Uchiha Yato hurried toward the Uchiha Shrine, his steps uncharacteristically heavy. For once, the usual smirk was gone from his lips. A faint, bitter sigh slipped out as he glanced at the reddened sky overhead.
As a transmigrator, life in this world had been—by most standards—comfortable, even pleasant. He was not some soul thrown suddenly into another body. No, he had been born here, raised here, and had lived more than a decade as Uchiha Yato. This was his life now.
And yet, even as the years passed, he sometimes could not help but think:
If I had known this, I should have reread my copy of Naruto until it fell apart.
His memory of the plot was hazy. He remembered only the broad strokes and a handful of crucial turning points. The details? Slippery, vague. Still, he knew enough to navigate, enough to see the great waves of history before they crashed down.
In the beginning, Yato had made genuine efforts to change Konoha's view of the Uchiha Clan. He smiled at civilians, joked with merchants, treated commoners like friends. He hoped, naively, that warmth could melt centuries of suspicion. But reality was harsher. For reasons he could never fully grasp, the prejudice against the Uchiha was immovable, unyielding.
So, Yato tried something else.
---
A Marriage Alliance That Never Was
When he was younger, an idea had taken root in his mind: if the Uchiha and Senju were bound by blood once more, perhaps reconciliation would follow.
At that time, the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, was still alive, and Lady Tsunade—Konoha's celebrated princess—was already making a name for herself. She was more than ten years older than Yato, but that mattered little.
Yato proposed to the clan head and elders a bold plan: a marriage alliance. Let a respected Uchiha take Tsunade's hand. Such a union, he argued, would be a bridge between the clans.
The elders discussed. Uchiha Kei, the clan head, was already married. The other elders were too old, or too frail, or carrying secrets no one dared mention aloud.
Yato remembered staring at them in disbelief.
Such a great clan, and not a single suitable candidate?
Frustrated, he shifted tactics. His maternal uncle was Uchiha Kagami, one of Tobirama's closest guards. Surely, he thought, Kagami could open the door.
Through Kagami, Yato found opportunities to bring Tobirama to the Uchiha compound. The boy played his part well, flattering, praising, and smiling at just the right moments. Finally, when the chance came, Yato jumped forward and declared, "Uncle Kagami wishes to marry Lady Tsunade!"
The courtyard froze. Tobirama's expression darkened. Kagami nearly fainted on the spot.
The Second Hokage turned slowly, his voice clipped and cold. "This child must be educated early."
From that day on, Tobirama never set foot in the Uchiha grounds again.
When Kagami's wife later heard of the stunt, she scolded Yato so thoroughly that his ears rang for a week. If she hadn't been a gentle soul, he suspected his backside would have been split into eight pieces and hung out for display.
---
The Senju Princess Strikes Back
After Tobirama's death, Yato tried again.
This time, his target was Uzumaki Mito, Tsunade's grandmother and the First Hokage's widow. Mito was revered throughout Konoha; if she approved, the rest of the village would follow.
Yato slipped into the Senju compound, found Mito, and after some polite chatter, boldly raised the topic.
Her reaction was not what he expected. She raised an eyebrow and replied dryly, "If you are here for a marriage alliance, your clan head should be the one to approach me. Not a greenhorn boy. Or… are you saying you've taken a liking to our Tsunade?"
Yato waved his hands frantically. "Absolutely impossible! With her gambling addiction, her drinking, her bad habits—whoever marries her will be cursed!"
For once, the usually gracious Mito was left speechless.
And then, as fate would have it, Tsunade herself walked in. She had returned from training just in time to hear every word.
A terrifying silence fell.
Moments later, the Senju compound shook as six houses were reduced to rubble. Then, sixteen homes in the Uchiha compound followed. An entire street was leveled in her rampage.
In the end, Kagami himself had to drag Yato to Tsunade, bowing deeply and begging forgiveness. Only then was the matter laid to rest.
From that day on, Yato learned to choose his words more carefully around women.
At least… sometimes.
---
Brother Thin Ice
Years passed. Yato's attempts at alliances, reconciliations, and peace-building only earned him ridicule.
Whenever he reflected on his missteps, he would mutter, "My life has been like walking on thin ice. Can I ever reach the other shore?"
Unfortunately, Uchiha children overheard him. Soon, the nickname spread: "Brother Thin Ice."
Parents, frustrated at their children parroting Yato's dramatic words, stormed to the clan head demanding punishment.
Yato, unbothered, marched straight to the Hokage Tower. He accused his clanmates of bullying him and begged the Third Hokage for justice.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, caught between laughter and exasperation, tried to cool things down. "This is an internal clan matter, Yato. I cannot interfere."
Two days later, Yato vanished from the compound. When he reappeared, he was in the civilian district, loudly proclaiming to merchants and villagers alike that his clan oppressed him and the Hokage ignored him.
The fallout was catastrophic. The Uchiha's reputation sank lower, and Hiruzen's name suffered in the process.
As Yato walked now toward the shrine, recalling these old memories, his chest felt heavy.
Why can no one understand my efforts? My intentions are always good… yet no one sees it.
---
The System
But Yato was not just another unlucky Uchiha.
He had his cheat.
A system.
Its name was cumbersome, ridiculous even: "Grow Stronger by Eliciting Strong Emotions from Others Toward the Host."
But however clumsy the name, its function was invaluable. By provoking strong feelings—anger, joy, hatred, admiration—Yato earned Emotion Points. With those points, he could purchase techniques, talents, enhancements to his bloodline, even bizarre items not of this world.
His current status screen read:
[Name: Uchiha Yato]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 15]
[Items: Quick-acting heart-saving pills, an eternally powered camcorder, a taunting screaming chicken…]
[Talent: Ninjutsu Doctor – can quickly learn and master any ninjutsu]
[Chakra: Twenty times the capacity of a normal shinobi]
(Note: here, "normal shinobi" means Kakashi-level.)
[Bloodline: Sharingan, Sage Body (Unawakened)}
Yes, he carried Senju blood. His father had been a Senju who married into the Uchiha for love.
---
The Clan Meeting
Lost in thought, Yato finally reached the shrine. Inside, rows of Uchiha Jōnin were already seated. The air was heavy, grim.
The clan head, Uchiha Kei, looked up as Yato entered. "Since everyone is here, let us begin."
Yato tried to lighten the mood. "Clan Head, is this really so urgent? I just finished a mission. Look at me—blood all over. Shouldn't I wash up before—"
No one smiled. No one even moved. The atmosphere pressed down like stone.
Yato's grin faltered. He straightened unconsciously.
Kei's voice was grave. "Uchiha Michiko is dead."
The words dropped like thunder.
The shrine, already hushed, fell into a suffocating silence. Even the faint rustle of cloth seemed too loud.
Yato's mind went blank. His aunt—his last close relative since his parents' deaths—was gone. The woman who had raised him with warmth, who had scolded him when he erred, who had shielded him when the clan grew restless.
The ever-carefree Yato spoke with rare steadiness, his voice trembling at its edges. "How did she die? Was it an accident—or was this the village's doing?"
His Sharingan flickered unconsciously, the tomoe pulsing.
The Great Elder, Michiko's father, clenched his fists. His eyes were bloodshot as his own Sharingan spun. "We don't know. She was killed by an explosive tag. By the time we arrived… her eyes were already gone."
The words hit like blades.
Uchiha Michiko—Uchiha Kagami's wife, Yato's maternal aunt by marriage—had been like a second mother to him. Without her care after Kagami's death, Yato would not have survived, let alone grown into the man he was.
Yato swallowed, memories flooding him. The day Kagami died, he had wandered home in a daze, his head splitting with pain. And then…
A mechanical voice had sounded in his mind.
Ding.
"Host emotions approaching critical threshold."
Ding.
"Emotions unstable. Mangekyō Sharingan awakening requirements met. Convert Emotion Points to energy for awakening?"
Ding.
"Host unconscious. Mangekyō awakening initiated automatically."
At that moment, as darkness swallowed him, only one question echoed endlessly:
What do you desire most?
His own voice had answered, broken and raw:
If… if time could only slow down. Why must this be reality?
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