Hyuga Kiyonari set the lunch box on the table. The instant he lifted the lid, a rich, fresh aroma filled the entire room.
"Chicken soup?" Tsunade's eyes lit up. She leaned in with clear surprise. "How did you know this is my favorite?"
"Maybe… just a coincidence."
Tsunade inhaled deeply, then couldn't wait to ladle herself a full bowl. She blew on it and took a careful sip. The warm broth slid down her throat, soothing the lingering burn left by last night's alcohol.
She let out a satisfied sigh. "Delicious. You stewed this really well. Where did you buy it?"
Kiyonari's lips curled slightly, a hint of pride showing. "Guess."
Tsunade eyed him suspiciously, squinting until one eye looked bigger than the other. "Don't tell me… you made it yourself?"
"Of course." Kiyonari nodded calmly. "I live alone. I have to learn how to take care of my own stomach."
Tsunade drank a few more mouthfuls, the pleased look on her face deepening. "Not bad. Not bad at all."
With a bowl of hot soup in her, Tsunade's hangover sluggishness visibly lifted. Even her pale cheeks took on a healthy flush.
"Much better."
She exhaled long and slow, as if setting down a thousand-pound burden. When she got up to serve herself a second bowl, her eyes passed over Kiyonari's face, and a sudden understanding surfaced in her heart.
If she hadn't received that drifting bottle a week ago, she might be tossing chips in some casino right now. If Shizune hadn't gone to the barbecue place that afternoon, she might never have had the chance to learn about this child.
One coincidence after another, threads weaving together, until they finally brought him in front of her—
If she'd received the drifting bottle even a little earlier or later… if any link in that chain had shifted… she might have missed this bowl of chicken soup.
So this was what it meant for a timeline to change, and for parallel worlds to be born.
From the moment the drifting bottle appeared, every Tsunade became unique.
Tsunade picked up a piece of chicken and chewed slowly. "Kiyonari—do you understand the Uchiha?"
Kiyonari thought seriously for a while, then said, "The Uchiha… to be honest, my impression of them is complicated."
"Complicated? How so?"
"As far as I know, most Uchiha graduate from the Academy and then enter the Police Force. And the police are law enforcers—just being in that role naturally makes people dislike you. Plus, since the Uchiha don't really fill many other public roles, most villagers only ever interact with Uchiha who are police."
Tsunade nodded thoughtfully, signaling him to continue.
"And sensei, you probably know the Uchiha. Their personalities are generally proud and not easy to talk to. During law enforcement, that trait gets amplified."
"That much is true," Tsunade admitted.
Even yesterday, when she saw Uchiha Fugaku, she'd been surprised. In her subconscious, the Uchiha were the type who would scorn attending this kind of banquet—especially one hosted by a Senju.
Kiyonari went on. "They already tend to look stern all the time. When they're enforcing the law, it gives people an even stronger sense of cold distance—like they're not human."
"What's wrong with that?" Tsunade asked. "Law enforcement should be like that. Only by being impersonal can you ensure fairness."
"From the standpoint of enforcing the law, there's nothing wrong with it," Kiyonari said, pausing as if weighing his words. "But like I said—most villagers' contact with the Uchiha is with police officers. Over time… their impression of the police gets projected onto the entire Uchiha clan."
"'The police are cold' becomes 'the Uchiha are cold.' 'The police are hard to talk to' becomes 'all Uchiha are hard to talk to.' Combine that with the nature of law enforcement work, and that's why villagers isolate and exclude the Uchiha."
Tsunade fell into thought, then asked, "Then have the Uchiha ever abused their authority or bent the law in enforcement?"
"Not really." Kiyonari shook his head. "Honestly, the Uchiha are quite fair in law enforcement. No matter who it is, if they break the rules, the Uchiha will arrest them and punish them."
"As law enforcers, the police are strict and fair because the Uchiha's pride makes them disdain taking bribes, and they won't bow to power. But… most ordinary villagers find it hard to realize how rare that kind of fairness is."
"Since the village was founded, the Uchiha have carried the police responsibility. Villagers have grown used to the police enforcing the law, and in their eyes, that fairness is simply 'how things should be.' They think anyone could do it."
Tsunade understood. "So they won't feel grateful to the Uchiha for being fair."
"Right." Kiyonari spread his hands, sounding slightly helpless. "Villagers only focus on who the Uchiha punished harshly, how coldly they enforced the rules. They remember what made them uncomfortable, but they don't remember the Uchiha's effort to maintain order."
Tsunade frowned. "If that's the case… the Uchiha really are being treated unfairly."
"And there's more," Kiyonari continued. "The Uchiha temperament itself is a double-edged sword. It guarantees fair enforcement, but it also intensifies the conflict."
"They're too proud to explain themselves to villagers, and too unwilling to lower themselves and communicate. In their view, if they're doing the right thing, they don't need to explain it to anyone."
"And the more villagers push them away, the more the Uchiha cling to each other for warmth. That clinging reduces communication even further, deepening the divide—until villagers start feeling like the Uchiha are almost… separate from the village."
Tsunade's gaze grew heavy. "Separate from the village?"
Every clan in Konoha had its own district and lived together—but no one was like the Uchiha, rarely interacting with other clans, rarely participating in village-wide events.
Combined with their role as law enforcers, it meant the Uchiha had almost no friends in the village—no supporters. If unfavorable rumors ever spread, almost no one would step forward to defend them.
Wasn't the Nine-Tails incident the best example?
The higher-ups suspected the Uchiha. The villagers ostracized the Uchiha.
That kind of sustained cold violence—if you inflicted it on one person, it would be enough to drive them insane.
Let alone inflicting it on an entire clan—especially a clan whose mental traits were already unstable. And the irony was: for them, the more their emotions spiraled out of control, the more unstable their minds became… the stronger they grew.
And they worshiped that power—the Sharingan—obsessively.
~~~
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