Over ten years ago:
A large crowd gathered around a large and round stage-like structure. Some people appeared to be quite bored whereas the others appeared to be in some sort of rush, they were cheering on with their fists almost like they were hungry for blood. Such sights used to be very uncommon in Sunagakure �“ a village that was warring for a long time and then completely overwhelmed and one that lost its respect and dominant position in the grand political arena. Lately however the moods were shifting, people were growing increasingly angry and desperate to reclaim their lost glory. Wishing for a second go at any larger political conflict just so they could show their newly acquired power. Power they’ve been gathering during times of peace.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the great Gumbai arena!” a tall man wearing an almost regal cloak and turban, just barely letting his long black hair and beard flow through yelled out, declaring the beginning of the event that’d start the festivity which the people were waiting for so long.
“Yeah!” “Come on, show us some fighting!” “We came to see some Uchiha!” “What the Hell is all of this!?” various yells came from the side of the crowd but the people were at the very least excited. It was nothing less than what long bearded man on the stage wished for, the dyed with eye shade eyes of the man flared as the red Sharingan activated in his eyes, the man walked backwards and turned at the building that lead up to the elevated arena.
“Villagers of Sunagakure, our powerful village has been mistreated and disrespected for too long! Fifty years ago I left Konohagakure with my family and moved here. I don’t think anyone will disagree that I’ve done everything I could for this village and spilt more blood than my fair share for it. I freely surrendered my Uchiha power for this village and together with my wife granted it the greatest gift this village can get �“ an Uchiha legacy, the most majestic of ninja bloodlines in its military!” the man declared as a young bare-chested man walked out from the building and onto the central stage.
The young man stood with resolute calmness but also inspired respect and fear just by his mere presence alone. He was a really well developed and incredibly trained young man. His shoulder long black hair were tied up at their tips where they would’ve fallen onto the young man’s eyes.
“Today I demonstrate to you the future of our village, the mightiest soldier to ever graduate the Chuunin Exams! My son �“ Jiou Uchiha!” the man declared as the young man stretched out and started performing acrobatic warm up excercises.
“Wow, he’s so hot! Isn’t he hot, I told it’s the best idea to come here!” a young girl shrieked out into the ear of her friend who seemed less than impressed. The young friend who wore a large gourd on her back just nodded and smiled uncomfortably, while she didn’t really want to be here and she didn’t really understood the point of all this militaristic propaganda nonsense she continued to observe the young man’s performance and his effortless dispatching of several Sunagakure uniform wearing soldiers in a playful spar session. Young Regalia had to admit, seeing the young man dancing like that, fighting gracefully and effortlessly seemed to awaken some sort of hidden emotions inside her.
“Ha, I know what you think, bloodthirsty audience, any fool can dispatch of eight trained Sunagakure Chuunin. That’s what you mistakenly believe, right? Now witness as my son takes on a trained Uchiha, my brother �“ Cimaro! And proves just how astonishing of a prodigy he is” the old timer declared as an equally strong looking and equally ill equipped Uchiha walked out on the stage, with his Sharingan flaring red in his eyes equally as strong.
As the two traded blows it was apparent that the young man was superior from the very beginning. Both of the sparring men possessed the infernal Sharingan eye meaning they could easily predict the opponent’s movements and to them each attack appeared like launched at slow motion. Each movement, each attack was predicted and processed and it looked like each combatant grew bored of the slow motion response which they predicted before the last one was even thrown. And yet… Where Cimaro only predicted the attack and adapted his moves to it, Jiou predicted not his opponents attack, but also Cimaro’s response, he predicted what exactly his opponent would perceive and predict from his own motions. It wasn’t long before the young prodigy mopped the floor with his opponent.
“Wow, he’s so amazing! I wonder if he’ll attend the Kazekage’s inauguration, I’d love to meet him!” Regalia’s friend continued to obsess over the young man looking merely at his handsome beefy side and missing the point why this young man was actually so great. Most Uchiha were arrogant and vain from their inception, they possessed the most revered and treasured bloodline of all, they were of elite ninja descent and had centuries if not entire millennia of history running in their veins.
What stood before the two young women and hundreds of other bloodthirsty and destruction of the other “Great” ninja villages wishing biggots was an Uchiha who was actually working hard and living up to his potential. Where most Uchiha just assumed they were the hottest shit around and had power running in their veins, this young man sought and actively pursued it, he only saw his limitless potential of a bloodline as something he was given, as a natural advantage over his peers but he also continued to live up to that potential. It was men like this that made history, a legend in the making surrounded by cocky fools. If only this remarkable youth would not grow spoiled due to his regal upbringing…
As the young Uchiha showed another amazing trick, managing to avoid or deflect and catch every of the sixty thousand arrows launched his way, so many of them that they snuffed out the Land of Wind’s desert Sun even and made the arena appear like a pin cushion except where the Uchiha boy was, Regalia’s friend turned at her and pinched the blushed cheeks of the young lady.
“You’re jealous, you’re jealous ‘cause he’s better than you!” the friend teased her.
“I’m not jealous, this is nonsense, I could block any number of arrows, I could block entire tons of arrows without moving a single step to the side and you know that!” Regalia declared blushing even more.
“Yeah, but you’ve got your sand to do it, he’s catching and dodging them with his bare hands and body and doesn’t even have as much as a scar. He could dodge as many arrows as there are raindrops in a stormy night and he’s just a teen! Konoha ain’t got shit on us and I’m gonna be his wife!” the silly girl shrieked out again.
“Oh shut up…” Regalia smiled and locked her arms around her chest, sometimes her friend tended to get overly excited and dream about the heavens. Still, as silly as the young lady was, she was the only girl who ever agreed to become a friend of the young Regalia who had a stigma of being a mass murderer and a girl around whom everything got destroyed and everyone close to her got horribly murdered. While officially the mass slaughter in the Land of Tea was attributed to her, the only reason she didn’t undergo Ninja Tribunal and imprisonment and execution was both because the details of the event were too shady and because while openly the two villages worked together, secretly a portion of Sunagakure population wished destruction of Konohagakure due to nothing else but toxic jealousy of the village’s power and reputation.
Regalia was someone who was continuously questioned and held in the officials’ custody so her fate in the Academy and beyond its walls was that of a loner whom no one liked and everyone pointed fingers at. Even more, her sand was different from that of most Sabaku clan members, hers was golden, almost enchanted. After the death of her mother Regalia’s sand was more powerful, more amazing and she could do so much more chakra channeling with it than her peers. Almost like the love and will of her mother passed into the young lady’s sand making it stronger and denser than the cores of stars themselves.
This whole time, throughout those couple of years she was pursued by that infernal man with the eyes of red. He always found her, always caught her and managed to grab hold of her. Whenever the young Regalia ran he was able to catch her, destroying everything and everyone standing its way and when he caught her the man sapped her chakra from her like a butcher bleeds a pig out. The difference was that the man left her living with the aftermath. People pointed fingers at her, blamed her for all the unfortunate destruction around her and wanted her to die. And yet the man in black never grew tired of the way she tasted, the way her chakra tasted. He always left her just enough to stay alive…
“No, haven’t you heard? They’re looking for a suitable match for him, for some reason his entire family is involved, they’re almost forcing him to find a young woman and marry her! Some say that’s why the Uchiha keep putting so much money and support into the Kazakage inauguration ceremony, they want the huuugest ball!” Regalia’s oddball friend waved her hands around in the sky like a fisherman exaggerating about the size of a fish they caught.
“Well, whatever, I won’t even go… I’m not invited because of the whole “possible traitor and an overall bad omen” thing following me around” Regalia sighed and turned around.
“Teehee, well things around you do tend to get blown up and crushed…” her friend chuckled and raised her fist into the sky yelling out, “Hey Aziz, your son is a loser, my friend can kick his ass!”
Suddenly the bloodthirsty crowd went all completely silent. Everyone parted to the sides and made a small circle of shame around the two girls and the glares of both the old man Aziz and his young son fell onto the two girls.
“Is that so?” Aziz smiled, the crowd around the girls kept on whispering rumors going around about Regalia’s possible involvement with the Konohagakure officials and how she was talked off as a filthy traitor. Even if those rumors had nothing to back them up but the amazing fantasies of children in the same teams as Regalia was, as she changed several because very few Jounin wished to train her due to her reputation, people still let those rumors fester.
“Well, my son is undoubtedly weary, he’s fought multiple opponents and dodged enough arrows to cover the sky when standing from where he is, he fought one of our village’s strongest Uchiha…” Aziz started to explain why he wouldn’t have liked for his precious and treasured son to fight someone he barely knew with less than stellar reputation surrounding them.
“No” Jiou’s firm for his age voice cut his father down. The boy’s voice was indeed weary and he was sweating himself to death and that much was visible with a naked eye, “Let her fight my sister, Aisha is half my age but also half my strength. If the girl can best my sister, I’ll be impressed enough to admit defeat”
Regalia sighed and looked at grinning friend with a desperate look, she really didn’t need more trouble and attention in her life, it was only a couple of years after her entire family was killed in front of her, it was only a couple of days since THAT man nearly killed her and the restaurant where she and her team were washing the dishes due to a mission. It all felt like one big never ending nightmare. Hesitant and a little depressed Regalia stepped onto the stage allowing her golden sand to carry her up.
“Golden sand? What’s that? I’ve never seen something like that…”
“It’s said it’s not actually gold dust, it’s just sand overflowing with chakra that glows in this golden hue!” villagers started once again spreading rumors, even if that last observation was a correct one as it was taken out of her ninja file. Information like this shouldn’t have been so freely accessed but no one cared about Regalia’s life enough to protect her secret. All that people cared about was someone to direct their hatred at, it didn’t matter if they had to make some information public to have more topics of hatred to discuss…
“Son, Aisha isn’t ready, she’s…” Aziz tried to pacify the situation but Jiou took a towel and cleaned his sweaty face and chest before smiling and gesturing for a young and shaking girl to leave the shade of the building entry point.
“Nonsense, I’ve sparred with her and at times she managed to surprise me and land blows on me, she’s just shy in the public, that’s all…” Jiou laughed out. The handsome devil of the Uchiha was so cheerful, almost like an actual heroic icon that people gather around. Regalia almost wished to throw the fight out the window and just let him win so that his perfect reputation was not tarnished.
The little girl quivered out into the sunlight, she looked like she couldn’t have even been ten years of age, she was dressed not too much differently from how all girls of her age who were Academy students dressed and she could barely even hold those two blades she carried around. They were an identical image to the swords her brother had on his back, the girl must’ve idolized her brother. It was always a ninja’s privilege to see such things, identify and describe the psychological profile of their opponent before battle.
This girl looked oppressed and yet when she looked at Jiou she was happy and shined with glee. Her own weapons were identical to the weapons of the young man, it was clear that she idolized her brother but she also had that trait of fear of large crowds and she was very shy. Such traits were not common to an esteemed Uchiha warrior which was why the family chose to keep the girl concealed within their mansion’s walls. Maybe in this fight Regalia could help the little girl to come out of her shell? Maybe after seeing what Jiou has seen, the one person that this young one trusts enough to reveal her true nature, this kid will no longer be treated as a second rate, will no longer be ignored by her own family?
The young one walked out in front and bowed, her movements were so restrained, she was so afraid and hesitant even to bow.
“Wow, you’re quite well mannered, young one, what is your name?” Regalia tried to be nice to the girl, it was quite clear that she had seen enough hatred and neglect in her life. The last thing she wanted to do was to make fun of her.
“A…Aisha…” the girl mumbled out in a thin and weak tone, she still clutched her chest as if creating an artificial wall to protect herself from all those bloodthirsty people around her. The girl pulled out her blades and took a very clumsy fighting stance, Jiou whistled with annoyance and lifted his arm up.
“Come on, Aisha, like we do during our spars! Don’t hold back!” he yelled out. Despite very clearly positive intentions the negative attitude towards her stance from her brother was very clearly a negative for the girl, she started shaking and stepped out of her fighting stance looking confused.
“I told you it’s a bad idea!” Aziz yelled at his son and then tried to approach his daughter but Regalia’s golden sand blocked his progress with a hastily placed wall.
Regalia tipped her dirty red dress, the shade of which now looked more like brown due to all the damage and dirt that the attire has seen, and bent over her knees kneeling closer to the eye level of the young girl.
“Hey, Aisha, I’m Regalia… Look, I know you’re worried, I know you’re shy and afraid but this sand of mine is magical actually” the young lady smiled letting the glowing sand gently pass by her lifted palm in small jets and strands, playfully stroking it like it was the actual hair of her mother.
“Magical?” the girl blinked a couple of times, just for a moment her shyness faded and she appeared to be more interested in Regalia’s story than anything.
“Yeah, with it I can see into time itself. I can see the futures and the pasts of people around me, people it touches, and I see inside of you that you’re fated to be a courageous and strong woman. You’re not going to be afraid of anything and you’ll be able to stand up in front of crowds larger than this and tell them all to go to Hell…” Regalia softly and kindly explained.
“B…But I’m not like that…” little Aisha whimpered.
“Yes, but it is important to me that you know that while you’re not like that now, one day you will be that person. That is to say, that person and you are the very same person just in different time periods…” the young woman explained to the little girl. She made up that lie about her sand being able to see into time and knowing the future, it was a common lie of hers but it always worked for some reason.
Maybe the reason she made that lie up was because Regalia was unsure of what the time held for her, just like this young kid she was unsure of her destiny. She didn’t know if the people will in time accept her or if she will continue to be a traitor until the end of her days, she didn’t know if she will become a great hero or never achieve anything, she never knew if she’d see that horrible man again tomorrow and if he’d finally kill her or not, if he’d claim everything she had just like he promised to do. That unknown made her wish to see the timeline and what it had for her more than anything in the world just so she wouldn’t have to live in fear. Life in fear of something, something big to come, almost like being a sheep being observed by a lion who is about to pounce and feeling uneasy because of that supernatural fear of what’s inside the dark bush just around the corner… Everyone believed her lie because everyone thought like her. Everyone was chased by their own demons.
Chase is what made all of us feel so alive but it was also our greatest fear…
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