This... actually happened! Damn it!
Damn it!
Damn it! Why did this happen?!
His eyelids, which had been lowering with a blink, suddenly flew open. Chiba's eyes widened sharply, his teeth clenched tight. Shock and worry intertwined across his face, forming an expression of disbelief and slight helplessness.
Nao's concise yet complete account still echoed in his ears, while the scenes he had unconsciously imagined from her words replayed over and over in his mind.
It had all begun seven years ago.
That year, Nao's parents died during a major mission. In an instant, she went from being a little girl cherished by her happy family to an orphan with no father or mother, left with only a brother eight years her senior to rely on.
Then, at her parents' funeral, she met the boy who had also lost his parents during that same major mission—the boy who would remain by her side thereafter, Uchiha Hirohiko.
Nao did not go into much detail here, merely mentioning their first meeting in passing. But as Chiba listened, he vaguely felt that at that moment, perhaps because both Hirohiko and Nao had lost their parents, the distance between them had already become very small.
At that simple funeral, she also met another person—her brother's closest friend, whom he had known since the age of three, and Hirohiko's only remaining relative.
A rather ordinary member of the Uchiha Clan.
Neither a genius nor a fool, just... ordinary.
Yes, very ordinary.
Whether it was his Ninja Academy grades or his personal strength, everything about him remained average. He was neither outstanding nor particularly poor, the sort of person who drew no attention from others.
He was the complete opposite of her brother.
Compared to that rather ordinary Uchiha clansman, her brother could be called exceptionally