Night enveloped Konoha Village.
The Uchiha clan compound was separated from the rest of the village by a small forest.
The architecture here was also more traditional than in other parts of Konoha, with the clan's fan-shaped crest carved into the buildings.
Uchiha Toru sat on the veranda in his backyard, gripping a kunai in one hand.
"You're still sitting out here this late?"
Toru turned his head. "Father."
"I heard you spent six hours at the training ground today." Uchiha Hisahiko sat down beside him. "You even skipped lunch."
"Mm."
"Your chakra control is already excellent, and you've awakened the Sharingan. You don't need to push yourself so hard."
Toru lowered his head and looked at the hand holding the kunai.
"My Sharingan... awakened because I saw my teammate get injured."
Hisahiko remained silent, waiting for him to continue.
"At that moment, I felt a power that didn't belong to me surge through my body." Toru's eyes glowed faintly red in the darkness. "I became stronger, but there was a voice inside me saying... it still wasn't enough."
His grip on the kunai tightened.
"I need more power to protect my teammates."
"Do you know the true nature of the Sharingan?"
"It's the Uchiha clan's inherited dōjutsu."
"It is more than a dōjutsu." Hisahiko shook his head. "The Sharingan draws its power from the user's emotions. The deeper the love, the greater the pain when that love is lost—and the stronger the power becomes."
He paused.
"But it is a dangerous power. Once you begin relying on the Sharingan, your heart may be consumed by that power."
Toru raised his head and looked at his father. "But without power, I can't protect the people who matter to me."
Hisahiko stood and gently patted his son's shoulder.
"Protecting those precious to us is the fate of the Uchiha clan. But you must remember..." His voice grew heavy. "In the ninja world, the price of certain powers is far greater than you can imagine."
With that, he turned and went back inside, leaving Toru alone beneath the moonlight.
Toru's Sharingan slowly rotated as the voice inside his heart sounded once more.
Seek greater power.
A figure silently moved through the forest outside the Uchiha compound.
Moonlight fell upon an ancient shrine deep within the clan grounds.
This was the Naka Shrine, a forbidden place belonging to the Uchiha clan. Aside from the clan head and a select few elders, no one was permitted to enter without authorization.
Toru stood before the stone steps, the three tomoe in his Sharingan slowly rotating.
"You felt it too, didn't you?"
A voice came from the side of the shrine.
Toru spun around, his hand already gripping his kunai.
A person emerged from the shadows.
His body was hunched, and his face was covered in wrinkles. He was so old that it was almost impossible to guess his age.
Yet beneath the moonlight, his eyes glowed faintly red.
The Sharingan.
"There's no need to be nervous, child." The old man slowly raised a hand. "I'm merely an old man who returned to take one last look at his homeland."
"Who are you?" Toru did not lower his kunai. "This is forbidden territory of the Uchiha clan. Outsiders are not allowed inside."
"An outsider?" The corners of the old man's mouth pulled into an unreadable smile. "You're right. As I am now, I truly am an outsider."
He walked to the shrine's wooden wall and traced his fingers across a deep blade mark.
"But a very long time ago, I was also a master of this place. Every stone slab, every pillar, and every scar within this shrine—I remember them all clearly."
Toru's brows furrowed even more deeply.
What the man was saying made no sense.
Who could possibly claim to have once been the master of this shrine?
"I have lived for a very long time—long enough to witness the Uchiha clan at the height of its prosperity and to personally experience the founding of Konoha Village."
The old man's Sharingan formed a strange pattern beneath the moonlight as the three tomoe slowly merged together.
Toru's pupils abruptly contracted.
"The Mangekyō Sharingan..."
It was a forbidden power awakened by only a tiny number of Uchiha throughout history.
"So you recognize it." The old man chuckled softly. "Good. That will save us a great deal of explanation."
He slowly approached Toru.
With every step, the air around them seemed to grow heavier.
"You said that without power, you cannot protect the people important to you. You were absolutely right." The old man's voice was low. "Your father deceived you. He told you that the Sharingan's power comes from pain, but he did not tell you that true power comes from the fear of 'loss.'"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you truly believe your current strength is enough to protect your comrades?" The old man stopped.
"When war erupts, when your teammates collapse before your eyes, when you are forced to watch helplessly as enemy ninjutsu tears them apart, you will finally understand that the little power you possess now is worth less than that of an ant."
Toru remembered the blood spraying through the air.
He remembered the crushing helplessness he had felt at that moment.
"I can give you true power." The old man extended his hand. "Power great enough to protect everyone precious to you. Power capable of changing this rotten world."
"What is the price?" Toru raised his head.
"The price is that you will live forever in darkness and eternally bear the fate of the Uchiha clan. But what does that matter? Compared to losing someone precious, such a price is insignificant, is it not?"
The wind blew through the forest, making the leaves rustle.
The shadow of the Naka Shrine loomed over the two figures beneath the moonlight like a gigantic beast.
Toru stared at the old man's extended hand as two voices fought inside his heart.
One voice said:
Accept it. With power, you can protect everyone.
The other said:
Do not trust him. Father said the price of such power is too great.
The old man did not rush him.
He knew that such hesitation was natural.
He also knew where that hesitation would eventually lead.
Toru's Sharingan spun rapidly, the three tomoe flickering within his pupils.
He thought of Nohara Shinnosuke—that boy who always had a chocolate stick in his mouth, who looked lazy and unreliable yet somehow managed to save everyone whenever it truly mattered.
"I don't need your power."
Toru finally spoke, his voice exceptionally firm.
"I'll protect them in my own way."
"Very good. I like children with backbone."
The smile did not disappear from the old man's face. He merely withdrew his hand as his figure slowly blended into the darkness.
"I will wait for you, Uchiha Toru. Once you truly taste the pain of loss, you will come searching for me yourself. Remember this—the fate of the Uchiha clan has never been to protect Konoha, but to overthrow this rotten world."
By the time Toru raised his head again, the old man's presence had completely vanished, as though he had never appeared at all.
As though everything that had just happened had been nothing more than an illusion.
Toru remained standing where he was, still clutching the kunai in his hand.
Moonlight fell across his face, leaving one half illuminated and the other submerged in shadow.
~~~
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