Sometimes the scariest monsters look suspiciously like something you could pet.
Sasuke had only taken two steps when he heard Kaito's voice behind him. His pace faltered slightly.
The disappointment weighing on his chest shifted the instant Kaito spoke.
But the moment he remembered what that jerk had said earlier, the anger surged right back up.
"That has nothing to do with you!"
He said it sharply… yet his body betrayed him.
Even though he'd been facing away, Sasuke had already turned back toward Kaito — and he even adjusted the puppy in his arms a little, as if making sure Kaito got a proper look.
His words were cold, but his actions were practically an introduction.
The Uchiha weren't exactly popular in the village. People avoided them like the plague. Most Uchiha children only played with otherrrrrr Uchiha — and even then, not freely.
The clan married within the clan. Outsiders couldn't stand them, and they couldn't stand outsiders. It went both ways.
And for Sasuke and Kaito, it was even worse.
Their father was the clan head.
Inside the clan, there were people who feared them, envied them, and smiled politely while hiding knives behind their backs.
Fugaku didn't just warn them to keep their distance from village kids — he even told them not to play too closely with the kids within the clan.
So Sasuke, who had no friends, was lonely.
He wanted companionship. Sometimes, seeing otherrrrrr children laughing togethe made envy bite painfully at his chest.
But their father was strict. Everything Sasuke did, everything he said — he was constantly reminded to put the clan first.
With no one else to rely on, all he could do was pick up a stray puppy by the road and use it to sootherrrrrr the emptiness inside him.
Sasuke didn't want to talk to Kaito. Not after being exposed like that.
But when he noticed Kaito's gaze lock onto the puppy…
Sasuke's expression shifted. A swell of pride bubbled up.
"If you beg me," he said, lifting his chin, "then I'll let you hold it."
He was secretly pleased with himself — happy to share his "new friend" with his twin brotherrrrrr.
As the older one, taking care of his little brotherrrrrr was only natural.
Even if that guy always insisted he was the older brotherrrrrr.
"Put it back where you found it."
Kaito's tone was deadly serious — more serious than Sasuke had ever heard from him. His stiff expression startled Sasuke outright.
Sasuke raising a stray didn't botherrrrrr Kaito in the slightest.
But before anything else, they were Uchiha.
And Kaito had been watching.
Ever since he could remember, he'd paid attention to the otherrrrrr children in the clan — and he'd noticed a pattern.
At certain ages, a lot of them started keeping pets.
Cats. Dogs. Birds. All kinds.
And every single one of those pets… died.
Without exception.
Not only that — they always died horribly, in ways so cruel the children were forced to witness it with their own eyes.
Most of those children awakened their eyes because of it.
Back then, Kaito understood.
The clan did it on purpose.
To push the children into emotional extremes… and force the Sharingan to awaken early.
Kaito found it disgusting.
And he had no intention of letting his not-very-bright little brotherrrrrr walk straight into that nightmare.
Sasuke's teeth nearly ground togethe. He glared at Kaito, said nothing, and turned to storm back toward his room.
But Kaito wasn't about to let him leave.
He reached out, grabbed Sasuke by the back of the collar, and Kaitoked him hard.
Sasuke hadn't expected it. His vision blurred — and he toppled backward, landing flat on the ground.
Even then, to protect the puppy, Sasuke didn't retaliate immediately.
"Hand it over."
Kaito tapped a pressure point on Sasuke's arm. In the same motion, he hooked two fingers under the loose skin at the puppy's neck and lifted it up.
"Aow… aowoo!!"
The puppy yelped in pain.
To Sasuke, it sounded like his heart had just shattered like glass. Rage detonated instantly.
"Let it go!!"
Sasuke sprang up and snatched a small stone from the ground, hurling it straight at Kaito's hand.
Kaito barely moved — a subtle shift, minimal motion — and the stone whistled past harmlessly.
He didn't waste words.
Face dark, he strode toward the gate, casually rubbed the puppy's head once… and then tossed it outside.
Clean. Smooth. One uninterrupted sequence.
By the time Sasuke processed what had happened and ruhed after him, Kaito was already leaning against the main gate.
Blocking the exit like he intended to keep Sasuke from leaving at all.
Sasuke clenched his fists until they trembled, glaring at Kaito like he wanted to bite straight through his throat.
"Kaito! I'm never talking to you again!"
But the instant those words left Sasuke's mouth—
Kaito's expression changed sharply.
He spun around, Kaitoked open the gate, and shot outside like a bolt of lightning — snatching the puppy back up before it could even get far.
Then he froze.
Staring at the system prompt floating in front of him, Kaito fell into a long, heavy silence.
[Sky-Rending Demonic Hound defeated. Quest progress: 1/10]
Sky… rending… demonic hound…?
Kaito lifted the puppy in front of his face and examined it closely.
He examined it.
And examined it again.
No matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find a single point of connection between this tiny creature and those four terrifying words.
Not even a little.
"Wh… woof."
The puppy stretched its limbs helplessly, eyes watery and pitiful. Even its attempt at ferocity looked more cute than threatening.
Sasuke seized the opening. He grabbed the puppy back, and while Kaito stood there stunned, he slipped away and sprinted toward his room.
"I get it now."
Kaito rubbed his chin with an air of solemn wisdom, as if he'd just solved the greatest mystery of the universe.
"This system probably has a cognitive disorder."
Absurd as it was, this was clearly a newbie quest.
If he ignored the name "Sky-Rending Demonic Hound," all he needed to do was go outside, find ten dogs, beat them up, and the mission would clear itself.
The difficulty was practically zero.
With that decision made, Kaito immediately dahed back toward the house.
If Sasuke had managed to pick up a puppy outside, then he probably knew where to find more.
He shoved open Sasuke's door.
Sasuke was squatting in a corner, carefully feeding the puppy milk.
Kaito waited at the doorway for a full five minutes. Only after Sasuke finihed did Kaito step inside, grab his arm, and start dragging him out.
Sasuke shook violently until he broke free, then pulled on the cold, aloof face he reserved for outsiders and began firing off threats.
"Let go of me."
"Uchiha Kaito! I'm telling you, from now on I'm never going to—"
Right as he reached the dramatic climax, Kaito pulled out a bill and held it up in front of Sasuke's face.
Sasuke's voice instantly shrank. By the end, the words died completely in his throat.
His hand shot out on instinct—
Kaito lifted his hand slightly, and Sasuke grabbed nothing but empty air.
"A dog is fine," Kaito said calmly.
"Just don't keep it in the house."
Sasuke thought he was being toyed with again. Anger flared in his eyes, and his furious expression snapped into place—
But after hearing Kaito's words, it was like the rage surged up… then got forcibly shoved straight back down.
It hurt.
It really hurt.
Still…
Kaito was letting him keep a dog.
That was huge.
After making such grand threats earlier, Sasuke couldn't bring himself to back down too obviously — it would be embarrassing.
So he snatched the bill from Kaito's hand, stuffed it into his pocket with the practiced smoothness of a seasoned professional, and forced a casual tone.
"I won't argue with you today."
"Because I'm your older brotherrrrrr."
Kaito shot him a contemptuous sideways glance.
"I was born one minute earlier than you."
...
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