The clone stepped out of the narrow alley where it had been created, adjusting its clothes and pausing for half a beat
It rolled its neck once, then raised a hand, weaving a quick string of seals. With a small flash of red, the child vanished, replaced by the composed, adult figure of Yuzuki from her past life. Taller, sharper, more angular. Not overly beautiful, but distinct enough to draw second glances
"Alright"
She said, then frowned. There was no answer. There was no Indra
"...Right. Clone"
She clicked her tongue and shook her head
"We really need to fix that"
The clone began walking through the Uchiha compound, posture relaxed but eyes always moving. She slipped past houses, gardens, and narrow paths, passing shinobi without attracting attention. Everyone who saw her likely assumed she was a visiting jonin. No one gave her a second glance
Eventually, she reached the outer edge of the compound, the high wall that marked the boundary, along with the chakra-detection barrier that cloaked the entire clan
She knew the basics. A flare of chakra passing in or out was recorded. It wasn't the most sophisticated system, but it did its job
The clone narrowed her eyes at the barrier
"I'm a clone, not an intruder
But I doubt anyone monitoring chakra patterns is going to make that distinction"
She breathed in once, then blurred forward in a flicker of movement, Body Flicker, precise and brief. She passed the barrier with the lightest footprint she could manage, suppressing her chakra the moment she landed on the other side
With that, she was out
The streets of Konoha unfolded ahead, quieter this time of morning but still active. The clone weaved between rooftops, her Sharingan flickering to life. Every alley, guard post, and patrol was noted and memorized
"Main body's going to love this"
She muttered, smirking
That was the mission: a working, updated map of the village, recorded directly through the Sharingan and returned via memory transfer
Walking, however, was too slow
She flickered again, darting across two rooftops in a burst of speed. Then again. And again
By the fourth flicker, she stopped and hissed under her breath
"Right. Clones don't regenerate chakra"
She glanced around, spotting the towering shadow of the Hokage Monument in the distance. Her first instinct was to head up there, perfect view, clear vantage
But then she thought better of it
"Too exposed"
She murmured
"Everyone looks up there
And it's almost a vertical climb
Not worth the chakra"
Her gaze shifted southeast, settling on a lower, mountainside estate nestled just outside the village's direct line of sight
It wasn't ideal. But it was high enough to see most of Konoha without drawing attention, and flat enough that she could perch without clinging to a wall
"Eh... Good enough"
And with that, she blurred once more into motion, flickering toward the edge of the village, burning chakra in steady bursts, Sharingan already capturing every streetlight and corner
The shadows behind her closed quickly, and she didn't look back
...
The wind drifted softly across the mountainside, cool and even, brushing long strands of black hair past her face
Yuzuki's clone perched silently atop the tiled roof of a quiet manor nestled along the edge of Konoha's cliffs. The Transformation Jutsu pulsed gently beneath her skin, subtle and stable, the chakra flow delicate but firm. She didn't move; She wasn't here to be noticed
She was here to watch
From this vantage point, the village stretched out like a painted scroll, rooftops stacked neatly, alleyways threading between blocks, shinobi moving in quiet rhythm. Patrols passed with routine precision. She could see the market beginning to stir, a few early vendors opening stalls. From this angle, the Hokage Monument seemed to look down on it all, distant, yet ever-present
Yuzuki tilted her head slightly
'So this is Konoha from above...'
She thought
'Not quite what I expected
Less polished. More... ordinary'
Her Sharingan turned slowly, crimson eyes glinting in the morning haze. She tracked movements, patterns, energy signatures, anything worth remembering. She wasn't after secrets today. She was building a map, mental and otherwise. A structure of the village's breathing
That was when the world... warped
A subtle ripple at first. The air folded inwards like paper under heat. Colors dulled, edges softened
Yuzuki blinked once
Then, nothing was the same
The sky had turned a shade dimmer. Not night, but not day either. The breeze stilled. The manor beneath her feet, the very one she stood on, shimmered at the edges like it had forgotten how to exist
She rose to her feet immediately, one hand flicking into a seal to dispel any illusion that might've touched her. The chakra flared... and did absolutely nothing
"A genjutsu?"
She muttered, narrowing her eyes. Her head tilted slightly, more analytical than alarmed
"With my Sharingan active?"
She tried again. Still nothing
'No chakra spike. No hostile intent. It didn't target me directly...'
Her frown deepened
This wasn't a genjutsu in the traditional sense. There was no attacker. No string to cut. It was as if the space itself had drifted into illusion. Or worse, as if she had wandered into someone else's dream
Her gaze snapped toward the manor's lower wing, the one beneath her
'Then I guess I follow the current'
And with a quiet flicker of motion, she descended into the heart of the haze
Something wasn't right
Yuzuki's clone stepped into the manor, and the shift in the air was immediate. Not exactly a smell, more like the memory of one. Like rain that never fell, or smoke from a fire that had never burned. Her senses prickled with unease, not from danger... but from distortion
The wooden floors beneath her feet creaked too softly. The walls seemed to hum just out of sync with reality, like they were holding their breath. Her vision didn't blur, but the edges of the world seemed wrong. Not fading, not shifting, but watching
A slow, persistent pressure sat behind her eyes
She moved through the first corridor without a sound. Her Sharingan spun gently, analyzing, measuring, trying to parse the threads of illusion. But there was no intent woven here. No targeted chakra signature. Just... presence
'This isn't a genjutsu placed on me'
She thought, brow tightening
'Is this... a field? A passive zone? A barrier that doesn't block, but distorts?'
Whatever it was, it wasn't meant to trap her. It was just here. A sleeping storm, murmuring beneath the surface
And it seemed to be here a long time
The manor twisted as she moved deeper.
Walls leaned at angles no architect would have accepted.
Some corners repeated endlessly; she passed the same faded vase twice before she stopped trusting the layout.
A stairway appeared on her left.
She ignored it.
It vanished the moment she stepped past
And then the drawings began
They clung to every surface.
Some hung crookedly on the walls, barely pinned.
Others had been scratched directly into the wood, sharp, frantic grooves that tore through grain and lacquer.
Paintings, sketches, streaks of charcoal. All mismatched. All wrong
Lightning tearing through villages.
Thunderclouds devouring forests.
Shadows climbing out of windows, stretching through alleyways, dripping from the corners of buildings.
The drawings weren't masterful, far from it, many looked like they'd been made by a child, but they pulsed with something raw
Some were so heavy with crayon they looked melted.
Others were unfinished, abandoned mid-stroke.
Yet they all had one thing in common
Each one hid something
A twisted shape lurking just behind the lines.
A shadow with too many limbs crouched behind a door.
A grin in the trees. Red eyes under the bed.
Sometimes obvious. Sometimes not. But always there
She stopped in front of a drawing carved straight into the wood of the hallway.
It looked like a mountain, or perhaps a wave.
And inside the curve of it, a single black smear stared back at her.
Like it had been drawn from the inside out
Her fingers brushed the edge of the mark
It wasn't ink
She kept walking
The deeper she moved, the tighter the space became-not physically, but in presence.
The air folded in on itself.
The house seemed to breathe in time with her steps
'Something is at the center of this'
She thought
'And I'm not being pulled toward it... I'm choosing to follow'
Her next step was silent
The one after that led her to the door
Still warped at the edges.
Still humming with whatever this place was made of
She reached for the handle-
And opened it
The door hadn't been locked
She had opened it cautiously, but it yielded without resistance, just a quiet creak as she stepped through.
What lay beyond was no throne room of illusions or arcane seal chamber, no pulsing core of chakra or mystical altar
Just a room
Square. Plain.
The kind of space people forgot to furnish
And in the center of it, curled up on a nest of blankets in the middle of the floor, was a girl
No older than her
Pale. Thin. Small.
Like someone had folded a person in on themselves too many times
Her breathing was steady, but her fingers twitched with each breath.
The chakra spilling from her was soft-not sharp, not directed. But wrong. Uncontrolled. Fractured.
It clung to the air like dust in sunlight, not aggressive but suffocating, filling every corner with a tension that made the hairs on Yuzuki's arms rise
She frowned. Not in confusion. In disbelief
'You've got to be kidding me'
This- this was the caster?
A genjutsu complex enough to ensnare her Sharingan, subtle enough to bypass detection entirely, and broad enough to distort an entire manor without a direct line of sight...
And it was coming from a child who looked like she'd lose a staring contest with a breeze?
'Is this some kind of cursed seal? A trap laid by someone else?'
She scanned the room again.
No inscriptions. No foreign chakra.
Just the girl.
And the illusion
And the drawings
Dozens of them.
All over the walls, just like the rest of the manor.
Only now, they surrounded the girl like an audience.
Lightning, floods, monsters crouching in trees
But something was different
The shadows in the drawings shifted when she looked away
Not from movement.
From change
The twisted shapes were fading, bleeding out, retreating
'It's her chakra'
Yuzuki realized
'She's not casting this. She is this'
It wasn't a jutsu, not in the conventional sense.
The illusion wasn't built.
It was born-
From the girl's instability, her raw, unshaped chakra, screaming for order in a world too quiet to listen
And as Yuzuki stepped back toward the door, a cold chill traced down her spine
It wasn't there
She turned sharply.
The doorway had vanished
The room had shifted again.
Smaller now.
Closer.
The walls pressed in just slightly, like they were listening.
The girl hadn't moved, but the tension in the air doubled
If this keeps up...
She didn't finish the thought.
Didn't need to
The pressure in the room wasn't violent, but it was fraying at the edges.
Like a dam with too many cracks.
If it burst, it wouldn't just snap back on the girl-it would flood the area, maybe the entire estate.
Mindless.
Relentless
Not targeted
Just desperate
She's not in control,
Yuzuki thought.
And I know exactly how that ends
She flexed her fingers once-
Then moved closer, quiet and deliberate
The illusion still clung to the walls, flickering at the edges like an old memory trying to forget itself.
She crouched near the girl, letting her own chakra stir at her fingertips, warm and precise
Power without control,
she thought,
is just destruction with extra steps
The girl's chakra pulsed like a broken drumbeat, desperate for rhythm and finding none.
Yuzuki exhaled slowly and reached out-
Not physically, but with her chakra-
Nudging it toward the girl's, letting it touch
Not to dominate it.
To guide it
Like she had done once before.
With Indra.
That day in the mindscape, stabilizing a cultivation flow that felt like a wildfire trying to imitate a stream
Back then it worked because he listened.
Because he could think.
Because he wasn't a kid with a bomb ticking in her veins
She winced, catching the absurdity of her own thoughts
"Expecting a child to control this much chakra on her own... stupid,"
she muttered under her breath
But she didn't stop
She wove her chakra into the leaks of the girl's-
Not overpowering, not sealing-
Just coaxing.
Slipping between wild currents, softening their edges, syncing them in place with painstaking care
Like stitching a wound during an earthquake
The air shimmered again.
Pressure built-
And then, relief
The chaotic waves began to slow.
Not disappear, but pulse with less panic
She felt her chakra strain, her body urging her to ease up-
But her focus was absolute
And that's when the Transformation Jutsu failed
It didn't shatter.
It faded
Her illusionary form flickered with tiny sparks, red light peeling off her skin like paper in a breeze, revealing her true self beneath: short, barefoot, red eyes bright with exertion
Yuzuki didn't even blink.
She kept her hand extended, her will steady
Bit by bit, the room began to change
The pressure lifted
The illusion thinned like fog at dawn, peeling away from the edges inward.
It didn't collapse violently.
It sighed out of existence.
Faded like a breath she hadn't realized she was holding
The drawings remained-
But they had changed
The dark figures were gone
In their place:
A childlike scrawl of a girl with too-big hands holding a flower.
Another one of clouds.
A house that leaned like it was tired, but still stood upright.
The colors were soft now.
Still rough.
Still uneven.
But they looked like they were drawn by a hand trying to be seen, not hidden
Yuzuki let out a breath, letting her fingers fall to her side.
Her own chakra dimmed, falling back into her body
And then-
A faint shift.
The girl stirred
Her eyes cracked open slowly, confused and dazed, blinking as though the light itself was new
She looked small. Fragile.
Her hands trembled against the blankets.
Pale skin. Hollow cheeks.
A body built like glass
The Sharingan flickered once in Yuzuki's eyes before fading
She waited-
Letting the silence stretch just long enough for the girl to realize she wasn't alone
"...Who are you?"
The girl asked, her voice barely a breath, as if even that might break something fragile inside her
Yuzuki tilted her head, eyes narrowing slightly
"Someone who saw smoke"
she replied vaguely.
"Didn't expect fire"
The girl blinked, still dazed
"You... helped me?"
Yuzuki turned slightly, her gaze trailing across the room again.
The walls were too quiet. Too padded.
The only windows were imaginary, painted or drawn
"You were leaking chakra like a pipe no one ever bothered to fix"
she said.
"I patched it before the floor gave out"
The girl sat up slowly, brushing her hair out of her face.
Her eyes met Yuzuki's-
A moment of recognition, not in who she was, but in what
"You're like me"
she said, finally seeing that Yuzuki was a child too
Yuzuki didn't smile.
She just looked around again.
No real light. No way out
"I know"
It wasn't agreement.
It wasn't sympathy.
It was fact
Yakumo hugged her knees loosely.
Her fingers curled in the fabric of her blanket
"I usually wake up to people who aren't real"
she muttered.
"Or they talk like everything's normal"
"Sounds exhausting"
Yuzuki said dryly
The girl looked at her again, hesitant
"Are you... real?"
Yuzuki exhaled, just once
"Real enough"
The silence stretched just a little longer-
Until the sound of the door creaking broke it like a ripple
Yuzuki turned her head as two shinobi stepped into the room.
Standard attire, eyes already scanning, but they didn't blink twice
One looked straight at Yakumo, who hadn't moved an inch
"She's asleep"
he said, voice casual.
"Finally"
"Her chakra's stabilizing again"
the other added, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Let's report back.
I skipped lunch for this"
They turned and left without another word
Not once did their eyes register the second girl in the room.
Not once did they realize Yakumo was awake.
Not once did they even wonder why the genjutsu over their eyes felt so natural
Yuzuki sighed quietly.
Her Sharingan spun once and then stilled
Yakumo watched the red fade from her eyes with slow fascination
"Sometimes"
she said, almost to herself,
"when I dream... someone with red eyes comes to talk to me"
Yuzuki's expression didn't change, but something in her gaze softened just slightly
"Maybe they should visit more often"
she said
Yuzuki's eyes drifted to the nearest wall, where a crude painting took shape beneath faded chalk and smudged charcoal-
A mountain beneath a fractured sky, or maybe a house swallowed by clouds.
It was hard to tell.
The lines were jagged. Frantic
"You've got a lot to say"
Yuzuki murmured
"just not in words"
Yakumo shifted, embarrassed
"They're not that good"
Yuzuki's lips twitched
"I knew someone who used to paint the sky itself.
Whole landscapes across the clouds.
You'd have liked him"
Yakumo blinked, curious
"Your stuff's not far off"
Yuzuki added, tone perfectly dry
It was unclear if she meant it as a compliment or an insult.
Probably both
Yakumo looked down at her hands, as if they held the brushstrokes still clinging to the air.
A moment passed before she spoke again, quieter this time
"You can go outside?"
Yuzuki didn't answer immediately.
She looked toward the door where the shinobi had vanished, then shrugged
"Sometimes"
"They don't let me"
Yakumo's voice wavered
"They say it's dangerous"
"I noticed"
The silence hung for a beat too long before Yuzuki sighed
"Old people suck"
Yakumo hesitated-
Then nodded earnestly
"It was the Hokage's order"
Yakumo said softly
"The old one. I think he's... mean"
Yuzuki smirked
"Anyone who doesn't like Kages is clearly a good person"
Yakumo frowned slightly
"Aren't they supposed to be heroes?"
"They are"
Yuzuki said
"That's the problem"
She didn't elaborate
Instead, she reached forward, her fingers glowing faintly with chakra-
Not to cast an illusion, but to offer one
A soft ripple passed through the air, gentle as a breeze
Light unfolded around them.
A false sky bloomed into being, sunless and painted in shifting reds and purples.
Lanterns drifted upward like stars learning how to fly.
There were spires made of glass and gold, cities built across cloud banks, rivers made of light-fractured memories of another world, stitched together with chakra and imagination
Yakumo's breath caught in her throat
"I've never seen anything like that..."
Yuzuki's voice was quiet
"You will"
It might have been a promise.
Or a lie
But right now, neither of them cared
They sat in silence a moment longer.
The illusion Yuzuki had cast still shimmered faintly-
Distant stars flickering like candlelight, reflections of a world neither of them could ever return to
Eventually, Yuzuki exhaled
"I should go"
Yakumo's gaze dropped
"Okay"
Yuzuki stood and dusted off her hands, glancing once more at the soft, crooked drawings on the walls
"Next time"
she said casually
"Try not to let your chakra eat the ceiling.
Makes people panic"
Yakumo blinked, half-smiling
"Will there be a next time?"
Yuzuki paused at the door.
She turned her head slightly, smirk tugging at her mouth
"I'll show you more"
It wasn't a promise
But it wasn't a lie either
She stepped through the door-
The real door now, not the illusion's twisting exit that had once disappeared behind her
Outside, the manor was quiet again. Still
Yuzuki glanced at the walls she'd passed earlier-
The ones covered in jagged, heavy drawings
Now?
Just smooth, untouched wood.
No marks. No ink.
No signs of the paintings at all
None of it had ever been there
Her steps carried her silently to the edge of the roof once more.
She crouched at the peak and narrowed her eyes toward the horizon.
The village spread beneath her again, rooftops calm, the haze of morning light curling through the trees
Then she noticed it
The breeze tugged at the too-long sleeves on her arms.
She looked down
"...Oh, for flame's sake"
The Transformation Jutsu had dropped during the earlier chakra strain.
She'd been walking around like her tiny self this whole time
She hissed through her teeth, snapped her fingers, and reactivated the transformation with an irritated flick of chakra
In a flash, the small girl was gone-
Replaced once again by the tall, composed figure of her past self, hair catching the wind like it belonged there
"There. Dignity restored"
she muttered to no one
The clone perched again atop the manor, eyes sweeping over the village once more.
It resumed the task it was made for- Sharingan flicking rapidly, calm, methodical, focused
Still, it muttered under its breath:
"Burned through half my chakra budget babysitting a stranger..."
But the smirk lingered longer than it should have
Then, in a flicker of movement, she vanished from the rooftop-
Just a red blur darting back into the trees, leaving the manor and the strange girl behind
For now
-=Chapter End=-
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