Seeing that Kaze had finally noticed her, Tama released her grip.
The pineapple-shaped fruit dropped from her mouth with a dull thud, rolling neatly to Kaze's feet.
"Ah… this…"
He froze.
From every angle, the fruit looked exactly like a Devil Fruit from the world of One Piece. The swirling spiral patterns on its skin, the strange luster, the unnatural shape—there was no mistaking it.
Then he looked at Tama.
The ninja cat sat proudly, head lifted high, chest puffed out, tail flicking with smug satisfaction, as though she had just accomplished an impossible mission.
"Where did you get this?" Kaze asked slowly.
"Meow meow meow."
"Meow."
"Meow!"
Of course, he couldn't understand cat language.
But somehow… he felt mocked.
As if Tama were saying:
Who told you to be so weak? Eat it. This will let you survive what's coming.
"Smack."
Kaze slapped his own cheek.
Was he really imagining that his ninja cat was lecturing him?
He exhaled sharply.
"This is ridiculous… Did she cross worlds and steal a Devil Fruit?"
Even he had to criticize himself.
The looming tension of the Uchiha's uncertain future—the whispers of conflict in the clan—was clearly getting to his head.
It had to be an ordinary fruit.
Just one that coincidentally resembled…
His gaze dropped again.
"…No. This isn't just similar."
The spiral markings were identical.
Judging by the shape and pattern, this fruit could only be one thing:
The Goro Goro no Mi.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
The Logia-type Devil Fruit once eaten by Enel, the self-proclaimed "God" of Skypiea.
Lightning incarnate.
A fruit that granted its user the ability to generate, manipulate, and become electricity itself.
Lightning fast movement.
Devastating destructive force.
Elemental intangibility.
In the world of One Piece, only Armament Haki or Seastone could touch a Logia user's true body.
But here?
This was the world of Naruto.
There was no Haki.
No Seastone.
Even chakra-based attacks would struggle to strike an intangible lightning body directly.
"If this is real…" Kaze murmured.
His throat tightened.
Reason told him this was impossible.
But the fruit in his hand felt… alive.
Faint energy pulsed beneath the skin, like distant thunderclouds.
Tama curled up on the tatami and yawned lazily.
"Meow," she sighed—clearly satisfied with her delivery.
Kaze stared at the fruit.
"It's just fruit," he muttered. "It can't kill me, right?"
Some unseen force drew him forward.
He raised the fruit and bit down.
Crunch.
Instantly—
"Ugh—!"
His face twisted violently.
The taste was beyond foul.
Bitter. Rotten. Like metal soaked in mud.
It was exactly as the One Piece manga described:
Devil Fruits taste like absolute poison.
His body screamed at him to spit it out.
But he swallowed.
Forced it down.
Every last piece.
Minutes passed before he could breathe normally again.
"…I didn't die," he rasped.
Then—something strange.
As he exhaled, faint arcs of blue electricity crackled in the air before his lips.
Kaze froze.
As an Uchiha, his eyesight was sharp. He hadn't imagined it.
A tiny bolt of lightning flickered from his breath and vanished.
Slowly, he looked at his hands.
"…No way."
His heartbeat thundered louder than the storm building in his chest.
Excitement.
Fear.
Disbelief.
He pinched his arm hard.
"Ow!"
Pain. Real.
Not a dream.
Not a genjutsu.
"…Then I'll test it."
He stood, steadying his breathing, recalling the way Enel released lightning in the manga—casual, effortless, as though commanding nature itself.
Kaze raised his right hand, palm facing the wall.
"Lightning."
He pushed willpower forward.
Instantly—
A blinding flash.
A roaring crack.
A spear of blue-white lightning burst from his palm, tearing through the room. The air screamed. The tatami scorched black. The lights died instantly.
BOOM!
A hole over five meters wide was blown through the wall.
The lightning didn't dissipate.
It surged outward into the night sky above the Uchiha compound, racing straight toward the clan head's residence.
Kaze's eyes widened.
"Oh—no."
He tried to stop it.
Too late.
The bolt struck the roof of Uchiha Fugaku's house.
BOOOOM!
Thunder exploded across the compound. Tiles vaporized. Timber burned. A third of the roof vanished in a shower of sparks and ash.
Silence followed.
Kaze stared at the destruction, mouth slowly opening.
"…I'm dead."
Not physically.
But socially?
Politically?
In an Uchiha compound already teetering on the edge of disaster?
He was in very big trouble.