The Third Great Ninja War.
On the border of the Land of Fire, an elite fifty-man squad from Hidden Stone Village had the Leaf's border-defense unit completely surrounded. They were led by Azuma Shibito, a hardened commander whose name was whispered with dread.
Bad intel from ANBU had wrecked everything.
Because of those mistakes, Konoha's border force had been torn apart. Every elite jonin was dead. The chunin corps had been carved to pieces. Out of nearly a hundred shinobi, the so-called "elite defensive unit" was all but annihilated.
Now, a mass of Stone ninjas were closing in on Konoha's final line.
Even with victory in his grasp, Azuma Shibito stayed cautious. He advanced step by step, having his men throw out volleys of explosive tags to clear the way, blowing every possible trap to rubble.
No openings. No mercy.
That steady, crushing advance turned the faces of the last dozen Konoha chunin chalk white.
Their eyes met in the trench; what passed between them wasn't courage but the hollow, glassy look of people whose hope had already died. The air felt strangled, like the invisible grip of the Shinigami was already around their throats.
"Damn it!" Mimura Hamaki's eyes were bloodshot; his teeth were grinding so hard they were about to crack. He spat, hoarse with fury. "If it hadn't been for ANBU's trash intel, we never would've walked straight into a Hidden Stone ambush!"
"It's over… we're dead men." Nagasaki Junji's gaze was empty. His hand slackened; the kunai slipped from his fingers and thudded into the dirt. His voice was bitter. "At this point, blaming ANBU doesn't matter anymore, Hamaki."
An elite defensive unit of nearly a hundred, wiped out to the last.
Even for the so-called strongest village, Hidden Leaf, that was a wound you couldn't ignore.
Never mind that right now, Konoha was fighting three of the Great Shinobi Villages at the same time.
"This is all my fault. I've let the Fourth Hokage down…" Mimura Hamaki squeezed his eyes shut in pain.
In his mind's eye he could already see it: because of his botched command, Hidden Stone's army would march straight into the Leaf, houses swallowed by fire, streets running red with blood—
"Kill them. Then we march on Konoha and burn it to the ground!"
On Azuma Shibito's order, hundreds of kunai screamed through the air like a rainstorm, all aimed straight at the four exhausted shinobi still clinging to that last defensive line.
Mimura Hamaki and the others squeezed their eyes shut and waited for death to land.
Boom.
A figure dropped into the middle of the battlefield.
A deafening explosion ripped through the air, kicking up a storm of dust. The shockwave blasted the kunai off-course and flung them away; smoke and sand billowed, swallowing the world.
From inside that swirling cloud, Azuma Shibito felt it—a pressure he couldn't name, a suffocating sense of dread. A cold premonition crawled up his spine.
"Who's there?!"
"Just a bunch of Stone grunts… and the moment I step away, you actually dare provoke Konoha's border?"
The voice that rolled out of the smoke was deep and arrogant.
"…That voice…" Azuma Shibito's pupils shrank to pinpoints. He had a terrifying guess about the newcomer's identity. Fear spread through his chest like poison.
"N-no way…"
Mimura Hamaki had heard that voice too. He lifted his head, staring into the dust at the silhouette standing there, eyes full of awe and worship.
The man wore a ceremonial cloak with flames licking around the hem. His long black hair whipped in the wind. Even so, the thing that demanded the most attention was the red-and-white fan emblazoned on his back.
"That's… Uchiha Fugaku!"
The moment he saw the man's face, Azuma Shibito's heart skipped a beat. His skin went corpse-pale.
"Why is the Fourth Hokage of the Leaf here?!"
"Lord Fourth, I—" Mimura Hamaki choked out, wanting to apologize.
"There's no need. This wasn't your fault."
The Fourth Hokage, Uchiha Fugaku, wore a grim expression. The three tomoe in his eyes spun, faster and faster, slowly twisting into a new, unbroken pattern.
"From here on… leave it to me."
"Retreat!" Azuma Shibito shrieked, voice cracking into hysteria. "Everyone, pull back—now!"
"Too late."
Fugaku's gaze turned to ice. He clenched his fist.
"Those who dare kill Konoha shinobi… will be hunted down, no matter how far they run."
A terrifying wave of chakra howled out of him like a storm. The ground around him couldn't take it—cracks spread like a spiderweb under his feet, as if the earth itself couldn't bear that crushing, suffocating pressure.
The power of the Mangekyo Sharingan surged.
"Amaterasu," Uchiha Fugaku intoned.
Fwoom.
Black fire erupted across the battlefield like a tidal wave. In an instant, those inky flames swallowed everything within several hundred meters.
"Remember my name, brats of the Hidden Stone!"
Uchiha Fugaku smiled, the corners of his lips curling up as he looked down on the burning field.
"As long as I'm here, you will never defeat Konoha!"
"Long live the Fourth Hokage!"
"Long live the Fourth Hokage!"
"Long live the Fourth Hokage!"
The cheers shook the sky.
Uchiha Fugaku soaked in every last cry, his heart leaping with joy. In that moment, he felt as if he'd surpassed all his ancestors—becoming the greatest clan head in Uchiha history, and the greatest Hokage the Leaf had ever known.
"Thank you for your business. That'll be fifty thousand ryō."
The sudden voice yanked Fugaku back to reality.
He blinked like a man waking from a deep sleep. For a second his eyes were dazed, then they cleared, focusing on the young man in front of him.
The boy looked about fifteen. His hair was a messy black, dark as night. His features were sharp and clean; his face was handsome in an understated way. A pair of thick, black-framed glasses perched on his nose, giving him a gentle, mild-mannered air.
But what really drew the eye were his pupils.
Each eye held three tomoe, slowly turning, giving off a subtle, hypnotic pull.
"T-that's it?" Fugaku's mouth twitched. He stared at the youth with wide eyes. "It's over already? What about the rest? What happens next?"
"That's all, Clan Head."
Uchiha Sogetsu shrugged, spreading his hands with a smile.
"Fifty thousand ryō only gets you the trial session. If you want the full course, you'll have to pay more."
"…How much?"
Fugaku hesitated. That dream he'd just tasted was far, far too tempting.
"One hundred thousand ryō per full session," Uchiha Sogetsu said, still smiling as he raised one hand, fingers splayed.
"Hss—so expensive!"
Fugaku sucked in a sharp breath.
Sure, he was the Uchiha clan head. Out in the village, he looked every bit the powerful, unshakable leader. But who knew what his life was like at home, living under the iron heel of a terrifying wife?
The tiny stash of secret savings he'd scraped together over the years… all of it added up would only buy him four or five full sessions at most. Just thinking about it made his heart ache.
That was years of carefully hidden pocket money!
"Forget it… maybe next time." Fugaku squeezed his eyes shut, forcing himself to bear the pain.
To be the Fourth Hokage of Konoha—what a beautiful dream. Even knowing it was fake, he still wanted to dive back into it. To taste it again and again.
No wonder so many people came to find Uchiha Sogetsu, booking his "psychotherapy" over and over.
Still, Fugaku was a clan head. He managed to smother that craving in the end. He took a long breath, steadying himself, then fixed his eyes on the boy in front of him.
"I came today on serious business."
"Please, go ahead, Clan Head."
Uchiha Sogetsu's smile was as gentle as ever. The tomoe in his eyes slowly faded from sight.
"Uchiha Sogetsu, Lord Hokage intends to transfer you to the ANBU."
Fugaku's eyes flickered. He paused for a moment, then added in a slower tone, "Of course, if you don't want to join ANBU, you can always enter the Uchiha Police Force instead."
"That won't be necessary, Clan Head."
Uchiha Sogetsu thought for a moment, then shook his head.
"Besides… if I turned Lord Hokage down, wouldn't that just make things even harder for our clan?"
"…All right. I'll inform Lord Hokage of your decision."
Fugaku gave him a long, searching look as he rose to his feet. At the doorway, he left Sogetsu with a final, meaningful sentence.
"Sogetsu—no matter where you end up, don't forget this. You'll always be Uchiha."
Fugaku left.
When he was gone, Uchiha Sogetsu's gaze lifted to the empty air.
No one else could see it—but several lines of faint text were floating in front of him.
[Side Quest: Licensed Therapist III] — COMPLETED
Provide therapy or fulfil the wishes of at least 50 clients.
Reward: One preserved pituitary gland from a young Mind Dragon.
[Main Quest: Promotion to Rank VI — Hypnotist] — INCOMPLETE
Drink the potion and advance to Rank VI: Hypnotist.
Reward: Relic — "Lie".
[Side Quest: Licensed Therapist IV] — INCOMPLETE
Provide therapy or fulfil the wishes of at least 100 clients.
Reward: Lemano's Travel Notes.
Uchiha Sogetsu was a strange kind of genius—or at least, that was what the Uchiha clan told itself.
Fifteen years old and already wielding a fully awakened three-tomoe Sharingan… yet instead of diving into combat techniques, he'd fallen in love with medical ninjutsu and, on top of that, created an entirely new "mind-healing" therapy.
The reason he was so strange was simple.
Uchiha Sogetsu was a transmigrator.
And also—
A Spectator.
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