Naruto: The Beautiful Uchiha is Actually Me?

Chapter 195 Is fate necessarily above cause and effect?

Yan Yi entered the Thousand Hands Clan's territory, but no one could see him or sense him.

Even when he tried to call out to someone, the person would pass right through him, like a non-existent shadow, only able to watch everything unfold before him, unable to make any move to intervene.

"What...what's wrong with me..." Yan Yi's raised hand froze in mid-air, and she stood there blankly for a long time.

He couldn't feel anything at his fingertips; neither wind nor moisture seemed to pass right through his body.

Yan Yi lowered his hand and walked towards the Thousand Hands Clan's territory.

Arriving in front of a conspicuous building, Yan Yi involuntarily stopped. Gazing at the beautiful wooden house before him, he seemed to hear sounds coming from inside...

"Congratulations, Clan Chief, on the birth of another son..."

"Yes, our Senju clan will surely achieve final victory! The mere Uchiha..."

"Thank you all for your congratulations. I believe that in the future, these four brothers will surely lead their clan to victory..."

Yan Yi's heart skipped a beat upon hearing the sounds coming from inside. Ignoring everything else, he rushed into the house. No one could see him, no one could sense him.

Like a ghost, he passed through the house and through the walls, and finally... in that cozy little room, he saw a white-haired woman resting with her eyes closed on the bed.

However, he paid no attention to the woman and hurriedly walked to the bedside. The moment he saw the baby in the crib, Yan Yi's tears fell without warning.

"Itama...is that...you?"

In that instant, Yan felt as if he had a thousand words he wanted to say. He gently reached out his hand, seemingly wanting to touch the baby's cheek, but...

They passed through it.

Such a simple thing, yet Yan Yi is completely unable to do it now.

"Banban...it really is you...you...you've returned to the starting point..."

Yan stared intently at the sleeping infant in the crib, perhaps feeling relieved? Perhaps sad? Or perhaps more than anything, a feeling that was hard to describe.

......

He has no physical form or energy; he has no physical existence, yet he is always by the side of this black-and-white-haired boy.

Yan Yi didn't need to sleep or eat, but he didn't feel bored; instead, he felt a sense of relief. If... his existence didn't simply vanish into nothingness after disappearing, but instead had this opportunity to accompany him as he grew up, then... time didn't seem so difficult to pass.

Perhaps he has now found a way to defy the nothingness of time... As long as I can stay by his side, my abnormal form of existence will not perish, right?

At least, I still have a sliver of consciousness, existing in this world.

day to day...

Year after year...

In the blink of an eye, Yan Yi has existed in this form for many years. The creature that once slept in the crib can now run and jump, and has gradually grown up.

Yan Yi witnessed every choice he made, every fork in the road of fate, but at least for now... Itama was safe. However, as Itama grew older, Yan Yi's worries deepened...

If a battle breaks out in the future, will Itama die again, surrounded by five Uchiha ninjas, just like before?

Speaking of which... does "I" even exist in this world?

......

The weather was lovely today. Itama got up early and, following his father's instructions, completed his cultivation with his three older brothers. Afterwards, he ran alone to a secluded grove of trees not far from the clan's territory...

Following the mountain path, he quickly found a particularly secluded little cave.

A lone figure crouched in the cave, seemingly doing nothing, simply sitting on a rock watching the leaves flutter in the wind outside. Bright sunlight streamed through the trees, casting dappled shadows on the ground...

He seemed rather introverted by nature, and unlike his three older brothers, he wasn't particularly skilled in cultivation. Whether it was swordsmanship or ninjutsu, his progress always seemed slow. He didn't like those things... and he wasn't very good at playing with his brothers. Only here... could he find a moment of peace.

Yan Yi stood at the cave entrance. Despite the many years that had passed, he seemed unchanged, still wearing the same light-colored ninja outfit and with his black eyes still bright.

"Itama..." Yan tried to call out to the other person, but to no avail.

He's used to it...

Ever since itamoto was old enough to understand, he had been trying, but it was clear that the other party could not see him. He had called out to him a thousand times and called him countless times, but there was still no sign of success.

He recognized the small cave; it was the "secret base" where Itama had brought him when they first met. Itama often came here alone, sitting quietly, and no one knew what he was thinking.

"If... I could be as good as my brothers, would Father like me even more..." Itama muttered to himself, his voice clearly reaching Yan Yi's ears.

“You don’t need to please anyone…you just need to be yourself…” Yan Yi replied.

"Why must I shoulder the task of reviving my clan..." Itama continued to mutter to himself.

Yan Yi walked over to him, sat down, and together they looked at the sunlight and shadows of the trees outside the cave.

"You don't need it..."

"I like being here, even though there's no one around, it feels like my words are being heard..."

"It's me...I'm listening..." Yan Yi continued, her voice gradually becoming choked with emotion...

Itama didn't hear Yan Yi's reply. She simply lay back slowly, gently closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep, accompanied by the gentle breeze and warm sunlight...

“Go to sleep... If you feel tired, just sleep. I'll stay with you…” Yan Yi stubbornly replied, even though he knew Itama was completely unaware.

......

No one knows which year it was, but war still came... just like the inevitable trend of fate, he still went to the battlefield.

"Don't go...you'll die! Don't go!" Yan Yi tried to stop Itama, trying to hold him back from leaving. He screamed almost hysterically, but the other couldn't hear him at all...

Yan Yi sat on the ground as if her soul had been ripped out, watching the boy put on that familiar green armor. For a moment, she felt as if a knife had been plunged into the softness in her heart.

Senju Butsuma walked up to Itama, gently patted his shoulder, and his eyes showed neither encouragement nor heartache, nor comfort, but rather a slightly worried and serious expression. He sighed softly.

"Are you ready...? This time, we're going to wipe out those Uchiha bastards!"

After saying this, Butsuma turned to Hashirama and Tobirama, who were also dressed, and said, "Protect your little brother. After all... Anyway, we're going to avenge Watama this time!"

"I understand, Father..."

Tobirama responded calmly, but when he heard his third brother Watama's name, his eyes trembled almost imperceptibly, and his breathing became slightly rapid.

Yan Yi stood beside the group, and when he heard the words "avenge Watama," his body visibly trembled violently. "Avenge? Watama? Could it be... No! I don't want to become like this!"

If that's the case, wouldn't it be exactly the same as the inevitable fate I remember? Doesn't that mean... Itama might die in this battle?

......

The battle in the heart of the forest was incredibly fierce, with flames raging, shouts of killing echoing everywhere, and ruins scattered all around. The forest was scorched by fire, the earth ravaged by ninjutsu, and littered with corpses...

Standing on the battlefield, Yan Yi clearly saw the Uchiha clansmen plunging their daggers into the chests of the Senju clansmen, and he also saw the Senju clansmen using ninjutsu to kill the Uchiha clansmen. The scene before him was nothing short of a painting of hell.

fate?

Is this fate... or a script? Was everything preordained, and all the details and unexpected events leading to the final ending were insufficient to affect the final outcome?

It's like no matter which branch you choose and which parallel world you end up in, you'll find that at the end of the road, it's still the ending that was already written in the beginning.

The fighting continues, and it is unknown how long it has lasted.

Itama, Senju Itama, at this very moment, as expected... those five Uchiha clan members have inevitably appeared in his destiny.

puff-

As the knife pierced Yan Yi's chest, it also pierced his soul.

He watched as the person he had accompanied since childhood, all the way to this day, died right before his eyes.

He saw it all clearly, this time far too clearly. He could see the angle at which the blade pierced his chest, the cold glint of light reflecting off the edge, the despair on Itama's face, and the blood that splattered onto the boulder behind him as the sword was pulled from his chest...

"Why...why did it have to be like this..." Yan Yi sat on the ground, utterly dejected, as if all the sounds around her had fallen silent. "I...did all of this, trying to change something...I thought I could reverse everyone's fate, but in the end..."

A hoarse cry, filled with sorrow and despair, came from afar. A boy with a watermelon-shaped haircut and a white bandage tied around his forehead ran from the distance...

Yan Yi looked up with his lifeless eyes and saw that it was Hashirama Senju.

"Itama! Ahh!" Hashirama wailed, clutching Itama's corpse. His cries seemed to pierce through the soul and cut into Yan Yi's body.

Yan Yi stared quietly at Hashirama and asked, "Why couldn't you have come sooner... If you had come a few minutes earlier... Itama wouldn't have died."

"Why didn't you protect him? Aren't you the eldest brother?"

"Why..."

Yan Yi muttered to himself, but he knew he had no right to question anyone; perhaps he was simply experiencing impotent rage...

"..."

With Banjian's death, the Alaya consciousness connected to Yan Yi began to fail, and his consciousness began to sink. Yan Yi felt his vision getting darker and darker. In the blink of an eye, the surrounding forest and the flames of war had all disappeared.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself back in that empty space.

"I don't believe there's no way..." Yan Yi muttered to himself, staring at the empty space before him. "If it doesn't work the first time... then let's try again..."

Just a moment after the Alaya consciousness failed, the altered cause and effect returned to normal. Because the pupil technique failed, this was not counted as a new "archive".

"I understand..." Yan Yi gently closed his eyes, and all the memories of Itama flooded his mind in an instant.

"I understand everything..."

What did he understand? It's simple... because of fate, the future always unfolds in a fixed direction. Because of the plot, Itama's ending was destined to be death. Perhaps his existence broke this rule, but under the influence of the powerful corrective force, Itama's death was merely postponed by a few more years...

Because of destiny, Itama will die, but because the Alaya consciousness gave it to Itama, the cycle will not stop until Itama completely modifies the future and achieves full effect.

Even if there's only a one in ten thousand or one in a hundred million chance that Itama won't die, Yan Yi will still try.

Therefore, at this moment, the Alaya consciousness restarts.

Even if the power of fate is greater than the power of cause and effect, they must still clash once again.

In the void, the boy opened his eyes again, but in the next instant... the surrounding darkness once again transformed into the forest of the Land of Fire.