Chapter 64: The Current Situation
After the funeral, Uchiha Kei returned to a relatively peaceful routine. His days were spent reading in the archive, training, and recording data on the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Life was simple yet fulfilling. However, certain circumstances forced Kei to slightly adjust his schedule—for example, he had to move the Mangekyō data logging to mornings.
That's because ever since Kakashi got discharged from the hospital—perhaps because Minato was too busy, or maybe just out of curiosity about Kei's Chidori training—he came looking for Kei.
Of course, Kakashi didn't dare step into the Uchiha district. Even he knew that, as someone with a Sharingan but not of Uchiha blood, he wasn't exactly welcome there.
By pure coincidence, Kakashi had ducked into a relatively unknown forest to avoid Might Guy and ended up bumping into Kei, who was training with shadow clones.
After running into each other a few times, Kei adjusted his schedule to train with Kakashi. It was a bit inconvenient, but having Kakashi around made him feel safer.
With Kakashi as a decoy, even if the village was secretly watching him, they probably wouldn't discover much, right?
Besides, training with Kakashi meant Kei had a decent sparring partner. Sure, his chakra pool was a bit lacking, but he had real combat experience and Sharingan insight.
Kei never believed in blind training—it was the least effective method in his eyes. Without real feedback or combat, how would you even know if your techniques worked?
Much of his rapid growth wasn't just due to unlocking the Sharingan in a special way—it also came from risking his life on the battlefield… though, admittedly, sometimes it was his teammates' lives on the line.
Now, despite learning so many new things, Kei lacked a good enough sparring partner. And he wasn't in the mood to go bother Fugaku either.
So the matter dragged on—until Kakashi just happened to come looking.
Thud!
Kei kicked Kakashi to the ground. After freely using his fully matured Sharingan, Kei realized he wasn't any weaker than Kakashi at this age.
Kei's specialties were body flicker techniques and ambushes. But in real combat, sneak attacks didn't matter. His fights with Kakashi were proper "man-to-man" battles.
That said, Kei understood that Kakashi still hadn't adapted to the Sharingan. That was likely why he kept losing.
"You alright?"
Kei walked over and offered his hand to help Kakashi up.
"You're still not used to the Sharingan. Your use of it is extremely basic—no genjutsu, no deep insight. You've got a long way to go."
"Thanks." Kakashi took Kei's hand and got up.
"The Sharingan drains me like crazy. And my chakra…"
Due to his non-Uchiha lineage, Kakashi couldn't deactivate the Sharingan. That single eye, always active, constantly consumed his chakra—a heavy burden, especially at his current age, far from his prime.
Worse still, because of the genetic mismatch, the chakra drain from Kakashi's two-tomoe Sharingan was several times greater than Kei's fully awakened three-tomoe Sharingan. An unfortunate situation, really.
"Train more. There's no other way." Kei shrugged.
What was he supposed to suggest? Steal a tailed beast? Or pull a Danzō and graft some of the First Hokage's cells?
Don't be ridiculous. If Kei could get his hands on a tailed beast, he wouldn't let anyone else have it.
And just look at Danzō—half-man, half-ghoul. Clearly, that path came with heavy consequences.
Without someone like Orochimaru constantly improving the process, Danzō never would've made it that far. Honestly, in the entire Naruto world, no one could compare to Orochimaru when it came to research.
"Yeah… to me, the Sharingan is like a bottomless pit for chakra," Kakashi muttered as he slumped onto a nearby rock, lifting his mask slightly to cover his eye again.
"Hang in there. If your chakra catches up, maybe I'll share some of my Sharingan insights with you."
Kei casually made a verbal IOU, then quickly changed the subject before Kakashi could react.
"By the way, your dad's chakra-compatible blade—do you know where it was forged?"
"Thanks, Kei." Kakashi caught the comment a bit late but still responded.
"As for my dad's sword… I'm not really sure. Why? You want a blade?"
"Exactly." Kei nodded.
"I want one that's compatible with chakra. I've got a few ideas thanks to your Chidori."
Of course, he wasn't going to tell Kakashi the real reason: he simply didn't want to fight enemies up close. That guy from Iwagakure, Ōnoki's son, Kitsuchi? Just one punch and boom, gone. Kei wasn't eager to relive that experience.
He'd already studied plenty of kenjutsu techniques, and he'd been wanting a proper sword for a while. But the ones sold in Konoha couldn't withstand his chakra—most of them shattered in no time.
That made him think of Kakashi. In Kei's memory, aside from the blade Orochimaru later gave to Sasuke, only Kakashi's old short sword could endure chakra infusion.
No way was Kei going to Orochimaru for help. He'd seen Orochimaru at that recent funeral in Konoha—along with Uchiha Itachi.
It was the perfect opportunity to make contact, but Kei let it go. He wanted nothing to do with someone who would inevitably defect from the village.
The rumors surrounding Orochimaru were getting weirder by the day. The village was essentially split into two camps.
One group—mostly his subordinates—strongly defended him and even beat up those who spread gossip.
The other group was constantly pushing the narrative about Orochimaru's illegal experiments. Especially after his subordinates started throwing punches and Konoha ninja and civilians began disappearing, the rumors hit a peak.
Kei stayed out of it. He didn't join in or comment. And Orochimaru? He hadn't bothered defending himself once.
Clearly a prideful man—or maybe just too arrogant to lie?
And then there was the Third Hokage, who had vaguely hinted at retirement. With that, the entire Konoha leadership was starting to look more and more unstable.
"A new idea… and a sword?" Kakashi murmured to himself as Kei's thoughts wandered.
"Maybe… I can help you out."