Chapter 256: One Year Old
"This is just too much!"
Fugaku, who had been simmering with rage at the meeting in the Hokage Building, returned home and slammed the table.
"What's wrong?"
Mikoto, holding Sasuke, entered the room.
"It's the Third Hokage again! Sigh, there's no helping it; many people saw the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in the Nine-Tailed's eyes."
Fugaku sighed.
The Night of the Nine-Tailed was truly an undeserved calamity for the Uchiha!
The leader of the Hawk Faction is also investigating now, but the key question is, where did an Uchiha capable of releasing the Nine-Tailed come from?
In Fugaku's impression, even he, the strongest of the Uchiha currently, wouldn't dare say he could definitely control the Nine-Tailed.
Even if he could, there was no need.
Originally, his relationship with Minato was decent, and Minato's attitude toward the Uchiha wasn't like that of the Third Hokage and the others.
Who would have thought Minato would actually die!
And with the Nine-Tailed bearing traces of being controlled by the Sharingan, misfortunes truly never come alone.
Immediately after, Fugaku stepped forward and took Sasuke from Mikoto's arms.
"There, there, Sasuke, Daddy's good boy."
Fugaku held the sleeping Sasuke, a trace of a smile squeezing onto his face.
Mikoto rolled her eyes at Fugaku.
She had felt back then that Fugaku naming their younger son Sasuke was aimed at the Third Hokage; after all, the Third Hokage's father, Sasuke Sarutobi, was a famous Ninja during the Sengoku period.
Of course, if they hadn't been ignorant of Danzo's father's name, their younger son would likely have been named after him instead.
The Third Hokage only harbored suspicions toward the Uchiha, but Danzo was truly relentless in his suppression.
Watching Fugaku use his spiritual victory method, Mikoto took Sasuke back and handed him to Itachi, who had been standing silently by.
"Be good, Itachi. Take your little brother to the room to rest."
"Okay."
Itachi took Sasuke's swaddling clothes and left his parents' room with him.
After Itachi left, Mikoto threw herself into Fugaku's arms, tears streaming down uncontrollably.
"I saw that child, Naruto."
Hearing Naruto's name, Fugaku's eyes also dimmed.
After the couple Minato and Kushina passed away, Mikoto had approached Fugaku about wanting to adopt Naruto.
She and Kushina were good friends, so naturally, she didn't want her friend's child to go to an Orphanage.
But wanting to adopt Naruto was impossible; Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's child and very likely the new Jinchuriki.
Which high-ranking official in Hidden Leaf Village would agree to let the Uchiha adopt Naruto?
"How is the child?"
"I saw him at the hospital... I saw... Naruto lying on a hospital bed, and there were many other children in the ward."
Her voice was filled with incomprehensible pain.
"He didn't cry. He looked over at us, and as I watched, I didn't dare look at him anymore."
"I could only look at him through the glass... but looking at him, I could do nothing."
"No one is truly taking care of him; those Anbu are just guarding a Jinchuriki!"
By the end, her sadness turned into anger:
"Minato! How could he... how could he do that? That's his own son! How could he Seal the Nine-Tailed... that monster... inside the newborn Naruto?"
Her questioning carried despair: "Yes, he is the heroic Fourth Hokage! He saved the Village! But at what cost?"
"Is the cost making Naruto carry the name of a 'monster' from birth, losing his parents, being feared by everyone, and being locked up like a weapon?"
"He is Naruto's father; could he not imagine what kind of life this child would lead?"
"He probably trusted the Third Hokage."
Fugaku didn't know how to comfort his wife anymore.
However, he believed in Minato; Minato had always been a very assertive person, and he must have had his reasons for doing this.
Minato's Flying Thunder God was very strong, but dealing with an existence like the Nine-Tailed was still too much of a stretch.
Fugaku paused.
He understood what the Nine-Tailed meant to Hidden Leaf Village.
An ultimate weapon, a strategic deterrent.
The Village said he died to Seal the Nine-Tailed, so if the Nine-Tailed is in Naruto, how did he die?
The Four Symbols Sealing Technique couldn't achieve that.
That would be the Reaper Death Seal, drawing out a portion of the Nine-Tailed's Soul and sealing the rest inside Naruto.
But at the thought of the price, his brow furrowed deeply.
The Nine-Tailed is important... that's true.
But Minato... was there really no other way?
His question had no answer, feeling more like searching for a glimmer of light in the darkness, trying to understand a friend and leader's almost cruel decision in a desperate situation.
But the fact had already happened; only the heavens knew what Minato was truly thinking at the time.
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Uchiha Itachi sat on the edge of the corridor, his eyes cast down.
He was also thinking.
Why did Mom take him and his little brother to the hospital to watch the children in the ward cry?
Moreover, that yellow-haired child with strange whisker-like markings on his face gave him a very different feeling.
Itachi always felt that the child's gaze, when they appeared, seemed to penetrate the glass and fall upon them.
Even stranger, the infant was very quiet at first, neither crying nor fussing, until a nurse walked over and patted him gently; only then did he suddenly burst into loud wails.
Mom was crying, and Sasuke in her arms followed suit.
Sasuke cried because he was infected by Mom's emotions.
What about Mom?
Why was she crying so sadly over that strange infant?
That yellow-haired child had blond hair and blue eyes just like the Fourth Hokage; in other words, was he actually Aunt Kushina's child?
Recalling that red-haired woman, Uchiha Itachi felt that must be it.
Aunt Kushina and Mom had a very good relationship.
Given her personality of loving children so much and Mom crying so heart-wrenchingly...
It seems Aunt Kushina has also died... After reaching this conclusion, Itachi felt a tightness in his chest.
Death, he had seen it.
His father had taken him to the battlefields of the Third Great Ninja War.
It wasn't the "gone to a far-off place" adults used to coax children.
It was a complete end, an eternal silence.
No more laughing, no more speaking, no more responding to any calls.
Could even someone as wonderful as Aunt Kushina not escape this cold ending?
Why?
In this world, why do kind people not get good endings?
The children in the Village, even the son of the Hokage, cannot avoid the tragedy of becoming orphans.
An unspeakable mixture of sadness, confusion, and a perception of great injustice violently buffeted his young heart.
Village, Family, Hokage... countless thoughts surfaced in Itachi's mind.
He slowly raised his head, his youthful face still calm, but those cold Three-Tomoe Sharingan reflected this all-too-cruel world.
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