Kadoya exhaled sharply, dragging a limp Minato across the charred remains of a burnt grass field. Both of them were battered, covered in scratches, scorch marks, and soot.
Their spar had ended, though spar felt like a generous word, Kadoya had handed Minato a solid defeat.
Still, something unexpected had happened during the fight.
He had discovered that Senjutsu was able to harm his flame body.
One of the toads Minato summoned used Senjutsu on him, and it managed to hit him.
'Good, another weakness from my Devil Fruit.' Kadoya thought.
His Devil Fruit powers weren't as ridiculously overpowered as those from the One Piece world, but discovering vulnerabilities early on meant one less thing that could kill him later.
Then again, when he thinks about it. This actually makes sense, power that relies on natural energy could directly harm an elemental.
He glanced down at their tattered, burnt clothing and muttered, "Great. Looks like we're gonna need new clothes."
Minato let out a tired laugh, coughing slightly from the lingering smoke.
Together, they limped toward Konoha's market district.
After some quick shopping, they emerged with fresh outfits.
Minato now wore a simple white hoodie with red sleeves, black pants, and blue ninja sandals.
Kadoya opted for something more... different from his usual style. Sleeveless black shirt, dark blue pants, black ninja sandals, and a long dark blue scarf.
Minato tugged awkwardly at the sleeve of his hoodie, guilt tugging at him.
The clothes he wore now had been bought with Kadoya's money.
"Hey, Kadoya, want to go out to eat?" Minato asks with an awkward smile, looking into his small pouch and counting the little money he has left.
Although his finances weren't much, he still didn't want to make Kadoya feel like he was freeloading off him; he had helped him so much, but he had too little to gift him in return.
Ninjutsu? Most of the ninjutsu that Minato knew came from Kadoya.
Money? If you didn't remember, he is an orphan and is living off the monthly allowance of 3000 ryo, combined with his monthly living expenses, Minato has to spend sparingly if he wants to have enough money saved up for ninja tools and equipment once he graduates and becomes a ninja.
"Sure, my treat." Kadoya said casually before directly walking toward the location of Ichiraku Ramen.
"Uh wait since you already bought me these clothes, how about I-" Minato tried to say, but Kadoya just wave him off.
"Don't worry, money isn't an issue for me." Kadoya said with a smirk, he is blessed with fortune after all, so his best friend shouldn't have to worry about money not when he is around.
Again, Minato began to feel more nervous and guilty looking at the steaming expensive limited edition full topping bowl of ramen, which cost 1500 ryo.
This made him feel that his cheap 200-ryo sandwiches he gave Kadoya every day at lunch, looked like sandpaper.
"Uhh, Kadoya is this really okay?" Minato asks nervously.
"Don't mind it." Kadoya just shrugged. "Once you become Hokage and have the money, I'll just say put the tap on the Hokage's Office. And you can handle it."
Kadoya said with such confidence that made Minato nearly shed tears of joy, after all, he is currently still just an academy student with the dream of wanting to be Hokage.
He isn't the Fourth Hokage yet.
He has no powerful backing, bloodline, or power clan.
But his best friend still believes in him so much, to the point that it sounded more like he knew that he could actually achieve his dream.
"Right! You can count on me! I'll make sure not to disappoint you, Kadoya!" Minato said with a smile before he happily dug into his ramen.
...
Once Kadoya and Minato finished their meal, the two said goodbye before returning to their home.
As Kadoya approached his home, he noticed a familiar figure standing close to the gate.
Sentaro Uchiha, the Uchiha Jonin whom Kadoya subdued not too long ago.
"Kadoya-sama." Sentaro quickly approached, nearly kneeling down on one knee.
"Don't kneel. We're all members of the Uchiha Clan, I rely on you as much as you rely on me." Kadoya said calmly, his long blue scarf billowing in the night wind.
"Kadoya-sama, there is something you need to know." Sentaro said with a serious expression, his gaze looked around, and seeing no one was nearby.
Kadoya just nodded before gesturing for Sentaro to follow him inside his house, once they stepped into the yard, Kadoya just turned back to Sentaro, looking the Jonin with a calm expression and ask.
"We can talk now." He said calmly, making Sentaro look around a bit nervously, seeing that they were still out in the open.
"You don't need to worry, there are hidden seals in this yard that block the people outside from listening in."
Kadoya quickly dismissed Sentaro's worry, and the older Uchiha looked at him with a surprised expression.
"Kadoya-sama!" Sentaro quickly knelt on one knee, showing deep respect for Kadoya. "Currently, Setsuna, along with some of the elders, is planning to approach Kushina Uzumaki."
"Explain," Kadoya said coolly.
"With the declining age of Mito Uzumaki, and the appearance of Kushina Uzumaki. The Uchiha Elders wanted to send a young Uchiha girl, Mikoto Uchiha, to form a relationship with her."
Kadoya immediately understands where they are coming from, with Mito reaching closer to the end of her life, Kushina would become the Second Nine-Tailed Jinjuriki, if the Uchiha managed to establish a good relationship with her early on.
Then they might be able to pull her toward them.
Then, when the time comes, the Uchiha would have the support of the Nine-Tailed Jinjuriki. By then, how could the Village higher-ups continue to ignore and pressure the Uchiha?
"I see, this doesn't matter." Kadoya said calmly, which shocked Sentaro a bit.
"I'm the current Head of the Uzumaki. An Uchiha befriending Kushina isn't an issue. As long as Mikoto didn't harm Kushina. I'm perfectly fine with letting them become friends." He said before letting out a light chuckle. "After all, I plan to make this village acknowledge the Uchiha."
Sentaro was a bit stunned by Kadoya's words.
After all, the Uchiha didn't even have a position on the High Council, so they don't even know about the Uzumaki's new Clan Head.
"Kadoya-sama... are you saying that?"
"Yes, although not by blood but by title, I'm the Head of the Uzumaki now."
Hearing Kadoya's words, Sentaro's heart almost beat out of his chest from pure excitement.
With the Uchiha being pushed away from any high position, the fact that Kadoya Uchiha managed to get a seat on the council meant that there is really hope for the Uchiha.
The Uchiha didn't want much, just simple acknowledgment and acceptance from the village. Since Konoha was originally founded by the Senju and Uchiha, giving them a position of power, and giving them a voice in the village they helped co-found is only natural.
"Is there anything else you want to report?" Kadoya's voice snapped Sentaro out of his stunned state.
Before he hurriedly shook his head.
"No Kadoya-sama, that's all for now..." He said, but there was a pause in his tone, like he wasn't sure whether this information was important enough to tell him.
"Don't worry. If there's anything you feel is important to tell me, just say it."
Listening to Kadoya's words, Sentaro exhaled before speaking.
"The current patriarch's son, Fugaku Uchiha, is giving your older sister, Natsumi-sama, some trouble."
After hearing Sentaro's words, Kadoya's face darkened before his voice suddenly dropped into a cold tone.
"Go on."
Kadoya's cold tone sent a chill up his spine, and he swallowed hard. Sentaro continues.
"Currently, there isn't much or anything going on between them. It's just that idiot Fugaku seems to be interested in her, and he has been trying to make advances on her multiple times already. Your sister didn't seem interested in him, but he seemed insistent. I also try to get him to back off, but I can't do it too openly. If this keeps on, I'm afraid that the elders would take dramatic measures to force her into submission."
Hearing that Fugaku was only trying to approach his sister, and he wasn't able to make a big move toward her. He would need to deal with this sooner rather than later.
Kadoya would not allow that to happen.
Fugaku's child, Itachi Uchiha, was meant to cause the Uchiha Massacre. Then, if in some twisted way, he gets with his older sister to create Shisui, before divorcing her to marry Mikoto.
Won't that make Fugaku the main perpetrator of the Uchiha Massacre?
Now that Kadoya thinks about this, this could well be a possible future.
First, Fugaku marries his sister, the daughter of Kagami, to create Shisui. Then he divorced her and got together with Mikoto. This will leave his older sister heartbroken to the point that she would take her own life.
Leaving Shisui an orphan with no mother or father, and the only thing people knew was that he was a descendant of Kagami.
This will make Shisui the half-brother of Itachi, creating the brotherly bond they had in the original story. And with no guidance from an adult, they would be brainwashed by the Will of Fire, which led to the destruction of the Uchiha Clan.
Although this was his imagination running wild and nonsense thinking, Kadoya couldn't help but felt more annoyed and pissed the more he thinks about it.
"You can leave now." Kadoya said, but his expression looked a bit too dark.
Sentaro quickly followed and left the yard without another word.
...
After some time, Natsumi finally returned from her mission, only to notice her younger brother sitting outside with a gloomy expression on his face.
"Kadoya? Is something wrong?" She asks, sensing the tension in the air, and the lack of the usual warm smile he always greets her with.
"Sis, there is something you need to know." He began, his tone low. "Don't get attached to Fugaku."
Hearing this, Natsumi couldn't help but raise a brow and let out a light chuckle.
"You don't have to worry about him, I'm not interested in someone like him." She said casually before trying to walk into the house.
"But he didn't seem to care about what you think... What are you gonna do about it?" Kadoya suddenly asks, making Natsumi pause on her track.
Speaking honestly, she really couldn't do much if Fugaku continued to pursue her, after all, her current position in the clan wasn't great. Her rank is only a Special Jonin who specializes in the Body Flicker Jutsu.
While Fugaku is said to be the next head of the Uchiha, got trained by multiple Uchiha Jonin, and has access to the Clan's secret techniques. Plus, his strength isn't weak at all; he is already 19 and has unlocked the three-tomoe Sharingan, already reaching the rank of a Jonin in the Uchiha Clan.
"Weakness is the original sin." Kadoya began, his hand reaching for his eyes as he took off his black contact lenses.
His eyes flashed crimson, and the tomoe in his eyes began to spin. From one to two, and from two to three.
Originally, Kadoya only had the two tomoe Sharingan, but after reaching cloud nine and finally letting himself free, his Sharingan evolved, turning into the three tomoe Sharingan.
The natural evolution of the Sharingan came from the user's own intense emotions, like how these eyes usually evolved or awakened by experiences a powerful emotional condition.
When Kadoya's bottled-up emotions burst, it was also when his Sharingan evolved.
"Kadoya... y-you have the three tomoe Sharingan?" Natsumi asks in shock, her black eyes turning into her two-tomoe Sharingan.
In the current time, Uchiha children around the academy or genin-level have the potential to awaken a single-tomoe Sharingan, and that alone was already called good by many.
A two-tomoe is when they would most likely be a chunin, already becoming a teenager, and have been doing ninja work for some time.
A three-tomoe is when they get acknowledged as a Jonin by the clan, one of the best of the Uchiha Clan.
Still, seeing her younger brother, who is currently only nine, unlocked the Three-tomoe Sharingan created both a sense of pride and envy in her heart.
She didn't know that her brother was such a genius.
"I can't let that happen." Kadoya rose to his feet, his movements slow, deliberate, each step bringing him closer to Natsumi.
"You being weak... being bullied by them..." His voice was low, almost a growl, and it sent an involuntary shiver down her spine. Instinctively, Natsumi pulled out a kunai, holding it tight.
"I won't allow you to become just another disposable pawn in their game," Kadoya said, a cold finality in his words as a katana of shimmering water formed in his hand.
"These fools... their petty games..." His eyes sharpened, cutting through the air like his blade. "Unaware of the storm they've ridden in."
In the blink of an eye, he vanished.
Natsumi barely had time to react, her kunai came up just in time to meet the swing of Kadoya's water blade. Sparks burst from the clash, the force sending her skidding backward across the ground.
When she steadied herself, her eyes locked onto Kadoya's, no longer the mischievous little brother she knew, but something colder, more dangerous.
"I am that storm."