c1: Witness
"There it is again, that unlucky thing."
"Heh, even if he has Uchiha blood, isn't he just a stray mutt?"
"Shh! Do you want to end up in a cell? If they hear you, you're done for."
"The child of a traitorous ninja will definitely betray the village too. The Hokage is too soft for keeping that brat around."
…
With his head lowered and his face cloaked in shadows, Chi Yu moved quietly through the bustling streets of Konohagakure.
He had lived in this world for nine years now five of them spent under Konoha's roof.
In those nine years, the awe Chi Yu once felt had soured into silent resentment.
As the villagers whispered, Chi Yu bore the blood of the Uchiha clan.
Yet, the clan never acknowledged him.
The Uchiha were obsessed with the purity of their bloodline, marrying within the clan to preserve their Kekkei Genkai the Sharingan.
Chi Yu's parents had broken that unspoken law.
His mother was Uchiha, while his father was from the Senju clan once the Uchiha's sworn enemies, rivals since the Warring States era.
Had his father been a commoner, things might've turned out differently. But being of Senju lineage was tantamount to heresy in the Uchiha elders' eyes.
When the Uchiha elders learned she was pregnant, they confined her and ordered the child Chi Yu to be aborted, branding him a potential threat.
But his father, defying the law, infiltrated the Uchiha compound, rescued her, and they fled the village together.
Unwilling to lose the Sharingan bloodline, the Uchiha petitioned the Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who declared Chi Yu's parents rogue ninja and dispatched the Anbu to hunt them down.
They escaped and settled in a remote, shinobi-less village. Chi Yu was born there, and the family lived in peace briefly.
Those four years were the only time Chi Yu tasted true happiness.
Then came disaster.
A horde of chakra beasts ravaged the village. With no shinobi to defend it, Chi Yu's parents had no choice but to act.
His mother unleashed her Sharingan; his father fought with Wood-Style Mokuton an advanced Kekkei Genkai long thought extinct outside of Hashirama Senju's line.
They repelled the beasts, but in doing so revealed themselves.
Greedy eyes descended upon them, drawn by tales of the Sharingan and Mokuton.
They were hunted.
In the final confrontation, his father fell protecting Chi Yu and his mother. Gravely wounded, his mother used her remaining strength to send Chi Yu back to Konoha, begging the Sandaime to give her son sanctuary.
Hiruzen agreed.
Though they were listed as rogues, the parents had not harmed the village. More importantly, Chi Yu carried the legacies of two legendary clans the potential for a Kekkei Genkai too rare to ignore.
Chi Yu was returned.
The Hokage asked the Uchiha to accept the boy, but they refused.
He was given a rundown house at the village's edge out of sight and out of mind.
Chi Yu didn't complain.
He understood the blood feud. As a half-Uchiha, half-Senju, he was a contradiction that neither side could accept.
He had once hoped that Konoha's people would be kinder.
He was wrong.
They hated him deeply.
Over time, Chi Yu understood the roots of that hatred.
First, his parents were traitors, at least in the public eye.
Second, he carried Uchiha blood specifically tied to the Konoha Military Police Force.
The Uchiha, entrusted with policing the village, had become a symbol of fear. Their abuse of authority, especially their "criminal tendency" charges, fostered deep resentment.
No one could confront the Uchiha directly.
So they projected that hatred onto Chi Yu a powerless child with no clan name to protect him.
He wasn't like Naruto.
Chi Yu lacked Naruto's blind optimism.
Even Naruto's kindness baffled him.
Five years of cold glares and harsh words had taught Chi Yu better.
And Hiruzen Sarutobi once a figure of warmth in his mother's stories proved no better.
Chi Yu had seen him watch the bullying with detached eyes, never intervening. The kindness he wore was a Hokage's mask.
Konoha became Chi Yu's gilded cage.
He couldn't leave not without strength. And even if he could, he wouldn't last long outside.
For all its flaws, Konoha remained the safest place to survive.
But Chi Yu was certain one day, he'd change everything.
His hope didn't lie in his bloodline.
With only half of either, he might never awaken the Sharingan or Mokuton.
His hope was the system.
The Witness System.
Every time Chi Yu witnessed a significant event, he gained Witness Points.
But to activate the system, he needed 100.
Five years had passed. He only had 50.
Most of those came from witnessing the enrollment of Minato Namikaze now a rising star in the Academy.
Since then, peace had stagnated history. No wars, no upheavals. No chances to witness anything monumental.
Until now.
A new student was about to transfer into the Academy.
Uzumaki Kushina the next Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails was coming to Konoha.
If he could witness her arrival, he might gain the remaining 50 points and finally awaken the system.
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