The figure who appeared so late wasn't just a visitor, it was Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, a man who should have been dead!
Fugaku couldn't possibly believe such a thing. The red in his eyes deepened, the tomoe spinning faster, almost blurring into a solid line. His voice was low, edged with clear anger.
"Minato died sealing the Nine-Tails. I saw his body buried with my own eyes. That wasn't a fake." He glared at the man. "Who are you? How dare you impersonate the Fourth Hokage?!"
If the man's answer didn't satisfy him right away, Fugaku was ready to attack.
"Fugaku..." Minato's voice was low, completely different from his previous wry tone. "It is me. Remember... that night after the Third Great War ended?" He paused, letting the memory surface. "It was Itachi's birthday... and you came to see me. Then we secretly met at the Naka Shrine." His gaze held Fugaku's, steady and knowing. "You brought me the mission reports... the ones with the abnormal death rates. Even for B-rank missions."
He continued, his voice soft but clear, recounting a secret buried deep between them. "You didn't have concrete proof... but strongly suspected that someone high up was manipulating assignments or accessing the mission files. Rigging them to fail." Another pause, heavy with shared weight. "You had to suppress this information to minimize the conflict within the clan."
Fugaku froze. No one, absolutely no one outside of himself and Minato would know about that meeting.
Minato paused as he offered a wry smile, scratching his chin a little awkwardly. He spread his hands. "As you said... I died that night, sealing the Nine-Tails. This is... a bit tricky to explain..."
That line genuinely took Fugaku by surprise.
"But my soul didn't entirely cross over to the Pure Land," Minato continued. "A part of it stayed inside Naruto's body. And then... well, I ended up like this." He kept it short, explaining his impossible state in just a few sentences.
"A soul?" Fugaku's expression tightened further, the initial shock giving way to solemnity upon hearing this. "You're saying you're just a soul now?"
The concept of souls was a known secret in the ninja world. Forbidden jutsu like the Impure World Reincarnation (while less known) and the Spirit Transformation Jutsu used by Dan Kato (which was well known in Konoha) were proof enough that souls existed. But a soul leaving the Pure Land and manifesting on its own? That was unheard of.
Fugaku then looked towards the smaller figure standing nearby. "Naruto?"
"Uncle Fugaku, I'm sorry for visiting so late," Naruto said calmly. As he spoke, he pulled back the hood covering his head. "Some things are better discussed under the cover of darkness."
'It really is Naruto!' Fugaku and Mikoto exchanged glances, their shock visible. Countless questions flooded their minds in that instant. While the Fourth's presence and chakra signature felt strangely different from the man they'd known, Naruto was undeniably the same Naruto they knew.
"What exactly happened?" Fugaku settled back into his seat, his gaze fixed on Minato and Naruto. He spoke in a deep voice, subtly inclining his head towards Mikoto, a silent signal for her to close the doors and windows, ensuring no one could listen in.
"It all began on the night of the Nine-Tails attack..." Minato's familiar voice filled the room, and as he spoke, Fugaku's thoughts drifted back to that terrifying night years ago. The Nine-Tails' descent, the Root's interference, the Fourth Hokage's sacrifice. Everything had changed since then.
"You're saying a Masked Man attacked you that night?" After hearing Minato's account, Fugaku's already serious expression grew even sterner. His brows were furrowed deep enough to crush a fly. "And that Masked Man's Sharingan was the real reason the Nine-Tails was controlled?"
As Fourth finished his speech by mentioning sealing a part of his soul into Naruto did Fugaku regain his composure.
"So that's the truth of that night..." he murmured. It was because of a Masked Man, an Uchiha with the Mangekyou Sharingan who had appeared out of nowhere.
"An Uchiha wandering outside... shouldn't exist" Fugaku said, thinking aloud. "Since that night, I've reviewed every piece of information on every Uchiha clan member since Konoha was founded. All our clan's records are complete."
He paused, eyes narrowing. "There isn't a single Uchiha unaccounted for outside the village."
He blinked, then spoke again, a new thought dawning. "Wait... He possessed Mangekyo, right?"
"Could it be...", Suddenly, Fugaku's body stiffened. He'd just thought of a possibility, a terrifying one. There was one person, one Uchiha who wasn't officially accounted for, and who held the deepest resentment towards both the Uchiha and Konoha.
Amidst his growing alarm, Fugaku slowly uttered a name. "'Ghost of the Uchiha' Madara Uchiha." He corrected himself. "Or perhaps... a descendant of Madara Uchiha."
Madara Uchiha, an ancestor, practically a legend, among the current Uchiha generation. Years ago, Madara had returned from wandering the world, declaring his intention to lead the clan away from Konoha.
But the clan, content with their place in the village, refused to follow him. Betrayed, Madara ultimately fought the First Hokage in the Valley of the End, where he was supposedly defeated and killed.
Madara Uchiha did die in that battle, but who knew if he'd left any descendants in his travels? If Madara did have descendants outside the village, one of them could very well be the Masked Man who fought the Fourth.
And if the Masked Man was truly Madara's descendant, they would undoubtedly continue his grudge against the Uchiha and Konoha. Avenging his ancestor, destroying the clan that betrayed him. It all made a twisted sort of sense.
"A descendant of Madara Uchiha?" Minato murmured the name, considering it carefully. Having grown up hearing stories of the First Hokage, Madara often featured as the ultimate villain, so the name was certainly familiar. To think he might have faced the descendant of such a legendary figure...
Fugaku, Mikoto, and Minato all wore grim expressions. Only Naruto seemed unfazed, with an expression that didn't quite match theirs.
He knew the Masked Man's real identity. While the others' guess made logical sense based on the information they had, it was still just a guess. Madara died when he was over ninety, how would he have had descendants walking around? Maybe Obito, as Madara's inherited will, could be considered a descendant in a symbolic sense? 'Probably not,' Naruto thought.
"Regardless of who he is, his identity isn't the most important thing right now, is it?" Seeing their conversation heading further and further off track, Naruto spoke up to redirect them. They hadn't come here to figure out who the Masked Man was. Based on the current situation, the Uchiha clan didn't have much time left.
"That's right, Naruto's right," Minato agreed, turning his attention back to Fugaku. "Fugaku, my purpose here is to help the Uchiha clan. Your situation is dire." He sighed. "If I were alive, this would be much simpler, but I'm... well, dead."
He looked Fugaku in the eye. "Fugaku, do the Uchiha want to leave Konoha?"
Leave Konoha? If they could, of course they would. The entire clan felt ostracized, targeted by the village they helped build. Not everyone could bear that feeling indefinitely. If anyone else had suggested such a thing, Fugaku likely would have dismissed it as "foolish" or a "woman's naive idea" as he had before. But the Fourth Hokage? He actually could make it happen. He could get the Uchiha out of Konoha.
Using the Flying Thunder God. Spatial ninjutsu could bypass barriers, slip past the Konoha border, and take them directly to a destination.
"Then where could the Uchiha go?" Fugaku asked, the question of how to leave replaced by the problem of where. "The Land of Water? Earth? Lightning? Wind?" Where could an entire clan of Uchiha, whose Sharingan was infamous and priceless on the black market, possibly go? A common saying came to mind: 'Commoners are guilty for possessing treasures.' Without sufficient powers, they would be besieged but if they had sufficient power, they wouldn't be in this situation.
The Sharingan could instantly elevate an Genin to Tokubetsu Jonin level, and despite its side effects, its value was immense.
After all, they had Special Squads for routinely hunting down any Non-Uchiha's possessing Sharingan, the side effect of Sharingan being permanently on, along with another side effects of getting sudden power boost was the ninja would brag about it and display their ill-gotten power. Making it easier to locate them.
Naruto held up a single finger and shook it slowly. "None of those. It's..."
"...the Land of Whirlpools."
(E/N: For those wondering why Minato didn't directly mention that his soul didn't go to Pure Land rather into Shinigami's stomach for rest of eternity (as he believes it). It is because it would derail the talk and it's pointless to talk about, as Minato already accepted that choice when he used Reaper Death Seal.)
-------------------
Dear Readers and Fans,
For those eager to dive into next chapters earlier before others, I invite you to join us on Patreon. By becoming our Patron, you not only gain access to exclusive advanced chapters but also help us continue this endeavour and expand it further.
https://www.pat reon.com/8Ashes8
(no space)
You can read upto 7 Chapters in advance.