Konoha — Year 54 of the Hidden Leaf Calendar
"Another failure…"
Kaze stood before the tall mirror in his small Uchiha apartment, studying his reflection.
Sharp brows. Bright, steady eyes. A lean, well-trained build. Even among the Uchiha clan, his appearance drew attention. The clan's bloodline carried beauty as naturally as it carried fire.
But that body did not belong to the soul that lived inside it.
Kaze was not originally of this world.
Ten years ago, he had awakened in the body of a five-year-old Uchiha child, just as the Third Shinobi World War neared its end. Within months, he had been pushed onto the battlefield as a child soldier — as many orphans of the war were.
He had watched his parents die protecting him.
That moment had awakened his Sharingan.
And that memory had never left him.
Since the war's end, Kaze had survived by talent, caution, and the predictive power of his eyes. By thirteen, he had risen from genin to chunin — respectable, but far from extraordinary by Uchiha standards.
What haunted him was what never came.
The Mangekyō Sharingan.
According to everything he knew from the original world's story, the Mangekyō was born from unbearable emotional shock — from the loss of someone precious.
So Kaze tried something desperate.
Again and again, he cast genjutsu upon himself. Again and again, he forced himself to relive the moment of his parents' deaths. Two hundred times. More.
Pain. Guilt. Rage. Despair.
Yet his Sharingan remained unchanged.
Three tomoe. No evolution.
No miracle.
Tonight was simply another failure.
"If I wrote my life as a web novel," Kaze muttered dryly, "people would complain the protagonist has terrible luck."
He exhaled and turned away from the mirror.
Curled in a small cushion by the window lay Tama.
A few years ago, Kaze had found her as a dying kitten in an alley near the Uchiha district. Perhaps seeing his own loneliness in her, he had brought her home.
She had grown.
And then, to his surprise, she had breathed fire.
A ninja cat.
With patient training, Tama learned to use Fire Release — even the Great Fireball Technique — without hand seals. Silent. Efficient. Dangerous.
She still couldn't speak human language, unlike the summoning beasts of the great clans. But she understood him better than most humans ever had.
"Tama," Kaze said quietly, scratching under her chin, "it's been ten years since the war."
"Meow…"
"You don't understand politics," he sighed, "but I'll tell you anyway."
He sat cross-legged beside her.
"Soon, Kumogakure will send envoys to Konoha. There will be a treaty negotiation… and then they'll try to kidnap the Hyūga heiress."
Kaze remembered the timeline clearly. Some events were too important to forget.
"And next year…"
His voice lowered.
"Itachi will massacre the Uchiha clan."
Tama's ears twitched at the name.
"You remember him. He stole your tri-color dango once."
"Meow."
Kaze stared at the floor.
He had tried, over the years, to subtly influence Itachi. To suggest that the Uchiha deserved recognition. That Hokage was not a dream reserved only for the Senju line.
It hadn't mattered.
Itachi had chosen the village over the clan — just as the original history demanded.
And Kaze knew better than to believe he could rewrite a fate shaped by Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzō, and the machinery of the village's darkness.
There was less than a year left.
"What should I do, Tama?"
He asked it aloud, though the answer terrified him.
"Leave the village?"
Tama yawned.
Kaze shook his head.
"If I leave without permission, I become a missing-nin. I'm only a chunin. No secret inheritance. No hidden master. No miraculous system. Every village would hunt me for my Sharingan. Obito, Orochimaru, Root… I'd be meat on a chopping board."
"Join the Hokage's faction?"
Tama tilted her head in confusion.
"That's even worse. Danzō would carve my eyes out before the ink dried on any agreement."
Kaze laughed humorlessly.
"And if I refuse? He'll still try."
He leaned backward onto the tatami, staring at the ceiling.
Ten years in this world. No cheats. No divine gift. Only effort, caution, and fear.
And still, no Mangekyō.
"Is this really a dead end?"
A faint sound pulled him from his thoughts.
The window slid open.
Tama leapt out into the moonlight.
Kaze didn't bother stopping her. Ninja cats liked their nightly hunts. She always returned.
So he kept staring at the ceiling, thoughts circling darker and darker.
"Could I trick Obito using future knowledge?"
The idea died instantly.
One look from that man's Mangekyō, and Kaze's mind would be laid bare.
No lies. No secrets. No future knowledge.
Only death.
Time passed.
Then—
The window creaked again.
Kaze turned.
Tama slipped inside.
But this time, she carried something in her mouth.
A fruit.
Large. Rough-skinned. Shaped oddly like a twisted pinecone. Its surface bore swirling patterns — spirals that looked almost like coiled lightning.
Kaze blinked.
Once.
Twice.
His breath caught.
"…Why," he whispered, "does that look exactly like a Devil Fruit?"
Tama dropped it onto the floor.
"Meow."
And in the moonlight, fate quietly changed direction.