I woke up to the smell of smoke.
It wasn't the faint, harmless kind from cooking fires. This was acrid, heavy — the smell of something burning alive. My eyes snapped open, and the first thing I saw was a wooden ceiling I didn't recognize. The second thing I noticed was… my hands.
Small. Soft. Barely the size of a child's.
I sat up fast, my breath catching in my throat. The room was dimly lit, moonlight spilling through a paper window. Outside, I could hear the distant clash of steel, the sharp hiss of shuriken cutting air, and the low, desperate shouts of people fighting for their lives.
My mind spun. This wasn't my room. This wasn't my bed.And when I caught sight of the polished mirror leaning in the corner, the shock nearly stopped my heart.
A boy stared back at me — pale skin, black hair, dark eyes. His face was thin, his expression trembling with confusion.That's… not me.
Then, like lightning splitting the sky, it hit me. I knew this place. I'd seen these streets, these houses, this exact style of architecture… in anime.Not just any anime. Naruto.
And those sounds outside? The chaos? The screaming?It could only mean one thing.
Oh no…
The door to my room slid open. A woman staggered in — her eyes wide with terror, her face slick with sweat. "Hide! Don't make a sound!" she hissed, shoving me toward a small storage closet.
"W-What's happening?" I asked, but my voice wasn't my own — higher, younger.
She didn't answer. She just shut the closet door, leaving me in darkness. My heart pounded as I crouched, knees pressed to my chest. The sounds outside grew louder. Closer.
And then… silence.
Footsteps. Slow. Deliberate.They stopped right outside the closet.
The door slid open.
I saw him.Itachi Uchiha.
The same calm, unreadable eyes. The same midnight hair framing a face of impossible beauty — and terrifying coldness. His Mangekyo Sharingan spun lazily, the three intersecting curves glowing crimson in the dark.
My throat went dry. In the anime, I'd watched this man slaughter his entire clan. But watching it from a safe distance on a screen was nothing like seeing him here, real and inches away.
His gaze lingered on me for a moment. Something flickered in those red eyes — recognition? Pity? Or maybe nothing at all.
"You shouldn't be here," he said softly.Then his hand moved.
I reacted on instinct, throwing myself sideways. The kunai he'd drawn sliced through the air, missing my neck by inches. I crashed into the floor, pain jolting through my shoulder. My vision blurred.
And then… it happened.
A sharp ping echoed in my skull, like the chime of a machine booting up.
[Evolution System Activated]User detected: Uchiha Bloodline — Branch Family.Initializing adaptive sequence…
The world… shifted.It was as if every detail sharpened — the flutter of Itachi's cloak, the faint hum of chakra in his body, even the slow beat of my own heart.
And then another line appeared in my mind's eye:
First Directive: Survive.
I didn't think. I moved. My body flowed like water, slipping past Itachi's reach and into the hallway. My bare feet slapped against the wooden floor as I ran, the screams of dying clan members echoing around me.
Shadows flickered in the corners of my vision — ANBU? No. Just more Uchiha, already falling to the crimson eyes that haunted me.
My breath burned in my chest. My legs screamed in protest. But the System's voice was calm, steady, cold:
Bloodline Potential: 12%Sharingan Awakening: LockedSurvival Probability: 6% — Increasing with each hostile avoided.
I turned a corner — and froze.
At the far end of the street, under the silver light of the moon, stood another figure. Not Itachi. Taller. Broad-shouldered. A mask covered the right half of his face, the single visible eye glowing red with the same cursed power.
Tobi.
My blood turned to ice. I was standing in the middle of a massacre, between two of the most dangerous men in Naruto's history — and I hadn't even awakened my Sharingan yet.
The System's voice came again, sharper this time:
Emergency Protocol Unlocked: Bloodline AwakeningWarning: Premature activation may cause permanent damage. Proceed?
I didn't hesitate. "Yes!"
Pain exploded in my skull. My vision went white, then red — the color flooding my sight until the world burned in crimson clarity.
I collapsed to my knees, gasping, my hands clawing at the ground. But even through the agony, I felt it: power. Raw, thrumming, alive in my veins.
Somewhere behind me, Itachi's voice reached my ears."…Interesting."
And then, as the darkness swallowed me whole, the System whispered one last thing:
[Evolution Sequence… Begin.]
End of chapter 1