Uchiha's forgotten Ember

Stadium Grounds – Chūnin Exam Arena

The arena was alive with noise, anticipation hanging in the air like storm clouds before a downpour. The audience had just witnessed Naruto Uzumaki's stunning upset against Neji Hyuga. Gasps still echoed. But now… the murmurs shifted.

It was Kaizen Uchiha's turn.

He stood at the edge of the arena, cloak flaring with every step he took. The Uchiha fan shimmered dark red against black. His eyes—both glowing with the fused Ketsugan and Sharingan—gave off a silent pressure that made even seasoned shinobi in the stands shift uncomfortably.

"Next match: Uchiha Kaizen vs. Kyori Tetsumei of the Iron Sands."

The proctor gave the nod.

Kyori, the daughter of a shinobi weapons smith from a lesser-known desert village, stepped forward. Her eyes were hard. Her chakra shimmered around her gauntlets, and strange crystal-metal shards floated near her like an orbiting storm. "You're the one with the blood that made Danzo squirm," she said. "I want to see why."

Kaizen didn't respond. His expression was stoic—unchanging, cold. Inside, however, his focus sharpened. The fusion of his ocular powers hummed beneath his skin. He had spent weeks refining the fusion, burning out all corruption, purifying both the Uchiha flame and the Kurata storm bloodlines.

Hidden within his body, sealed deep in a cocoon behind layers of chakra and coded seals, was the dead entity—the twisted anomaly that had once threatened to consume him. Now silent. Contained. Watched.

> "I'm no one's experiment anymore," Kaizen thought. "This power is mine now."

Round Start

"Begin!"

Kyori didn't hesitate. She launched into a sprint, metal shards trailing like a swarm of locusts. Her gauntlets slammed into the earth, triggering a wave of crystal spikes.

Kaizen vanished—Body Flicker.

She spun mid-air, blades ready, but Kaizen reappeared directly behind her. His right eye pulsed—Ketsugan active—reading her movement patterns, while his left Sharingan tracked her chakra flow. Together, they predicted her counter.

Kaizen ducked, pivoted, and struck.

A precise hit to her gauntlet's weak point.

It shattered with a boom of heat and pressurized wind—his chakra cloaked fists igniting like small suns. The crowd gasped as Kyori flipped back, blood trailing from her lip.

She grinned. "You're as dangerous as they say."

She formed hand seals. "Then let me show you what I've mastered—Iron Bloom Technique: Lotus Storm!"

Crystals erupted from the ground—flower-like formations blooming and detonating in flashes of cutting light. The sky filled with razor petals.

Kaizen closed both eyes for a moment.

When they opened again—

Twin Spiraled Tomoe spun, glowing like stars.

> "Let's test what the fusion can really do."

He stepped forward. Not a single shard touched him.

The spiral-paired dojutsu allowed him to twist the chakra threads of her jutsu—disrupting their shape mid-air. With the grace of a phantom, Kaizen dashed toward her through the storm of death.

She raised a wall of crystal.

Too late.

His palm hit the wall, and it melted into dust.

> "Ketsugan–Infernal Purge."

Kyori cried out, pinned down before she could form another seal. Kaizen stood over her, his chakra flowing like a silent inferno. He didn't strike the final blow—he didn't have to. Her chakra was completely sealed by the way his strike disrupted her pathways.

The proctor raised his hand.

"Winner—Uchiha Kaizen!"

Aftermath

In the stands, Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"That wasn't just a Sharingan," he muttered. "There's something else in him."

Kakashi said nothing, but his single visible eye followed Kaizen with deep thought.

Elsewhere, Danzo—hidden beneath the shadowed roof—gritted his teeth.

> "He's stabilized it… Even the dragon spirit didn't break him. That boy… could be dangerous."

[Konoha Hospital – Later That Evening]

The exam grounds were still being cleaned when Kaizen found himself in the sterile quiet of the medical ward. He hadn't sustained injuries, but protocol dictated all finalists undergo chakra assessments. Kaizen sat on the window ledge, eyes scanning the horizon, watching the light of the Hidden Leaf shift into twilight.

He could feel the wind brush past his face, but his focus was inward. The Ketsugan's enhanced perception didn't fade easily—every heartbeat outside the hall, every shift of chakra signatures beyond the building, all rang like echoes in his mind.

A faint knock at the door.

He didn't turn.

"You didn't wait to be cleared before leaving the match," came the cool, familiar voice.

Kaizen smirked faintly and turned his head.

Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Ninja, stood in the doorway, dressed casually but with the weight of reputation slung over his shoulder like his ever-present book.

> "So… you're him. The boy with the Ketsugan," Kakashi said, stepping inside.

Kaizen nodded. "And you're the legendary Sharingan Copy Ninja... with only one eye to show for it."

Kakashi blinked, then let out a short chuckle beneath his mask. "Touché."

There was a pause. A comfortable one.

"You've been requested to be reassigned," Kakashi said eventually, tossing a scroll to Kaizen. "Effective immediately. Hokage's orders."

Kaizen caught it, eyes flickering over the seal. "Reassigned?"

"Team 7. With me."

Kaizen's eyes narrowed. "Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura."

"Correct."

He slid off the window sill, unrolling the scroll. Inside were mission logs, profiles, and chakra compatibility graphs.

> "Is this because of my bloodline, or because you're curious?" Kaizen asked sharply, tone a mix of suspicion and boredom.

Kakashi's visible eye crinkled. "Maybe both. But the truth is…" he paused, gazing at Kaizen more seriously, "...you're walking a path that could go either way. Power like yours doesn't bend easily. But with the right people… it doesn't have to break, either."

Kaizen closed the scroll with a snap.

"I don't play well with others."

"Then lucky for you," Kakashi said, now heading to the door, "your teammates don't play by the rules."

---

[Next Morning – Training Ground 7]

Sunlight pierced through the trees as Kaizen approached the old, familiar clearing. The logs still stood from past sparring days, and the grass had only slightly healed from Naruto's last explosive clone barrage.

He didn't even get a chance to speak before—

"OI, YOU'RE THE GUY WHO KICKED MISTY'S BUTT!"

Naruto charged at him full-speed, grinning wide, already mid-jump for a back-slapping greeting. Kaizen simply stepped aside, and Naruto crashed into the dirt.

"Hmph. Idiot," Sasuke muttered from where he leaned on a tree.

Kaizen's gaze met Sasuke's, and for a moment, the air tightened between them—two Uchiha, bearing two pieces of a shattered legacy.

But Kaizen only offered a slight nod.

Sakura blinked, confused. "Wait, he's joining us? But… we're already a team of three—"

"Now we're four," Kakashi said as he arrived, holding a bag of bentos and a sleepy Pakkun riding his shoulder. "Think of it like a stress test for your teamwork. Also, Kaizen's officially been cleared for special assignment under my supervision. That means shared missions."

Kaizen didn't smile. He didn't scowl either. He simply looked at them all like pieces to a puzzle he hadn't decided to solve yet.

Naruto leapt to his feet. "Alright then! You're strong, but you haven't really seen what Team 7 can do when we get serious!"

Kakashi clapped his hands together. "Then how about a little warm-up?" he said with his usual lazy drawl. "Four-on-one. Me versus all of you."

Kaizen blinked once.

> "...Tactical sparring to assess synergy."

"Acceptable."

Sasuke smirked. Naruto whooped. Sakura groaned.

And like that, Team 7 had gained a new flame in their furnace.

And something else, unseen, had shifted.

In the leaves above, an ANBU lingered longer than usual, chakra signature masked—but Kaizen noticed. Noted. Watched.

Something was coming.

But for now…

He had a team.