A Chance Encounter by the Naka River, Sosuke's Precise Hunt for Mikoto

The waters of the Naka River ran somewhat swift, churning up white spray as they battered the rocks along the shore.

Mikoto hugged her knees, her chin resting on her arms as she stared blankly at the water. A cloud of sorrow hung over her delicate, gentle face, impossible to dispel.

Rustle... rustle...

Soft footsteps sounded behind her. Like a startled deer, Mikoto suddenly turned around, her long black hair drawing a graceful arc through the morning breeze.

When she saw who it was, the wariness in her eyes turned to astonishment.

"Young Master Sosuke...?"

Sosuke wore a dark kimono, his face slightly pale, his figure seeming somewhat frail in the wind. He stopped, covered his mouth, and coughed softly twice before revealing a mild smile.

"Miss Mikoto, what a coincidence. I didn't expect to run into you here as well."

Mikoto hurriedly rose to her feet and smoothed down her slightly rumpled skirt, looking somewhat flustered.

"Young Master Sosuke, your health... Why did you come to such a remote place alone?"

"The room was too stuffy, so I came out for some air." Sosuke stopped three steps away from Mikoto. The distance was neither presumptuous nor too distant, allowing her to clearly feel his presence.

He turned his gaze toward the shimmering Naka River, his voice calm. "Besides, the scenery here is beautiful. Though the current is swift, it can only follow its predetermined riverbed and cannot change its own fate. Watching it always makes one understand certain things."

Mikoto froze slightly. She was an exceptionally intelligent woman and immediately caught the hidden meaning in Sosuke's words.

"Young Master Sosuke, are you talking about... the Uchiha clan?" Mikoto bit her lower lip, her voice soft.

Sosuke did not turn around. The rushing river reflected in his deep black eyes, while his tone carried a sharpness that seemed to pierce straight through people's hearts.

"When Hidden Leaf was first founded, the Senju Clan and the Uchiha clan stood together at the pinnacle. But now, only a sickly man like me remains of the Senju Clan, while the Uchiha clan..."

He paused, then turned and looked directly into Mikoto's eyes.

"The Uchiha clan may appear prosperous, but in truth, they have already been driven to the very edge of the village. They are forced to handle the thankless work of the Police Force, resented and isolated by the entire village. Miss Mikoto, do you truly think the Uchiha clan of today still possesses the pride it had in the First Hokage's era?"

Mikoto's breath caught.

Within the Uchiha clan, such words were an absolute taboo. Every day, the clan members shouted about Uchiha glory, yet no one dared to face the cruel reality that the higher-ups had stripped them of their power.

"Young Master Fugaku said... as long as we remain united, one day we will reclaim the power that belongs to us." Mikoto instinctively repeated Fugaku's words, but even she failed to notice the guilty uncertainty in her voice.

"United?" Sosuke chuckled, his laughter containing three parts pity and seven parts mockery. "United by what? By sacrificing a woman's lifelong happiness in exchange for compromise between internal factions?"

Those words were like a precise blade, viciously piercing the most vulnerable defense in Mikoto's heart.

Her eyes instantly reddened, and her hands unconsciously clenched the hem of her clothes.

Sosuke took a step forward, closing the distance between them. He lowered his head slightly and gazed into Mikoto's eyes, brimming with grievance.

"Mikoto, you are intelligent and gentle. But you are too kind—so kind that you have mistaken the shackles your clan forced upon you for your own responsibility."

Sosuke's voice became low and magnetic, carrying a bewitching power.

"Fugaku's arrogance cannot conceal his political incompetence. He does not dare draw his blade against the Hokage Building, nor does he dare fight for real power. All he can do is throw his weight around within the clan. Entrusting the clan's fate to a political marriage is the act of a coward."

Mikoto trembled all over.

She had never heard words so rebellious, yet so piercing to the soul. In the Uchiha clan, everyone had told her that marrying Fugaku was her destiny, the honor of being an Uchiha woman. No one had ever stood in her shoes, torn away this hypocritical veil, and told her just how absurd it all was.

At last, tears slid uncontrollably down her cheeks.

Sosuke pulled a spotless white handkerchief from his sleeve and gently held it out to Mikoto.

"Cry. With the sound of the Naka River concealing it, no one will hear the Uchiha clan's pearl showing weakness."

Mikoto accepted the handkerchief, her fingertips inevitably brushing against the cool back of Sosuke's hand. In that instant, she felt a sense of security unlike anything she had ever known.

This man looked so sickly and weak that even a gust of wind seemed capable of knocking him down. Yet his thoughts and his vision were like a towering mountain, making those short-sighted Uchiha clan members seem like ants by comparison.

"I don't want to marry him..." Mikoto covered her face, her suppressed sobs breaking apart in the wind. "I don't like that superior way he acts at all. But... I have no choice. The Grand Elder is pressuring me, and my parents have agreed too. If I refuse, I'll become a sinner of the clan."

Sosuke watched her quietly, a faint hunter's gleam flashing deep in his eyes as he drew in the net.

He did not need force, nor did he need any underhanded methods. Against a woman like Mikoto, swept along by the clan's greater cause yet desperately yearning for freedom deep down, a soul-deep resonance that crushed her from a higher level was the deadliest poison.

"Who says you have no choice?" Sosuke's tone was calm, yet carried an unquestionable dominance.

Mikoto raised her tear-streaked face and stared at him blankly. "Young Master Sosuke... What do you mean?"

Facing the morning light, Sosuke's gentle, jade-like face gradually took on the aura of a formidable ruler who held everything in his grasp. His previously stooped back straightened slightly as the immense vitality of his beginner-level Sage Body leaked out in the smallest degree.

That mere trace of aura made Mikoto's heart palpitate, and even her breathing unconsciously slowed.

"The Uchiha clan needs a political marriage to stabilize itself internally, while Hidden Leaf's higher-ups need to suppress the Uchiha clan to maintain their rule." Sosuke analyzed the situation with clear logic. "And I, the last remaining seedling of the Senju Clan, am now a juicy piece of meat in the eyes of the higher-ups. They want to swallow me whole, bones and all."

Though Mikoto did not fully understand politics, she could hear the danger in his words and asked anxiously, "Then isn't your situation extremely dangerous?"

"That is why we need to break the deadlock." A breathtaking curve lifted at the corner of Sosuke's lips. "Mikoto, you do not want to be a caged bird of the clan, and I do not want to be a puppet on the higher-ups' strings. Since neither of us wishes to submit to our fate, why not join forces?"

"Join forces?" Mikoto was completely lost. "But... How can I help you? And how can you help me?"

Sosuke took another step forward, leaving less than half a foot between himself and Mikoto. He could even smell the faint scent of soapberry in her hair.

He bent slightly and whispered into Mikoto's ear. His voice was not loud, yet it exploded in her mind like a thunderclap.

"It's simple."

The ambition and possessiveness in Sosuke's eyes were no longer concealed as he enunciated each word. "Become my woman. We'll pretend to be lovers."

Mikoto's eyes widened instantly, and even her breathing stopped.

"Pre... pretend to be lovers?" She stammered out the words, her fair cheeks instantly flushing crimson all the way to her ears.

"That's right." Sosuke straightened up, admiring his prey's flustered expression, though his tone remained perfectly serious. "The Senju Clan and the Uchiha clan, Hidden Leaf's two oldest and strongest clans. If the last man of the Senju Clan and the fiancée of the Uchiha clan's candidate for clan head get together, what do you think Hidden Leaf's higher-ups will think? What will the Uchiha clan's council of elders think?"

Following Sosuke's line of reasoning, Mikoto immediately broke out in a cold sweat.

This would be an absolute earthquake!

The Third Hokage and Danzo feared nothing more than the Senju Clan and the Uchiha clan joining forces. If this rumor spread, the higher-ups' attention would be diverted at once. They would frantically probe and guard against the Uchiha clan, leaving them with no time to concern themselves with Sosuke, this "invalid."

As for the Uchiha clan, once Mikoto became involved with the Senju Clan's orphan, Fugaku would never dare force her into marriage in order to preserve his own face and that of the clan. Even the council of elders would consider her a "problem" and abandon the marriage arrangement altogether!

This was killing two birds with one stone. No, it was an earth-shattering gamble that plotted against both Hidden Leaf's entire upper echelon and the Uchiha clan!

"But... this is too crazy!" Mikoto's heart pounded wildly. "If they find out it's fake, not only Young Master Fugaku, even Lord Hokage won't spare us. And... your reputation..."

"Reputation?" Sosuke smiled disdainfully. "I can barely keep my life. What use is a reputation to me? As for being found out... as long as we act convincingly enough, who can prove it is fake?"

He looked at Mikoto again, his gaze now carrying an aggression that allowed no retreat.

"Mikoto, I will only ask you one question. Are you willing to go back, put on the red bridal veil, become that coward Fugaku's appendage, and wither away in that rotten clan for the rest of your life? Or are you willing to gamble with me and, in the name of the Senju Clan, fight for true freedom for yourself?"

The morning breeze swept past, carrying several fallen leaves with it.

Mikoto stared blankly at the man before her. He was clearly a cripple incapable of even refining chakra, yet the bearing and methods he displayed at this moment were more dazzling and more compelling than any powerful Uchiha she had ever seen.

The scales in her heart tipped completely in that instant.

"I..." Mikoto bit down on her lip, just about to agree.

At that moment, hurried footsteps suddenly came from the forest nearby, accompanied by the crisp clashing of weapons. Several ninja wearing Uchiha Police Force uniforms were charging toward the riverbank with menacing force.

The man leading them wore such a dark expression that water seemed ready to drip from his face. It was none other than Uchiha Fugaku.

Sosuke looked at the approaching group without the slightest panic in his eyes. Instead, an icy green gleam flashed through them. He shifted slightly, half shielding Mikoto behind him.

"Looks like we won't even need a warm-up before the performance. Mikoto, are you ready to welcome the storm?"