Coming toward them was Uchiha Itachi with short black hair, and next to him was a beautiful girl with long black hair, a teardrop beauty mark under her right eye, wearing a purple jacket.
The two of them were laughing and chatting, sharing a stick of three-colored dango.
The girl smiled brightly.
"Itachi, let's call this dango your celebration party for joining the ANBU."
"Joining ANBU at eleven—you really are a genius."
ANBU is directly led by the Hokage, and its members are the best elites picked from the whole village.
Getting in at eleven is pure prodigy-level.
Itachi smiled back.
"Thanks for celebrating with me."
"You're a genius too—already awakened your two-tomoe Sharingan."
Izumi laughed softly.
"Of course! I awakened my Sharingan before you, and my taijutsu's actually pretty great too."
"I'll definitely become a powerful ninja someday."
At that moment, she saw Uchiha Ryosuke walking over.
He was one of the few people who'd always treated her well.
Her father had gone against the clan to marry a Senju, but died in the Nine-Tails attack.
After the Senju fell into decline, her mom brought her back to the Uchiha compound.
She got a lot of cold looks from the clan, and even some radical members caused trouble for them, but Ryosuke-nii always helped settle things.
His own skills were just average, but as the grandson of Uchiha Elder Makoto, his status was way above a nobody like her.
"Ryosuke-nii."
"What are you doing here?"
"Aren't you supposed to be on guard duty?"
Itachi watched them calmly.
He didn't really know Ryosuke—just that he was a pretty unremarkable ninja.
Ryosuke gave Itachi a cold look.
So these two really were childhood friends.
But Itachi didn't deserve her.
On massacre night, he'd been ruthless.
With his brains, there's no way he didn't know Izumi was still in the compound.
And he still killed everyone.
He'd even kill such a cute girl.
On massacre night, Izumi awakened her three-tomoe Sharingan.
Those eyes would definitely get dug out.
So tragic.
Just heartless.
The Will of Fire ruins people.
And such a cute, delicate girl—he was determined to protect her himself.
"Izumi, be with me."
Izumi's face froze in shock, her mouth open wide.
She's a girl—how could Ryosuke-nii suddenly sound like he was confessing?
She had to ask,
"Ryosuke-nii, are you confessing to me?"
Ryosuke nodded.
It was basically a confession.
He wanted to steal her away from Itachi.
A guy like Itachi didn't deserve such an amazing childhood friend.
Izumi felt a bit fluttery after hearing his answer.
Being liked felt really good.
Ryosuke-nii was a genuinely nice, handsome guy.
But she still liked Itachi more.
He was her age, and he'd saved her during the Nine-Tails attack.
Not as handsome as Ryosuke-nii, but definitely cute.
But rejecting Ryosuke-nii in front of Itachi—wouldn't that hurt his feelings?
After all, Ryosuke-nii was actually a really good person.
While she was torn, Itachi spoke up.
"Uchiha Ryosuke, you're going too far."
"Izumi isn't an adult yet. She's not here for your romance games."
Izumi was only eleven, a year away from being twelve—adulthood.
To him, Izumi was an important friend, and he didn't want her with any other guy.
That would make him feel terrible.
Uchiha Ryosuke shrugged.
"It's fine, I can wait for her to be an adult."
He remembered, before the Third War, adulthood was twelve, but later it changed to sixteen.
Back when the war was raging, so many ninja died that the village needed numbers, so people could go to war and even get married and have kids at twelve.
Ryosuke still couldn't accept getting married at twelve.
But Izumi was an amazing girl.
He couldn't just let her keep following Itachi. The deeper her feelings got, the more she'd get hurt.
Even if he saved the Uchiha clan, it'd be tough to win her heart.
And the worst part—Itachi was the type to kill even the woman he loved. What kind of man does that?
Someone who abandons family and love.
Total scumbag.
Itachi never thought Ryosuke would be so stubborn, but he wouldn't let anyone take what was precious to him.
He stared right at Ryosuke.
Ryosuke wasn't afraid at all—he locked eyes with Itachi, and even smirked.
"You can't even protect Izumi."
"Oh, and you can?" Itachi shot back. "You're the clan's weak link. You've only awakened one tomoe on your Sharingan."
There were plenty of Uchihas, but not many had activated their Sharingan, and Ryosuke had only gotten one tomoe at sixteen—not exactly a genius.
Normally, Itachi never mocked people for being weak, but Ryosuke questioning whether he could protect Izumi seriously pissed him off.
He was the real Uchiha genius after Shisui.
People usually praised him, but he never got arrogant.
But now, someone was trying to take what was his, and that made him furious.
Just as Ryosuke, with his double system, was about to argue back, a robotic voice sounded in his head.
『Your Sharingan feels insulted. Training has accelerated, unlocking two-tomoe Sharingan.』
Ryosuke swallowed the words he was about to say.
Hearing the system in his head, he was overjoyed—was that really how auto-cultivation worked?
He felt a faint electric surge in his eyes; his vision instantly sharpened.
He grinned in delight. This auto-cultivation system was actually legit.
He instantly activated his two-tomoe Sharingan.
His eyes narrowed, pupils turning red, with two black tomoe swirling in each.
In that moment, everything looked even clearer.
He could even see a tiny bug's legs and eyes as it flew by.
No wonder the Sharingan is called the Eye of Insight.
Itachi was a bit surprised to see him activate his Sharingan.
He remembered Ryosuke only had one tomoe before.
Now he had two.
Was that why Ryosuke thought he could protect Izumi?
But this guy was seriously underestimating him.
He himself had already unlocked three tomoe. Just as he was about to activate his own—
Izumi, seeing the two about to fight, got nervous.
"Please don't fight over me and ruin your friendship."
After all, one was the Uchiha clan leader's eldest son, the other the Elder's grandson.
If they really fought over her, it felt like she'd become a huge troublemaker.
At the same time, she sighed deeply.
When did she become so popular?
She wasn't even an adult yet, but already two of the clan's most prominent guys were ready to fight for her.
Tl-n/ ayo what am I translating