Sasuke Uchiha had barely taken two steps when Yan's voice called out from behind him.
His feet paused.
For a moment, the heaviness in his chest shifted—hope, stupid as it was, tried to creep back in.
Then he remembered what Yan had just said, and his temper flared all over again.
"My business has nothing to do with you!"
He snapped it out like a blade, but his body betrayed him. Sasuke turned to face Yan anyway, and even adjusted the puppy in his arms as if to show it off properly.
The words were cold.
The gesture was not.
It was obvious what he was doing.
He was introducing his "new friend."
The Uchiha had a terrible reputation in the village. Most villagers avoided them like a plague, which meant Uchiha children rarely had friends outside their own clan. And inside the clan, things weren't any warmer—too many eyes, too many comparisons, too much silent pressure.
Worse still, Sasuke and Yan weren't ordinary children.
They were the sons of Fugaku Uchiha.
Within the clan, there were people who respected their father, people who envied him, and people who smiled while hiding knives. Fugaku himself constantly warned the twins to keep their distance from village children—and also discouraged them from mingling too freely with clan kids.
So Sasuke grew up lonely.
He wanted friendship in the simplest way a child could want it. Sometimes he'd see other kids laughing together in the streets and feel a quiet envy twist inside his stomach.
But with a strict father at home, every word and action had to be "for the clan."
With no one to talk to, he had ended up picking up a stray puppy from the roadside and treating it like a treasure.
He hadn't wanted to bother with Yan at all—especially after Yan shamelessly exposed his weakness.
But the second he noticed Yan staring at the puppy, Sasuke's expression shifted. Pride rose, bright and smug, like he'd finally found something he could hold over his twin.
"If you beg me," Sasuke said, chin lifting slightly, "I'll let you hold it."
He was pleased with himself. And despite everything, he genuinely liked the idea of sharing his new friend with Yan.
After all, he was the older brother.
Even if Yan insisted on calling himself that.
Yan's reply was immediate.
And frighteningly serious.
"Put it back where you found it."
Sasuke blinked, startled.
Yan's face was completely straight. There wasn't even a trace of teasing in his voice.
Sasuke keeping a pet didn't usually matter to Yan. A cat, a dog, a bird—whatever. But before anything else, they were Uchiha.
And Yan had been paying attention for years.
Ever since he could think clearly, he had noticed a pattern among the clan children. At certain ages, they would suddenly start keeping pets—cats, dogs, birds, anything.
And those pets always died.
Without exception.
Worse, they didn't die naturally.
They were found in brutal, horrific ways—right in front of the children who had grown attached.
For most of them, the shock and grief triggered their Sharingan.
Yan had realized long ago: it was deliberate.
A disgusting method used by the clan to force emotional trauma and awaken the Sharingan early.
He despised it.
And he had no intention of letting Sasuke—who was already sensitive enough—be dragged through that kind of nightmare.
Sasuke's teeth clenched so hard it looked like they might crack.
He glared at Yan, said nothing, and turned to head back to his room.
Yan moved.
He grabbed Sasuke by the back of the collar and yanked.
Sasuke had no time to react. His vision spun, and he fell backward onto the ground.
Even then, his first instinct wasn't to fight.
It was to protect the puppy.
"Hand it over."
Yan tapped a pressure point on Sasuke's arm, and Sasuke's limb went momentarily numb. In the same motion, Yan hooked two fingers under the puppy's scruff and lifted it.
The puppy let out a pained, trembling cry.
"Waa—!"
Sasuke heard that sound and felt something inside him shatter.
"Let go of it!"
He flipped up from the ground, grabbed a small stone, and hurled it toward Yan's hand.
Yan shifted slightly—barely even moving—and the stone missed.
He didn't argue. He didn't explain. He walked straight toward the front gate with a dark expression, casually ruffling the puppy's head once…
Then tossed it outside.
Clean. Fast. Merciless.
By the time Sasuke recovered and chased after him, Yan was leaning against the gate, arms relaxed, blocking the entrance like a wall.
Sasuke's fists trembled.
He stared at Yan with burning fury and forced each word through clenched teeth.
"Yan. I'm never speaking to you again."
The instant the sentence left his mouth, Yan's expression changed.
He spun, flung the gate open, dashed outside—
And scooped the puppy back up before it had even run far.
Sasuke froze.
Yan stared ahead, eyes locked onto something only he could see, and fell into a long, heavy silence.
[Defeat Heaven-Splitting Demonic Dog. Quest Progress: 1/10]
Yan lowered the puppy in front of his face and examined it carefully.
He looked. And looked.
And no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find even the tiniest connection between this trembling little creature and the phrase "Heaven-Splitting Demonic Dog."
Not even a hint.
The puppy stretched its paws, eyes watery and wronged, pitiful enough to soften even a hardened criminal.
Sasuke snapped out of it, snatched the puppy back, and—using the brief moment Yan was stunned—slipped away to his room.
Yan slowly raised a hand to his chin.
"I get it."
"This system probably has a recognition disorder."
Absurd as it was, the quest itself was clearly a beginner mission.
Ignoring the title "Heaven-Splitting Demonic Dog," all he had to do was go outside and beat up a few dogs. The quest would complete.
The difficulty was basically nonexistent.
With that thought, Yan sprinted toward Sasuke's room.
If Sasuke had found one puppy, he probably knew where to find more.
He pushed open the door.
Sasuke was crouched in the corner, carefully feeding the puppy milk, as if the world might end if he spilled even a drop.
Yan stood in the doorway for a full five minutes, waiting until Sasuke finished.
Only then did he walk in, grab Sasuke's arm, and start dragging him outside.
Sasuke yanked free and put on his coldest, most defiant expression—the kind he reserved for outsiders.
"Let go of me."
"Uchiha Yan, I'm telling you right now—starting today, I will never—"
Yan quietly produced a banknote and held it in front of Sasuke's face.
Sasuke's voice shrank mid-sentence.
Then died completely.
He reached for the money on instinct.
Yan lifted his hand just a little, letting Sasuke grab nothing but air.
"Keeping a dog is fine," Yan said.
"Just don't keep it inside the house."
Sasuke's anger had already rushed up, ready to explode… but that one sentence forced it back down like a lid slammed onto boiling water.
It was painful.
Humiliating.
And yet—
Yan was letting him keep the puppy.
That mattered more than pride.
Sasuke snatched the banknote from Yan's hand with practiced speed and stuffed it into his pocket like he'd done it a hundred times. Then he turned his face away and pretended he didn't care.
"I'm not arguing with you today."
"Because I'm your older brother."
Yan gave him a contemptuous look.
"I was born one minute earlier."