A rainy night for confessions

The night rain fell in a steady drizzle, the autumn wind carrying a slight chill.

Under the quiet shroud of night, inside the Hokage's office, Sarutobi Hiruzen's earnest instructions left Namikaze Minato with a grave expression.

"Having fought battle after battle against the great nations, Konoha no longer has the capacity to stretch its front lines thin. The key to victory between Konoha and the Rock Hidden lies with you two, Minato, Hanazuki."

Namikaze Minato gave a slight nod, while Uchiha Hanazuki remained silent for a moment before turning to leave.

"Hanazuki, you..."

"Pay him no mind. Once the time comes, Uchiha Hanazuki will be notified by Orochimaru. Master and student are cut from the same cloth; at least this time he didn't do anything openly immoral, so I suppose that counts as progress?"

Clearly, Sarutobi Hiruzen was quite satisfied that Hanazuki hadn't spat on the floor this time.

"Minato, you will likely have a difficult time ahead..."

The voice was gradually drowned out by the sound of the rain. As Hanazuki strolled through the autumn downpour and arrived before his long-neglected home, a figure hurried toward him through the rain.

"Hanazuki, you were hard to find! Have you not been home at all these past few days?"

"Senior Obito? My apologies, I was taken by Master Orochimaru to a certain place for training these past few days, so I haven't been back. Please, come in."

Steaming the rainwater away and tossing his cloak aside, Hanazuki lay on the sofa, looking with a faint smile at the visibly conflicted Obito.

"What is it? Why come all this way in the rain, Senior Obito?"

"Actually, I want to confess to Rin, but I haven't been able to make up my mind. I don't know what to do. I heard from Ebisu that you are very experienced with romance, so..."

The smile froze on Hanazuki's face. What on earth had that muffled pervert Ebisu been saying? Why was he slandering an innocent man's reputation for no reason?

After a moment of thought, Hanazuki narrowed his eyes and offered a suggestion.

"What is there to hesitate about? We live in an era of war. We could be deployed to the front lines by the village tomorrow; there's no telling where we might die."

"As a man, why hesitate? If you die without ever having conveyed your deepest feelings to the person you love, wouldn't you regret it even in death?"

Obito's expression shifted—from hesitation to complexity, from doubt to resolve...

In just a few moments, the look on Uchiha Obito's face was one of pure determination.

"You're right. Even though I'm afraid of dying and a total dead-last who can't keep up with that guy Kakashi yet, if I don't say it now, I might be sent to the battlefield tomorrow. If I die, I'll never have the chance..."

"Thank you so much, Hanazuki! I'm going!"

Obito dashed headlong into the curtain of rain, his figure gradually disappearing from sight, his retreating back filled with resolve.

"How will it play out? A cold, heartless rejection to the face, a gentle, roundabout rejection, or a rejection filled with encouragement while standing on the ground..."

Hanazuki smiled without a word, flipping a coin into the air and watching it spin on the floor.

Nohara Rin, with her gentle, strong, kind, and lively personality, did not mean she was incapable of harboring affection for the strong. Especially when, day in and day out, she was surrounded by peers who called him a genius—it was enough to stir a young girl's heart.

By contrast, the care and protection one shows a comrade often leads a young, confused boy to harbor unnecessary misunderstandings.

This was not a bad thing, but if one did not reject them clearly, the boy harboring such affection would likely carry that regret until the end of his life.

Moreover, in wartime, the life of a ninja was precarious—here today, gone tomorrow—leaving no time for hesitation, especially in an age where one never knew whether tomorrow or an accident would arrive first.

The night rain pattered on. As the pages of the book in his hand turned with the wind, Hanazuki, who had been feigning sleep, quietly opened his eyes and looked at the goggles already filled with tears, a guess forming in his heart.

"As expected, a rejection filled with encouragement, was it?"

Having his thoughts laid bare, Uchiha Obito lay on the sofa like a salted fish, completely oblivious to the twitching of Hanazuki's mouth—that was the sofa he had worked so hard to wash!

"Damn it! Why do those people all like that guy Kakashi? One after another, even Rin is like that. Is it just because that guy Kakashi is a genius?"

"Come to think of it, you're a genius too, Hanazuki. I heard from Ebisu that you're deeply loved by three girls. Does becoming a genius make you popular with girls?"

Obito looked utterly dejected, shaking the raindrops off his body, causing the book in Hanazuki's hand to suffer the consequences.

"You are a genius too! And a lucky one at that. Your eyes—the eyes of the Uchiha—harbor the talent to become a Jonin, or even surpass the Hokage."

"Once you awaken the Sharingan, and from that foundation awaken an even higher level of ocular technique, you will gain the power to stand above the vast majority of the ninja world."

Clasping his hands together and setting the book aside on the coffee table, Obito instinctively turned his gaze to meet Hanazuki's eyes, which held a strange, magical power, feeling the sincerity and expectation within them.

After a long silence, Obito let out a loud laugh, then spoke with genuine sincerity.

"Hanazuki, if you were a girl, you'd be even more popular than Rin, and you'd definitely be even more heartless. I'm off, I've got a mission in a few days."

"One day, I will surpass that guy Kakashi and make Rin change her mind. I have to awaken the Sharingan as soon as possible, yeah!"

He was a boy, after all; he had quickly emerged from the shadow of his heartbreak, though Hanazuki felt "stubbornly persistent" was a more fitting description.

Looking at the mess and the rainwater on the floor, the smile on his face turned to one of helplessness. The night rain continued, as if the darkness that had existed since time immemorial had never ceased.

Rock Hidden ninjas had breached the borders of the Land of Grass; the flames of war were approaching once more. Was this endless war finally about to reach its final note?

In the lonely night rain, he let the breeze blow in, the droplets of rain dotting the air, easing the solitude within his heart.

"Lonely? This gaze, hidden beneath talent and yearning for care and love—it really is lonely, isn't it?"

"Then, let me ease this loneliness. Pour all your troubles into me, and let me fill this void in your heart..."

His body went inexplicably numb. The female figure appearing before him had long, flowing hair, red lips, and white teeth; her charming, spirited eyes seemed capable of seeing through anyone's weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

After a long silence, Hanazuki's clear, black-and-white eyes were filled with nothing but speechlessness and disgust, watching the charming figure perform all on her own.

A long while later, the two locked eyes. Compared to the calm in Hanazuki's gaze, the charming figure froze in place, unable to move.

"To think that I would be bound by an Immobilization Genjutsu. The pace of your growth truly delights me. Such astonishing growth..."

"You're noisy and annoying. Please don't go crawling onto other people, and stop dressing up like a woman, Master Orochimaru."