A Rainy Night of Confession

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

Under the silent night sky, 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 strength to stretch its front lines thin. The key to victory between Konoha and Iwagakure lies in your hands, Minato, Hanazuki."

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

"Hanazuki, you..."

"Don't mind him. Whenever he is needed, Uchiha Hanazuki will be notified by Orochimaru. Master and student are cut from the same cloth; at least this time he didn't commit any public indecencies, 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-unvisited 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 to a certain place for training by Master Orochimaru these past few days, so I haven't been back. Please, come in."

After evaporating the rainwater from his clothes and tossing his cloak aside, Hanazuki lay on the sofa, looking with a 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 in matters of love, so..."

The smile froze on Hanazuki's face. What on earth had that muffled pervert Ebisu been saying? Why was he slandering his 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; we don't even know where we might die."

"As a man, why hesitate? If you die without even conveying 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 short 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 loser who can't catch up to that guy Kakashi yet, if I don't say it now, I might be sent to the front lines tomorrow. If I die, I'll never have the chance..."

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

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

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

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

Nohara Rin, with her gentle, strong, kind, and lively personality, did not mean she was incapable of admiring the strong. Especially since they spent every day together, the fact that he was called a genius by his peers was enough to stir a young girl's heart.

By comparison, the care and protection shown toward a comrade often led to unnecessary misunderstandings for a youth in the hazy days of adolescence.

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

Moreover, in times of war, the profession of a ninja—where one never knew if they would see tomorrow—left 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, and as the pages of the book in his hand turned with the wind, Hanazuki, who had been feigning sleep, quietly opened his eyes. He looked at the goggles already stained with tears and had a guess in his heart.

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

Having his inner thoughts exposed, 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 clean!

"Damn it! Why do all those people 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 liked by three girls. Does being a genius make one popular with girls?"

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

"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, and felt the sincerity and expectation within them.

After a long silence, Obito burst into laughter, then said with genuine tone:

"Hanazuki, if you were a girl, you'd definitely be more popular than Rin, and you'd definitely be more hurtful than her, too. 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 must awaken the Sharingan as soon as possible, yeah!"

He was a youth after all, and he quickly emerged from the shadow of his unrequited love—though Hanazuki felt "stubbornly persistent" was a more fitting description.

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

Iwagakure 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 end?

In the lonely night rain, he let the breeze blow in, the scattered raindrops decorating the air, easing the solitude within his heart.

"Lonely? This gaze, hidden beneath talent and longing 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 hair draped over her shoulders, red lips, and white teeth; her charming, soul-stirring eyes seemed to contain the ability to see 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 by herself.

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

"To think 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 crawl onto other people's bodies, and stop dressing up like a woman, Master Orochimaru."