Afternoon Nap: A Uchiha Soul

"Wait for your brother at home. Come straight back after school this afternoon!"

After lunch, Sasuke quickly washed the dishes before heading off to school.

After he left, A Luo sat in the courtyard, basking in the sun as he cultivated and daydreamed.

A sofa Sasuke had found in one of the other houses some time ago had been placed beneath the eaves. The small figure was now curled up in it.

Sunlight poured down, warmth surrounding him. The child narrowed his eyes and enjoyed the afternoon heat.

That was what the ANBU saw, but in reality...

System, come out. That's a soul, right? It's drifting around in broad daylight like it owns the place. Is that really okay?

A Luo lay on the sofa, his narrowed eyes looking somewhat lazy.

Yet he was watching the soul drifting back and forth before him, occasionally reaching out as though trying to touch him.

[Host, it is only a soul.]

The system did not want to bother with him, but since A Luo had called for it, it gave him a response.

I know that, but I want to know who he is. That appearance...

A Luo barely shifted his gaze, careful not to let the other party notice.

But his thoughts kept churning, whether he was inwardly complaining or guessing at the man's identity.

Judging from that face, there was a very high chance he was an Uchiha who had died before Konoha was founded... Izuna Uchiha!

A Luo waited for several seconds, only to discover that the system was ignoring him.

Since the system could not be bothered to answer, he could just ask the soul himself.

"Who are you?"

The sleepy child fell asleep, his spiritual consciousness leaving his body. His illusory spirit body came face-to-face with the visitor and greeted him.

"You... what happened to you?"

Izuna Uchiha stared in shock at the child who had suddenly "died." His first thought was that he had somehow caused the child's death.

He did not know why he had appeared here. He had simply awakened suddenly and found himself nearby.

He had wandered through the Uchiha clan grounds several times. From the markings, he could tell this was the Uchiha clan's home, but the buildings all bore varying degrees of damage, and some places even had dried bloodstains.

He had visited this courtyard a few days ago as well. Someone lived here, but its residents had gone out.

Today, he had merely been wandering around as usual when he discovered this child.

But...

He had only been curious. He had not touched the child, so why had the child become a "dead person" too...?

"I came out to chat with you. There's someone watching me over there, but he can't see me like this..."

A Luo pointed at his own body, then at the ANBU ninja crouching near the distant corner of the wall.

With ANBU keeping watch, it was even more convenient for souls to chat.

"Who is that? Why is he watching you? Where are the other Uchiha clan members?"

Izuna knew that masked ninjas would occasionally appear around here. Their clothing seemed to follow a uniform style, though the masks changed from time to time.

"They're all dead..."

A Luo's spirit body drifted outward a little. He sat on the ground and sighed.

They were dead. By the time he arrived here, only a few remained.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

Izuna drifted over as well and sat beside A Luo. Reaching out, he picked up the child, who resembled him when he was young.

If he were a little healthier and trained his body some more, he would look exactly like Izuna had as a child.

Looking back at the child's body, Izuna felt happy for the first time since he had been drifting around for so long.

"I don't know much either. Ever since I was little, I was locked up in that courtyard over there. Then, on that day..."

Tilting his head against Izuna's arm, A Luo slowly began recounting the night of the Uchiha clan massacre.

A Luo spoke calmly about the massacre, even about how his parents had chosen to abandon him and let him die...

"Fortunately, you have a very good brother..."

Izuna listened quietly. Apart from his arm tensing a few times, he showed no other reaction.

When he heard the child speak of his brother's care, happiness filling his face, Izuna smiled as well.

Brother—when he was alive, he had also had an incredibly capable brother!

He wondered how his brother had fared after his death. Had he avenged him, or had he been defeated by the Senju Clan...

"Mm, my brother is the best. When I was in that courtyard before, he would secretly climb over the wall to play with me... Do you have a brother too?"

A Luo's face was filled with happiness whenever he talked about his brother. Then, as he spoke, he suddenly tilted his head up and asked Izuna a question.

Did you have a brother too?

That question...

"Yes. When I was little, I had several older brothers, but later... after war after war, only my eldest brother remained. My brother was very powerful. Have you ever heard of him? His name was Madara Uchiha!"

When Izuna spoke of his own brother, his expression resembled A Luo's somewhat.

He felt that the younger generations might not know about him, but his brother had been so formidable. Even after so many years, there should still be some records, right?

"I think I've heard that name somewhere..."

A Luo raised a hand and scratched his hair. Madara Uchiha!

Based on the information that he and Sasuke could know, there really was not much.

Therefore, if he knew anything about Madara Uchiha, it definitely could not have been learned after the clan massacre. He must have heard it before then.

Before, when he had been locked in that small courtyard and could not get out...

Forget it. He had not been able to leave, but now he could wander around as a soul. He would just pretend he had been able to do the same back then.

"There are no records?"

Izuna froze. Had his brother been forgotten?

"There are some, but not much. A few years ago, I snuck out to play like this and overheard some elders mentioning him in private. They said Madara Uchiha was the reason the Uchiha clan was suppressed in Konoha. There also seemed to be something about the period when Konoha was founded..."

Combining what he knew of the plot, A Luo vaguely put together a version of information he had supposedly "heard" as a child and told it to Izuna.

Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju had joined forces to establish Konoha's ninja village. Then Madara Uchiha had turned against his friend, been betrayed by his clan, left the village only to be intercepted, fought a battle, and after his "death," left behind the Valley of the End as a memorial site...

Those fragmented details, with no particularly clear timeline, were things he had "heard." Mixed in were occasional resentments Uchiha clan members held toward Madara Uchiha, along with gossip from elderly people chatting idly.

"Damn Senju..."

After hearing how his brother had supposedly been deceived by the Senju Clan step by step, until he was ultimately set up and buried, Izuna's soul body erupted in fury.

His originally black eyes turned red even in his soul state, twisting into three-tomoe Sharingan.

"Konoha, Konoha... what a wonderful place. Hokage, was it? Which generation of Hokage are they on now?"

After fuming for a while, Izuna suddenly lowered his head to look at the child in his arms. Once he had calmed down, he continued chatting.

Konoha... that Wood Release-wielding Senju bastard. He had told his brother countless times that no one from the Senju Clan could be trusted, and that Wood Release user was even less trustworthy!