eyes, you were already under my illusion."
Yuan gulped. Was there really such a huge difference between two and three tomoe?
Cai seemed to pick up on his thoughts. As she put away her kunai, she said:
"I specialize in genjutsu. Strictly speaking, I'm the same type of ninja as Yin.
If it were Mei-senpai instead, with your current ocular power, he wouldn't be able to trap you in a genjutsu without you noticing."
"I see... so your ocular power is much stronger than Mei-senpai's?"
"Our ocular powers are about the same. I'm just more skilled at using genjutsu. Mei-senpai focuses more on perception."
With that, Yuan basically understood:
Uchiha Cai specialized in genjutsu, and her Sharingan's ocular power was geared toward illusion casting.
Uchiha Mei, on the other hand, was more like Kakashi from the original series—using the Sharingan to perceive enemy moves and even copy jutsu.
"Alright, next round I won't use genjutsu. Let's begin again." With that, Uchiha Cai used Body Flicker to return to her starting point.
Yuan nodded and immediately formed hand seals, planning to start with a Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu to test the waters.
But to his surprise, Cai also started forming the same hand seals—and faster than him. When he completed his jutsu, Cai's fireball was already released.
The two fireballs collided mid-air. This time, Yuan's fireball slightly overpowered Cai's and broke through hers.
Cai dodged sideways and remarked, "Not bad. Your chakra control and understanding of fire release are better than mine."
Yuan flushed slightly. That wasn't because of any research into fire-style; it was the result of a 5% fire damage boost he got from the "Flame-Flame Fruit" in the text adventure.
"Let's not use fire release anymore. Show me some of your other jutsu—or come at me with taijutsu."
Yuan considered his options. His other jutsu weren't too reliable, so he opted to use Instant Transmission to close the gap for a melee attack.
Cai was surprised by his sudden appearance—her three-tomoe Sharingan couldn't even track his movement.
That kind of speed was beyond her expectations. In her experience, even Orochimaru's Body Flicker could be tracked by her eyes.
Still, as a jōnin with fully matured Sharingan, Cai couldn't be taken down just by speed.
So after her initial surprise, she quickly countered—throwing kunai to disrupt Yuan's momentum and using Body Flicker to create distance before forming hand seals:
Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu!
A dragon-shaped flame shot toward Yuan.
She wasn't trying to defeat him with it—she wanted to test whether his Instant Transmission could dodge even a fast-cast fire release.
If not, she would hold back at the last second.
Her Sharingan fixed on him.
In her vision, the fire dragon was just about to hit Yuan when he suddenly vanished from view.
Her Sharingan couldn't track the movement at all.
But though she couldn't see where he'd gone, she felt a disturbance in the air behind her.
Cai turned without hesitation—and sure enough, there was Yuan attacking from behind.
(To Be Continued...)