Author's Note:
So, guys… I got sick, which is why the chapters have been delayed. I'm still not fully recovered, but the fire inside me wouldn't let me rest. So here's the chapter~
Set your heart ablaze! 🔥 I've always wanted to say that. 😄~
That said, I still need some rest, so bear with me. Your support means the world! ❤️
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"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."
— William Shakespeare
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[Syauri's POV]
The market buzzed with its usual chaos, merchants shouting, kids running everywhere. The stalls smelled of grilled fish, cheap incense, and that one old woman who insists on selling pickles that could double as weapons. And there was that one old man who somehow managed to sell the same pile of cabbages every single day without ever running out. I walked through the crowd, but my mind wasn't really there. It drifted back to the moment everything started.
It was the day I saw my mom smiling, really smiling for the first time in years. And who was she smiling at? Otis. Some tall guy standing there. My mom laughed at something he said, That wasn't the mom I knew. My mom was supposed to be calm, sharp, maybe a little scary in public. Not… giggling like a girl. It caught me off guard, and I couldn't help but grow curious.
Back then, I was prideful. Being an Uchiha meant everything to me. My bloodline, my name, my life. Pride is part of us. It's a muscle that grows with the Uchiha blood. But as I grew older, I began to understand that the way people treated us wasn't just about respect. Most of them didn't like us at all.
When I asked about it, my mother told me,
"The world is simple, Sayuri. If they can't become like us, they'll make us the enemy instead. Power makes people respect you or resent you. And we, the Uchiha, are villains because we are strong."
Mother taught me to hold my head high and ignore the petty people. That explanation made sense. We are Uchiha. We are strong. We deserve respect. Simple… until Otis came and ruined it. Because apparently, there was someone stronger than me. And worse? He didn't even use jutsu to show it.
I had never lost a spar before in my life. The first time we sparred, I thought I would easily prove my point, show him exactly why Uchiha weren't to be trifled with. Even though he was older, I thought I could beat him since he was still an academy student like me. But he beat me, and with just raw, physical strength at that. Talk about humiliating. I wanted to scream,
'Hello? I'm an Uchiha. This isn't how the world is supposed to work!'
But somehow, instead of hating him, I ended up curious. We talked, sparred again, and slowly, we got to know each other. Don't ask me how. I still don't get it.
And then there was Hinata. Oh, Hinata. She's in my class, and if you had asked me back then what kind of girl she was, I would have said 'the type who turns invisible when someone looks at her.' Hinata and social interaction are normally two ships passing in the night. She's kind of adorable, but I never expected to see her training there with Otis, sweating, actually trying. For a second, I thought maybe I'd stumbled into some genjutsu.
But no, it was real. And the more I saw, the more I realized she was improving. Shy little Hinata, growing stronger every day.
Over time, the three of us trained together. Somehow, Hinata became like a sister to me, but Still, sometimes I look at her and think,
'What's going on in that head of yours?' Because honestly, the girl spaces out a lot. Like she'll be holding a kunai one second and staring into the clouds the next. It's both impressive and terrifying.
And then that dimwit Sasuke challenged me. Of course, he lost, how could he not? I'm training with a giant, for crying out loud. But here's the part that's truly baffling, he decided to follow me after being defeated. I've never seen anyone so petty. And the foul mouth! Seriously, how is he even my twin? I'm calm, composed, maybe even gentle at times… where did he get this habit from? Not from me
Not to mention, Duckhead Sasuke only ever smiled in front of Itachi-niisan. Even in front of Mother, he put on that broody, tragic-face routine. Until, of course, Mother bonked him for being ridiculous.
Somehow, through all this chaos, I ended up getting closer to Otis. He seemed… more than just a friend in my imagination. And that illusion was brutally confirmed the day I saw him injured, on the brink of death. That day…
That day, everything changed. We were fighting Kazan while Shisui-niisan held off Orochimaru, but I was weak. Embarrassingly, laughably weak. So useless. Then everything happened…
My Sharingan awakened not because I plunged my kunai into Kazan's skull, not because of the blood. I remember it like a bad dream, Kazan yanking a kunai free while Otis was choking him, and my world went slow, stretching into an agonizingly slow crawl. The glint of steel, Otis's vulnerable form, I couldn't let him die. I would not lose him. A desperate, primal fear ripped through me, and then something inside me snapped. The world shifted, bleeding into crimson-tinted clarity. My Sharingan. I didn't know then what that feeling even was, only that it hit me like a punch to the throat. The thought of losing him made my head fill with fire. I could feel myself turning into that clichéd angry protagonist who screams about revenge in every bad play.
Afterwards Otis was gone from us. Not taken, just… gone. He slipped into a coma. The medical ninja said things like. "He may not wake," and "The damage is severe." My hands clenched. I hated every voice that spoke those words.
I was weak that day. So painfully weak.
During those long months, Hinata came every so often. She would stand in the corner while I watched Otis.
A venomous rage coiled in my gut. Danzo. How dare he even think of it. I wanted to tear him limb from limb with my bare hands. I wanted to hunt down everyone who'd hurt Otis and make them regret it. I would kill them all. Every last person responsible for the state he was in.
But then, after one year and six months, Otis woke up.
Watching him finally wake was like seeing the world reset.
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(A/N)
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