UCHIHA LIBERATOR (NARUTO X MALE UCHIHA OC)

Chapter 4

3rd person POV

Ryuichi's training began the moment his father left for the frontlines. He stood alone in the quiet training grounds behind the Uchiha compound, feeling the weight of his father's words lingering in the back of his mind. Fugaku had left him with clear instructions: perfect the Clone Jutsu. And Ryuichi, eager to prove himself, embraced the challenge with everything he had.

The first morning was filled with excitement. He moved through the familiar hand seals-Tiger, Boar, Horse, Dog-with the fluidity of someone who had drilled the motions hundreds of times. The initial thrill of seeing the puff of smoke and the appearance of his clone was enough to make him smile. The clone looked good-identical to him in every way, from the folds of his clothes to the determined expression on its face. But as he stared at it, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing.

He remembered his father's critique. "It still feels... lifeless."

Ryuichi circled his clone, observing it more closely. The form was perfect, but there was a rigidity to it, a stiffness that made it clear that it was just an illusion. It didn't move. It didn't breathe. It was like a picture frozen in time, a reflection without depth.

"That's not enough," Ryuichi muttered to himself.

He dispelled the clone with a wave of his hand, watching it vanish into a wisp of smoke, and he took a deep breath. If he was going to truly master the Clone Jutsu, he needed to figure out how to make his clone feel more real. Not just in appearance, but in presence.

The second day began early, with Ryuichi sitting cross-legged in the middle of the training ground. He wasn't going to jump straight into creating clones this time. Instead, he decided to observe himself more closely-his movements, his breathing, the little things that made him feel alive. He spent hours watching his reflection in a nearby pond, paying attention to every detail. How his chest rose and fell with each breath. How his eyes blinked naturally, every few seconds. How he unconsciously shifted his weight from one foot to the other when standing still for too long.

As the sun climbed higher, Ryuichi returned to the training ground and moved through the hand seals once more. This time, when he pushed his chakra outward, he focused not just on creating the form of the clone, but on mimicking those tiny movements he had observed in himself. The subtle breathing, the blinking, the slight shift in posture.

When the smoke cleared, the clone that stood before him was... better. Its chest rose and fell, mimicking the rhythm of breath, and its eyes blinked every few moments. It looked more alive, more fluid. Ryuichi smiled in satisfaction, feeling like he was finally making progress. But something still wasn't right. It felt like he was on the cusp of something, but not quite there.

By the third day, Ryuichi was growing more confident, but with confidence came a new challenge: exhaustion. He spent hours each day creating clones, maintaining them for as long as possible, and then dispelling them, only to start the process all over again. The more lifelike he tried to make the clone, the more mental energy it took. And as his chakra reserves began to dwindle, he found it harder to maintain the illusion. The clones would flicker, their forms growing unstable, and eventually, they would vanish before he was ready.

By the afternoon, Ryuichi was panting, his hands shaking from the strain. He sat down under the shade of a tree, frustrated but not defeated.

"I'm pushing too hard," he realized, wiping sweat from his brow. "I can't force it."

Ryuichi's mother, Mikoto, had always been a soothing presence in his life, a contrast to his father's stern and disciplined nature. While Fugaku focused on honing Ryuichi's strength and pushing him toward greatness, Mikoto had taught him something equally important-how to understand and respect the flow of chakra within him. She wasn't just a loving mother, but a skilled kunoichi in her own right, and she often shared her insights with her son during quiet moments in the Uchiha compound, away from the intensity of the clan's expectations.