Chapter 266: The Stressful Domestic Hedgehog

As usual, his father left home early to go to the police department. Uchiha Sasuke wanted to say something, but closed his mouth when he found that his father didn't seem to have time to pay attention to him.

After hesitating for a moment, Uchiha Sasuke still went out.

Walking in the Uchiha territory, many neighbors saw him and greeted him warmly.

The auntie at the pancake shop insisted that he take the freshly-baked pancakes, telling him to eat them while they were still hot.

Her kind and smiling face was completely different from the one in another memory who urged a coup.

Every tribesman who greeted him had a face that was more or less filled with happiness for their current life and admiration for their father.

Reality has proven that it is impossible for the Uchiha to launch a coup.

After a tour around the clan, Uchiha Sasuke's anxious heart finally calmed down a little.

He returned home and, for once, did not practice hard. Instead, he stayed quietly in his room thinking about all the possibilities regarding the Sharingan, and also... Haruko Asahi and Naruto Uzumaki.

Uchiha Sasuke fell on the bed, with most of his face buried in the pillow, his thick eyelashes fluttering slowly.

He wanted to sort out his feelings for both of them, but... it was too difficult.

The three of them grew up together and were assigned to the same team after graduation.

Even he had to admit that there was a legitimately close relationship between the three of them.

It is because the balance boundary is defined by the intimacy between the three parties that when the intimacy between two parties exceeds the intimacy between the three parties, the third party will feel so at a loss.

As for Uchiha Sasuke, it was inexplicable anger and erected spikes.

He could have tolerated Uzumaki Naruto's idiotic personality. After all, fate had brought the three of them together, and they should be companions who would share weal and woe and never leave each other.

That's right, Uchiha Sasuke attributed his secretive closeness to the drive of fate.

If it weren't for fate, they wouldn't be companions, and he wouldn't have to tolerate their quarrels, nor would he have to be... angry about their closer behavior.

The Uchiha people have always been proud, and their inherent arrogance makes it difficult for them to take the initiative to approach others.

Therefore, not staying away means tacitly agreeing to others' closeness.

Uchiha Sasuke, who was always ashamed to say the word "friend", first thought that they were no longer the closest of friends.

Or rather, this is how the three of them have been living over the past ten years.

So he couldn't accept that Uzumaki Naruto surpassed him and had a better relationship with Hayama Haruko.

It was as if he was the only one excluded from the world of the three-person team, leaving him alone to stand aside and watch the two of them having fun.

Surprise, doubt, anger, resentment... countless emotions mixed in his chest, unable to express themselves.

And, the most superficial fear.

Afraid of being left behind by both of them.

But this emotion was like a thin mist. When he noticed it, he wiped it away in an instant, leaving nothing behind.

ridiculous.

How could he, as an Uchiha, be afraid of being alone?

He wished that the two guys who were holding him back would be as far away from him as possible.

He should just be alone, that's the way it is...

As for thoughts that were deeper, more obscure, and closer to his own heart, Uchiha Sasuke instinctively resisted exploring them. Perhaps such thoughts touched his precarious self-esteem.

In any case, the final conclusion points to the fact that he should draw a line.

From the beginning, they were just teammates.

Just teammates.

Uchiha Sasuke turned over on the bed, but the pillow blocked the flow of air, making it too suffocating.

The black-haired boy with delicate features had a cool temperament that suddenly turned into fierceness in the silence.

It is like a stressed domestic hedgehog, curled up in a hidden space, and only points its sharp spines at people close to it to get a respite.

Friends or something... He doesn't need them at all.

dong dong dong.

There was a knock on the door. Uchiha Sasuke slowly got up and heard Haruko's voice coming from outside the door. He immediately got out of bed.

"Sasuke! Can I come in?"

The host who was questioned was even more flustered and confused than the guest.

He had just decided to draw a line between himself and them, but Haruko came to the door in the morning. Uchiha Sasuke stood by the bed, looking left and right awkwardly, checking whether the room was tidy.

When there was no response from outside the door, Haruko Zao became anxious and knocked on the door a little harder.

"Sasuke please can you come in? I'm worried about you!"

Uchiha Sasuke's look around finally stopped at the word "worry".

He pursed his lips, and the anger in his heart was rekindled for no reason.

He replied in a cold voice: "Whatever."

Knowing that if he didn't refuse it would mean he agreed, Haruko opened the door and looked at him first.

Nothing happened except that his expression was deliberately cold.

After confirming that Uchiha Sasuke was fine, she breathed a sigh of relief, the anxiety between her brows faded away, and she turned around and closed the door gently.

Taking in her series of reactions, Uchiha Sasuke frowned irritably, and even the movement of sitting down clearly revealed his impatience.

Not being intimidated by him, Zaojian Qingzi walked briskly to sit down opposite him.

If Uchiha Sasuke really didn't want to see her, he would not have let her in at all, instead of doing what he did now, clearly acquiescing to her approach and pretending to be annoyed.

"It seems that Sasuke got home safely last night."

Her inexplicable sigh made Uchiha Sasuke look confused.

His silence towards her broke his pretended indifference and quietly revealed his first layer of disguise, without Uchiha Sasuke himself realizing it.

"Have you been with Uzumaki Naruto for too long? Your brain has become stupid."

His harsh words were not questions but affirmations.

Haruko's smile remained unchanged in the morning, and even deepened a little.

"Luckily, we have Sasuke with us. We all seem a lot smarter now, don't we?"

Facing her bright and smiling eyes, Uchiha Sasuke didn't know for a moment whether she was mocking him or really believed it.

It is said that interpersonal relationships are like a mirror.

Uchiha Sasuke was used to being arrogant and was in a prickly state, so he felt offended when facing the gentle Hayabusa Haruko.

However, he would never admit that it was his problem.

"Really? I didn't choose my teammates. What happens to you has nothing to do with me."

Glancing at Haruko's astonishment in the morning, Uchiha Sasuke's pride in turning the tables did not last long, and his nameless anger grew even stronger.

It's hard to say who I'm angry at.

There was Haruko Hayama who had abandoned him, and there was the stupid Uzumaki Naruto...

And maybe to himself.

It was as if they were back to the time when they had just known each other for a short time, when they could not be called friends but only acquaintances. Uchiha Sasuke felt that she had bad intentions whenever he heard her say anything.

Thinking of this, Haruko Zao couldn't help but clench her fist to her mouth and cover up her smile with a cough.

Uchiha Sasuke who thought he was arguing:?