"So, that was how Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara reconciled and founded Konoha together.
"This marked the end of the Warring States period, which had lasted for centuries, and ushered the Shinobi World into the era of the hidden villages."
Uchiha Chen pointed at the Forehead Protector on his arm, his throat parched from talking. "This is Konoha's ninja Forehead Protector."
"Mm!"
Uchiha Hikari listened to Chen's account of the Warring States period without expression, still looking somewhat dazed.
She could hardly believe that, to her, what had felt like the blink of an eye had actually been more than a hundred years.
Everything had changed during that time. The Shinobi World no longer fought in clan-based conflicts; now, wars were fought between hidden villages.
Even the Senju, their former archenemies, had reconciled with the Uchiha.
She felt lost, but in truth, all she felt was a vague fear of the unknown. She had no attachment to her clan, or to the underground room where she'd been imprisoned.
If another Uchiha had been sealed away until now, they might have thought, I'll create a world exactly like the one we had before.
But Hikari was different. In the world of a hundred years ago, she'd had no bonds.
Now, she was truly free!
The unreal happiness left her overjoyed, yet deeply uneasy.
"My name is Uchiha Chen. I'm seventeen, and I live in the Uchiha Clan Compound. I'm unmarried. I don't smoke, and I can't drink because I'm not eighteen yet.
"I never go to bed on time. Before sleeping, I always read an experiment report, then close my eyes and recite the experimental data from memory. I can usually sleep straight through till morning, like a baby, and never carry fatigue or stress over to the next day.
"By the way, after all that, I still don't know your name."
Walking beside the girl, Chen asked a question he already knew the answer to.
"I don't have a name!" The girl's voice was still cold, but there was a little more life in it now.
"Everyone needs a name."
A name?
Hikari stopped and lifted her head.
Clear sunlight streamed through the treetops and fell across the girl's flawless white face. Even her Sharingan, which the Shinobi World regarded as an ill omen, looked like exquisite red gems in the sunlight.
Deep in her memories, back in her childhood, she hadn't been called "weapon" or "nameless." She'd had another name then.
"...Hikari. You can call me that. Hmm?"
A noise came from a pile of rubble nearby. Hikari whipped around and flung three shuriken toward it, then drew a kunai and used the Body Flicker Technique to rush over.
Tap!
Hikari swept the rubble aside, leaving the "enemy" hiding within nowhere to hide. Her kunai stopped precisely against the "enemy's" forehead.
A half-grown white rabbit, its hind leg battered and bloody, stared in terror into Hikari's eyes. It turned and tried to bolt, but its badly injured leg could barely push off the ground.
Chen rarely laughed, unless he couldn't help himself.
"Ahahahaha!"
Hikari gripped the white rabbit by the scruff and frowned at Chen, who was laughing heartily.
The Uchiha who'd rescued her from the seal was a strange one.
Wasn't this sort of carefree laughter something you'd expect from a strong warrior after killing a Senju, or from someone whose Sharingan had evolved after losing a loved one?
She couldn't understand it.
Holding the rabbit, Hikari gazed at its adorably dopey eyes and tiny nose. Suddenly, she didn't want to treat it as an extra meal, as she usually would.
Freedom meant doing what you wanted, doing things your clan had never allowed you to do.
Like using precious healing herbs on a rabbit.
Hikari pinned the rabbit to the ground with one hand and pulled her medicinal herbs from her pouch with the other, about to apply them to its hind leg.
"Coo, coo, coo!" The rabbit struggled even harder.
Hikari didn't want to hurt it. She held the herbs and fumbled around, then finally turned to Chen for help.
"Sharingan. Genjutsu!"
Chen's concise reminder made Hikari's eyes light up. With a single glance, she sent the rabbit dreaming of a paradise filled with cabbage and carrots, then clumsily began applying medicine to its hind leg.
After a frantic struggle to finish bandaging the wound, Hikari held the rabbit as it slumbered blissfully. Her mood suddenly sank again, visibly.
She stared blankly at the rabbit in her arms, lost in thought.
"Hikari, what's wrong?"
Chen was confused. She'd been cold but excited just moments ago, so why had her mood suddenly plummeted?
"After I became an orphan, the clan treated me as a weapon because of my special ocular jutsu."
The dejected Uchiha briefly described her experiences, then said, her eyes reddening,
"I'm free now!
"But I have no idea what to do with my freedom. I don't even know what meaning my life could have beyond being a 'weapon.'"
This was getting into philosophy, and I don't know anything about that!
Chen felt awkward and tried to offer some advice.
"You could try new things you've never done before, or study a craft you enjoy and are good at."
"I'm good at killing!" Hikari's voice was firm. As if afraid Chen wouldn't believe her, she immediately added,
"People from the Senju Clan!"
That was... hard to deal with!
Chen could only explain that the Senju Clan had disbanded. It had been disbanded by Senju Tobirama, the younger brother of Senju Hashirama, who had ended the age of chaos. So there was no longer a "Senju Clan."
"Senju Tobirama."
Hikari clearly struggled to understand what he'd done. She blinked her watery eyes and looked at Chen with utmost seriousness.
"You said he had red eyes, then disbanded the Senju Clan. Was he a Uchiha spy?
"The Uchiha had tried to wipe out the Senju Clan for centuries and never managed it, but he actually did!"
Silence fell over Dayu Mountain.
Uchiha Tobirama?
Chen couldn't speak. His handsome face twisted into a grimace.
When Chen said nothing, Hikari continued,
"I can also kill the Uzumaki Clan, the Hagoromo Clan, and the Hyuga Clan!"
"The first two had it even worse—they were wiped out. The Hyuga are in Konoha now, in the same village as the Uchiha."
"Oh."
Hikari's eyes dimmed. Apart from killing those shinobi, she couldn't think of anything she could do or was good at.
Seeing that Hikari was getting caught in a rut, Chen hurriedly spoke up, afraid she might lose it.
"Life itself doesn't need a meaning!"
Chen looked into Hikari's bright black eyes, where he could clearly see his own reflection.
He firmly repeated what he'd said before, then continued, his voice a little hoarse,
"As long as we keep living, we'll eventually find something that brings color to our lives. Then our lives will have meaning.
"You don't have to worry about it now. In the future, you'll surely encounter many more interesting things, just as this rabbit encountered you, and you encountered me."
"I don't understand!"
Hikari, who'd barely graduated from preschool, shook her head.
She glanced down at the little white rabbit, then looked up at Chen. The wintry chill on her face, as white as the snowflakes of early winter, melted into the clear, fragrant waters of a snowy mountain. Her eyes curved into crescents, and she smiled.
"So... you want me to stay with you for now and search for the meaning of life?"
Before you continue