"It doesn't make sense. Why are you still wasting what little chakra you have on someone you'll have to eliminate sooner or later?"
…
Yashin didn't respond to the gruff voice in his head. Instead, he pressed himself even closer to his sister's body.
"I told you not to move, or do you want me to drag you again? Also, move away a little—your breath is tickling me."
"Is that so?"
Sakura's body visibly shuddered at the sound of Yashin's hoarse voice next to her ear.
"D-don't do that. It's gross."
Despite the tone of her words, Sakura continued walking with her brother on her back.
Amused, Yashin let out a soft chuckle before resting his broad forehead on the girl's shoulder.
…
"Ever since you got sick, the number of useless things you do just keeps growing. I wonder if your brain got damaged after messing with our hormones so much."
…
— Useless things, huh?
For some reason, the confirmation of the futility of his actions made the smile on Yashin's face grow a little wider.
It made him feel alive.
A stark contrast to the vague emptiness that seemed to have haunted him since his past life.
— I should do more of these things.
— What did you say?
Although faint, Yashin's mutterings still reached Sakura's ears; but instead of responding right away, he paused for a couple of seconds to take a deep breath of his sister's neck before opening his mouth.
— You stink of sweat.
…
At the Haruno house.
— Mom, your crazy daughter threw me into a ditch.
— Mom, Yashin made me fall into a canal.
Mebuki, seeing her children shouting as soon as they crossed the threshold while soaked from head to toe, began to feel a severe headache coming on.
— You two, why can't you ever behave yourselves?
Seeing their intention to keep arguing, Mebuki quickly raised a hand to stop them.
"I don't care. Both of you, go take a shower and then come to dinner."
"What?! Why do I have to shower with this idiot?"
Unlike Sakura's outburst, Yashin, still being dragged along, in a gesture that was nothing short of arrogant, simply combed his wet hair back.
Mebuki, who saw her son's smugness, just felt like hitting him.
"I don't care. Just do what I tell you."
Unwilling to listen any further, Mebuki turned on her heel and went back to the kitchen.
Sakura, with the bundle still on her back, could only stomp her feet hard to vent her frustration.
"We're home now. What are you waiting for? Why aren't you coming down yet?"
"Hmm… I still need one more minute."
"What do you mean, one more minute? Get down right now. You're too heavy."
Although she tries to wriggle free from Yashin, he clings to her body with all four limbs.
— If you hadn't thrown me in the water for saying you stink, I'd be done by now.
— You actually dare to say that again. Plus, you made me fall in with you—now my hair's ruined because of you.
— Yeah, yeah. My clothes are ruined too, and you don't hear me complaining. Just stop wasting time and take me to the shower. I feel disgusting.
— You're unbearable.
With her footsteps echoing throughout the house, Sakura set off again.
Meanwhile, Yashin finished dispersing the chakra he had been channeling into his sister's body.
Once he made sure it had all vanished, he finally separated from her so they could both enter the bathroom.
…
A couple of hours later, in the siblings' room, Yashin lay in complete darkness, buried under his blankets; meanwhile, his parents and his noisy sister were entertaining themselves by arguing with each other in the living room.
…
"How much more time do you plan to waste on trivial nonsense? Your priority should be to recover from this weakness and get as strong as possible; yet you keep doing useless things like stimulating Sakura's hormones to make her stronger. Those girls, Ino and Sarada, should be starting their training soon, but your chakra is still insufficient to keep proper watch over them, let alone learn their techniques. Worse yet, the method you're using to spy on them is barely passable. If instead of wasting time on useless things like family, you used it to solve your problems, maybe we wouldn't have to endure daily humiliations from that trash."
— … Yeah, you're right. But there's one thing I don't get. Why this urge to get stronger?
"What do you mean you don't get it? Isn't it obvious? If I'm not at the top, who else should be?"
— … Yeah, but why the rush? Getting there too soon—isn't that too boring?
"You talk as if it were easy to achieve."
— Yeah. Maybe it isn't, but still, it's only been six and a half years since I woke up in this world."
"What are you getting at?"
— … I don't know, maybe the emptiness of those first six years before I got sick. Even though I don't remember almost anything from my previous life, that feeling of emptiness… of meaninglessness that seemed to result from that entire life—it was as if I were repeating the same mistakes here. It's hard to explain, but you should understand.
"What do you want me to understand? As far as I'm concerned, those so-called memories of my previous life could just as easily be a jumble of scattered crap that some idle God molded into a soul and then stuffed into this body. You're always worrying about unnecessary things."
— … Yeah. But you should be able to feel it, too. Those unnecessary worries and useless things are different from the shit I've been dealing with since day one.
"So, what do you plan to do? Turn into a mediocre piece of trash? Let me tell you, I won't allow it."
— You're overthinking it, and even if I wanted to, I don't think I could ever become something like that. Actually, I just want to take things a little more slowly. Besides, since my rushing turned this body into a mess that can't produce its own hormones without stimulation from my chakra, this seems like the right time.
"You meant to say it's the worst possible time, right? Because of this crap, now I have to put up with that trash treating me like I'm inferior to them, and my plans have been delayed by several years."
— That's not all bad, either. At least it helps keep my temper in check.
"You're crazy."
— It's called growing up. Your attitude's fine when you're on top of the world, but now that we're a sickly worm, it's best to keep a low profile."
"You mean act like a masochistic bitch."
…
Yashin's self-deprecating laugh was completely muffled by the sheets and mattress, just like the rest of his rant.
Although he was convinced of his own words, who in their right mind could stand having those they consider inferior dare to confront and humiliate them repeatedly?
…
"Whatever. I don't want to hear any more. Since you've made up your mind, so be it. I'd rather laugh at you when you can't hold back anymore than waste time on a pointless argument."
— I'll look forward to that day, too.
"Sakura's right. You're an idiot."
— I thought you prided yourself on your self-awareness.
"Yeah, yeah. More importantly, how long are you going to keep postponing my plans?"
— What do you mean by "my plans"? I made all my plans on my own.
"Mine, yours—who the hell cares? We're the same thing, idiot."
— Bullshit. At first, it was just me, no one else. You showed up out of nowhere eighteen months later, and by that point I'd already got everything figured out.
"And look where that's gotten you. You'd better focus. Shisui Uchiha's death and the massacre of his clan are supposed to happen this year, or next year at the latest, but the way you're doing now, let alone getting a Sharingan, you'll be lucky if you don't pass out before you even reach the Uchiha compound."
— Congrats, that joke was almost as good as Kizashi's.
"Screw you."
— Yeah, whatever. Although it's a shame I can't get a good batch of Sharingan, it doesn't really matter that much. In the future, I'll be able to take some from Danzo and Obito's collection. Instead, it's more important to keep studying how to perfect this mess of a body.
"You focus too much on the physical. Plus, you're too much of a perfectionist. You waste too much time on insignificant details."
— Are you talking about today? Let me tell you, listening like a damn Inuzuka dog is the least I can accept.
"Yeah, yeah. While you're at it, you should also look into how the Sarutobi's body hair might be useful against the cold."
— I might do it just to piss you off.
"You know you'd be pissing yourself off, right?"
— … Yeah.
"…"
— …
"Alright. Just… cut the crap and let's get back to the point. The priority should be the Demodex mites. Even though practically everyone in this village now has one of our special friends living and eating on their faces, what good is that if these bugs can barely transmit information?"
— There's nothing I can do. Even though I managed to make them store frequencies and mimic sounds through vibrations, they have no eyes or ears. Until I get better facilities and resources to modify them, that's all they can do.
"At the very least, you should perfect the technique. Using it like a damn traffic light by causing demodicosis on other people's faces when the conditions are met—besides being disgusting, it's also inefficient."
…
Yashin agreed. Some pustules were truly repulsive, and he couldn't always look at the others' faces to tell whether or not something had happened.
However, saying it was easier than doing it.
A bit fed up and aware that it was almost time to start fulfilling his ten daily hours of, so to speak, sleep, Yashin began to direct his chakra toward his pineal gland to produce some melatonin.
…
"If you ever plan to steal all the secret techniques from this village and the others—unless you wake up one day transformed into the damned Madara Uchiha—those bugs are your best bet. It's also time to refocus on the Kai and Cleve. You had barely begun to develop them before you nearly died. If you manage to develop them, you won't have to worry about being a talentless useless fool in elemental ninjutsu. Chakra manipulation is…"
…
Little by little, the voice grew fainter.