Dont forget to Vote and comment, its makes me happy ...
read full story in patreon : belamy20 (5$)
Konoha, Year 48. February 1st.
A month had already passed since the New Year, and Itachi, Yamei, and Jiang Tai had been training with Taiichi at his house for a full month.
The biggest change during that time wasn't that the three kids had made dramatic leaps in strength. The basic taijutsu and meditation Taiichi taught were all about steady, day-by-day accumulation. There were no shortcuts.
What had changed the most was Uchiha Itachi's personality.
He was only five years old. No matter how mature he acted for his age, he was still just a kid.
Over the past month, aside from going home for dinner and sleep at night, he had spent almost every waking hour with Jiang Tai and Yamei—the two little hellraisers.
If he could still keep his original personality after that, it would've been a miracle.
Like right now.
"Teacher, we finished our morning taijutsu and meditation. Can we go out and play today?"
Itachi had his hands clasped together under his chin, big eyes blinking, putting on his best pleading face.
You'd never guess the person making that expression was Uchiha Itachi.
If Taiichi hadn't watched the change happen with his own eyes over the past month, he wouldn't have believed it either.
"What, the house isn't big enough for you three troublemakers anymore? Now you all want to run outside?"
Taiichi looked at the three of them with a smile. It was rare for Itachi to take the lead like this. Usually Jiang Tai charged ahead with requests while the other two backed him up.
But you couldn't really blame them. No matter how big the mansion was, it couldn't survive three little hellraisers going wild inside it for a whole month.
"Ahaha, not completely. Itachi said he'd treat us to three-colored dango today. Taiichi-oniichan, just let us go out!"
When it came to acting cute, girls were the best at it. Even though Yamei was still young, she had the act down perfectly. That sugary-sweet voice made Taiichi's skin crawl.
"Alright, alright, enough already." Taiichi shook himself. "You can go out and play, but it's not like being at home out there. Don't go too crazy."
"Yay! Taiichi-oniichan is the best!"
The three kids cheered, jumping around and high-fiving each other.
"Go on, but come back before lunch."
"Got it!"
As soon as Taiichi finished speaking, the three of them shot out like the wind through the hallway and disappeared from the mansion in the blink of an eye.
Taiichi just shook his head silently and spread his chakra sensing, keeping distant track of their figures without letting them notice.
This could count as training too.
"Charge! We're gonna have so much fun today!"
Jiang Tai let out a whoop and took off like a wild pony that had broken free from its reins.
Yamei followed right behind him, her ponytail bouncing happily behind her head, face flushed with excitement.
Itachi lagged half a step behind. Even though he was the youngest, thanks to his natural talent he was actually the strongest of the three.
Right now his big black eyes no longer held the calm focus he showed when facing Taiichi in the study. Instead they were lit up with a brand-new light of curiosity.
This was the first time in this entire month of training—or even in their lives—that they were allowed to leave the house without an adult watching over them, to truly explore the lively village.
The dazzling shops lining both sides of the street, the shouting vendors, the pedestrians in all kinds of clothes hurrying past, and the stalls hung with colorful cloths—
All of it hit the three children's senses hard. They had never had this kind of freedom before, to go wherever they wanted.
Especially for Itachi. Before, these scenes were either something he was hurried past while being held by an adult, or something he could only watch from far outside the clan grounds. He had never been right in the middle of it like this, free to experience it all.
"Wow! What's that over there? It smells so good!"
Yamei's little nose twitched hard as her eyes locked onto a stall steaming with hot vapor.
"It's takoyaki," Jiang Tai said with the confidence of experience. "Taiichi-oniichan bought it for us once before."
He nodded like a little adult.
But he didn't get to keep that pose for long before a sweet aroma drifted into his nose.
Following the scent, he quickly spotted a more colorful stall farther down the street.
"Itachi, Itachi, look over there! That's the three-colored dango you like. You promised to treat us today, remember!"
"Mm! No problem!"
Itachi's voice carried a hint of uncontainable excitement. It wasn't just because he could eat his favorite three-colored dango—it was because he was happy to share something he loved with his good friends.
The three of them quickly reached the eye-catching stall. On the small stand were several skewers of round, plump dumplings.
Each skewer had three different colors: soft pink cherry-blossom, clean rice-white, and gentle tea-green, all drizzled with a layer of crystal-clear, glossy sweet sauce.
Looking at the delicious dumplings, Itachi remembered how, during a training break the day before yesterday, he had casually mentioned three-colored dango. Yamei and Jiang Tai had immediately started shouting about how long it had been since they'd had any.
At the time, little-adult Itachi had solemnly promised, "When we get a chance to go out, I'll treat you to dango."
Now was the time to make good on that promise.
From a distance, Taiichi watched the three of them with their faces full of happy smiles and couldn't help smiling too.
They say happiness is contagious. It really was.
"Old man, please give us eight skewers of three-colored dango."
Itachi tried to keep his voice steady, but his slightly shining eyes gave away his anticipation.
He pulled out a delicate cat-shaped coin purse from his chest—inside was the pocket money his mother Mikoto had specially prepared for him today.
The old man selling the dango looked at the three cute, lively children. Especially when he saw the Uchiha fan crest on Itachi's clothes, his gaze paused for a moment before he smiled kindly again.
"Coming right up! Fresh off the griddle—nice and chewy and sweet!"
He quickly took out eight skewers of three-colored dango covered in sauce and looked at the three little ones, momentarily unsure how to divide them.
"We'll take two each, and pack up the other two."
Itachi stepped forward, took two skewers and handed them to Yamei, took two more and handed them to Jiang Tai, then carefully put away the two packed ones. Finally he took the last two for himself.
"I'll bring two back for Teacher Taiichi too, so he can try these sweet dango."
Taiichi, watching from afar, had his eyes narrowed into happy slits. This little guy really hadn't let him down.
The three little ones all smiled at his words, and the sweet aroma drifting into their noses made them even more impatient.
Each of them held one skewer and carefully took a small bite.
"Mmm, so sweet! So soft!"
Yamei squinted her eyes in satisfaction, a bit of sauce still on the corner of her mouth.
"So good!"
Jiang Tai started with a small bite, then immediately followed with a big one, eating the whole dumpling. His cheeks puffed out round as he spoke through his teeth.
Itachi took small bites to savor it. The rice-white dumpling had a light rice fragrance, the pink one carried a subtle floral sweetness, and the green one had a slight bitterness that turned sweet afterward. The three flavors mixed with the sweet sauce—this was his favorite.
Watching his two little companions with faces full of happiness, a warm feeling welled up in his heart, making him happier than eating it himself.
So this was what it felt like to treat friends to something delicious.
The intense joy stimulated his nerves. For a brief moment, his pitch-black eyes even took on a hint of warm red.
But that red disappeared in an instant. Even Itachi himself only felt a slight dryness in his eyes and thought it was from the wind.
However, this change didn't escape Taiichi, who was using his sensing ninjutsu to cover the three of them.
That slight chakra fluctuation, along with the fleeting crimson, made him feel surprised.
Itachi was only five and hadn't started refining chakra yet. That chakra fluctuation should have been produced automatically when the Sharingan awakened.
But because his body still had no chakra foundation, the awakening had failed.
Still… what had caused Itachi to awaken the Sharingan this time? Wasn't it said that the Sharingan only awakened after strong stimulation—usually from witnessing the death of friends or family? That was why it was called the cursed eye.
But what was it this time?
Taiichi's brain worked furiously. Suddenly an idea popped into his head.
Stimulation. It was all about stimulation. Negative emotions like the death of loved ones were a stimulus, but positive emotions like happiness and joy were also a stimulus.
In the past the Uchiha had always awakened through negative emotional stimuli, but no one had ever said positive emotions couldn't cause awakening.
At least today, Taiichi had seen an example.
He sensed the chakra he had just felt from Itachi. It was a completely different kind of ocular power from other Uchiha—warm and comforting instead of cold.
It seemed necessary to go find Fugaku. This change in the Sharingan needed to be explained to him.
While Taiichi was thinking about the Sharingan, the three little ones kept walking along the street, each holding a dango skewer, eating as they went and chatting aimlessly.
The sun shone warmly, the dango tasted sweet, and they had little companions beside them chattering and sharing interesting stories.
Itachi felt like he had stepped into a brand-new world full of color and sound—far broader than the many rules and dull atmosphere at home.
Before they knew it, they had wandered into a relatively quiet area near the edge of the village where there were several public training grounds for ninjas.
In one of the smaller fields, three boys who looked around ten years old were doing basic taijutsu sparring.
The three little ones, still immersed in the sweetness of the dango and their happy chatting, didn't pay much attention to the people in the field at first.
However, one of the older boys who was resting and wiping his sweat happened to glance toward the street. His eyes landed on Itachi's distinctive Uchiha clan clothes, and his expression changed instantly.
"Hey, look!"
He elbowed the boy next to him, voice full of obvious hostility.
"Over there. Uchiha kid."
The other two boys immediately stopped what they were doing and looked over in unison.
The three older boys' gazes felt like needles stabbing into Itachi. They were filled with undisguised disgust and a trace of barely detectable cowardice.
Uchiha clan children, because of their talent and family resources, were often the top students in the ninja academy. Even Obito, who was constantly called "dead last" by Kakashi, was actually only bad at written tests—his taijutsu and ninjutsu were among the best in class.
This put a lot of pressure—and even jealousy—on many civilian-born children.
On top of that, the Uchiha's usual arrogance meant they didn't bother with ordinary kids. Except for a few exceptions, most Uchiha students had poor relationships with their classmates.
These three older boys had clearly been suppressed by their Uchiha classmates in school and had built up a lot of resentment.
Now, seeing a lone Uchiha kid who was clearly several years younger than them, that pent-up resentment burst out like a flood.
"Hey, Uchiha brat. What are you doing out here showing off instead of staying in your clan grounds?"
The tallest boy in front crossed his arms and walked over with a hostile expression, directly blocking their path.
Behind him, the other two companions immediately followed, spreading out to form a surrounding stance.
Itachi's smile slowly faded, and the hand holding the dango paused slightly.
He could clearly feel the malice radiating from them and instinctively took half a step back.
This kind of pure, baseless hostility was something he had never experienced in his life before.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
Jiang Tai was the first to jump forward like a protective mother hen. He fearlessly stood in front of Itachi, puffing out his little chest and questioning them loudly.
"The road's plenty wide. What's it got to do with you?"
Yamei immediately stood on Itachi's other side, her little mouth firing off like a machine gun.
"That's right. We're eating dango and walking around. What's it to you? If you like it, go buy your own!"
Jiang Tai and Yamei weren't like Itachi. They had grown up among other kids and handling this kind of situation was second nature to them.
The three older boys were left speechless by the two much younger kids talking back to them.
They had come to pick on the Uchiha kid, but they hadn't expected the two little brats with him to have such sharp tongues.
The key was that even though these kids were several years younger, they weren't scared at all and even dared to talk back.
This scene was naturally seen clearly by Taiichi watching from afar. He didn't step in to stop it. More accurately, he wanted to see how these little guys would handle the situation.
At least so far, he was quite satisfied.
"Little girl, what do you know!"
The lead boy's face turned red with embarrassment and anger as he shouted, "What's so great about the Uchiha? They act all high and mighty just because they have some family background. It pisses me off just looking at you!"
"Oh! So it's because you're too dumb and got taught a lesson by the Uchiha big brothers and sisters at school, so now you're here picking on Itachi, who's several years younger than you?"
Yamei had her hands on her hips, her face full of "I get it" contempt. It still deeply struck the other side's sore spot.
"How lame! You can't beat the strong ones, so you come pick on the weak to vent your anger. Aren't you ashamed!"
As she spoke, she even drew circles on her little face with her finger, making a "shame on you" gesture.
"You—you're talking nonsense!"
Having his thoughts exposed in public by a little girl made the three older boys even more embarrassed. The leader was especially furious.
"I can't reason with brats like you. Now get out of the way! We're looking for that Uchiha kid."
As he spoke, he reached out and rudely tried to push Jiang Tai and Yamei, who were blocking Itachi.
"You dare lay a hand on them?"
Seeing the other side about to push his friends, Jiang Tai's hot blood surged. He was the "king of the kids" in the orphanage who had beaten all the kids his age. He valued loyalty above all!
How could he stand by when his friend was about to get hurt?
He suddenly ducked down like a slippery little fish. Not only did he not get pushed away, but he headbutted straight into the other boy's stomach!
"Oof!"