"Teachers, were you looking for me?"
Uchiha Shigure's calm voice drifted across the training ground, and in the same instant the shadow clone before them burst apart in a puff of white smoke.
A heartbeat later, Shigure himself appeared silently behind the Hyūga brothers. With a flick of his wrists, two kunai pressed lightly against the back of Hiashi and Hizashi's necks.
"Sorry, teachers," Shigure said evenly. "But you've lost."
Both brothers stiffened in shock.
"When—!?"
"How did you get behind us?! Impossible!" Hiashi sputtered, turning as much as he dared with the blade digging into his skin. "We shattered every kunai marked with your teleportation seal in advance! With our Gentle Fist strikes, they were completely destroyed!"
Hizashi's pale eyes narrowed. He, too, was at a loss. No matter how he retraced the battle in his memory, he couldn't find a gap through which Shigure had slipped past them.
"Could it be… he actually can teleport anywhere, regardless of seals?" Hiashi muttered before quickly shaking his head. "No… absurd."
Shigure smirked faintly. "Teachers, you've been so focused on defending against my Flying Thunder God kunai—watching for me to appear in front of you—that you neglected the obvious."
"The shadow clone."
"Shadow clone?" the brothers echoed, frowning.
"That's right." Shigure's voice was patient but brimming with quiet pride. "I created five clones. Two kept you busy in direct combat. Another was tagged with my seal. You assumed I'd teleport beside him and ambush you. That was the misdirection."
He paused, letting his words sink in.
"My real body had already used a substitution technique. The 'Shigure' you thought you struck down was nothing but a log, a decoy. While you were distracted, I had already placed a Flying Thunder God mark behind you in the chaos of the earlier skirmish. That was my true anchor point."
Hiashi's jaw tightened. "So the seal was there all along..."
"Exactly." Shigure vanished in a blur, reappearing effortlessly above their heads, poised as if gravity were meaningless.
The Hyūga brothers spun instinctively, Byakugan flaring, but Shigure had already landed lightly, feet planted with feline grace. He folded his arms, eyes sharp with confidence.
"Once the Flying Thunder God's mark is established, distance doesn't matter. I can appear from above you, below you, behind, or right in your face. Anywhere within range is mine to claim."
There was no boast in his tone—just simple, chilling truth.
Hiashi and Hizashi exchanged a look. Defeat, and grudging admiration, shone equally in their pale eyes.
"I can't decide whether it's the Flying Thunder God itself that's so fearsome… or you, Shigure," Hizashi admitted, his voice touched with awe. "Your talent is beyond reason. Perhaps you'll become the very pillar of the next generation."
Shigure inclined his head faintly but said nothing. Compliments meant little to him now. It was the test of strength that mattered.
Hiashi, however, exhaled as though releasing a long-held burden. "Then… I will keep my promise. You deserve to know about your mother, Hyūga Shinku."
The name hit Shigure like a spark catching kindling. Blood roared in his ears, but he forced himself to listen.
"Shinku was… extraordinary," Hiashi said, his tone laced with memory. "The eldest daughter of the Hyūga clan leader—your grandfather. She awakened her Byakugan at an earlier age than any before her and mastered nearly all our secret arts. The clan viewed her as the next prodigy, the destined successor."
"But such brilliance drew envy. Many elders opposed her rise, seeing her strength as a threat. And she herself…" Hiashi hesitated. "…she disliked the clan's cage. Leadership felt to her more like a prison than an honor."
Hizashi's eyes softened, remembering. "Until that man entered her life. Your father. An Uchiha unlike the others—he prized freedom over rigid duty. The two of them… it was inevitable."
Shigure's pulse quickened.
"From the start," Hiashi continued gravely, "their love was rebellion. The clan branded your mother nearly a traitor for loving an Uchiha. Together, they left the village behind and lived quietly in the Land of Fire. But war reached all places. When the Second Shinobi World War erupted, they both returned as Konoha shinobi."
His voice grew heavy. "It was there they fell. Side by side in battle. And you… you were brought back to Konoha as an infant, entrusted to the village."
Silence followed. Shigure's fists clenched. His throat burned as tears pricked his eyes.
"…Wrong?" he bit out, almost trembling. "Were they wrong? To simply live true to themselves? To love freely? To choose their own life? Isn't that the very meaning of existence? They still gave their lives for Konoha—yet even so, their own family spat on them? Called them traitors? And you call that family!?"
Hiashi flinched. Hizashi's gaze darkened, as if Shigure's defiance called up all his own bitterness about the clan's cursed caged bird seal.
"The ninja world has no such freedom," Hiashi murmured, shaking his head. "We are shinobi—bound not only to the village, but to our bloodlines. That destiny cannot be escaped."
"No!" Shigure snapped, fury flashing in his eyes. "You've got it backwards! We're human beings first. Ninja second! If people can't even live as humans—how can they be shinobi of worth at all!?"
A heavy silence swallowed the air—until another voice broke it.
"Well said, boy."
A tall, imposing figure strode into the courtyard. His hair was a steel-gray mane, his lower face hidden by a battle-worn mask. On his back hung a broad gray blade, almost humming with restrained power. His aura was enough to silence even the Hyūga.
At his side walked someone familiar: Hatake Kusuo, Shigure's silver-haired teammate.
"Hatake… Saku?" Hiashi's Byakugan flared faintly in recognition. Hizashi's eyebrows rose.
"The Gray Fang of Konoha," Hizashi explained quickly. "Third Hokage has decreed all mentors must personally confirm their squads before the Chūnin Exams begin."
"Tch. Otherwise I'd never step foot in your suffocating compound," Hatake Saku scoffed. His voice grated like steel on stone, dripping disdain. "I can smell the stench of rot and stubborn pride here."
But when his weathered eyes turned toward Shigure, there was a glint of approval. "Boy, I like the way you think."
The Hyūga brothers held their tongues. They knew Saku's reputation too well to take offense.
"Are you certain Kusuo will take part in the exams?" Hizashi asked carefully.
"Of course," Saku barked with a grin beneath his mask. "What kind of foolish question is that? I've heard Kakashi will be entering again this year. Perfect chance for my boy to put his little genius face in the dirt."
Shigure's brows flicked upward at the name—Hatake Kakashi.
"Fine. That's settled," Hizashi replied. "We're only waiting now for Hyūga Akane."
While they waited, Saku studied Shigure more closely, his smirk carving lines in his mask. "So you really are as strong as I hear, eh?"
"Stronger than strong," Shigure retorted coolly. "Much stronger."
Saku let out a low whistle. "Cocky brat! I like it. That Kakashi kid has been flaunting his 'Chūnin' rank too long. This exam'll drag him back down to earth. And you, Uchiha boy—I expect you to crush him."
The Gray Fang's voice hardened into command, the air around him almost vibrating with anticipation.
Shigure's smirk sharpened. "Don't worry. I've been meaning to teach Kakashi Hatake a lesson myself."
For the first time in years, Hatake Saku laughed—a raw, fierce sound. The storm of the coming Chūnin Exams was already brewing.
And Shigure, standing beneath the weight of two clans' legacies, could feel destiny itself sharpening around him.
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