The So-Called Battle for Public Opinion

Night deepened, and the noisy barbecue restaurant was left behind.

Inside the apartment where Nishikawa Tetsu lived alone, blueprints and spare parts had been hurriedly pushed into a corner, making room for a small square table.

Under the dim yellow lamplight, the atmosphere was far more somber than it had been at the barbecue.

"The situation is clear."

Nishikawa Tetsu slapped a copy of Hanzō's announcement onto the table and tapped the words "Asura" with his fingertip.

"Hanzō has labeled you as 'power' and 'fear.' The villagers fear you, the higher-ups are wary of you, and your clan wants to use you. Those pressures converge into a dead end."

Uchiha Fugaku sat cross-legged on the tatami, his expression dark. He didn't argue.

"So, we need to strike back." Nishikawa Tetsu pulled a stack of blank paper and a bottle of ink from the drawer. "I call it the 'Star Creation Plan.'"

"Star creation?" Namikaze Minato blinked in confusion. "Are we going to make Captain Fugaku famous like a singer at the Daimyo's Mansion?"

"More or less, but we'll take a different approach."

Nishikawa Tetsu uncapped his fountain pen, his eyes as cool as if he were dissecting a frog. "We're going to reshape Uchiha Fugaku's image. We'll turn him from 'a monster with the power to destroy the world' into 'a tragic hero who would sacrifice himself to protect his comrades.'"

He raised one finger. "First, acknowledge his power, but emphasize the cost."

"We need everyone to know that you awakened those eyes not to kill, but to save Minato and me. And the price was enormous."

At that, Nishikawa Tetsu looked at Fugaku, his tone turning playful. "In other words, we're going to—play up your suffering."

"No."

Uchiha Fugaku refused outright, his brow furrowing into a deep crease. It was the pride of the Uchiha Clan, etched into his very bones, speaking.

"The Uchiha can die in battle. We can be feared. But we must never be pitied. Having me show my wounds to civilians to win their sympathy? That would be worse than killing me."

"Captain Fugaku, how much does pride cost per pound?"

Nishikawa Tetsu shot back without a hint of courtesy. "In political struggles, only the weak care about dignity. The victors only care about results."

"And besides, this isn't just for your sake."

Nishikawa Tetsu leaned forward, staring hard at Fugaku through his plain glasses, then played his trump card:

"You don't want the higher-ups' suspicions to push the Uchiha to the margins, forcing the clan into a coup—and leaving Mikoto a widow while she's still young, or making her bring you meals in prison, do you?"

"..."

Uchiha Fugaku's expression stiffened.

The barbecue he'd just eaten seemed to churn in his stomach, and Mikoto's gentle smile flashed through his mind.

A deathly silence fell over the room.

After a long while, Fugaku seemed to deflate like a punctured ball, his formerly straight back bending a little.

He irritably ran a hand through his hair and turned away, his voice muffled:

"...Write it however you want, but don't make it too sappy. I can't stand that."

"Deal."

A triumphant smile curled Nishikawa Tetsu's lips, and he immediately bent his head and began writing furiously.

"Tonight, we need to put together the first batch of 'front-line accounts.'"

For the next two hours, the only sound in the room was the scratch of a pen across paper.

Nishikawa Tetsu brought to bear the meticulousness of a researcher writing a paper in his previous life, along with the knack for melodrama he'd gained from reading countless cheap novels.

<Bloody Night of Rain: The Young Clan Leader of the Uchiha Clan's Final Song!>

<To Protect! The Life-and-Death Bond Between Konoha's Flash and the Uchiha!>

<Shocking! The Price of Awakening the Eyes of a God Is Blindness? An Exclusive Look at Team Five's Bloody History!>

One sensational headline after another appeared on the page.

The contents were even more exaggerated: Fugaku was portrayed as a great ninja, cold on the outside but warm within, who would drain his life for his teammates and stand between them and the enemy even as blood ran from his eyes.

The account repeatedly emphasized phrases like "failing eyesight," "body pushed beyond its limits," and "may never return to the battlefield."

"This is a bit..."

Namikaze Minato read the draft. When he reached the passage about "Fugaku groping for his teammate's hand in the darkness," he got goosebumps. "Captain Fugaku could still stand up and kill people at the time..."

"Art comes from life, yet rises above it." Nishikawa Tetsu blew on the ink to dry it. "That's called the art of selective narration."

Uchiha Fugaku glanced over the pages with a dark expression, the corner of his eye twitching, but he chose to stay quiet.

For Mikoto's sake, he'd endure it.

The next morning, at Konoha Hospital.

The hospital was busiest in the early morning. The people coming and going included not only the injured, but also the families of the various ninja clans and ordinary civilians.

Yakushi Nonō had just finished her rounds and was walking down the corridor with a medical file in her arms when a hand pulled her into a storage room in the corner.

"Nishikawa-kun?"

Nonō adjusted her glasses and looked at the mysterious boy before her. "This is next to the women's changing room. People will think you're a pervert."

"There's no time, Nonō."

Nishikawa Tetsu didn't waste words. He simply shoved a copy of the "Internal Injury Report" he'd put together the previous night into her hands.

"Do me a favor." Nishikawa Tetsu lowered his voice. "You're a Medical Ninja, and you often deal with injured people and their families from the various clans. I need you to let the contents of this report slip out without making it obvious."

Nonō glanced down.

The report stated in bold: Uchiha Fugaku, severe damage to the optic nerves in both eyes, Chakra pathways depleted, suspected risk of permanent blindness.

"This is... fake, right?" Nonō hadn't been part of the final battle, but she knew Fugaku had been able to walk back under his own power.

"Half true, half false."

Nishikawa Tetsu leaned against the doorframe, watching the corridor through the gap. "He really did push himself to the limit on the battlefield, and his eyes really were injured. We've just made the consequences a tiny bit 'more serious.'"

Nonō was a clever girl. She'd grown up in an orphanage and had an instinctive understanding of people. She quickly grasped the key to his plan.

"You want to use 'vulnerability' to offset 'fear'?"

Nonō closed the report, a glint flashing behind her lenses. "If people know that the 'Asura' is actually a patient who's nearly blind, they won't be as afraid of him. They might even feel sorry for him."

"Talking to smart people sure saves time." Nishikawa Tetsu took an envelope from his pocket. "This is payment. I know you're saving up to repair the orphanage."

During their earlier conversation, Nishikawa Tetsu had learned that the future orphanage director had already started saving for repairs. As an orphan himself in this life, he felt he could help a fellow orphan if he was able.

Besides, the money had all come from the Uchiha Clan anyway. He didn't feel even the slightest bit guilty about being generous with someone else's money.

Nonō didn't refuse and accepted it openly.

"Deal. Gossip like this spreads fastest at the nurses' station and in the wards."

A few days later.

A current called "the truth" began to ripple through the streets and alleys of Konoha.

At first, it was just a few women chatting while shopping for vegetables. Then it reached the drunks in the izakayas, and finally even the Ninja Academy students were talking about it.

"Hey, have you heard? Uchiha Fugaku might not be as terrifying as people say."

"My second uncle works as an orderly at the hospital. He said he saw Lady Tsunade sighing and saying that if Captain Fugaku used his eyes one more time, he'd go completely blind!"

"Really? Didn't Hanzō say he was an Asura?"

"What Asura? He was saving his teammates! I heard he awakened his eyes after burning through his life force just to protect that civilian, Namikaze Minato."

"So... he's a man with a heart after all."

"You bet! He blinded himself for his comrades. The Uchiha Clan isn't so cold-blooded after all..."

The tide had turned.

Inside the Hokage Building, Danzo listened to a Root ninja's report, his fingers gripping his cane so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

"Playing up their suffering? A foolish tactic."

Danzo snorted, his single eye filled with gloom. "But it works on those ignorant civilians... Since when did the Uchiha learn tricks like this?"