Konoha Year 44, autumn.
Above the Naka Shrine in the Uchiha compound, a fine, endless rain fell. Threads of drizzle tapped against the wall carved with a flame-shaped paper fan, the clan crest, leaving a faint sheen that was almost invisible.
Last month, something momentous happened to the Uchiha.
During a mission, they found an Uchiha who had not been born in the Leaf.
As the saying goes, if you see one cockroach, there is a nest behind the wall. No one knew how many more fragments of Uchiha blood like Yoru Tomoharu's might still be scattered across the shinobi world.
To prevent their bloodline from thinning further, and to keep other clans from coveting it, the Uchiha who discovered Tomoharu brought him back immediately.
"Why has his Sharingan awakened in only one eye?"
"Has this ever happened to anyone else in the clan?"
The Uchiha murmured to one another. Nothing like this had been recorded before, and the commotion was understandable. From time to time, glances slid toward the back row where Tomoharu sat.
He ignored them all.
"In the Land of Lightning, did you meet anyone with red eyes like yours? We are one clan. You can tell me. I will send our people to bring them home," said Uchiha Fugaku from the head of the hall, his tone probing.
How many years had Yoru Tomoharu lived in the Land of Lightning? What had really happened in those years? Hard to investigate. After a month of quiet inquiry, only one thing was certain: Tomoharu's record was clean.
He had learned a rough method of chakra refinement, but his body bore no marks of formal training.
And yet the games that villages played against one another were always cruel. As the newly appointed clan head, Fugaku could not be careless.
"I have never seen anyone with eyes like mine, Lord Fugaku," Tomoharu answered mildly, lifting his head.
He was a transmigrant, and had been for more than a decade. From the moment he was born, he pierced the riddle of the womb and awakened old memory.
His mother died giving birth to him.
As for his father, the man vanished after Tomoharu's birth and did not reappear until the boy turned two and could just about fend for himself. Not long after, his father died on the battlefield.
It was nothing unusual. Orphans were a standard opening hand in the shinobi world. Naruto, Sasuke, Konan, Itachi, Orochimaru how many of them had both parents left?
His former name was Yotsuki Tomoharu, a distant branch of the Yotsuki clan living in an out-of-the-way town. In his early teens he awakened the Sharingan, and by chance crossed paths with Uchiha Yakumi's squad on a mission. Yakumi brought him back to Konoha.
"That is good. Whatever the past, as long as Uchiha blood flows in you, you are one of us. I will arrange for you to enroll in the Academy," Fugaku said.
Fugaku's scarlet pupils rested on Tomoharu for a long while.
Clan records did note Uchiha activity in the Land of Lightning. It was even possible they had lived there once. The story went back to a time older than the fierce battles between Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha. In what is now the Land of Lightning, the wife of a certain lord once hired the Uchiha to eradicate the Chinoike clan. Later wars with the Senju blurred the records. Even Fugaku could no longer learn the details.
He did not release killing intent or ocular pressure. He simply stared.
The air thickened and grew sticky, as if a viscous film had settled over everyone's lungs.
Tomoharu's expression never changed.
He knew exactly what Fugaku was weighing. The dull question of lineage. Was his background legitimate?
Unfortunately for suspicion, there really was old blood between the Uchiha and the Land of Lightning. The official novel Sasuke Shinden: Book of Sunrise mentions it as well.
At last Fugaku drew back his gaze. After all, the boy was not even a trained shinobi yet. Under the pressure of a Sharingan, how could a person remain composed? If he could, that would be unnerving. Not even the widely talked-about son of the White Fang, Sakumo Hatake, would necessarily have such steel at this age.
"Lord Fugaku, discovering that I am of Uchiha blood makes me so happy. I will never tarnish the clan's name," Tomoharu said, sounding sincerely moved.
A mechanical female voice sounded in his mind, stripped of all feeling.
"You have comprehended the tag: [Art of Words (White)]."
[Tag: Art of Words (White)]
[Requirement achieved: Speak falsehoods without changing expression before a person of high status, five times.]
[Progress: Complete.]
[Effect: Your words are easier to believe. Those of lower status are more susceptible.]
[Note: Can be advanced further.]
"Finally," Tomoharu thought, the corner of his mouth lifting a hair's breadth.
If you don't want to be a beggar in the shinobi world, you need power.
Everyone knows that in the world of Naruto, true strength passes through mothers and cradles, through teachers and lineages, through blood. Either you have a fine bloodline, or you have a fine mentor and inherit their circle. Failing that, strength spreads like blood, requiring close and sealed contact. Your Will of Fire must run deep before you are taught even one or two techniques.
Tomoharu possessed something that sat a little outside those three paths. His own effort. And a bare-bones Word-Tag System.
It recorded the names of tags he obtained, the conditions to unlock them, their effects, and more. None of it came for free. He had to fulfill the conditions himself.
For this Art of Words, Tomoharu had already told at least five heartfelt lies right to Uchiha Fugaku's face.
Happy to be born an Uchiha?
Could anyone be happy?
All he felt was pressure. The night of the massacre. Two more shinobi wars to come. The countdown on his life had already begun. In a little over ten years, the clan would be wiped out by your beloved son, Uchiha Itachi.
"Not bad," Fugaku nodded. Hearing Tomoharu's resolute declaration eased something within him. The boy was workable material. The sincerity in his tone carried real feeling. This Tomoharu's resolve even surpassed some ordinary clan members.
He gestured for Tomoharu to step outside.
After the boy left, Uchiha Yashiro looked at Fugaku's calm, imposing face. "Tomoharu was brought back from the Land of Lightning by Yakumi's team. He reportedly bears traits of the Yotsuki. Could he be a planted spy?"
"That remains to be investigated. But his blood is certainly ours. Outsiders who transplant a Sharingan cannot deactivate it, and the strain is immense," Fugaku replied, shaking his head. "Tsunade will come shortly to examine his eye."
"I will make arrangements for the child," Mikoto said, rising from the tatami inside Naka Shrine.