Next Bonus, 100PS!!
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Sunlight slipped amid the leaves, casting patches of gold on the forest floor.
Uchiha Kitsune walked through the trees with a rare spring in his step. He held a bunch of wildflowers behind his back, their petals still damp with dew. A small smile appeared on his lips.
There were no fights, patrols, or missions today. Just a stolen afternoon and the girl he wanted to see.
"She's going to like these."
He allowed himself to think it, to feel the simple happiness of a teenage boy bringing flowers to someone who made the world seem less harsh.
He was almost at their tree, the old rugged oak where they always met, when a sound made him stop. Someone was crying...
Kitsune's smile died.
He found Uzuki curled against the base of the oak, shoulders shaking, face buried in her knees. The girl who punched boulders apart and trained alone in enemy territory at midnight looked small. Fragile. Broken in a way that had nothing to do with physical injury.
"UZUKI? WHAT HAPPENED?"
He was beside her in three steps, voice intense with concern.
She lifted her head. Her eyes were red, her cheeks marked by tears, and she had the swollen look of someone who had been crying long before he arrived.
When she saw his face, whatever composure she had left broke, and her tears came even harder.
"Kitsune... my father. The clan head. They've decided. I'm being sent to marry into the Uzumaki Clan. A political marriage."
The words came out in rough pieces, each one costing her something.
"What?"
When the world ends, it's often quiet. There's no explosion, no dramatic music—just a few tearful words that change everything.
Uchiha Kitsune had spent his entire life keeping his emotions in check, burying them so deep they barely existed. As an orphan in the Uchiha clan, he learned early on that feelings were a weakness—and weaknesses could get you killed.
But this was different—
His pupils shrank sharply. Chakra rushed to his eyes, burning like molten iron behind them. The pain was sharp, blinding, and overwhelming.
His irises shifted from black to crimson.
One tomoe appeared, spun once, then split in two.
Now two tomoe spun in the red of his eyes.
The Sharingan had awakened all at once, skipping the first stage completely.
"KITSUNE?? YOUR EYES—" Uzuki's tears stopped mid-fall. She stared at the scarlet light blazing from his face, recognition hitting instantly. The Uchiha blood limit. The Sharingan. And he'd jumped straight to two tomoe on the first activation.
Kitsune blinked and touched his face, feeling the heat from his eyes and the sudden sharpness of a world now full of impossible detail.
A distant part of him realized what had happened. This was the power he had waited years for, the thing that might have changed everything if it had come sooner.
It didn't matter.
"Forget the eyes. That's not important." He lowered his hand. The Sharingan remained burning in his eyes, but all his attention was on the girl in front of him.
"Uzuki. What are you going to do?"
She flinched at the question, biting her lower lip until it bled. Her fingernails pressed deep marks into her palms.
She stayed silent for a long time. When she finally spoke, her words were quiet and heavy.
"For the Senju Clan... I have to accept."
"No. You don't. Wait for me!"
Kitsune stood up before she finished speaking. He put the wildflowers in her hands, turned, and walked away with the determination of someone who had already made up his mind.
Uzuki saw him disappear into the trees, holding the flowers against her chest.
'Maybe it's better this way. Before we make a mistake that we can't take back.'
She nearly believed it.
..............
The wedding day arrived on schedule.
The Senju had spared no effort. A formal procession. Full ceremonial dress. Five elite escorts—all of them Uzuki's uncles and close relatives, veteran fighters, pillars of the clan. The message to the Uzumaki was clear: this bride matters.
The convoy moved along an old forest road. Remote. Quiet. Nothing but birdsong and the rattle of the bridal carriage.
Then the road exploded.
Kunai flew from the trees on both sides, trailing wire and deadly intent. Explosive tags went off in sequence, sending up walls of flame and force that rocked the carriage and made the horses scream.
"AMBUSH!"
The five Senju fighters reacted in a heartbeat. Two leaped to the carriage, throwing up chakra barriers around Uzuki. The other three launched into the smoke, scanning for the attacker.
"What's happening out there??" Uzuki's voice cleaved through the turmoil from inside the carriage.
"Stay calm, my lady. Likely Uchiha or Hyūga raiders."
The smoke parted.
A single figure walked out of the forest, wearing a black cloak with the hood up. He held a katana in his right hand, its blade reflecting the fire's glow.
"Who DARES attack a Senju bridal convoy??"
The escorts roared their challenge and charged, fists radiating with the Senju's legendary physical strength.
Kitsune's eyes shone crimson beneath the hood. He met them face-to-face.
Steel met flesh. Chakra clashed against chakra. The forest erupted into a blur of violence—sword arcs, fist impacts, explosive counters—five against one, and the one wasn't giving ground.
"He's UCHIHA! Look at the eyes!"
"One man?? He came ALONE??"
Uzuki felt the chakra signatures outside, and her blood felt cold.
She knew that chakra. She'd sparred against it dozens of times in forest clearings, shared meals with it, laughed beside it. She'd recognize it in her sleep.
'Kitsune. What have you done?'
She burst from the carriage, kunai drawn, and threw herself into the fight.
Their blades met. Through the clash, through the sparks, their gazes met.
"Is that you, Kitsune??"
"Uzuki! Come with me! I'm taking you out of here!"
"You're OUT OF YOUR MIND! Do you understand what this will do?? If the Senju find out, it could destroy the alliance with the Uzumaki!"
"Then we silence the witnesses." Kitsune's Sharingan swept toward the five escorts, cold and calculating.
"They're my FAMILY! You can't hurt them!"
Uzuki planted herself between Kitsune and the escorts, arms spread wide.
"My lady... You know this Uchiha?"
One of her uncles spoke carefully, reading the situation with the wariness of a man who was beginning to understand something he wished he didn't.
Uzuki's face distorted with anguish. She said nothing. But her eyes flicked to Kitsune, and the message in them was unmistakable.
'Go. NOW. Before this gets worse.'
Kitsune's Sharingan blazed. "Uzuki. Come with me."
"I'm not taking you back to the Uchiha. I don't care about the Uchiha. And you shouldn't care about the Senju. Neither clan deserves what we'd have to sacrifice for them."
"We find a town. Somewhere far away from all of this. We live. Together. That's it."
His voice quavered on the last word, not from weakness, but from the desperate sincerity of someone offering the only plan he had, knowing it might not be enough.
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