When Uchiha Shunichi stepped onto the platform with a cane in hand and introduced himself with his eyes tightly shut, the entire classroom fell into brief astonishment.
After all
No one had ever seen a blind ninja before.
"His eyes…"
"He looks really weak…"
"Hey! Can a blind guy even become a ninja?"
As soon as Shunichi finished his introduction, a wave of mocking voices rose from below.
Children in this world had no concept of moral education.
"Enough!"
Iruka snapped, his temper flaring for the first time in a long while. Whether out of sympathy or pity for Shunichi, even he wasn't sure.
"Shunichi, don't lose heart. Your eyes will recover. You—"
Before Iruka could finish his words of comfort, Shunichi walked straight past him, heading to the back of the classroom and sitting down on an empty chair.
Ignored outright, Iruka took a deep breath, forced his emotions down, and began the day's lesson.
...
Sitting cross-legged on his chair, Uchiha Shunichi quietly began refining chakra.
In the world of Naruto, there was actually no such thing as training chakra itself.
What ninjas could do amounted to nothing more than physical conditioning and improving chakra control.
Chakra was refined from the body.
A ninja's body was like a sponge, and chakra was the water contained within it.
Refining chakra could be done in almost any state. When chakra could no longer be extracted, that meant it had been exhausted.
Continuing beyond that point meant courting death.
However, as a transmigrator, Shunichi held a different belief.
Energy did not appear without reason—and it did not vanish without cause either.
He didn't understand internal cultivation techniques or anything of the sort, but extracting chakra and then letting it disperse back into the body
That, at least, he could do.
Thus, an extremely crude "method"—one whose effectiveness was completely uncertain—was born in Shunichi's hands.
It might very well be pointless.
But he was willing to try.
Iruka's lectures were interesting and held strong appeal for the kids in class.
Shunichi wasn't interested.
And neither were many others—mostly those from ninja clans.
Perhaps out of consideration for Shunichi's eyes, Iruka relied heavily on verbal instruction and rarely wrote on the blackboard.
Soon enough, class ended.
As the newcomer, Shunichi naturally drew countless curious gazes.
Some were kind.
Some were malicious.
And some were simply
Idiotic.
"Hey! You brat, you've got quite an attitude!"
A large-framed civilian student glared at Shunichi with clear displeasure.
Because of Shunichi's earlier words, the boy felt his fragile sense of authority had been challenged.
A flash of cold light
A blade appeared out of thin air in front of him.
Only then did the class realize that the "cane" in Shunichi's hand was actually a sword.
"You… what are you trying to do?!"
The provocateur's voice trembled, though he stubbornly clung to his pitiful shred of pride.
"Don't bother me," Shunichi said coldly.
Members of the Uchiha clan were naturally good-looking.
Coupled with Shunichi's icy demeanor and those enigmatic, closed eyes, he immediately drew the attention of several girls in the class.
Shunichi sheathed the blade and resumed his "training."
Seeing this, the civilian student felt even more humiliated.
Ignoring all reason, he swung his fist straight at Shunichi.
Shunichi barely dodged.
"This is your first warning," he said flatly.
That only fueled the boy's rage.
He pressed on relentlessly.
The next instant
Blood sprayed into the air.
Shunichi drew his blade in a single motion.
One slash.
A deep gash tore across the boy's chest, blood bursting forth—
"AHHH!"
"M-murder!"
The classroom erupted into screams.
Iruka, who had only just left, rushed back immediately. When he saw the scene before him, his mind went completely blank.
But Iruka was, after all, a professional ninja.
He forced himself to calm down, stopped the bleeding of the fallen student, and swiftly carried him off to find a medical ninja.
As for Uchiha Shunichi
He was taken away by other teachers who arrived upon hearing the commotion.
...
Inside an empty room, Uchiha Shunichi sat expressionless on a chair.
What had just happened stirred nothing within him.
However, due to the Mangekyō Sharingan, he now felt intense weakness—and hunger.
For a seven-year-old child, the burden of the Mangekyō was simply too great.
Sasuke, who was the same age, had awakened his Sharingan on the night of the massacre.
Yet because his body couldn't bear it, his Sharingan remained dormant.
Shunichi's Mangekyō Sharingan, however—
Could not be concealed.
Like a pair of ordinary eyes, it consumed chakra constantly, without pause.
"Uchiha Shunichi—what exactly happened?!"
Iruka rushed in, his tone harsh.
Not long ago, he had thought this child was pitiable.
Now
"Harming a comrade is a grave crime," Shunichi said calmly.
"So… kill me."
He drew his sword and handed it to Iruka.
No matter how Iruka imagined it, he never expected this.
He stood frozen.
For a moment, it was as though time itself had stopped.
Everything remained still
Until Shunichi's weakened grip finally failed, and the sword fell to the floor.
The sound of the blade hitting the ground snapped Iruka back to reality.
"I… I can't decide this," he said hastily.
"Wait here."
With that, Iruka fled the room as though escaping.
Shunichi silently bent down to pick up the sword.
His body was too weak
Weak enough that he could barely hold it.
The original Uchiha Shunichi had once been a near–chūnin-level prodigy.
Not famous, perhaps—but trained by his clan, undeniably talented.
Now
He was no different from a cripple.
After a long wait, Sarutobi Hiruzen arrived.
"That child is fine," Hiruzen said after taking a hard drag from his pipe.
"He only fainted from shock. The chest wound just looked frightening."
"I know," Shunichi replied, nodding calmly.