[centre] [h1][color=gold][u][b]Yūto Uchiha[/b][/u][/color][/h1] [h2][b]Arc 1 - Rebirth: Year 1[/b][/h2] [/centre] [hr] He hadn't known what to expect. He knew everyone died eventually, but he'd never given much thought about what came after and he certainly couldn't say he believed in any god or afterlife. Meeting "Kami" gave him something of a new perspective on things. He couldn't decide yet whether it was good or bad. When she offered to send him to another world with his memory intact, he saw no reason to refuse. His agreement was unspoken, though he supposed a god didn't have to care for such things. Faintly, he wondered if there was a specific reason he was chosen over the doubtlessly immense number of souls who could have been in his place, but ultimately it didn't matter. Being told that he was to be reincarnated into the world of Naruto of all places was.... well, he couldn't quite find a word to describe how it felt. That was a common theme throughout his li–well, previous life now, he supposed. He had to get used to that soon, otherwise, the transfer would be even more uncomfortable. Though unintentional on his part, his knowledge of the setting was rather vast. Maybe it was fate that he'd been roped into watching it all those years ago. Maybe. [hr] Some say life begins in the womb, and for the one formerly known as Samuel Wū, that had been his truth for as long as he could remember. And he remembered a lot. Having gone through being born once before didn't make it any easier the second time. If anything, it made things somewhat worse. This time, he actually understood what was happening throughout the process, unfortunately enough. There weren't enough words to accurately describe how disgusting it was to be born. Being a baby was filthy. And it would only get worse. Opening his eyes was a tedious affair. His eyelids were weak, as with the rest of his body. He didn't make a sound at first, but eventually, he cried. As he should. It would be best not to stand out too quickly. Still wailing softy, he forced his gaze to look into the eyes of the man standing before him, ignoring the exhaustion weighing down his body for the moment. His father was a severe-looking man, but his eyes.... They.... were.... so.... [i]warm[/i].... Without his permission, he felt his eyelids drooping, and then the world went dark. Before his senses flatlined, he heard a voice say something. A single word that his mind internalised instinctively. ".... Yūto." When he next awoke, everything was quiet. Since he couldn't move, he didn't have much to do but think, and so he did. The first thing that came to mind was the last thing he had heard before he'd passed out earlier. .... Yūto? Was that his name? Okay. That.... that was fine. He wasn't particularly attached to his previous name. But, it was still– A door creaked. Yūto paused in his musings. There was someone unfamiliar in his room. The person approached him and he caught a flash of red before the figure sat next to him. Moments passed and Yūto wondered if she was ever going to say anything, and then she spoke and Yūto was confused. The words were both strikingly familiar and yet, at the same time, utterly alien. It took longer than he would have liked to process the words, even as little as he understood them. But, once he did, he realised what she was saying. She.... just called him little brother. The girl didn't stay for very long before leaving. And once again, Yūto was left alone with his thoughts. And, as always, he hated it. [hr] The next few hours of his life were something of a blur. His mother returned from wherever it was she had gone and had almost immediately taken to breastfeeding him. Odd though it may have been, he'd experienced worse. And, all in all, breastmilk wasn't actually that bad. Fortunately, it didn't last very long before his mother had to leave again. Yūto had never before seen a woman who had gone through labour just a few hours ago move so steadily. Though that term was relative, considering the shake in her legs. He would sigh if he could. Going back to more important thoughts.... As expected, he had been born in Konohagakure; the Village Hidden in the Leaf. To be more specific, he was in the Uchiha clan's compound. He hadn't actually been to many places outside of his room, but he already had an idea of the layout of the place, which would come in handy, eventually. But there was something that was even more important than that.... the Sharingan. He had a lot of time to figure out a way to get it without raising suspicion, but the sooner he got it done, the better. That would come later though. A baby had no business worrying about such things, and even less business being capable of it. Not that he was a normal child, by any means. .... Of course, there was one thing that bothered him. Ever since he was born, he could feel [i]something[/i] weird. Something so spine-tinglingly odd that he couldn't even begin to understand what it could possibly be. But it was everywhere. At first, he couldn't understand it. There was almost a hint of familiarity there, but it was so utterly overshadowed by the sheer abnormality of the sensation, like a phantom limb you could almost move at will. There wasn't much to do with as weak and lethargic as his body currently was, so he tried to understand it. It took days before he finally reached a point where he could do something other than merely marvel at the sheer enormity of the sensation. It was a gradual thing. First, breathing became easier, and he could even feel that his body was somehow different. Something about him had been irrevocably changed. His first instinct, of course, was that he was sensing chakra, but that felt.... wrong. From what he knew, chakra wasn't this.... all-encompassing. It wasn't until his sister stepped into his room one day that he realised exactly why that was. Natural energy. Yūto didn't think that was supposed to be possible, and yet, here he was. Speaking of his sister.... Her name was Maki Uchiha and from what he'd been able to gather, she was a chuunin, and a rather young one at that. She had just turned twelve not long before he was born. But Maki was, in a word.... odd. She didn't speak often, and when she did it was almost exclusively to him, even though she had no way of knowing he could understand her. Through Maki, Yūto learnt various things and became more proficient in the world's language, made easier by the fact that it was somewhat similar to Japanese. Maki often told him about her missions, if somewhat censored versions of them, and he listened as intently as he could, hanging on to her every word. He tended to fall asleep in the middle of her stories, but she never seemed to mind much. The last thing he usually saw before he passed out in her arms was her soft smile. It was.... nice. He hated it. His parents were a different story altogether. Despite seeing his mother so often throughout the days, she somehow felt like even more of a stranger to Yūto than his sister did. And maybe he was fucked up, but that gave him a sense of familiarity that made his heart just a bit lighter. His father was a different kind of stranger. Ever since the first night, Yūto hadn't caught so much as a glimpse of the man. Whenever Maki spoke of him, she seemed sad and even more subdued than usual. Yūto didn't know the reason, though he did know why his father was so scarce. Ichito Uchiha was a jounin and a high-ranking member of Konoha's Military Police, which kept him quite busy at the best of times. But with tensions rising in the wake of the Kyuubi's unexpected rampage and the death of the Fourth Hokage, things were more hectic than ever. And the Uchihas were in the middle of it all, in more ways than one. [hr] As time went by, Yūto still didn't see very much of his parents, and ever so slowly, a year had passed. Not much had changed with the steady passage of time, other than the fact that Yūto was now pretty sure his mother hated his guts. For what reason, he couldn't quite tell, and to be honest, he wasn't entirely sure that it was only hatred that made her so distant, and not.... other things. Over time, Yūto had developed his ability to intuitively sense natural energy by quite a significant amount, and the results spoke for themselves. His senses had gotten better by leaps and bounds, and he had even learnt how to recognise people by how the energy interacted with them. The moment anyone was within a dozen metres of himself, he could feel them. His sister was the one he could feel most keenly. Natural energy seemed to cling to her, like strands of silk, beautiful but fleeting. The rest of his clan was different, though they shared some similarities. He couldn't quite tell them all apart yet. His range had started off relatively modest, but now he could sense natural energy up to 400 metres around himself if he focused hard enough. He couldn't keep it up for longer than a few seconds, but that much progress was more than enough for him. If there was one thing he would call inconvenient, it was the fact that he looked quite "creepy" when he was focused. As if his clan mates needed any more reasons to distance themselves from him. They were doing a fine enough job at it already. Though they may have believed that they were being discreet, he heard them all the same. They called him cursed. A 'freak'. All because he had golden eyes. Of course, it didn't help that he had, apparently, scared the doctor shitless by surviving his birth, when by all accounts he shouldn't have. Or that he'd also been born mere moments after the Kyubi was sealed. Yūto often heard their whispers in the halls. The younger Uchihas didn't bother trying to hide their disdain, or their glares and barbed words. The adults were more distant. They never really said anything to insult him, but they never intervened when the younger members did, and sometimes indifference was worse than animosity. It had gotten somewhat quieter after his sister had caught wind of it and proceeded to "correct" their behaviour. The whispers were less numerous nowadays, but they were still there. Yūto could hear them crystal clear. They didn't care for him, not one bit. And that was fine by him. At eight months old, Yūto Uchiha took his first step, into waiting the arms of his sister. His resolve remained unshaken.