Thump. Thump. Thump.
The pounding—no, hammering—on his door dragged Uchiha Sogetsu out of a perfectly good dream.
"Who is it?"
Being yanked out of sweet sleep made his mood plummet. Rubbing at his throbbing temples, he shrugged on an outer robe and slid the door open.
"S-sorry, Sogetsu-nii!"
On the threshold, Uchiha Obito almost snapped into a bow, goggles rattling.
"I didn't mean to wake you up! It's almost noon, so I thought you'd already be awake…"
Kids.
Sogetsu sighed inwardly.
He stepped aside and waved the boy in.
"Come in, Obito. But let me wash up first. Sit and wait for a bit, all right?"
"O-okay, Sogetsu-nii."
Obito slipped off his sandals and crept in, kneeling on the tatami in a painfully proper seiza. He bowed his head, wearing the exact expression of a child who knows he's been caught doing something wrong.
Sogetsu gave him a neutral nod and disappeared to wash.
Left alone, Obito held out for maybe thirty seconds.
Then the fidgeting started.
He scratched his head. He glanced left, then right. He smiled to himself, then turned tomato red and hid his face in his hands.
He looked exactly like what he was—a twelve-year-old boy in the first throes of crush-induced brain damage, daydreaming about a girl he didn't dare confess to.
"Ahem."
Sogetsu's voice cut neatly across his fantasy.
"Ah—! Z-Sogetsu-nii!"
Obito jumped so hard he nearly toppled over.
"Thinking about Rin again?"
Sogetsu sat opposite him, tilting his head slightly, resting his cheek on one hand. The smile on his lips was faint, but his eyes were sharp and amused.
"B-but—uh—that is—"
Obito's face turned the color of a boiled shrimp.
"S-so what if I am?!"
"Before we begin," Sogetsu said kindly, "I should give you a little warning, Obito."
"Huh?"
"I can help you realise your wish," Sogetsu said, voice turning solemn. "But for the sake of protecting minors' physical and mental health…"
He pushed his glasses up with a single finger.
"'Pervy content' is strictly prohibited."
"Wha—what pervy content?!"
Obito practically exploded.
"I—I wasn't thinking anything like that! Sogetsu-nii, don't just say weird stuff!"
"Oh? Truly nothing at all?" Sogetsu leaned forward, eyes glinting. "You've never thought about anything like that? Not even once?"
Obito's ears went red.
Veins popped on his forehead.
"I-I haven't! Absolutely not!" he shouted. "I'm a ninja! How could a ninja think about pervy things!"
Then he started ranting.
Something something "three taboos of shinobi," something about "Uchiha honor," and a surprising amount of babble involving "true love is unbeatable."
Sogetsu laughed outright.
For a while, the room filled with the sound of his amusement and Obito's panicked denials.
Only when Obito's face was red to his hairline and he looked about ready to overheat did Sogetsu finally wave a hand.
"All right, all right, I get it," he said. "So—did you bring the money, Obito?"
A stack of ryō was pushed across the tatami.
Sixty thousand, in crisp high-denomination notes.
Obito dropped into a full prostration, forehead nearly touching the floor.
"Sogetsu-nii, please!"
Sogetsu flicked through the bundle, then smoothly peeled off ten thousand and pushed it back.
"I promised you a discount last time," he said. "And since your little performance put me in a good mood… I'll let you enjoy the full-course today at the trial price."
"R-really?! Thank you, Sogetsu-nii!"
If Obito's gratitude got any more intense he'd start banging his head on the floor for real.
"No need to thank me. Get ready, Obito."
Sogetsu's pupils bled red, three tomoe swirling into place.
"Remember—don't resist. Relax your mind. I'll pull you into the illusion."
"O-okay. I know, Sogetsu-nii."
Obito sucked in a few deep breaths, trying to steady his racing heart.
He was about to experience "a love you'd never forget."
Just thinking about it nearly made him pass out.
"Genjutsu: Wish-Fulfillment."
Ripples swirled in the depths of Sogetsu's Sharingan.
Obito's eyes went glassy. In the waking world, his body relaxed and froze like a puppet whose strings had been cut, only the faint movement of his chest showing he was still breathing.
"Now then…"
Sogetsu rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"What kind of dream would be best for you?"
He pondered for a moment.
Then his eyes lit up.
"Oh right. That script."
He grinned.
He chases, she runs, she can't escape.
Add in a two-faced "best friend" who backstabs everyone and a flawless, saintly rival male lead.
And of course, you couldn't have a "love you'll never forget" without suffering. The most toxic tropes from two lifetimes lined up in his head like tools on a surgeon's tray.
Heart surgery, eye transplants…
In the shinobi world, nobody even worried about organ compatibility. Plug and play. Hot-swap.
"Hmm… what else…"
He snapped his fingers.
"Right. Runaway bride. Stomach ulcer. Let's just throw them all in."
Give Obito a crash course in the worst romance clichés of the twenty-first century.
Perfect.
If the boy didn't end up crying his heart out and experiencing the full weight of "tragic love," then Sogetsu had watched those dog-blood dramas for nothing.
He watched the plot spool out inside Obito's dreamscape and nodded, satisfied.
"Good. That's the work part done," he murmured. "Now it's time for personal business."
A discount for Obito?
Don't be ridiculous.
Sogetsu wasn't that generous.
Leaving aside what Obito would do years from now, he hadn't burned through his own spirituality and chakra just for pocket change.
Money meant nothing to him.
The obscene price tag on his "therapy" was just a filter. If anyone could afford ten thousand, he'd be overrun by clients and drop dead from spiritual exhaustion before long.
A hundred thousand ryō was the line.
The sort of people who could scrape together that much usually had enough value to be worth his attention.
And that was where things started to get interesting.
Sogetsu dipped his mind down, opening the door to Obito's mental sea. He slipped in, quiet as a shadow, and planted a tiny psychological suggestion deep in the boy's subconscious.
It wasn't the first time.
Over the years, he'd done the same thing many, many times.
Each individual suggestion was weak—far too gentle to override convictions or alter beliefs. But they were subtle. Hidden. Almost impossible to detect.
Drop by drop, they fell.
In time, even stone wore away.
When I reach Rank IV, he thought, all these seeds I've buried are going to bloom.
And then those harmless little hints are going to turn into a plague.
"Honestly…"
Sogetsu looked at the slack-faced Obito and sighed.
"Don't blame me for playing dirty, Obito. We're all just as bad as each other. Compared to what you're going to pull in the future, I'm practically a saint."
The session drew to a close.
Obito's consciousness crawled back to his body.
He staggered to his feet like a man who'd watched his whole life collapse in front of him, swaying as he walked out the door, eyes unfocused.
He looked like his worldview had experienced an extinction event.
"…Did I spike it too hard?" Sogetsu wondered, scratching his cheek. "No way. I was barely even trying."
Whatever Obito's mental state, Sogetsu's own work was done.
New text appeared in the corner of his vision.
[Main Quest: Promotion to Rank V — Dreamwalker] — INCOMPLETE
Seek out the spirit-world creature known as the Human-Headed Bird, sign a contract with it, then drink the potion while holding one of its tail feathers, in a moment of intense joy or rage.
Reward: Relic — "Crawling Hunger" (Can direct a single soul at a time, and temporarily use that soul's extraordinary abilities along with one's own.)
[Side Quest: A Qualified Psychiatrist IV] — INCOMPLETE
Provide therapy or fulfill the wishes of at least 100 clients. (2/100)
Reward: Lemano's Travel Notes.
[Side Quest: A Teenager's Troubles] — COMPLETED
No matter how he tries, Obito can't catch the girl's eye. At last, he's decided to take a certain reckless step…
Reward: Fate Doll — severs the threads of destiny, protecting the holder against curses, divinations, and tracking effects.
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