In the days that followed, I consciously avoided Uchiha Itachi.
I still didn't know how to face him.
It felt like there was a heavy stone sitting in my heart.
"Hey, you bumped into me!" I was walking through the school, distracted, when I accidentally ran into someone. I quietly apologized and was about to leave when he stopped me.
"What? That's all I get, an apology?" He reached for my collar. I dodged with ease, but he managed to grab my scarf.
I looked at him coldly.
Oh, someone I knew.
"It's you, Kusama Shigeo." I said impatiently, "If you don't want trouble, let go."
A few children had already gathered around us, watching with curious looks.
"Uchiha Akatsuki! You got away yesterday, but this afternoon, in the woods east of the school!" He paid no attention to my expression. His eyes shone with determination as he launched into his declaration.
"I challenge you! I want to fight you fair and square!"
"Whoa, a duel!" The children around us burst into laughter. The noisy crowd was getting on my nerves.
I frowned, baffled by his behavior for what felt like the hundredth time.
It had been more than half a year since we started school. Ever since I'd beaten Kusama Shigeo, he hadn't given up challenging me. He came at me every few days, losing every time but never quitting.
I looked at the scar I'd left on his face. I felt nothing—not even a flicker. If anything, I wanted to laugh.
Weak, persistent, and annoying.
But... I had to give him credit.
I glanced around and saw the crowd growing. To keep things from escalating, I casually promised, "Fine. I'll be there after school."
Kusama Shigeo's eyes lit up, and he instantly perked up. He was about to say something, but I silenced him with a sharp order.
"Get lost!"
He jumped back in fright and let go. I walked away without looking aside, and the crowd parted on its own.
After school, a large crowd of children packed into the woods east of the school.
I stood quietly, facing Kusama Shigeo, who was poised to attack.
"Take this, you Uchiha brat!" He attacked first, slapping both hands against the ground and shouting, "Grass Style: Micro Sprout!"
The next moment, a carpet of green shoots rose from the ground, winding up my legs and pinning me in place.
"Heh heh, can't move, can you?" Kusama Shigeo laughed and brought his palms together to form Hand Seals. "Grass Style: Flower Snatch!"
The next moment, bright red flowers bloomed among the green shoots. The terrifying part was that the open blossoms were filled with sharp thorns, and they lunged at me with snapping jaws!
"Akatsuki!" Kuixing cried anxiously.
My expression didn't change. The instant the flowers bit down, a cloud of white smoke rose. The blossoms had all chomped on a log, their teeth cracking against the wood.
"Substitution Technique? W-where are you?" Kusama Shigeo searched frantically, not noticing the shadow rushing toward him from above—
With a scream, he was pinned firmly beneath me, his arms twisted behind his back. He couldn't move, let alone form Hand Seals.
"You lose." My expression didn't change.
"Hmph, not necessarily!" Kusama Shigeo took a deep breath through his bruised and swollen face, then suddenly spewed a mass of gray smoke from his mouth—
"Grass Style: Poison Devour!"
My pupils contracted. I kicked him away and leaped backward.
The poisonous fog instantly spread through the woods. Screams erupted everywhere it went. I pulled Kuixing behind me and kept forming Hand Seals—
"Wind Style: Breakthrough!"
A gale swept through the woods, blowing all the fog back in an instant. The children came into view, coughing nonstop. Last to appear was Kusama Shigeo, sprawled on the ground after nearly choking himself to death with his own secret technique.
"Hmph, you brought this on yourself! Let's tie him up!" Kuixing wasn't about to miss this perfect opportunity.
We worked quickly. Kusama Shigeo woke from the pain, and his pig-like squeals rang through the woods, sending flock after flock of crows flying.
"Ahhh! I'll tear you limb from limb! I'll grind you to dust! You damn Uchiha brat—aaahhh!" I'd bound him to a tree with wire. His mouth was the only thing he could move, and he writhed like a giant green caterpillar.
"Not bad. You've learned how to use idioms." Looking at his ridiculous state, I managed a rare smile.
I was sure this injury would keep him from bothering me for a whole week.
With the trouble taken care of, Kuixing and I walked off hand in hand, followed by a crowd of little lackeys. Behind us, Kusama Shigeo's endless wails were all that remained—
"Hey, don't walk away if you've got the guts! Fight me for eight hundred rounds, you damn Uchiha brat!"
"Uchiha Akatsuki—!!!"
"Akatsuki, can I go see Itachi?" At the ramen shop, Kuixing made her request cautiously, her eyes sparkling.
I hesitated, then refused.
"He's a little shy. When he's older, I'll bring him over to meet you."
"Aww... okay..." The little Kuixing puppy blinked.
I managed a smile and comforted the dejected Kuixing. Then I stood and said, "I have training today, so I'll be going."
"Hey! Akatsuki—" Watching the boy hurry off, Uchiha Kuixing pouted. Turning her sadness into an appetite, she slapped the table and said, "Uncle! Another bowl of ramen!"
A slight figure leaped along the edge of the cliff.
He wore black, and his black hair was gilded by the setting sun. The golden light softened his outline, making him seem warm, but the expression on his face was strangely cold, mature beyond his years.
A sheer drop yawned at his feet, with a waterfall plunging down below. Yet I wasn't afraid at all.
Every rock here was scarred, marked by Kunai, Shuriken, shadow shuriken, and the ravages of Fire Release. And as I moved, new scars kept appearing.
This was the training ground I shared with Shisui and Obito. Whenever I felt frustrated, I came here to let it all out.
A stone was kicked into the air and smashed by a Shuriken. The fragments rained down, only to be struck into even smaller pieces by countless little projectiles, showering down like rain.
I leaped among the rocks, moving faster and faster as I dodged and attacked imaginary enemies. Fire Release smashed one stone after another—
Gradually, Uchiha Itachi's face appeared in my mind.
His moves, his genjutsu, his ninjutsu, his methods. His merciless slaughter, his bloodstained cheeks, his indifferent eyes... The way he'd slaughtered his clan, swinging his blade with the ease of someone killing chickens and dogs—
An enemy like a god of death!
My expression hardened. My hands flew through Hand Seals as an enormous amount of chakra gathered in my chest. A Great Fireball roared out!
Then, the tender face of a baby appeared.
His plump little face was adorable, and his big, dark eyes were hazy and utterly innocent as he stared at me. He even reached out a chubby little hand toward me.
I jolted. Just as I tried to stop, the child's face burst apart in the flames, vanishing in an instant.
My chakra went haywire. The scorching flames burned my windpipe, and I coughed painfully.
I braced my hands on my knees and gasped for breath. The guilt in my heart wouldn't fade. It kept tormenting me without pause, until I was coughing so hard my eyes nearly watered.
After a brief moment, I slowly stood up. My gaze blank, I walked toward the cliff's edge.
Listening to the howling wind, I turned my back to the sunset and slowly stepped backward... once, twice...
The moment my heels left the edge, I relaxed my whole body and leaned back. In an instant, I plunged straight down from the cliff!
I heard the rushing water beside me and felt the wind roar through the gaps around my body. I'd never been so acutely aware of my body's sensations—
In midair, I suddenly opened my eyes and launched Shuriken from my hand. They thudded into the cliff face in a row, their attached wires snapping taut and abruptly slowing my fall!
Clang!
A sharp snapping sound struck my ears, making my heart clench.
The strain had been too much. Three Shuriken snapped at once! Broken blades whizzed past my face, leaving a cut.
I didn't panic at all. I forced my body to adjust in midair and drove a Kunai hard into the cliff! A moment later, pain shot through my right arm, as if the bone had cracked and shattered. The feeling spread up my arm before quickly turning numb and sore.
As my fall slowed a little, my left hand sent out another stream of Shuriken. They thudded into the rock, into a spot already pockmarked with countless round holes, packed tightly together like a honeycomb—the mark of countless attempts—
Amid the grating sound of wire straining, the Shuriken barely caught in the last crevice in the rock and stopped me.
Smoke rose from the cliff face and drifted outward, then slowly sank away, revealing me hanging in midair like a broken marionette, wrapped in layers of wire.
I didn't even need to look to know my hands were cut. My arm was so sore I couldn't feel it, and it kept twitching uncontrollably.
But I felt much better inside.
I hung quietly halfway down the cliff, not wanting to move at all. I let utter exhaustion wash over me.
Across the ravine, a boy stood watching everything. His brow was furrowed, his lips pressed tightly together beneath his mask, his expression unreadable.
Today was his mountain-climbing practice. He hadn't expected to see something like this...
Hatake Kakashi stared at the child hanging in midair. A few strands of wire were all that kept the little body suspended a hundred meters above the ground. It swung back and forth in the wind, a horrifying sight—
What was he doing? Why would he do this?
Kakashi narrowed his eyes and looked closer. He soon recognized him as the friend Obito was always talking about.
"Uchiha Akatsuki...?"
Creak, creak, creak—
Suddenly, the grating sound of wire scraping caught Kakashi's attention.
The crevice, pierced countless times, had finally reached its limit. It began to crumble with a soft, crackling sound!
"Damn it!"
Kakashi panicked. He'd only just realized what was happening when the wire in the child's hands suddenly went slack, and the little body plummeted straight toward the bottom of the mountain!
There were still nearly a hundred meters below, but no cliff face—only water cascading down! There was nothing to grab onto!
What should he do?
Kakashi shot out of the bushes and raced downhill like lightning. His eyes stayed fixed on the figure plummeting through the air—damn it, he wouldn't make it in time!
At the last moment before disaster, the small figure flipped in midair. A gigantic fireball suddenly burst out and slammed into the ground. The tremendous force slowed his fall. Uchiha Akatsuki dropped into the lingering flames, then emerged through the heat haze, wreathed in black smoke. He hit the ground in a miserable heap, tumbling several times before stopping amid the dust. Then he lay still.
Kakashi stopped. He saw the child lying motionless among the stream and rocks like a corpse, the blood-red rays of the setting sun covering him from head to toe.
By now, darkness had fallen. Flocks of crows gathered in the ravine. Some had already landed near the child, and a few bolder ones had even hopped onto him and started pecking gently.
Had he passed out?
Kakashi ran downhill. The child still didn't move.
Just as he was about to cross the stream, another nimble figure swung down from the cliff. The boy wore black, with black hair and a short sword. His familiar features made Kakashi recognize him too—
It was the genius ninja from their year, Uchiha Shisui.
"Hey, who's this?"
I woke in a daze. As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw a pair of upturned eyes. Uchiha Shisui was cradling my face and pulling me into his arms. His touch was gentle but firm, leaving no room for refusal.
I didn't even feel like moving. I only gave a tired little hum, rubbed some dust against his palm, and let him carry me home on his back.
This wasn't the first time Shisui had carried me home.
At some point, I'd started to depend on him a little.
Before you continue