"My foolish little brother—"
Just as Sasuke stood there, stunned and chilled to the bone, Jin had appeared in front of him without him noticing. He reached out and tapped his younger brother on the forehead with one finger.
"Does this technique look familiar?"
Whoosh.
As soon as the words left Jin's mouth, the tips of Sasuke's ears quickly turned red.
Of course he recognized this technique!
Lately, he'd been pestering Itachi every day, envious of his ability to control shuriken and make them change direction mid-flight.
And just this morning, before heading out, Itachi had finally agreed.
He'd personally practiced with Sasuke in the yard, taking him through the technique twice!
Sasuke had practiced under Itachi's guidance over and over, and that was how he'd managed to barely hit the bullseye that afternoon.
But!
When had lazy Jin learned it?
He'd never seen him practice before!
Surely he hadn't learned it just by glancing over once while sunbathing that morning...?
At the thought, Sasuke suddenly felt his legs go weak.
If that was the case, then his lazy older brother's talent was a little terrifying!
"Could it... really have something to do with sunbathing?"
His mind suddenly went blank. Then, following the sunlight, he looked toward the top of the courtyard wall.
An urge stirred in his heart.
Should he lie up there and sunbathe for a while?
"Jin, stop picking on Sasuke!"
Just then, Uchiha Mikoto's reproachful voice came from beneath the veranda.
She approached slowly, carrying three-colored dango and fruit.
When she saw the spot where Sasuke had been pinned like a hedgehog, she noticeably quickened her pace.
Once she came closer and saw that they were only holes and her younger son was unharmed, she finally let out a small sigh of relief.
But astonishment still flickered in her eyes. The shuriken had clearly landed exactly as Itachi had taught Sasuke that morning.
She'd watched for a little while, then left when she lost interest.
But that didn't mean she hadn't understood what she'd seen.
But!
Who had made those marks?
Could it... have been Jin?
Her brows twitched as she recalled her husband Fugaku's instructions:
"Mikoto, don't disturb Jin when there's no need. He has his own ideas."
She'd never understood why Fugaku had said that. She'd thought he was indulging Jin.
But now...
Her eyes flickered. Then she shook her head with a wry smile.
They were all her children. What was she imagining?
She handed the plates to Jin on the wall, then pulled little Sasuke toward the house. "Your clothes are all torn up. Hurry inside and change."
Sasuke said, "No, but Jin—"
"Don't call him Jin! You should call him big brother."
The familiar voice stopped Sasuke from continuing.
He could only look back toward the wall in the fading light, lost in thought.
Drip.
When moonlight climbed over the eaves of the estate, Itachi vaulted into the courtyard, his body steeped in the smell of blood.
Relations with the Cloud Village were tense, so he'd gone to the battlefield as soon as he graduated.
Every day brought reconnaissance missions.
Sometimes, he even ran into combat.
Today, he'd chanced upon a fight with a squad and only managed to retreat after giving it everything he had.
In the darkness, the Sharingan in his eyes glimmered with a weary red glow.
"Today's ten minutes."
A lazy voice suddenly came from the wall as soon as he landed.
Itachi froze.
Only when he turned around did he notice Jin sitting on the courtyard wall, swinging his legs.
He tossed an apple in his hand. In the moonlight, it shimmered with a faint glow.
Jin was as good as ever at appearing out of nowhere.
Itachi sighed and tried to bargain. "Jin, I'm pretty tired today. How about tomorrow?"
"Oh, is that so?" Jin vaulted down, tossed the apple straight into Itachi's arms, and turned with a grin. "Father, One-vs-Seven told me you've been hiding something in the second cabinet in the guest room—"
Thump.
Itachi's hand froze in midair as he went to catch the apple.
Then, with the speed of a bell ringing on Christmas, he shoved the apple into his little brother's mouth.
"Come on, let's talk!"
"That's more like it."
Jin smiled and patted his older brother on the shoulder.
If he let Itachi put this off until tomorrow, he'd have another day's cooldown!
What about the friends he was supposed to talk to tomorrow?
His daily schedule was all planned out!
"Stop frowning."
Then he reached out and smoothed Itachi's furrowed brows, ordering him around like a little adult.
"Your eye bags already look bad enough. If you get forehead wrinkles too, Izumi won't like you anymore."
He ignored Itachi's reddening cheeks, picked up a three-colored dango, and stuffed it into his mouth.
Then he asked with a smile, "Tell me, why are you so tired today? You even killed someone, didn't you?"
As expected!
Uchiha Itachi was startled.
His little brother was not only impossible to catch off guard—his senses were still as sharp as ever.
He gave a wry smile and explained, "The Cloud Village's envoys came over these past two days to discuss peace talks."
"There've been quite a few riffraff lurking around."
He continued talking, leaving nothing out.
It seemed he'd already prepared what he wanted to say.
For the past four years, his little brother hadn't taken much interest in anything else. All he wanted was to drag Itachi into a conversation once a day.
Just once a day.
As he listened, Uchiha Jin's smile began to fade.
Cloud Village peace talks.
Envoys visiting the Leaf.
An inexplicable gathering of Lightning Release shinobi at the border.
Those words all seemed strangely familiar.
It felt as if these events had been part of some plot in the story.
As he hesitated, a prompt suddenly appeared before him.
[Conversation Target: Uchiha Itachi.]
[Analyzing Copyable Traits...]
[Copyable Traits: Brother Complex (Black), Too Clever for His Own Good (Black), Afflicted by Illness (Black), Three-Tomoe Sharingan (Purple), Master of Three Natures (Purple), Fire Style Mastery (Blue)...]
After several years, Itachi had become a shinobi proficient in three nature transformations.
His strength had also far surpassed what it had been before he disappeared.
Of course, the only thing that hadn't changed was the three dark traits at the top...
Just looking at them made his vision go black.
[Talking with Uchiha Fugaku for ten minutes. Attempting to copy traits.]
[Copy successful. Congratulations, Host! You have acquired the Epic Trait: Three-Tomoe Sharingan (Purple).]
Copy successful!
Seeing the message, he smiled faintly.
Waiting around today hadn't been a waste!
The System had come through!
Then he silently said in his heart, "System, feed this trait to my Sharingan."
Of course, he already had the Three Tomoe.
He'd even awakened it a year before Itachi!
[Three-Tomoe Sharingan (Purple) is being integrated.]
[Feeding successful. Congratulations, Host! You have acquired the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.]
"Still no upgrade?"
Seeing that his Three Tomoe still hadn't become a Mangekyo, his little face immediately scrunched up.
He was unhappy.
Very unhappy.
Stupid System!
It had swallowed at least twenty Three Tomoe traits from him, and it still hadn't upgraded!
Of course, he could clearly feel that his Sharingan had changed.
That seemingly endless stream of ocular power felt as if it could easily bind the older brother standing in front of him...
Little did he know that the look on his face carried a different meaning to young Itachi.
"Hm? He's frowning. Did I fail to interest Jin?"
He paused, then changed the subject.
"By the way, I heard those Cloud Shinobi paid a special visit to the Hyuga Main House."
Crack!
"Oh? The Cloud Shinobi visited the Hyuga!"
In an instant, a flash of lightning lit up.
Jin finally remembered what the plot behind this incident was!
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