Deep within a secluded, traditional sector of the Konoha lay an estate that felt entirely removed from the destructive streets. It was a place defined by towering wooden gates, the sharp, metallic scent of freshly forged steel, and walls adorned with ancient crests.
This was the territory of a proud, long-standing lineage of weapon masters and scouts—a clan whose history was deeply woven into the foundation of the shinobi world, long before they eventually faded into the shadows of the village's grander families.
Inside the main manor, the atmosphere was quiet and heavy with tradition. Sliding open a paper screen door revealed a spacious room floored entirely with woven straw mats, where a stern-looking man sat behind a low wooden desk.
This was Fuma Arata, the current head of the Fuma clan. He was deeply engrossed in his work, diligently organizing clan scrolls and inventory sheets of specialized ninja tools, his brow furrowed in concentration.
Suddenly, the heavy sliding gate at the entrance of the room brushed open with a swift rustle.
Arata didn't even look up from his papers as a familiar figure stepped inside. It was his wife—the very same woman who, just a short while ago, had been gossiping loudly with the other housewives in the commercial district.
"Dear..." she called out, her voice a mix of breathless excitement and urgency.
The clan head let out a heavy, irritated sigh, finally tossing his ink brush onto the desk. He looked up at her, his face completely angry.
"What?! What in the world is the matter with you today?" Arata scolded sharply, crossing his arms. "Coming in here again, and again, and again! Can't you see I am busy with the clan's affairs?"
Instead of going away from his harsh tone, his wife quickly hurried across the room. She lowered herself down, sitting traditionally in a polite formal posture on the soft cushion directly in front of his desk.
Reaching across the wood, she eagerly took his hand in hers, her eyes shining with absolute certainty.
"Dear, I have incredibly good information for you..." she whispered eagerly, squeezing his hand tightly. "Information that can raise the image and status of our entire clan! And here you are, doing nothing but scolding me the moment I walk through the door."
Arata paused, his irritated expression faltering for a split second. He stared at his wife, his analytical mind instantly catching onto her words.
"An information... that could raise our clan's respect?"
"Yes, dear!" she exclaimed, her eyes widening with the thrill of holding such a massive secret. "I just came back from the commercial district, and you know, a massive battle has occurred!"
Arata's hand went entirely still. He narrowed his eyes, his voice dropping into a low, serious tone. "A battle?"
"I don't know if it has stopped or not..." she replied breathlessly, leaning closer across the desk. "But I saw a man who... you know, looked like whom?"
Arata's patience was already wearing thin, his brow furrowing deeper.
"Whom?"
Seeing her husband completely locked into the conversation, she smirked triumphally. "I just heard from one of my Uchiha friends that a young boy, nearly five or six years old, is being kept in the Uchiha headquarters. Is that true?"
Arata went quiet for a moment. Recalling the secret details of the emergency meeting held just yesterday among the village's high-ranking figures, he slowly nodded his head.
"Yes, it is so..."
The wife smiled brightly, practically bursting with excitement. "So what... I sneaked in with the help of my friend and her husband inside the headquarters to have a glance of the kid! And guess what...?"
She squeezed his hand tightly, her voice dropping to a sharp, dramatic whisper that made Arata's heart skip a beat.
"His face is exactly the same as the person who attacked the commercial district later today only!"
The very second those incredible words left her mouth, the ground beneath their feet shook violently.
A massive, deafening BOOM—!!! echoed through the estate, completely shattering the quiet tradition of the room. The entire wooden wall facing the outside courtyard was instantaneously destroyed, crashing open in a violent explosion of splintering wood and thick, suffocating dust.
"KYAAAAAA—!!!" the woman screamed at the top of her lungs, covering her head as she threw herself flat onto the woven mats to avoid the flying wood pieces.
Arata leaped to his feet, drawing a hidden kunai in a split second as he shouted over the roaring noise, "WHAT WAS THAT?!!!"
As the heavy dust slowly began to clear, Arata's sharp eyes caught a strange, eerie reflection of brilliant crimson color glowing amidst the broken stones.
The light flickered like an ominous flame, cutting through the haze. When the smoke finally drifted away, they could see the shape of a man who had clearly been thrown with immense, brutal force, smashing right into their living space.
Right as he[1] was about to confront the man, the fallen man himself let out a massive, furious shout that ripped through the open air.
"SASUKEEE—!!!"
But the moment the shout left his mouth, a low, rumbling chuckle vibrated in his chest, turning into a loud laugh.
"Haha... Hahaha!" He slowly wiped a trace of dirt from his chin, his voice laced with pure, arrogant amusement.
"Now who is going to save you from what I'm going to say next...?"
In truth, this man had just been locked in a ferocious clash outside. Sasuke had delivered a devastating, high-powered kick straight to his chest, blowing him away with enough force to shatter buildings.
Acting entirely on survival instinct to prevent himself from being completely crushed or severely hurt by the blow, the man had rapidly activated his ultimate defense.
Because of that sudden, emergency burst of power, he had unintentionally crashed right through the outer walls of the Fuma clan compound.
Recognizing that terrifying voice instantly, Arata's wife scrambled backward, her hands trembling violently as she grabbed her husband's shoulder.
Tears of pure horror streamed down her face as she screamed, "Arata... Arata...! This was the man! This is the same man!!!"
Hearing her frantic scream, the stranger slowly turned his head around.
The eerie crimson light was still vividly glowing all around his body. It formed a , terrifying structure resembling a giant ribcage made of pure, solid chakra, though it was heavily damaged, cracked, and flickering from the sheer force of Sasuke's kick.
The raw, overwhelming chakra radiating from the crimson energy was suffocating.
Looking directly at the terrifying, rib-like structure of energy, Arata's blood ran completely cold. His analytical mind screamed in recognition.
'That chakra... that form... Susanoo?!'
Even as he sat there dealing with Sasuke's attack, this man's mind was simultaneously busy elsewhere.
Through a dark, hidden thread of chakra, he was actively and seamlessly controlling the actions of Uchiha Mikoto over in the commercial district, manipulating her movements like a perfect puppet without anyone else realizing it.
The man smirked, his gaze locking directly onto the trembling woman. He tilted his head, completely ignoring the clan head's weapon as he spoke in a smooth, demanding tone.
"Hey, you!... Woman. Come over here."
The wife froze, her voice trapped in her throat. Without saying a single word, she pointed a shaking finger at her own chest, gesturing 'Me?' in absolute, breathless confusion.
The man let out a dry chuckle, his smirk widening. "Yes, you... unless there are other women hiding in here."
Arata's face flushed with a mix of anger and sheer embarrassment at being completely ignored and insulted in his own home, but looking at the terrifying, glowing power of the damaged crimson armor, he did not dare say a single word to provoke him.
The man cracked his neck, completely making himself at home in the ruined room.
"Make me a cup of tea—" Hikaru demanded coldly, his red eyes flashing with an evil light.
"After all, that bastard ruined it —"
It was none other than UCHIHA HIKARU
THE COMMERCIAL DISTRICT
"Oh, Sara, Miya... here you are."
The man who stepped out from around the corner carried an air of quiet, undeniable presence. He appeared to be in his late twenties, possessing a tall, well-built frame wrapped in a dark, traveling cloak that fluttered slightly in the breeze.
His sharp features were framed by messy, chin-length dark hair that fell loosely across his forehead, and his deep, calm eyes held a mixture of weariness and absolute confidence.
There was a rugged simplicity to his clothes, yet the way he carried himself made it clear he was no ordinary traveler.
Fixing his gaze tightly onto the small, teary-eyed girl, the man continued to speak, his voice echoing clearly over the street. "...Your father is here."
The moment those words dropped, absolute shock rippled through the crowd. Every single person present froze in place. Minato's eyes widened under his blond bangs, Shikaku's jaw slightly dropped, and Ibiki's stern face filled with utter disbelief.
Even Sasuke, who had been sitting on the ground, stared blankly at the newcomer. Fugaku, who was standing just inches away from the slender Mikoto, looked completely paralyzed by the statement.
And loudest of all was Tenten herself, her crying instantly cutting off as she stared at the stranger with wide, blinking eyes, entirely baffled.
Completely ignoring the elite ninja surrounding the area, the man shifted his gaze away from the child and looked directly toward Mikoto, who was still standing defensively beside Fugaku.
His expression turned instantly cold and critical. "YOU USELESS WOMAN—" he snapped, his tone laced with heavy irritation.
"Where do you think you are taking my daughter, who is just as useless like you? Tell me, do you think you can just do anything you like—"
"YOU BASTARD!!!"
Fugaku's furious scream completely drowned out the man's words. Completely losing his usual calm, stoic composure, the Uchiha clan leader lunged forward in a flash of pure rage.
His hand shot out, tightly grabbing the strange man by his collar with a vice-like grip, his knuckles turning white.
Fugaku was beyond offended—his mind was practically short-circuiting on the ridiculous absurdity that some random, unknown man had just casually walked up and claimed his own wife to be his woman!
Sasuke, who was still sitting on the ground, buried his face in his hand and muttered a single word under his breath.
"Dumbass!"
Sasuke knew exactly who this idiot was under that Henge No Jutsu. He could hardly believe his eyes—the guy was supposed to be executing a precise diversion, but instead, he had foolishly called the head of the Uchiha clan's wife and his own Mother his[2] own, instantly turning a rescue mission into a personal blood dispute!
Meanwhile, completely hidden from the chaos of the street, two figures were peeping out from behind the very same corner the strange man had just walked out from.
They had completely erased their chakra signatures, masking their presence so perfectly that not even the elite sensory ninja in the area could detect a single flicker of their
chakra.
Turning back to lean against the stone wall, Orochimaru placed a pale hand firmly against his forehead, letting out a deeply irritated, dramatic sigh.
"I knew it—" the legendary Sannin muttered to himself, turning his face away from the disaster.
"We sent a complete piece of crap for this task."
Standing right beside him, silently watching the madness unfold, was the other figure—it was Namikaze Minato who had traveled all the way from the future timeline alongside Sasuke and the others and had been thrown to Ichiraku Ramen by Sasuke.
In truth, the traveler currently being choked out by Fugaku was none other than Kawaki!
Just a few minutes prior, Kawaki had successfully run away with Orochimaru from chaotic Dango Shop which later became the place of massacre.
Upon realizing the utter mess unfolding in the commercial district, the future group had quickly cooked up a plan. Kawaki had been given a highly specific, critical task: he needed to safely remove the slender Mikoto—the fake one currently standing with Fugaku—and Tenten from the scene entirely.
Because both Tenten and this manipulated Mikoto were massive, unpredictable anomalies in this past timeline, the future group knew they had to isolate them immediately.
It was the only way to ensure that no one else would harm them, and more importantly, to stop them from accidentally causing a catastrophic ripple effect that would permanently rewrite the future history they were trying so desperately to protect.
But unfortunately, nobody had predicted Kawaki's absolute lack of social skills!
Kawaki stared right back at the furious man gripping his collar. He did not look panicked at all. In fact, his sharp eyes held nothing but pure, unbothered annoyance.
To Kawaki, the situation was simple. He knew exactly who the man standing in front of him was—he recognized him as Uchiha Fugaku, the current head of the Uchiha clan in this era.
But because Kawaki was from the future and though he had lived and seen how Fugaku had two kids also....but he had absolutely no interest in historical clan family trees, he had absolutely zero idea that the slender woman standing right there was actually Fugaku's wife!
"Let go of me.." Kawaki said coldly, his voice dripping with his heavy energy. He didn't even try to pull away, just looking down at Fugaku's white-knuckled grip as if it were a minor inconvenience.
"You're getting in my way, old man."
"Let go?!" Fugaku's voice shook the entire street, his sharingan instantly spinning into motion from pure, unadulterated rage. The chakra radiating from the Uchiha leader grew intensely heavy.
"You walk into our village, claim my wife is your woman, insult her, and then tell me I am in your way?!"
Kawaki blinked, his blunt mind finally catching the word wife. He looked from Fugaku's murderous face over to the quiet, slender Mikoto, and then back to Fugaku.
Instead of apologizing for the massive misunderstanding, Kawaki just let out a sharp, irritated click of his tongue.
"Tch. How was I supposed to know she belonged to you? Just stay out of this. I'm taking the kid and the woman, and we're leaving."
"You aren't taking anyone anywhere—you are going to die right here!" Fugaku roared, his grip tightening so hard the fabric of Kawaki's transformed cloak began to rip.
Behind the corner, Orochimaru looked like he wanted to slide down the wall and disappear into the ground. "He really is a total fool..." the Sannin whispered, rubbing his temples in pure agony.
"He just made it ten times worse."
Standing a few paces back, Nara Shikaku stared at the chaotic scene with his usual lazy, half-lidded eyes, but underneath his calm exterior, his brilliant mind was racing at a hundred miles an hour.
His analytical instincts instantly kicked in, trying to piece together this completely bizarre puzzle.
'Let's break this down...' Shikaku thought, his fingers instinctively twitching as he mentally mapped out the facts.
'The man appeared out of nowhere. His chakra signature is completely masked, meaning he's an elite ninja. He knew the names of the kids. He has a clear motive to take them away. But his approach... it makes absolutely no sense—'
'...If he wanted to kidnap them, a direct frontal confrontation with the Uchiha clan head is the worst possible strategy.'
Shikaku rubbed the back of his neck, his brow furrowing as he watched Fugaku's chakra flare up in pure, murderous rage. 'Unless... it's not a strategic move. He claimed the woman is his. He called her useless. The anger in his voice felt real, not faked. And Mikoto... she hasn't said a single word to deny it yet.'
Then, in one hidden corner of his heart, a completely unexpected, wild feeling surfaced—a scandalous thought that a genius strategist really shouldn't have been thinking during a high-stakes security crisis.
'Wait a minute...' Shikaku thought, a sweatdrop forming on the back of his head as he looked between the enraged Fugaku, the unbothered stranger, and the slender Mikoto.
'Is she... actually cheating on him? Did Fugaku's wife seriously have a whole secret life outside the compound?! Oh, man... what a drag. If this turns into a domestic dispute, the paperwork is going to be an absolute nightmare.'
Instead of backing down from the Uchiha leader's murderous glare, Kawaki completely ignored Fugaku's hand on his collar. He reached right past him, his large hand locking onto Mikoto's wrist with rough force, trying to pull her away from the scene.
"Move it, woman. We're leaving right now."
Seeing this strange man physically putting his hands on his wife right in front of him, Fugaku's mind completely snapped. He lost every single ounce of his legendary stoic composure.
"YOU DAMNNN MANNN—!!!" Fugaku screamed at the top of his lungs, his face flushing red with a mix of pure marital outrage and raw Uchiha fury. He raised his fist, ready to absolutely crash the traveler's face into the pavement.
A few feet away, Morino Ibiki stood completely frozen, watching the prestigious Uchiha clan head turn into a screaming, jealous husband right in the middle of a public street.
He slowly leaned over toward the Yondaime Hokage, his massive frame casting a shadow as he whispered right into Minato's ear in a very serious, professional tone.
"Yondaime-sama... perhaps you should tell the Uchiha clan head to take this domestic dispute and do this at home? It's getting a bit... public."
Minato stood there, a massive, twitching vein popping out on his forehead. He looked completely irritated, his usual bright, cheerful savior energy completely drained by the absolute absurdity of the situation.
'Are you serious right now?!' Minato thought, his eye twitching as he looked at Ibiki, then at the screaming Fugaku, and then at the completely unbothered stranger.
'We are in the middle of a village-wide security crisis, there's a rogue attacker on the loose, and my Elite Konoha Shinobi are treating this like a neighborhood marriage scandal?!'
The situation on the street was completely packed and utterly ridiculous. Fugaku was death-gripping Kawaki's collar, Kawaki was forcefully pulling Mikoto's wrist, and Mikoto was still stubbornly holding onto a crying Tenten. It was a complete, tangled mess of bodies right in the middle of the road.
Tenten finally couldn't take the suffocating drama anymore. Squeezing her eyes shut, she threw her head back and screamed at the top of her lungs.
"AHHHHH, STOP IT!!!"
The piercing screech instantly caused everyone to freeze. The shouting stopped, and every single eye on the street snapped directly down to the little girl.
Sitting on the ground close by, Sasuke rubbed his temples, a huge vein throbbing on his head as an annoyed thought crossed his mind. 'This idiot girl... We are literally here risking our lives to save her, and over here she is throwing tantrums like a spoiled brat!'
Breathing heavily, Tenten immediately pointed a dramatic, shaking finger straight at Sasuke on the ground.
"I don't know him!"
Then, she moved her hand around, pointing directly at the transformed Kawaki.
"Nor him!"
Finally, she glared up at the woman holding her hand. "And not even this woman! I don't know any of you people!"
Kawaki's eyes narrowed to slits, his blunt mind completely hitting its limit. 'This useless crap...' he thought, his patience totally snapping.
Even though he wanted to just knock everyone out, he knew he had to keep up the fake father act. When a kid publicly claims they don't know their own parent, the parent obviously has to react dramatically to save face. So, trying his absolute best to sound like a furious, strict dad, Kawaki shouted angrily at her:
"SAYA MIYAAAA!!!"
A heavy silence followed his loud shout.
Standing a few feet away, Shikaku's lazy eyes suddenly snapped wide open. His strategic brain caught the error instantly, and a massive sweatdrop formed on the back of his spiky head.
'Wait a minute...' Shikaku thought, his mind completely destroyed as he stared at the transformed traveler.
'Earlier when he walked in, he called her Sara Miya. Now he just screamed Saya Miya... What the hell is going on here?! Did this guy seriously just forget his own daughter's name in the middle of a domestic argument?!'
Hearing that massive, echoing shout from Kawaki, the quiet atmosphere broke yet again.
A few yards away, Kakashi, who had been lying unconscious while being carefully healed by the other small Katsuyu slugs, suddenly snapped awake.
His eyes popped open, and in his sudden, startled movement to sit up, the little slug was accidentally launched right off his shoulder, flying through the air and hitting the ground with a soft, squishy thud.
Right at that moment, the young boy who had been standing right in front of Sasuke completely snapped. Seeing the slug hit the dirt, his face flushed with pure anger as he pointed and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Hey! That's my Katsuyu!"
Realizing the kid was about to make a reckless scene, Sasuke instantly shot his hand out, trying to grab the boy's wrist to hold him back.
"Wait... Shinna..."
But Shinna didn't even hesitate. With surprising force, he cleanly broke right through Sasuke's grip, twisting his arm away as he snapped over his shoulder, "Not now, Ke-chan!"
Sasuke stood frozen, his hand still extended in mid-air as his mind completely blanked out from the sheer disrespect.
A deeply irritated, exhausted thought crossed his mind. 'What the... Is this brat seriously thinking I'm just annoying him right now? 'Not now'? Ahh, I am seriously not looking at any bunch of kids for at least a few weeks after this is over.'
With a totally irritated expression, Sasuke slowly looked over at Shinna, who was sprinting away, then shifted his gaze to a very confused Kakashi sitting on the ground, and lastly, looked over at the screaming Tenten.
Staring at the chaotic group of children currently driving him insane, Sasuke let out a heavy sigh and made one final, solid vow to himself.
'Not even my own. I'm staying far away from kids.'
Meanwhile, completely ignoring the elite ninja and the tense standoff, Shinna went running straight toward the spot where the slug had landed.
He bent down, picked up Katsuyu into his small hands, and immediately began frantically brushing the dirt off its slimy body with his palms, treating the legendary summoning animal exactly as if it were a dusty stuffed toy or a stray object.
Sitting up on the dirt, Kakashi blinked his single visible eye rapidly, his mind completely hazy. He rubbed his aching head, looking around the chaotic street in utter bewilderment.
'Wait... I'm alive? The last thing I remember was getting thrown... Where am I? What is even happening right now?'
Before he could even process the fact that he was breathing, he heard a pair of tiny, aggressive footsteps stomping right toward him.
Shinna came walking straight back to Kakashi, his small face twisted into a deeply angry, protective pout.
He didn't even look at the elite copy ninja's face; instead, he kept his eyes locked entirely on the slimy creature in his palms. With a heavy huff, Shinna aggressively used his sleeve to wipe a stubborn piece of gravel off the slug's back, totally unbothered by the slime.
Kakashi stared down at the kid's hands, his eye widening to the absolute limit under his mask. His entire ninja logic completely destroyed.
'Wait a minute...' Kakashi thought, a massive sweatdrop forming on the back of his silver hair as he watched the toddler aggressively scrub the creature.
'The legendary Katsuyu-sama... Lady Katsuyu, the legendary giant slug summon of Lady Tsunade... being held and rubbed down by a three-to-four-year-old kid? No way. That is impossible. A legendary summon would never let a toddler boss it around like that.'
Kakashi let out a quiet, breathless sigh of relief, his shoulders slumping as he convinced himself of the only logical explanation. 'Right. It must be a toy. A highly realistic, slimy squeaky toy. Yeah... I must still be half-unconscious.'
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⚡ NEXT CHAPTER ⚡
One name...One scream...One accusation...
The peaceful streets of Konoha are shaken as a forgotten legend is dragged back into the light!
As truth and deception collide, old wounds are ripped open, impossible claims ignite unimaginable rage, and the fate of the Uchiha Clan hangs by a single thread.
Can Sasuke stop history from spiraling out of control?
What secret lies behind the name that makes even the strongest shinobi tremble?
And once that name is spoken...
Will anyone escape the consequences?
Chapter 47: The Name: Hikaru
The past has remembered its greatest nightmare...
SNEAK PEEK LINES 💬
"Me and my Suyu-chans! We are the ones who healed you! Or else Miko—"
".....A snake moves silently, blends flawlessly into the shadows, and strikes without leaving a single trace.... "
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—With love, one forehead poke away from collapse,
Sakura Shinomiya 💫
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[1] Note: 'He' refers to Fuma Arata
[2] Note: 'His' over here refers to Kawaki