Kazuma was trying to reassure himself, telling himself he was overthinking things. Jun, Izumi, and he were fatherless. Kazuma would have been outraged at any suggestion that they liked each other less because they didn't have the same father. And he didn’t doubt his siblings felt the same way. Maybe they hadn't said anything because it wasn't important to them. But damn it, he had the right to know his father! Who was he? Was he alive? Why hadn't anyone told him anything?

Coming out of the Academy, he was barely standing still. He had to wait for Sasuke, Neji, and Karin, and as soon as he saw them arriving he ran toward them.

“Did you know that Izumi and Jun are my half-siblings?”

"Hmm," Sasuke said.

“Oh, that explains everything then,” Karin said, frowning.

“Who told you that?” Neji asked, narrowing his eyes.

Kazuma wasn't stupid, and he spun towards the Hyuga. He wasn’t sure if Sasuke knew, and Karin didn't seem to have all the info. But Neji knew.

“Who is their father? Who is my father? Do they know? Why hasn't anyone told me?”

Neji cast a paranoid look around them.

"Not here," he replied.

He walked away, and the other three followed suit. Kazuma would have thought that Neji was going to take them home, but he headed for an old park whose swings were damaged. Kazuma narrowed his eyes. He remembered this park. Or at least it was familiar to him. It was there... It was there that he had met Neji, wasn't it? It was one of his earliest memories. He was three or four years old then. Why had Neji brought him there?

Probably because no one came here anymore. Neji nevertheless checked with his Byakugan that they were alone, and cast a brief glance at Karin. Understanding the implicit message, the girl closed her eyes while sketching a familiar hand seal. She was using her sensory ninja abilities to verify that there was no chakra around. When she opened her eyes and nodded, Neji took a deep breath.

“What do you know exactly?”

“Nothing,” Kazuma said stubbornly, crossing his arms. “Because nobody told me anything. I knew Jun and Izumi's dad was dead, but I don't know when or even who he was. I thought he was my father too, but apparently not.”

“I know that Jun and Izumi have been recognized by the Uchiha clan but not you,” Karin added.

“I thought it was because you were born after your mom left the clan…” The Uzumaki continued.

Sasuke said nothing, his gaze moving from one to the other apprehensively. Neji's gaze shifted to him, and the young Uchiha stiffened.

“It's a dangerous secret,” Neji warned.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. A few weeks earlier, he would have turned on his heels, grumbling that he didn't care, even if it hurt him to be excluded. But he remained inflexible. He was part of the group. He was his family too now. He was involved whether Neji liked it or not. Kazuma couldn't help but feel proud.

"We can handle it," he said with a confidence he wasn't sure he felt. “Tell us what it is, Neji.”

A second passed, then another. Neji's face seemed carved in stone. Then, slowly, he began to speak.

“Jun and Izumi's father was a clanless ninja named Renzo. He and Hazuki-san married without the consent of the Uchiha clan and raised their children outside the clan. He was killed during the Kyubi attack, and the Uchiha took in Hazuki-san and her children, recognizing them as members of the clan. Your mother met…your father around this time.”

“Was he an Uchiha?”

“No. Your mom was patrolling the village with other chunins, and he was one of her colleagues. He belonged to another clan. Neither the Uchiha clan nor his clan would have approved of this union, so your mom had to leave her clan again when she was pregnant with you. To protect you from the clan elders, both of your parents kept your father’s identity a secret. Your father has never even seen you.”

Kazuma digested this information silently. It was… It was bitter and disappointing. At the same time, he couldn't help but greedily absorb every bit of knowledge about his origin. His father had never met him, never recognized him. He had abandoned his mom. To protect him, supposedly, but from what?

"The Uchiha clan elders weren't that terrible," Sasuke pointed uncertainly, unknowingly echoing Kazuma's thoughts.

“Why would Kazuma need protection?”

There was a short silence. Then Karin swallowed and whispered in a very small voice:

“It wasn't the Uchiha clan elders that Kazuma needed to be protected from. They were the elders of his father's clan, right?”

She had her eyes fixed on Neji. Stiffly, he nodded and turned to Kazuma again. There was something harder in his face.

“What do you know about the Hyuga clan?”

Kazuma didn't know much. He knew that it was one of the noble clans of Konoha, that they had a Dojutsu, the Byakugan, and that they used the Gentle Fist style of Taijutsu. Kazuma had never met a Hyuga other than Neji. Jun had a friend or two belonging to this clan, but he had never invited them home, and Kazuma had only seen them from afar.

Neji started speaking again, and from his first words, Kazuma sensed that something was wrong. He would have liked to swallow his questions, and cover his ears. He didn't want to know after all.

But it was too late. Neji spoke of the Main and Branch families. He spoke of the Caged Bird Seal placed on the foreheads of all the children of the branch family, all the children destined to serve, all the children whom a member of the main family could kill with the snap of a finger without no one protesting, all those children who could be tortured over nothing, all those children destined to be slaves all their lives.

And Kazuma knew, he knew, he had already guessed what that meant, he knew where the story was leading. But Neji went on and told them of the clan chief's twin brother, who was born a few minutes later and whom his birth had destined to serve the branch family, and who was left with no choice but to sacrifice himself to protect the clan. Neji's voice wavered, almost broke, because it was his father whose death he was recounting.

When Neji fell silent, there was a long silence. Karin and Sasuke were both pale. Karin clung to Sasuke's t-shirt, but she didn't seem to notice. Sasuke was speechless, speechless in horror. Neji avoided their gazes, his eyes still fixed on Kazuma. The latter could see the Hyuga’s quivering fingertips and the tension in his jaw.

“That's why your father’s identity remained a secret. If the Hyuga clan had found out that you were…that you are my brother…they would have marked you too.”

Kazuma swallowed. He had seen it coming, he had guessed it the moment Neji had told them about the branch family. But it was still something that shook his world. Neji was his brother. He had another brother. He had a father, and he was dead. And himself, Kazuma Uchiha who had been Kazuma without a surname for most of his life, risked being marked by the Hyuga clan if they found out the truth.

“But that will never happen,” Neji resumed in a lower, fiercer tone. “Jun, Izumi, and I will never let them do anything to you.”

Karin had a nervous, high-pitched laugh.

“What if he awakens the Byakugan? How are you going to hide that?”

Kazuma felt dizzy for a moment because he hadn't even thought about it. Jun had the Sharingan and Izumi didn't, so he always thought his chances were half and half. But he wasn't half Uchiha half nothing, he was half Uchiha half Hyuga. What happened when their bloodline mixed? What Dojutsu would emerge? Was it going to be normal, or was he risking a mutation?

“We'll never let them do anything to you,” Neji repeated without taking his eyes off Kazuma.

Sasuke pulled himself together and crossed his arms.

“Neji is right. We won't let them.”

“Of course not,” Karin added, whose voice still had a hint of hysteria. “We have Jun-sensei on our side, we can fight the Hyuga clan if necessary.”

Neji's shoulders relaxed a bit, and Kazuma instinctively knew that if Karin or Sasuke had protested, he would have attacked them without hesitation. Because Neji… Neji, who had always been part of his life, his family… He had joined this family not because Hazuki had found him outside like an abandoned kitten, but because he had discovered the existence of his half-brother and devoted his life to his protection.

It was Neji, it was his brother, and he had been there all along! Kazuma felt so stupid, so unworthy of such loyalty, such sacrifice. He wasn't worth his brother standing up against his clan. He was nothing special, he was just Kazuma.

Tears welled up in his eyes. Neji looked distraught, so Kazuma tried to swallow a sob, failed, and threw himself forward to hug his brother with all his might. His brother. His big brother.

“Brother…” He whispered.

Neji stiffened. Then all the tension left his body, and he awkwardly put an arm around Kazuma. Behind them, Kazuma heard Sasuke and Karin move, probably to turn away and pretend to be looking away.

The world was vast, dangerous, and complicated. There would always be people who are hurt, people who had been hurt, and Kazuma would never stop getting heartbroken when hearing a sad story. He wanted to help. He wanted people to stop hurting. But for now, nothing else mattered but his brother's embrace, and the weight of this revelation on his shoulders.

We're family, he had told Sasuke. We stick together. And he thought it was up to him to help others, but… There was no shame in being the one who needed help sometimes.