Konoha by day was warm, bustling, filled with laughter and life. By night, however, shadows thickened. And in the shadows, monsters thrived.
That night, I slipped silently across the tiled roofs, the village glowing with lantern light below. My heart wasn't racing. My breath didn't quicken. This wasn't the nervousness of a thief. This was hunger, sharpened into purpose.
I had trained enough to know: talent wasn't enough. Even with Minato's guidance, the storm would crush me if I remained a step behind. I needed power. The kind of power only bloodlines could give.
And I knew exactly where to take it from.
The Uchiha district loomed ahead, quiet and proud. Their clan walls weren't impenetrable—they thought their name alone was enough to deter anyone from trespassing.
Fools.
I slipped through the alleys until I found him: a lone Uchiha patrol, a Chūnin at best, leaning against a post with half-shut eyes. Tired. Careless.
The last mistake he'd ever make.
I appeared behind him, a blur in the dark. His head snapped up, but my hand was already piercing through his chest, claws splitting flesh like paper. His gasp died in his throat as I dragged him into the shadows.
The devouring was clean. Efficient. His chakra, his bloodline, his very essence dissolved into me like fire to kindling.
And then it happened.
My vision burned. My body trembled—not from pain, but from overwhelming transformation. The Sharingan bloomed in my eyes, tomoe spinning lazily as though they'd always been there. But I wasn't finished. My cells didn't stop at mimicry. They pushed further. Deeper.
The Mangekyō flared alive—jagged, intricate patterns of black flame—unlocked not through grief, but through will. My nervous system rewired itself in an instant, threads of chakra and flesh binding my demon physique to these new gifts. No blindness, no weakness. Just control.
I laughed softly, pressing a hand to my new eyes. "So this is Uchiha power? Beautiful… but incomplete. Now it's mine."
The corpse melted away into nothing, consumed wholly. No trace remained. No witnesses.
The clan would never even know.
Days later, the moment I'd been waiting for finally arrived.
Kushina, ever persistent, had badgered Minato with that fiery pout of hers until the Hokage finally relented. That evening, he brought us into a sealed chamber, the great Scroll of Seals unfurled before us.
"Only a few techniques," Minato said sternly, his blue eyes narrowing at both of us. "These are forbidden for a reason."
Kushina stuck her tongue out at him. "Don't be such a nag. It's just for Akari to see, not to use."
I bowed my head innocently, but inside, my Mangekyō burned faintly under my eyelids. As Minato guided Kushina through the scroll, explaining what was safe to look at, my gaze traced the inked symbols.
And I absorbed everything.
Every single jutsu.
The kanji, the hand seals, the chakra principles—they imprinted themselves into me, sinking into blood and bone like scripture carved into stone. Shadow Clone Technique. Flying Thunder God notes. Edo Tensei. Sealing arrays.
All of it was mine.
By the time Minato rolled the scroll shut again, satisfied that I had "just peeked," I was already humming with power beneath my skin.
I smiled sweetly when Kushina ruffled my hair. Minato thought me obedient.
But in the depths of my soul, I laughed.
Because the future they thought belonged to fate… now belonged to me.