Disclaimer:
Naruto and all of its characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
“Dialogue”
‘Thoughts’
-Author notes-
Chapter 03: Miracle
A soft knock at the door made him look up.
“Sho-kun?
Are you awake?”
It was Hinata’s voice.
His twin sister and his protector.
The one who never gave up on him.
“Yes, I’m awake,” He called out with a steady voice.
Stronger than it had ever been.
The door slid open, and Hinata’s worried face appeared.
She was dressed in her usual academy clothes.
When she saw him sitting up, her eyes widened.
“Sho-kun!
You’re-” She rushed to his side, pressing her hand to his forehead.
“You should be lying down.
The fever!…”She paused.
“The fever is gone?!
But how?
The healer said-”
“I’m okay.” He caught her hand, squeezing it gently.
“I’m okay, Hinata.
I’m fine now…the fever is gone.”
She stared at him.
Her eyes were red-rimmed, as if she’d been crying.
Of course she’d been crying.
She’d spent the night believing she was about to lose her brother.
“I…
I was so scared.” Her voice trembled.
“The healer said you might not make it.
Father said-”
“I know what Father said.” His voice was calm, but there was an edge to it now.
“I heard him.”
Hinata’s face went pale.
“Sho-kun…”
“It’s fine.” He forced a smile.
“He’s not wrong.
I’ve been a burden to everyone.
I’ve held you back.”
“No!
That’s not-”
“Hinata.” He squeezed her hand again.
“I’m going to change that.
I promise.”
She looked at him with a mixture of concern and hope.
“You…
you look different.”
“I am different.” He stood up, and this time, the dizziness didn’t come.
“I’m still weak.
I’m still sick.
But I’m not…
I’m not going to stay that way forever.”
He looked at the window, at the sun rising over the Hyuga compound.
“I’m going to become strong.
Strong enough that no one will ever look at me and see a burden again.”
Suddenly, something appeared in his field of vision.
[ New Quest.
Quest: Warming up
Objective: Run five laps around the Hyuga Compound
Reward: +1 Vitality
Do you accept?]
Sho got startled by the sudden appearance of the text box.
He looked up at his sister.
“Hinata, let me explain this…”
“Mmm?…explain what?.” Hinata tilted her head to one side.
“Did something happen?.” She looked around as if trying to find out the reason for his reaction.
‘She can’t see it…’ Sho realized.
His eyes went back to the text box.
It was clearly floating in the air in front of him, but he was the only one who could see those letters.
If it wasn’t because he already felt the effects of those two extra points in stamina he had added the previous night, he would consider the possibility that he was going insane due to the high fever.
“Sho?.” Hinata got closer.
“Are you really okay?.
Let me call the healer back.
He should check on you.”
“Hinata, actually there is something that…” He paused.
‘No, wait.
I cant tell her about this.
Even I dont understand what this system is.
How can I possibly try tro explain it to someone else?.
Is best to wait for now.’
“What is it?.” A flash of concern appeared on Hinata’s face.
“Are you feeling dizzy?.
Maybe you should lie down.” She got closer and moved her hands to touch his forehead.
She always did this to check his fever.
“No its…nothing.
I’m fine, Hinata.” He caught her wrist gently.
“Really.
But…
you’re right.
I should probably see the healer.
Just to be sure.”
Hinata nodded, relief evident in her eyes.
“I’ll go get him.
Stay here.
Don’t move.”
She was gone before he could respond, her footsteps fading down the hallway.
Sho let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
His eyes drifted back to the floating text box, still patiently waiting for his attention.
[Quest: Warming Up
Objective: Run five laps around the Hyuga Compound
Reward: +1 Vitality
Do you accept?]
“Yes,” he whispered.
“I accept.”
The text box shimmered and vanished, replaced by a small progress bar in the corner of his vision.
[Quest Accepted: 0/5 Laps Completed]
‘There doesnt seem to be any time limit.
That’s good, I can do that later then.’ Sho thought.
A few minutes later, Hinata returned with an elderly man in tow, the same healer who had examined Sho the night before.
The man’s name was Yamanaka Ryo, a distant cousin of the Yamanaka clan who had served the Hyuga for decades.
He was old and tired, with a perpetually worried expression, but his eyes were sharp, and his chakra sensing was renowned.
“Sho-kun.” Ryo bowed slightly, setting down his medical kit.
“I heard you made a miraculous recovery.”
“He looked great this morning,” Hinata interjected.
“His fever is gone completely!”
“Oh?…nothing at all?.
That is truly odd.” Ryo raised an eyebrow at her enthusiasm but said nothing.
He knelt beside Sho’s futon and pressed cool fingers to his forehead, then his wrist, then his neck.
“Hmm.” The healer’s brow furrowed.
“Your temperature is normal.
Pulse is strong.
But that’s…”
He reached into his kit and withdrew a small device.
It was a chakra sensor, used to measure the flow of energy through the body’s pathways.
He pressed it gently against Sho’s chest and waited.
The device beeped softly.
Ryo’s eyes widened.
“Impossible.”
“What?
What’s wrong?” Hinata’s voice rose with concern.
“Nothing is wrong.” Ryo shook his head slowly.
“Quite the opposite.
His chakra pathways…
they’re no longer constricted.
They’re still somewhat narrow, but the obstruction is mostly gone.
It’s as if a dam has burst.”
Sho kept his expression neutral.
‘The system.
It must have cleared the blockage when it integrated my memories.’
He recalled that when he checked his status, the Chakra Vein Constriction was shown as ‘mild’.
Sho was sure it must have been much more severe before.
“But that’s impossible,” Ryo continued, more to himself than to his patients.
“I’ve been treating this boy for eleven years.
His pathways were among the most severely constricted I’d ever seen.
They shouldn’t be able to heal like this.”
“The fever,” Sho said quietly.
“I think…
I think the fever did something.
It was like everything in my body broke apart and came back together differently.”
It wasn’t entirely a lie.
The fever had broken his mind apart, and it had come back together differently, just with the help of a system he couldn’t explain.
Ryo studied him for a long moment, his ancient eyes searching.
“The fever…
could it be?.” The old healer appeared to be thinking of something.
“Extreme fevers can sometimes burn away obstructions, though I’ve never seen it happen so…
completely.” He shook his head.
“I’ll need to run more tests.
But for now, I can say with certainty that your body is no longer in immediate danger.”
“Sho-kun!” Hinata threw her arms around him, hugging him fiercely.
“You’re going to be okay!”
Sho returned the hug, though his attention was on the healer.
Ryo was packing up his equipment, but his expression was troubled.
The old man knew something wasn’t right.
‘Let him wonder.
It’s safer that way.
There is no chance he would figure out what happened.’ Sho was convinced of that.
<><><><>
News of Sho’s “miraculous recovery” spread quickly through the Hyuga compound.
By midday, almost everyone knew that the sickly spare had somehow cheated death.
The whispers were everywhere…in the courtyards, in the training grounds, in the kitchens where the servants gossiped freely.
“Did you hear?
The spare is better.”
“Impossible.
He was on death’s door last night.”
“The healers don’t understand it.
They’re calling it a miracle.”
“Or a curse.
What if the fever broke something else?”
Sho heard people speak about him.
And he was sure they knew he could hear them but didn’t care.
But he didn’t let it bother him.
For the first time in his life, he had something to focus on besides his illness.
He now had something to look forward to, and perhaps…a chance to make a difference.
<><><><>
In the afternoon, he heard a knock at his door.
It wasn’t Hinata’s gentle taps this time, but a harder, more insistent rap.
“Enter.”
The door slid open, and Hiashi Hyuga stepped inside.
His father’s face was unreadable, as always.
The head of the clan moved with the controlled grace of a master martial artist, every step precise, every gesture intentional.
He studied Sho with those white, pupil-less eyes, and for a long moment, neither of them spoke.
“The healer tells me you’ve recovered completely.”
“Yes, Father.”
Hiashi’s gaze flickered over Sho’s form, to the newly steady hands, the clear eyes, the absence of the trembling that had defined his childhood.
“He said your chakra pathways are clearer.
That the fever seems to have burned away some of the blockage.”
“It appears so.”
Silence stretched between them.
Hiashi’s expression remained impassive, but Sho could sense something beneath the surface.
Confusion, perhaps.
Or suspicion.
“You were dying,” Hiashi said flatly.
“I saw you.
You were weak, feverish, barely conscious.
And now you stand before me as if nothing happened.”
“I don’t understand it either, Father.” Sho kept his voice calm and respectful.
“All I know is that I woke up this morning, and the pain was gone.”
‘Let him wonder.’ Sho thought.
‘ Let him suspect and to learn that I’m no longer the burden he wished would die.’
Hiashi studied him for another long moment.
Then, without another word, he turned and left.
The door slid shut.
Sho let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
His hands were trembling…not from weakness, but from tension.
Even now, even after everything, his father’s presence still affected him.
‘But it won’t always be like this.
I’ll become strong enough that he can’t ignore me.
Can’t dismiss me.’
He looked down at his hands.
Still small and pale.
But no longer shaking.
One step at a time.
<><><>
The Hyuga compound was vast, a sprawling complex of traditional Japanese buildings surrounded by high walls.
Training grounds, meditation gardens, ceremonial halls…just about everything a prestigious clan could need.
Sho should usually stay in the living quarters.
His weakness had kept him confined to his room and the immediate surroundings.
Today, that changed.
He stepped out of his room and into the afternoon sunlight, feeling the warmth on his face.
The air was clean and crisp, carrying the scent of cherry blossoms from the garden.
Birds sang somewhere in the distance.
He took a breath.
“Okay,” he murmured.
“Let’s do this.”
[Quest: Warming Up
Objective: Run five laps around the Hyuga Compound
Reward: +1 Vitality
Progress: 0/5 Laps]
‘This is not going to be easy…’ He was dreading doing this.
Five laps would have been nothing for any of his companions at the academy, but to him…it was like running fifty laps around the entire village.
Sho started at a jog.
It was slow…pathetically slow by any reasonable standard, but he was moving.
After all, there was no time limit for the quest, so he would do it this way.
His legs pumped, his arms swung, and for the first time, he was actually running.
Lap one: His lungs burned.
It was no longer the familiar, debilitating burn of his illness, just the burn of exertion.
The kind of burn that meant he was pushing himself.
Lap two: His legs started to ache.
But he kept going.
The progress bar in his vision ticked upward.
[2/5 Laps Completed]
Lap three: He passed a group of branch house members.
They stared at him, surprised.
Sho ignored them.
Lap four: His body screamed at him to stop.
But he thought of his father’s words.
“Dying from sickness may be for the best.” He thought of Neji’s hatred.
He thought of Hinata’s tears.
He kept running.
[4/5 Laps Completed]
Lap five: The finish line was a carved stone marker near the main gate.
Sho pushed through the wall of exhaustion, refusing to stop.
Refusing to collapse.
He crossed the marker and collapsed to his knees, gasping.
[Quest Complete!]
Reward: +1 Vitality
Vitality: 3 → 4
[New Passive Skill Unlocked!]
Endurance: Novice (Level 1)
Description: The ability to sustain physical activity over time.
Your body is learning to push past its limits.
Sho lay there on the grass, breathing hard, sweat dripping down his face.
He’d never felt so exhausted.
He’d also never felt so alive.
<><><>
That evening, Sho returned to his room after a quiet dinner with Hinata.
The meal had been simple and peaceful.
She’d asked about his day, and he’d told her about his run, carefully omitting the system’s involvement.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Hinata had said, her eyes warm with happiness.
“But try not to push yourself too hard.”
“I know.
I’m sorry I made you worry.”
“Don’t be sorry.
Just…
promise me you’ll take care of yourself.”
“I promise.”
They’d walked back to his room together, and she’d hugged him tightly before leaving.
“Tomorrow we can go to the academy together,” she said.
“It’ll be nice.
Like old times.”
“Like old times,” he agreed.
“Goodnight, Hinata.”
“Goodnight, Sho-kun.”
<><><>
Now, alone in his room, Sho felt the exhaustion settle into his bones.
But he was happy.
This was the exhaustion that came with progress.
He was about to collapse onto his futon when he noticed something.
Some of the scrolls on his shelf had fallen.
They were standard academy scrolls.
The kind every student received for their graduation training.
Three in total, each containing the instructions for one of the basic jutsu.
Sho had been trying to learn them for months, but his weak chakra control had made progress impossible.
Along with Naruto, he was the only one who had failed at that task.
And unless he could find a way to learn all three of them…he could forget about graduating.
Now, one of the scrolls had rolled off the shelf and lay open on the floor.
Sho knelt to pick it up.
It was the Clone Technique (Bunshin no Jutsu)
He was about to roll it back up when a familiar glow appeared in his vision.
[Skill Scroll Detected: Clone Technique (Bunshin no Jutsu)]
Would you like to learn this?]
Sho stared at the words displayed before him with an expression of shock.
“Wait…what?!.”
STATUS:
[Level: 1
Title: The Eclipsed Spare
Stats:
Strength: 3
Agility: 3
Vitality: 4
Perception: 6
Chakra Capacity: 1
Chakra Control: 4
Status Effects:
Chakra Vein Constriction (Mild) – Permanent
Chronic Fatigue – Permanent
Brittle Bones – Permanent
Byakugan Inefficiency – Permanent
Skills:
Passive Skill Endurance(Level 1): It allows the user to push the body past its normal limits for a short period of time.