—Minutes Later, Uchiha Clan—
Sitting on the wooden floor and watching the leaves fall from the trees, the ten-year-old boy smiled and continued waiting patiently. His hair was black, just like his eyes, and he wore a Konohagakure forehead protector tied around his forehead.
"I still have a lot of things to prepare. Will you two be okay until I get back? You'll be entering the Shinobi Academy soon."
"Yeah, we'll be fine. Toru hasn't blown up his own house yet. So, for now, everything is under control."
Sitting beside him, Sasuke looked at his older brother, Itachi.
"I understand..."
"By the way, Nii-san. What do you have to prepare? You're joining ANBU this week, right?"
"Well, that involves a lot of things. So I'll be busy."
He lay back on the wooden floor, using his hands as a pillow, and closed his eyes.
However, his relaxation was interrupted by a monotonous voice coming from behind them. Itachi opened his eyes and recognized it immediately.
"I apologize for being late."
Kyoko's son had arrived. That red scarf was very easy to recognize, and the claw-shaped earring made it even more obvious.
In response to Toru's tardiness, Sasuke stood in front of him. "Finally, you're here, Toru. How long can it possibly take you to hide your toys?"
"They're not toys."
Sasuke and Toru stared at each other. Both of them frowned. Their gazes were so intense that it was as if they had connected through some strange invisible beam. This prompted Itachi to intervene between the two of them.
"Have you already forgotten why you're here, Toru?"
"Ah, right. Sorry. I was practicing the hand seals, but I failed miserably..."
Toru made a small leap and landed in front of the tree.
"It went something like this."
He then began explaining everything with strange gestures that Sasuke and Itachi found amusing.
However, to the oldest of the three, laughing at Toru's earnest efforts to improve felt a little cruel, considering that the Asahi clan was known for having little talent with chakra. Very few of them could perform ninjutsu, and those who could were quite mediocre at either ninjutsu or genjutsu.
"You made a mistake here."
Itachi imitated Toru's hand seals, only with a few differences. Sasuke also paid close attention, thinking it would be very useful to him when the time came to enroll in the Shinobi Academy.
At the same time, while Itachi was teaching his ninjutsu lesson, two women appeared at the entrance and watched the children training. They were Mikoto, Sasuke and Itachi's mother, and Kyoko, Toru's mother.
For a moment, Kyoko felt sad because her son also wanted to follow the path of the shinobi. It was something she didn't want for him, but something that would inevitably happen.
'I can't force him into anything. I have to let him choose who he wants to become, but...'
***
After several hours of intensive ninjutsu lessons, Toru was searching for a good place to put what he had learned into practice. Because he always practiced using his homemade devices, many of his secret training spots had been ruined. So now he was near the forest surrounding Konoha, searching for the perfect place. But even after more than half an hour, he hadn't found anything.
It seemed like his search would last forever, but soon, some voices piqued his curiosity and drew him away from what he had been looking for. This led him toward the place where the voices were coming from.
"That's scary. Her eyes are..."
"Gross. Those eyes are so ugly."
"She looks like a demon from the legends. She's a demon, right?"
"Get out of the village, monster!"
Hidden behind a tree, he saw several children bullying someone, but from where he was standing, it was difficult to tell who it was. So he remained silent and watched to see what would happen.
However, he didn't expect the children to pick up rocks and start throwing them at the mysterious person. He was certain it was a girl because of the trembling voice he heard.
'I was planning to train my jutsu anyway.'
He closed his eyes and vanished from where he stood, only to reappear in front of the girl being bullied.
"Hey, can you help me train?"
He raised his hand in a casual greeting, his aura relaxed, though his facial expression remained the same as always.
"Huh?"
"Who are you?!"
"Are you helping the demon?! Do you want us to beat you up?!"
Toru remained standing with his hand raised. The rocks were now aimed directly at his face. This caused a small, disappointed sigh to escape his mouth.
"Bunshin no Jutsu."
Poof.
An exact copy of Toru appeared beside him after a small cloud of smoke dissipated.
After seeing the perfect clone appear, the children became frightened and ran away while screaming:
"Is that guy a shinobi?! Run!"
An awkward silence followed.
"Y-you... why?"
The girl finally spoke. Toru turned around to look at her, but his eyes widened when he realized she was a beautiful girl with eyes as white as the moon. Those eyes were instantly recognizable to him. She was trembling in fear, crouching down and protecting her head with her hands.
"You're stronger than those kids. Why didn't you defend yourself?"
His face remained expressionless regardless of the situation.
"I... I just..."
"You didn't do anything even though you have those eyes."
"It's because... my eyes... my eyes are scary. My eyes are ugly. Everyone says the same thing. They say my eyes are evil."
Tears inevitably rolled down her cheeks. Toru wondered what he should do in this situation, so he said the first thing that came to mind.
"I'd like to have eyes like yours."
Having a power as great as the white eyes of the Hyūga clan would be quite beneficial to him. At least, that was what he was thinking. The girl, however, seemed to misunderstand him.
She looked at him in confusion, not knowing what to say.
'What... what was that?'
The boy looked up at the sky and shook his head. This made the girl reach out her hand toward him, but...
"Sorry, it's getting late. I have to go."
As quickly as he had appeared, he vanished before the girl's eyes. She was left standing there, thinking about what had happened over the last few seconds.