Twins

(Listen to my editor's advice: I'm setting up a brain-storage place here, QAQ.)

I've gone dark. If I run into someone who talks smack without a branch to hit them with, there's a chance I'll activate my second personality ☜ This has nothing to do with the author.

To all the haters: I'm eating lemons, and your grandpa Tingyun Liushui is here. You damn well can read it or not—if you don't like it, get lost. You really think you're all that, huh?

You turn into critics online, but your pockets are empty. You really think you'd be anything if I didn't call you out?

As of October 21, 2024, this book is 410,000 words long. Come back and bark when you've written that much.

And you say my story has nothing original about it. Come on, man~ That's just how the original Naruto story goes. What do you expect me to write, a plot about astronauts building rockets in space?

You really think the main character can do anything, huh? You've got to be kidding me. To all those who left bad reviews, sorry—but I've put you all up in the group chat as examples for everyone to pay their respects to.

To put it bluntly, you think I'm just too easy to bully, don't you? Who do you think you are? Can't find anywhere in real life to vent, so you come here to act like a clown?)

(There probably aren't any villagers here, right~)

"Good lord, what the hell~" Watching Teacher Coke's gameplay, Josuke munched happily on a steamed bun. It was his dinner for tonight.

To protect the best Shinobi World and restore the Han dynasty, a humble dinner was no problem for him.

With a dazzling series of moves, Teacher Kou successfully pulled off a clutch one-versus-three. He looked confidently at the livestream and said, "Little kitty~"

The chat filled with greetings.

"√ rock"

"Shit"

"Not as good as the two characters"

Teacher Kou didn't care in the slightest and continued his gameplay. "See ya~"

Watching the livestream, Josuke's vision suddenly went black, and he lost consciousness...

Land of Fire, Konoha

Uchiha Clan Land

A middle-aged man waited anxiously outside an old house. From time to time, a woman's cries rang out from within. The man was Uchiha Fugaku.

The woman inside was his beloved wife, Uchiha Mikoto. She was giving birth with the help of the clan's midwife.

The midwife called out anxiously, "Keep pushing, ma'am! The baby's head is out!"

The midwife's cries made Josuke's eyes flutter open. He tried to open them properly, only to realize he couldn't. He tried to make a sound, but all that came out was something like a cry.

What the hell is going on? Josuke wondered, but drowsiness washed over him, and he unconsciously closed his eyes.

Before long, the midwife exclaimed, "They're born! Twins! Two big, healthy boys!"

Unable to contain his excitement, Fugaku rushed inside, followed by a small figure who came running in.

The midwife swaddled the two babies. Fugaku gazed at the adorable infants with loving eyes. "My children..."

Then he looked up at the wife who had just given birth to their third child, the woman who had shared his life through thick and thin, and gently kissed her forehead.

"Mikoto, thank you for all your hard work~"

Uchiha Mikoto was pale. Giving birth had drained all her strength.

She asked weakly, "Where are my babies?"

Fugaku understood at once. He gently placed the babies beside her so she could turn her head and see them.

Fugaku said softly, "This is your big brother, Josuke." Then he pointed to the identical baby beside him. "And this is your little brother, Sasuke."

Mikoto nodded. "Mm~ Josuke, Sasuke, you both need to grow up big and strong~"

(Maybe I won't get to see them...)

Behind the two of them, a little figure gazed tenderly at the pair of bundled-up babies. "Josuke and Sasuke, huh..."

He silently vowed to protect his two younger brothers with his life...

The birth of the Uchiha Clan Head's sons was big news throughout Konoha. The Fourth Hokage, Minato, made time to visit the twins not long after Mikoto gave birth.

"Congratulations, Clan Head Fugaku! Two handsome little boys joining the family!" Minato offered his heartfelt congratulations with a charming smile.

Fugaku nodded and looked at the two little ones in their crib, his love for them plain to see.

"Minato, congratulations to you in advance, too. Kushina's due soon, isn't she? Why aren't you back there looking after her? You're here making small talk with me. No need to stand on ceremony."

Minato gave an awkward smile.

Mikoto joined in the teasing.

"When is Kushina due? If it's a girl, our families can arrange a marriage. If it's a boy, the three of them can grow up to be best friends~"

Minato grew even more embarrassed. He could only rub the back of his blond head with one hand. "See ya~"

He had no idea if it would be a boy or a girl, either...

After a few more pleasantries, Minato was called away by Anbu Ninja. There was no other reason; some urgent business had come up.

As he watched Minato leave, then looked at his wife resting after childbirth, Josuke and Sasuke in their crib, and Itachi nearby, Fugaku felt more at ease than ever before.

This isn't so bad, he thought. Itachi would soon be old enough to become a dependable young man. There were the twins... and his loving wife.

Josuke naturally had no idea what Fugaku was thinking. He had opened his eyes a few days earlier.

After going through the confusion of Where the hell am I? Is this even my country?, he had finally figured it out: he had been reincarnated into the world of Naruto.

And somehow he'd become part of the Uchiha Clan. Itachi was his big brother, and Sasuke was his little brother. Holy crap.

Josuke felt despair. Looking at his parents, he wanted to tell them, It doesn't matter how much you love each other. My big brother's going to kill you.

There was nothing Josuke could do about his parents' future. He'd tried. He didn't have some overpowered kid's system, no Six Paths powers at one year old, no Eternal Mangekyo from birth—nothing.

Right now, he was a child who couldn't even talk. He still didn't know whether his big brother would kill him, though he guessed probably not.

Maybe it was because he was still a baby, or maybe for some other reason, but although he remembered Naruto's main plot, he'd forgotten many of the details.

Josuke shook his head. Whatever. I'll worry about it when I'm strong enough...

Gradually, Josuke's eyelids grew heavy, and he fell into a deep sleep again.

Several major events took place around the time Josuke was born.

The first was the Nine-Tails' Attack.

The damn Uchiha brat Obito released the Nine-Tails while Kushina was giving birth. In the end, Minato and his wife had no choice but to sacrifice themselves.

They sealed the Nine-Tails inside their newborn child, who would be hated by the villagers from a young age. How ironic.

"Sarutobi, I told you long ago that the Uchiha can't be allowed to stay!"

After the Fourth Hokage's death, the Third Hokage took charge of the overburdened village once more.

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a deep drag on his pipe. "Danzo, I'm the Hokage!"

Shimura Danzo stormed out, slamming the door behind him. "Sarutobi, you'll regret this!"

Watching Danzo's retreating figure, Hiruzen Sarutobi shook his head with a sigh.

The second matter was what to do about the Uchiha Clan. During the Nine-Tails' Attack, the Sharingan had been seen in the Nine-Tails' eyes.

It was an undeniable fact. Konoha's Anbu couldn't find the culprit responsible for controlling the Nine-Tails, and even Root, the organization under Danzo, had no leads.

But that didn't matter. It had to be the Uchiha, anyway. With the push from Danzo, the Fifth-and-a-Half Hokage, the Uchiha Clan became the unquestioned culprit behind the Fourth Hokage's death and the Nine-Tails' Attack.

The villagers began to hate the Uchiha again. And, for various unavoidable reasons, Fugaku was forced to move the clan's land from inside the village to outside it.

That didn't ease anyone's suspicions. Instead, it became the strongest proof that the Uchiha Clan had something to hide.

Fugaku couldn't do anything about it. Dissent also began to rise within the clan, but Fugaku didn't think much of it.

Perhaps the clan members were merely airing their grievances as usual. But once a seed had taken root, it would continue to grow, put down roots, sprout, and eventually become a towering tree.

(Please leave comments, please leave comments.)

[If you're here for the story and don't read the author's notes, you can skip ahead to Chapter Two.]

(From September 23, 2024, 23:17:12

I've reached 300,000 words. I really never thought this day would come. The early chapters definitely had a lot of problems.

Whether it was me making things up, breaking immersion with parentheses, or the everyday author notes.

Some of it was my writing style, and some of it really was a problem.

But none of it was a big deal, and I don't want to revise it. If there are chapters you don't like, I suggest just skipping them. Thanks for being here.

I hope you'll continue to support the story. And I don't even want to talk about Tomato's ridiculous rating system. When the ratings first opened, my score went from 5.4 to 7.0, then 6.8, then 6.9, and it's been stuck there ever since.

I don't know why. You can see it for yourselves by looking at the reading times for the five-star reviews and the low-rated ones.

To all you know-it-alls out there, don't go saying, "No wonder the rating's so low~"

You think you know what you're talking about?

You're the one who knows nothing. You're the real joker, acting like an expert when you don't even understand how Tomato's rating system works.

By the way.

Thanks, everyone, for reading my humble work.)