Chapter 1: The First Breath

Darkness. That's the first thing I remember.

I don't mean metaphorical darkness. I mean absolute nothingness, an overwhelming void where time didn't seem to exist. Then, suddenly, something changed. Pressure. Warmth. A strange, rhythmic sound—thump-thump, thump-thump. It was soothing, comforting, yet distant.

And then, pain.

A bright light seared my vision as cold air rushed over my skin. My body felt weak, my limbs small and fragile. I tried to move, but everything felt foreign, unresponsive.

A sharp cry—mine—filled the air.

I was alive.

I could hear voices, though they were muffled. The warmth I had felt before was fading, replaced by the embrace of a much softer presence. It took me a moment to realize I was being held.

"Raiden," a voice whispered, soft and exhausted. "My son… my beautiful son."

A name. My name. Raiden.

My vision was blurry, but I could just barely make out the woman holding me. Long, dark hair framed a pale face, her dark eyes filled with exhaustion but also deep affection. She looked at me as though I was her entire world.

My mother.

I tried to speak, to move, but all I could do was stare up at her. Another voice joined hers—deeper, firm, but warm.

"He has my eyes," the man murmured. "And your face, Sayuri."

Sayuri. My mother's name. And the man beside her… my father.

The realization hit me slowly. I had been born into this world, into this family.

The days passed in a blur, but I learned quickly. My mother, Uchiha Sayuri, was a strong but kind woman. My father, Uchiha Taizen, was a stern but loving man. From what I gathered in my early months, we lived in the Uchiha compound, surrounded by others of our clan.

It was a time of peace, but there was tension in the air, a quiet unease that even I, a newborn, could sense. The elders spoke in hushed tones about the growing divide between the Uchiha and the rest of the village. I heard my father mutter about Fugaku Uchiha's strained relationship with the Hokage.

But none of that mattered to me yet. I had one goal: to understand my place in this world.

My body was still weak, as expected of an infant, but I could feel something deep inside me—a presence, a power waiting to be unlocked. My chakra. Unlike normal children, who wouldn't even be aware of their chakra until years later, I could already sense it. It pulsed beneath my skin, vast and untamed, a force that felt both foreign and familiar.

And it wasn't just Uchiha chakra.

No, there was something else—something deeper, more rooted in nature itself. It felt ancient, raw, like the earth and trees that made up the very foundation of the world.

Senju.

The realization sent a shiver through me. My lineage wasn't just Uchiha. There was something more to me, something that should not exist in a single body.

But for now, that secret was mine alone.

By the time I was a year old, I had developed far beyond what a normal infant should.

I could walk earlier than expected, much to my mother's delight and my father's pride. My intelligence was far beyond what I let on—I understood everything said around me, but I played the role of a normal child to avoid suspicion. If there was one thing I knew, it was that being too different would raise questions I wasn't ready to answer.

Instead, I observed.

The Uchiha clan was strong, but they were isolated. Distrusted. Even as a child, I could see the way the villagers outside the compound looked at us, how the ANBU stationed near our district always watched with cautious eyes.

I knew what was coming.

The Uchiha Massacre.

The thought sent a chill down my spine. I was living on borrowed time. If the timeline remained the same, I had only a few years before Itachi Uchiha would slaughter our entire clan, leaving only Sasuke alive.

I refused to let that happen.

But I had to be careful. If I revealed my abilities too soon, it could change things in ways I couldn't predict. For now, I had to train in secret, to slowly build my strength without drawing attention.

I wasn't just any Uchiha.

I was something more.