A cool breeze swept through the deep night, drifting over the silent Naka River. Silence sketched the Uchiha Clan Compound tonight.
Crowds dressed in Gunbai uniforms crossed the courtyard in silence, passed between the statues, and entered Naka Shrine.
An oppressive air hung around them. Everyone coming and going wore a furrowed brow.
Inside the secret chamber, the dim candlelight barely illuminated a tiny patch. Beyond it lay mostly empty darkness.
Uchiha Kai strode steadily through the crowd, ignoring the many different looks cast at him from either side.
He took a seat not far from the chairman's place. After adjusting his posture slightly, he began fiddling with the blade in his hand.
His haughty air of looking down on everyone drew a round of grumbling from the others.
"Why's Kai become so cold and aloof?"
"He has changed a bit. Why does he always look so stern now?"
People around them murmured constantly, discussing the boy.
"Heh, changed my ass. The kid's just grown up and gotten self-conscious. Every clan meeting is held in this pitch-black dump, and you lot still put on those looks like you're scanning a code."
"Who wasn't scared the first time they came? Weren't you? I remember you looked like you were about to cry."
"Ahaha... now that you mention it, you've got a point."
The people around them weren't speaking very loudly, but in this cramped chamber, all it took was pricking up your ears to hear them clearly. Uchiha Kai was no exception.
He kept the same icy expression, gripping a piece of cloth from his clothes as he wiped Zhulu over and over.
Nothing else to it. He was awkward and nervous.
When the hell is this clan meeting going to start...? It's my first time here, and no one