As the children grew, their maturing bodies honed their Sharingan mastery. Uchiha Yao shifted focus to research, rarely interacting with them beyond necessity.
"Stealing candy again? Aren't you afraid of cavities? I'm telling Grandpa Mio…" The girl, spotting Uchiha Gin sneak a sweet from his bag, warned him.
"Shh!" Before she could finish, Gin, quick as lightning, popped another candy into her mouth. The sweet taste hit, and his warm palm brushed her lips. Her face flushed pink, adorably tempting.
"We're family—don't snitch!" Gin pleaded, bribing her with his stash. The slightly younger girl, his childhood friend, was like a sister to him. He had no interest in inappropriate affections.
Gin was firmly an older-sister enthusiast—no weird stuff, no guy-on-guy nonsense.
"Family!" The word hit her hard, short-circuiting her brain, nearly fainting from embarrassment.
"Hey, you okay?" Getting no response, Gin eyed the steaming red girl, worried he'd smothered her. He pulled his hand back. "Not again? Another faint?"
Lately, the girl would flush and pass out after a few words with him, especially if he got close. If it affected others, he'd think he'd unlocked a transmigrator perk like Conqueror's Haki.
The first few times panicked him, calling for help. Now, it was routine. Institute staff just pointed and smirked knowingly, making Gin realize: It's a misunderstanding! She's just my sister!
The ward door opened, and Uchiha Yao entered, his usual warmth replaced by a cold demeanor. Seeing the fainted girl, he frowned, turned, and signaled his aides to wheel her out.
They'd just tested that morning—why again? Sensing something off, Gin stepped forward. "Hey, where are you taking Light?"
Yao turned stiffly, his inky eyes lifeless, staring at Gin as if assessing an object. After a long pause, he said flatly, "New experiment. You're next."
His emotionless tone was robotic, chilling.
"Old man?" Yao's gaze felt alien, not grandfatherly but appraising, sending a jolt through Gin.
Hearing "old man," a spark of anger flashed in Yao's eyes, a faint glint swallowed by darkness. Without answering, he and his aides left with the girl, leaving a stunned Gin alone.
Snapping out of it, sensing trouble, Gin bolted from the ward, ignoring guards, and ran to Mio's office.
"What? Grandpa Mio's out searching for clan texts?" Panting, Gin stared at Mio's empty office, turning to the guard who'd tried to stop him.
"Yeah, Elder Mio left yesterday. Said it might take days," the guard replied honestly, wary of upsetting the clan leader's nephew.
"Fine." With no help there, Gin thought of a rotund figure and dashed to the guard department.
"Funny thing—Elder Yan left yesterday too, sent to the dungeon for test subjects. Won't be back today," a guard informed him. Yan had also been abruptly reassigned.
Both ever-present elders gone? Too convenient.
Something was wrong. Gin decided to find his uncle, but at the institute's entrance, he was stopped.
"Sorry, you're barred from leaving until further notice," a stern, unfamiliar guard said.
The strange guard and restricted exit heightened Gin's unease.
With the elders suspiciously absent, new guards, and his movements curbed, Gin, worried for Light, resolved to confront Yao directly.
In the lab, the unconscious girl awoke, strapped to a bed, surrounded by strangers.
Startled, she struggled, but her chakra seemed sealed, rendering her pupil techniques useless. Her wrists and ankles bled from the tight straps.
"Who are you?" she demanded, glaring.
"A 'weapon' must accept its role," one man replied coldly.
"Weapon? I have a name—Uchiha Light!" she retorted, rejecting the term.
"Stop struggling. This is your fate," another faceless figure said, pressing a black hand to her forehead.
A searing pain shot through her head, flooding it with agonizing memories: loneliness after her parents' deaths, the pain of awakening Mangekyo and being studied, the despair of nursing wounds alone in a cell…
Negative emotions overwhelmed her, pushing her mind to the brink. Her screams echoed as she teetered on collapse.
In her final conscious moment, she saw suffocating hands reaching for her.
"A 'weapon' doesn't need a weak name! Live as the nameless 'weapon'!" they declared, denying her identity. Darkness consumed her.
As she fainted, the figures around her melted into inky black pools, slithering toward one direction.
Far off, Uchiha Yao watched, face impassive, eyes blank, as if blind to the eerie scene.
The black shadows reached his feet, merging into his own shadow.
With their integration, Yao's eyes flickered back to life, as if reactivated.
Knock, knock, knock! The lab door rattled under frantic pounding. Outside, an anxious Uchiha Gin waited. Getting no response, his eyes glowed crimson.
His tomoe spun rapidly, nearly merging, when the door opened. Yao stood there, face stern, scrutinizing the near-erupting boy.
"What's the rush? Your turn's coming," Yao said coldly.
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