"Monster"

"Waaahhh—"

A baby's cry rang out. At the same time, a silver-white bolt of lightning suddenly streaked across the night sky. Thunder boomed, and rain came pouring down.

In the Senju Clan Territory, a tall man ran through the downpour toward the birthing room. The instant he heard the baby cry, he froze, then hurried inside even faster.

"Ah! Fire! Monster! Monster! Aahhh— It's so hot!"

A woman stumbled out of the room in a panic. Flames covered her entire body as she staggered toward the rain.

In an instant, everyone inside the birthing room rushed out, screaming "Monster!" as they fled.

Senju Butsuma charged against the crowd and into the birthing room, thinking enemy shinobi from another clan had launched a surprise attack. His heart pounded uncontrollably.

Inside the birthing room, Senju Butsuma stood beside the bed with a stern expression, holding the baby by the scruff of his neck with one hand.

A closer look revealed red flames flickering and crackling on the baby's hands.

"Little brother can already use ninjutsu right after being born. That's amazing." Senju Hashirama, who was leaning over the side of his mother's bed, scratched his head sheepishly and broke the silence.

Senju Kawarama and Senju Itama were still young and didn't understand what the silence meant. They simply followed their big brother's lead and cheered.

"Big brother!" Senju Tobirama tugged at Senju Hashirama's sleeve, a little afraid. Though young, he had an innate, keen sense for danger, and instinctively felt that Senju Hashirama speaking up just then wasn't a good idea.

Senju Butsuma remained silent, and the atmosphere in the room slowly grew tense.

"Darling, where's my baby? Let me see him."

A weak female voice broke the silence. Senju Butsuma's stern expression softened in an instant, like ice melting. But his tone left no room for argument:

"I'm sorry, Haruko. Once you're better, I'll bring him to see you."

The weak woman on the bed looked at Senju Butsuma in despair. She was afraid she might never see this child again—the baby she had carried for ten long months and given birth to with such difficulty.

She pleaded carefully, "Butsuma, please spare him. He's our child." He wasn't a monster.

Seeing his wife, who had been by his side for years and borne his children, look at him like that, Senju Butsuma couldn't bear it. But he only told Senju Haruko to rest and recover before turning to leave, the strange, still-flaming child in his hand.

Senju Haruko closed her eyes in despair, and a tear slid from the corner of her eye.

"C-Clan leader, we lost the battle against the Uchiha Clan!"

"An eerie red flame suddenly appeared on the battlefield and burned so many Senju warriors to death. Even the heavy rain couldn't put it out!"

"That child! That child is a demon!"

"Clan leader! He's a monster!"

"Kill him! Kill him!"

"Kill him!"

After calming the Senju clansmen, Senju Butsuma carried the baby to a hidden room.

The baby was very well-behaved. When Senju Butsuma set him down, he even giggled at him.

Senju Butsuma couldn't bring himself to kill the child. He thought of how eagerly Senju Haruko had awaited his birth. She had even chosen a name in advance—Kyogawa—saying she was worried Senju Butsuma would give their youngest son another terribly old-fashioned name.

Perhaps sensing Senju Butsuma's hesitation, the flames in the baby's hands gradually dimmed and went out.

Senju Butsuma couldn't bring himself to kill the child, but he still had to give the Senju clansmen an explanation.

Ever since Kyogawa was born, he had been bound to a "Cuddle System," and his memories of his previous life had awakened while he was still an infant.

To survive in this world, Kyogawa had to earn Cuddle Points and exchange them for life points.

There were two ways to earn Cuddle Points:

The first was to make contact with living beings. Different creatures granted different amounts of Cuddle Points.

The second was to come into contact with different types of blood, but this method only granted Cuddle Points once.

Kyogawa had thought that, as a baby, making contact with others would be easy. But to his surprise, ever since he could remember, the only living person he ever saw was his mother.

Like this, Kyogawa barely made it to the age of three by cuddling with his mother every day.

But lately, the Cuddle Points he earned from contact with Senju Haruko had been dwindling. They had slowly dropped from [Cuddle Points +4] to [Cuddle Points +1].

During that time, Senju Kyogawa had tried to get his mother to take him outside instead of keeping him cooped up in the tiny room all day, never seeing the sunlight.

But Senju Haruko always gave him a sad look and refused. After being turned down so many times, Kyogawa gradually understood: Senju Haruko didn't want to keep him inside; she simply couldn't take him out.

Ever since Kyogawa had shown that he wanted to leave the room, his feet had been tightly shackled with iron chains. He couldn't step outside at all.

Kyogawa had never seen his biological father. Their daily meals and necessities were delivered to the door of the room.

Considering the harsh living conditions there—Senju Kyogawa often went without food in winter—he began to suspect that something sinister was going on.

He wondered if his mother in this life had been kidnapped. But after looking into it, he found that the people there clearly treated Senju Haruko with great respect and didn't restrict her from going out. Kyogawa had occasionally seen a few people talking with Senju Haruko through a crack in the door.

But those people clearly loathed him.

Perhaps it was because his strange ability to control fire had made them think he was a monster.

That's right, the ability to control fire. Kyogawa had discovered as an infant that he could manipulate flames. At first, he wasn't skilled enough to control them properly, and often burned pieces of furniture.

Later, his mother, Senju Haruko, somehow found him a pair of gloves. From then on, whenever Senju Kyogawa wore them, he could no longer summon flames.

Senju Kyogawa had considered taking off the gloves and using fire to burn through the chains. But whenever he saw the sorrow in Senju Haruko's eyes, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

But lately, Senju Haruko's health had been getting worse. She was awake for fewer and fewer hours each day, and Kyogawa was earning fewer and fewer Cuddle Points.

Just after turning three, Kyogawa decided to sneak out while Senju Haruko was asleep. As an ordinary person who needed sunlight and fresh air, he didn't want to spend his whole life locked away in there.

That night, Senju Kyogawa secretly took off his gloves and tried to melt the chains with fire.

But to his shock, even without the gloves, he couldn't use his fire ability.

When Kyogawa tried to summon the flames, he felt as if something were blocking their path. The channels inside his body felt unbearably sluggish.

How could this be?!

Kyogawa was even more confused. He asked the system, [System, why can't I use my fire skill?]

[System scanning...]

[Beep! Restricted by an unknown force! Beep! System error!]

Kyogawa was horrified. He looked at the chains around his feet and finally understood where that sense of wrongness had come from.

"I'm done for!" Kyogawa thought. He might not be able to sneak out without Senju Haruko noticing.

Just then, Senju Haruko let out a pained moan from the bed. She furrowed her brow, then slowly opened her beautiful red eyes.

She immediately spotted Kyogawa, along with the two gloves lying beside him.

Kyogawa froze.