"You insolent brat, just who do you think you are!"
Sasuke's dark pupils flared wide, his little body trembling with fury.
Naruto's brows creased. He turned his face slightly, but his gaze never left the tall figure a few steps away. Calmly, he unfastened the weighted bracers and anklets he had bought at the ninja tool shop, setting each piece aside with deliberate care.
From the day he first stumbled on this training field, he had wondered who its true owner was. And today, he had already sensed the two presences watching him from the shadows. Uchiha Itachi had been one of his guesses.
The field was filled with shuriken and kunai targets, every bullseye marked by perfect strikes. That kind of precision had only one answer.
But Itachi arriving with Sasuke was unexpected. Considering the Uchiha clan's strained relationship with the village, he thought Itachi would be far too occupied.
Finishing his work, Naruto crouched and sealed the weights into a storage scroll he had bought for a small fortune. That single scroll had cost him six months of savings. Compared to it, the equipment itself was cheap trinkets.
As Naruto stood, Sasuke's tiny fists clenched tighter, his whole body shaking with indignation.
"Bastard! How dare you ignore me!"
In Konoha, no one ever overlooked Sasuke. Even if they didn't know him personally, the fan crest of the Uchiha clan on his back commanded fear and respect. Yet this boy had dismissed him completely.
"Enough, Sasuke. We are all from the same village. Do not be so petty. This child may even be stronger than you."
Itachi's deep, magnetic voice cut through the tension. He stepped forward with calm grace, the faint lines beneath his eyes lending him a solemn, mysterious air.
"I am Uchiha Itachi. This is my younger brother, Sasuke. It has been you training here these past months, hasn't it?"
Naruto tilted his head up, Itachi stood tall, forcing him to look slightly skyward. Those sharp eyes weighed him carefully. Naruto sensed it. Itachi had already recognized who he was.
"Yes. I used this ground without permission. I apologize. And… thank you, for leaving those tools for me."
"Hmph! You've heard of the Uchiha name, haven't you? Don't you think it's only proper to tell us who you are?"
Sasuke puffed his chest out beside his brother, arrogance thick in his voice, pretending at an adult's authority. The act was laughable. He clung to Itachi's shadow, pride masking fragility. Even so, Naruto thought, for Sasuke to survive what was coming, it would take a strength beyond pride.
Naruto's expression stayed flat. "Your brother already knows who I am. Since I was caught trespassing today, I'll take my leave."
He stepped to pass, but the moment he drew alongside Itachi, a chime rang in his mind.
Naruto halted sharply. Then he turned back and extended his hand.
"My mistake. Before a clan such as the Uchiha, I should at least introduce myself properly."
Surprise flickered in Itachi's eyes, but his manners were impeccable. He reached out and clasped Naruto's hand.
"Data collection in progress…"
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto."
"Collection complete. Current data integrity: 5 percent. Please continue to gather data."
"Thank you." Naruto released his grip, voice steady. "I should go home."
Without another glance, he walked away, leaving only his back for the two brothers to see.
Sasuke stared after him, stunned. "What a weirdo… Wait! Nii-san, I've seen him before! I recognize that hair!"
"Yes," Itachi said softly. "Last winter. He wore a mask."
Watching Naruto's figure vanish between the trees, a shadow crossed Itachi's face. A flicker of unspoken worry stirred in his heart.
Back in his room, Naruto transformed and slipped unseen through the streets until he reached his small house. He entered the Mirror World, opening the newly unlocked function. A prompt appeared:
"View related character storyline?"
"Yes."
The world shifted. Naruto now stood on a battlefield drenched in chaos, watching a seven-year-old Itachi move like a phantom, twin kunai cutting down life after life without hesitation.
It was like watching a film.
Scenes rushed past, Itachi joining the ANBU, flashes of Kakashi, Guy, Orochimaru. Then the night of the Nine-Tails' attack, the beginning of Konoha's oppression of the Uchiha.
Naruto saw Fugaku asking Itachi to act as a spy within the ANBU, to monitor Konoha's council and, above all, to keep an eye on Uchiha Shisui.
When the vision ended, Naruto leaned back in thought. He had glimpsed more than battles. He had seen Itachi's endless inner monologues, his doubts, his anguish. He had seen the politics between clan and village.
And one thing stood out: if most Uchiha weren't extremists, then they were lunatics. Arrogance seeped from every one of them who had awakened the Sharingan, their pride swelling to madness.
Itachi himself, already with three tomoe, was teetering on the edge. His sense of burden, his suffocating pride, it was only a matter of time before he broke.
In truth, the dignified mask he wore was a lie. No wonder Kabuto once said Itachi was the greatest liar of them all.
Naruto scoffed. In life, Itachi had called the massacre of his clan a noble necessity. After Shisui's death, he had chosen to slaughter his family in the name of peace, shifting all blame to the clan's so-called rebellion.
Instead of hunting down Danzō, he wielded the Will of Fire like a blade, and he himself became that blade, slaughtering his own kin.
And still, he left his foolish little brother alive in the village knowing Danzō's hunger for the Sharingan, knowing the experiments with the First Hokage's cells. Did he not fear what would become of his precious Sasuke?
Naruto's lips curled in a cold smile.
If this wasn't madness, then what was it?
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