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General POV.
Reizan stood on the plains for a long time.
The wind blew, the grass swayed, and the mountains held their silence against the horizon. Reizan just stood there, four years old, blindfold dangling from one hand, eyes wide open, taking it all in.
Obito watched from behind, arms at his sides, saying nothing. He didn't want to interrupt Reizan.
Whatever was happening inside the young master's head, whatever had cracked open behind those crystal blue eyes, it felt like something that shouldn't be disturbed.
So he waited.
Minutes passed. Five. Ten. Maybe more. Obito lost count. He was too busy watching the young master's face, studying the expression he'd never seen there before.
Eventually, Reizan lowered his gaze from the mountains. He looked down at the grass brushing against his knees. Touched a wildflower with his fingertip, gently, like he was making sure it was real.
Then he turned around.
"Take me back, Obito."
His voice was calm. But different from the flat, measured tone Obito had grown used to over two years. There was something underneath it now. Something alive.
Obito bowed. "Of course, young master. Shall I use my technique, or-"
"We walk."
Obito blinked. The estate was a fair distance from here, and the young master's legs were, respectfully, very short. Walking back would take considerably longer than a shadow jump.
But the young master had already started walking, so that settled it.
Obito fell into step beside him. Then hesitated, glancing at the blindfold still hanging from Reizan's hand.
"Young master," he said carefully. "Should I tie the cloth back? The Six Eyes might still be-"
"No."
Obito looked at him, surprised. "You're certain? Earlier, the strain was-"
"I'm fine now, It doesn't hurt anymore."
Obito watched him for a moment. Searched for signs of discomfort.
There was nothing.
His eyes looked relaxed and clear. No tension in his face, no strain in his posture. He was walking through the tall grass with his eyes fully exposed to the world, and he looked more at ease than Obito had ever seen him.
Somehow, in the span of a single morning, the young master had adapted to the Six Eyes.
Obito didn't understand how. But he'd learned, in the short time since the boy's awakening, that young master Reizan did things that defied understanding on a fairly regular basis.
So he simply nodded and kept walking.
They reached the town walls within twenty minutes.
The guards at the outer gate got alert when they saw them approaching. Two men in standard Yuki clan patrol gear, katana at their hips, expressions shifting from bored to alert the moment they recognized who was walking toward them.
"Young master Reizan!" The taller guard bowed deeply. "And Obito-san. Welcome back."
"Thank you," Reizan said.
The guards glanced at each other. The young master's blindfold was off, and he was walking casually through the gate like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Neither of them commented on it. But Obito caught the look they exchanged as he and the young master passed through. A look that said, Did you just see that?
Inside the town, the streets were alive. Merchants arranging their wares. Women carrying baskets of vegetables from the market. Children chasing each other between the wooden buildings, laughing and shrieking. An old man dozing on a bench outside a tea house, his mouth hanging open, behind him two kids ready to mess with him.
It was an everyday thing in every town across the country, unremarkable to anyone who'd seen it before.
But Reizan was seeing it for the first time.
Obito watched the young master's gaze move from face to face, building to building, absorbing everything. Not with the detachment Obito had grown used to.
He was looking at the town the way he'd looked at the mountains.
Like it mattered.
As they walked deeper into the town, toward the Yuki estate at its center, people began to notice them.
"Obito-san! Good afternoon!"
A woman selling dried fish waved from behind her stall. Obito nodded in return.
"Young master!" A group of clan members, returning from a patrol, stopped and bowed. "Good afternoon!"
Reizan looked at them. And, to Obito's continued astonishment, he waved back.
"Good afternoon," Reizan said.
The clan members beamed. One of them, a young woman with her hair tied back in a training braid, looked like she might actually cry.
They continued walking.
More greetings followed. Servants heading to the market. Elders sitting outside the tea house. Children who stopped their games to stare at the small boy with the strange blue eyes who was walking through the streets, looking at everything like the world had just been invented.
Reizan greeted every single one of them.
A nod here. A wave there. A quiet "good afternoon" to the ones who bowed. Nothing extravagant. Nothing dramatic. Just a four-year-old boy acknowledging the people around him as he walked through their midst.
It was, by any normal standard, completely unremarkable behavior.
Except for Obito, how was tripping seeing a completely new side of young master Reizan.
Soon, they reached the estate.
They reached the eastern wing, where the young master's quarters were located.
Obito slid the door open and stepped aside.
Reizan walked in, and then he turned to Obito.
"Thank you for today, Obito."
Obito straightened. "It is my honor, young master. I-"
"You will maybe never realize how much it helped."
There was something behind those words that made Obito pause.
Obito didn't understand what the young master meant. He didn't know what had been helped, or how a simple trip outside the walls could carry the kind of significance that the boy's voice seemed to suggest.
But he'd served the Yuki clan long enough to know that understanding wasn't always necessary. Sometimes it was enough to simply be where you were needed, when you were needed. (Bars, the author cooked with this one)
He bowed.
"It is my honor, young master."
Reizan looked at him for a moment longer. Then nodded, stepped inside, and slid the door shut.
Obito stood in the corridor. Thinking about what had just happened.
Then he turned.
And ran.
He burst out of the eastern wing and tore across the courtyard, reinforcing his legs with cursed energy until the stone pathway blurred beneath his feet. Buildings. Gardens. Training grounds. All of it streaked past. They were all irrelevant.
"Hey, Obito!"
A clan member waved from the edge of the training grounds.
Obito didn't stop.
"Obito! You okay?"
They watched him sprint past, exchanged confused glances, and shrugged.
"Must be busy," one of them said.
"When is he not?" the other replied.
They went back to their stretches.
Obito reached the honke in under a minute. Skidded to a stop in front of the large sliding door. Took half a second to catch his breath.
Then he slided the door open, with too much force.
Inside, Yuki Soran sat at his desk, a scroll unrolled before him. His brush hovered above a half-finished character, the tip still wet with ink.
Across from him, Lady Fuyomi sat with a cup of tea cradled in both hands.
They'd been in the middle of something serious.
Both of them looked up as the door, then at Obito.
Obito stood in the doorway. Who was panting due to what he had just witnessed.
"Obito, wh-"
"Young master Reizan smiled!"
Silence.
Soran's hand froze above the scroll.
Fuyomi's cup stopped halfway to her lips.
They stared at him. Then at each other.
"What?" they said, at the exact same time.
Obito steadied his breathing and repeated himself. Slower this time.
"Young master Reizan. He smiled. A real smile. On the plains outside the town." His voice caught for a moment. He cleared his throat. "'I want to live a long life. In this beautiful world.' Those were his exact words, Master."
Fuyomi set her teacup down carefully. Her fingers trembled against the porcelain.
"He smiled?" she asked.
"Yes, my lady."
"A real smile?"
"Yes."
Fuyomi's composure cracked, as her lips trembled. Her eyes filled up with something she blinked back before it could fall. She pressed her hand to her mouth and looked away.
Soran didn't move. Didn't speak. He was too shocked to say anything.
But his hand, the one resting on the desk, had curled into a fist.
And it was shaking.
"Tell me everything," he said quietly. "From the beginning."
Obito nodded.
And he did.
He told them about the morning. How the young master decided to leave the estate for the first time. How he'd endured the shadow travel and spent five minutes vomiting in a field before standing up and telling Obito to stop apologizing.
He told them about the blindfold. How the young master had pulled it off on the plains, despite the risk. How he'd opened his eyes slowly and looked at the world for the first time, since his six eyes appeared.
He told them about the expression. How the blankness dissolved. How something new rose behind those crystal blue eyes, warm and alive and startled by its own existence. How his voice sounded when he said "beautiful," like it was the first word he'd ever truly meant.
He told them about the smile.
He told them about the walk back. How the young master had refused the blindfold, said he was fine, and meant it. How he'd greeted every person they passed on the way home. How he'd looked at the town and the estate like he was seeing them for the first time.
And he told them what the young master had said at the door to his room. The quiet words that Obito still didn't fully understand.
"You will maybe never realize how much it helped."
When he finished, the room was quiet.
Fuyomi stood. Smoothed her robes. Dabbed her eyes with her sleeve.
"I'm going to see him," she said.
"He's resting, my lady. He seemed tired from-"
Fuyomi smiled.
"Then I'll watch him rest."
She walked past Obito, pausing at the doorway. She placed her hand on his arm.
"Thank you, Obito," she said softly. "For taking him outside. And for telling us."
Then she was gone. Her footsteps faded down the corridor.
Obito still stood there, waiting to be dismissed.
Soran sat behind his desk. Staring at the scroll. Not reading it. A drop of ink bled slowly from the brush into the paper, spreading in a small dark bloom across whatever he'd been writing.
He didn't seem to notice.
"Obito," he said finally.
"Yes, Master Soran."
"The plains, and the mountains. Is that what made him smile?"
"I believe so, Master. He seemed moved by the world."
Soran was quiet for a long moment.
Then, so softly that Obito almost missed it, the clan head of the Yuki family exhaled. A long, slow breath. The kind a man releases when he's been holding something inside his chest for a very long time and has finally been given permission to let it go.
And he smiled.
"Good," he said. "That's good."
He set the brush down. Looked at the ruined scroll. And for the first time in all the years Obito had served him, he didn't seem to care about the imperfection.
He simply rolled it shut and set it aside.
"You're dismissed."
Obito bowed deeply. "Yes, Master Soran."
He slid the door shut behind him and stood alone in the corridor.
Then, Obito allowed himself a small smile.
Like he thought before, the lantern had caught fire.
And none of them were going to let it go out.
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I know it got kind of repetitive, but I wanted to take this part slow, and show everyone's reaction. Hope you understand😁
Announcement: I am done with in mass update. From now I will be posting 1 chapter on a daily basis.
Along with that in 1-2 days I will try to set up advanced chapters for my P@treon(should be like +10 chapters). When it's up I will let you guys know.
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