The candlelight in the wooden cabin flickered dimly.
An awkward silence settled over the room.
The Uchiha clan members really wanted to explain that they weren't actually close with the guy lying on the ground.
Tamao, feeling quite pleased with himself, kept rambling on.
Uchiha Yu calmly sipped his tea.
He was used to this kind of thing.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Mikoto staring intently at the baby swaddled in Yega's wife's arms.
"You're really quite the joker, sir."
Yega chuckled awkwardly, finally breaking the tension.
Izumi's eyes lit up. She suddenly stood and walked over to Yega's wife, excited:
"Can I hold the baby?"
Yega's wife looked to her husband.
He smiled and nodded.
Only then did she carefully pass the infant to the pretty girl with the teardrop-shaped birthmark.
Izumi gently received the child, her face lighting up with joy. Her eyes sparkled as she softly rocked the crying infant—adorably delicate like carved jade—doing her best to soothe him.
Izumi's parents had been ordinary Uchiha civilians who died during the Nine-Tails' attack.
Since then—
She had grown fond of children. She believed newborns possessed the purest souls in the world, and being near them gave her a deep sense of peace.
"WAAAH—!"
But the baby wasn't having it. Despite Izumi's efforts, he only cried harder.
Her brows furrowed slightly. She seemed unsure of what to do.
It felt like the baby didn't like her.
The moment felt painfully familiar. Izumi felt a pang of defeat and instinctively glanced toward Yu. But his expression remained serene, entirely unbothered by the baby's wailing.
Izumi was instantly caught in an awkward position.
"Let me try."
Mikoto took the baby from Izumi's arms. Izumi didn't object—gratefully seizing the way out.
Everyone turned their eyes to Mikoto.
The beautiful and elegant wife of the clan leader, driven by maternal instinct, began checking over the baby, massaging each part of his tiny body with skill and patience.
Sure enough, the baby's crying began to ease.
All the Uchiha agreed—
Compared to Izumi's clumsy rocking, Mikoto seemed completely at ease with the baby, like she was born to be a gentle and loving mother.
Izumi pouted slightly, feeling a bit wronged.
A little while later—
The baby was still crying, which puzzled Mikoto.
Yega's wife furrowed her brows too, a hint of worry showing between them. She feared something might be wrong.
Izumi, however, smiled subtly and cryptically.
Mikoto pressed her lips together.
She returned to her seat, cradling the baby, ready to use the ultimate trick she had used to soothe baby Sasuke to sleep in the past.
But just as she sat down—
The cabin suddenly fell quiet.
The crying stopped as if it had all been an illusion.
Everyone looked at Mikoto.
They couldn't help but admire her—worthy of being the wife of the clan head.
Mikoto looked surprised. She glanced down at the baby, her lips parting slightly and her brow furrowing.
Because at that moment, Uchiha Yu was silently watching the infant wrapped in the blanket. And right then, the baby, sensing someone watching him, opened his tiny bean-like eyes and stuck out his tongue.
Big eyes met small eyes.
"Mmm—"
The baby suddenly squinted his eyes, grinned, and broke into a joyful giggle, happily waving his chubby little hands—putting on a little face-changing show for everyone in the room.
The child was reaching out to Uchiha Yu, asking to be held!
"What... is going on?"
The Uchiha looked at one another in confusion.
Mikoto blinked, slightly raising her brows, her eyes swirling with puzzlement. She couldn't figure it out—how her tried-and-true methods of calming a baby couldn't compare to just one look from Yu.
She was the mother of two children, after all.
She could tell the baby wasn't hungry, wasn't having stomach issues, and definitely hadn't been startled.
He was just being fussy.
"This is..."
Even Yega and his wife didn't quite understand, but deep down, they could sense that—compared to the girl with the teardrop birthmark and the elegant noblewoman—their baby seemed to gravitate naturally toward Uchiha Yu.
Izumi's lips parted slightly as a thought came to her. She murmured:
"Grandma once said, babies instinctively feel drawn to people who are gentle, kind, and pure of heart..."
As soon as she said that—
All the Uchiha present wore complicated expressions.
If you said Captain Yu used to be gentle and kind, that might be believable. But pure of heart?
Let's not forget about his whole "life for a life" situation.
(Though to be fair, they were the beneficiaries of that.)
Some Uchiha couldn't help but wonder:
"Can a man who has a thing for widows really have a pure heart?"
Mikoto frowned slightly and held the bundle of cloth out toward Yu.
Yu paused, hesitated a moment, then reached out and carefully took the baby from her arms.
This was his first time—across two lifetimes—holding a child.
He was a little awkward at first.
Afraid of holding the baby too tightly or too loosely and making him uncomfortable. But he quickly found the right touch. What he didn't notice, though, was that Mikoto's gaze softened as she watched him cradle the baby.
"Mmm—"
The baby, now wrapped in a blanket of safety and warmth, snuggled against Yu's chest, closed his eyes, and drifted into a peaceful sleep.
Everyone looked at Yu holding the baby so gently, and then remembered the terrifying scene of him killing Danzo in cold blood.
They couldn't help but feel—
The contrast was jarring.
Mikoto half-believed what Izumi had said, but regardless, she added another mental label to Yu:
"Good with babies."
Yu's expression slowly softened as well. He quietly held the sleeping baby, waiting along with the others for Minami and the rest to return.
During this time, Yega once again tried to convince Yu to stay the night, but Yu declined each time.
About an hour later—
Bang—
The wooden door flew open.
"Captain Yu, we're back…"
Minami returned with two teammates. As soon as they stepped through the door, one foot over the threshold, they scanned the room—and were instantly struck by a metaphorical bolt of lightning.
They were stunned speechless.
At the wooden table—
Uchiha Yu was holding a baby, with Mikoto seated calmly beside him. The scene was peaceful and serene, brimming with warmth and comfort.
"No way… I… I was only gone for a little while, and now you've got a kid?"
Minami's scalp tingled as he pushed up his glasses, too shocked to speak properly. He stared dumbfounded at Yu and Mikoto, honestly expecting some kind of explanation.
The three of them were half-afraid Mikoto would smile sweetly and say:
"Yes, we have a child together!"
What kind of worldview-shattering madness would that be?
Yu and Mikoto both turned their eyes toward the door.
Minami and his teammates were dragging a rope, tied at the end to a middle-aged man in nothing but red briefs, with leg hair thicker than a forest.
The man's gaze was evasive, his face bruised and battered. He shrank back behind Minami, trembling, eyes cast to the floor.
Yu frowned, confused.
The other Uchiha—along with Yega—all looked incredibly weirded out. Yega seemed to recognize the man, but clearly decided pretending not to was the smarter choice in this situation.
"What's going on?"
Izumi couldn't bear to look at the eye-searing scene and asked quickly.
Minami snapped out of it and replied,
"This is the most famous doctor in Kikyo City. When we found him, he was… saving lives."
Everyone immediately raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Since when does saving lives involve taking your pants off?" Izumi scoffed.
Minami explained bluntly: "Oh, he was in a VIP suite in Kabukicho. With a bunch of women.
When we found him, he didn't want to come.
So we beat him up a little.
When we asked what he was doing, he said he was saving those poor women's lives."
Upon hearing this, Yu gently handed the sleeping baby back to Yega's wife and said, "Go back to the bedroom. Not suitable for children."
Yega wife blushed, shot the sleazy doctor a sharp glare, and quickly retreated to her room.
Mikoto's face flushed red in an instant. She was completely embarrassed—and a little frustrated that Minami had brought this kind of person back.
Yu stepped in front of the sketchy-looking doctor. With a glance, he seemed to spot something and asked in a cold tone:
"Medical-nin?"
The man with the thick hair and bruises nodded weakly, clearly lacking in stamina.
"I served during the Third Shinobi War. Was assigned to a border region hospital by Konoha."
Yu reached out with his right hand and grabbed the man by the collar of his canvas shirt, lifting him like a chicken and tossing him beside the "mummy" that was Tamao.
With a calm voice, he ordered:
"Do everything you can. Heal him."
The lecherous-looking doctor looked up at Yu. That sharp gaze felt like a thousand senbon piercing his soul. He didn't dare meet it.
"O-Okay, okay! I'll help treat him. But you've got to promise—once he's healed, let me go!"
He tested the waters cautiously.
He'd been asked to treat rogue ninjas before—but those ones had always treated him politely.
In all his years as a medical-nin, this was the first time he'd met such an overbearing bunch.
"Mn." Yu tossed him down beside Tamao and said nothing else.
Tamao weakly opened his eyes, glared at the doctor, and sneered, "Bro, just looking at this guy, he's clearly in late-stage kidney deficiency. Doesn't look too reliable!"
The doctor, on the other hand, was surprisingly easygoing. After Yu's promise, he squatted beside Tamao, grinning ear to ear. "Healers can't heal themselves!"
°°°
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