Olive Branch

Yue suddenly reached out, wanting to hold Sasuke.

Fugaku was about to refuse, but he felt an obscure ocular power lock onto him.

That girl who had awakened the Mangekyo...

He nodded stiffly, signaling Mikoto to hand the child over.

He did not sense any malice directed at Sasuke.

Though worried, Mikoto saw her husband's nod and could only carefully pass Sasuke into Yue's arms.

Yue took the infant who carried the reincarnation of Indra's chakra, his movements unexpectedly gentle.

"Is this... the hope of the future?"

Yue looked at little Sasuke in his arms, a flash of complex emotion crossing his eyes.

In the original timeline of fate, this child would lose all his clansmen in a few years, then awaken a single-tomoe Sharingan in his rage.

"Hikari, come take a look."

Yue turned his head to call out to Uchiha Hikari, who had been standing at the door keeping watch.

Hikari froze for a moment, then walked over hesitantly. She looked at the soft, squishy creature in Yue's arms, her hands—accustomed to killing—clutched awkwardly behind her back.

"Is this... a cub?"

Hikari leaned in curiously, extended a finger, and tentatively poked Sasuke's soft, pink cheek.

It was soft, warm, and it moved.

"Mmph..."

Seemingly poked awake, little Sasuke frowned and smacked his lips twice; instead of crying, he reached out a tiny hand and grabbed Hikari's finger.

Hikari's entire body stiffened, as if she had been hit by a binding jutsu.

For the first time, a flicker of something called "wonder" appeared in her hollow eyes.

"He grabbed me." Hikari turned to look at Yue, her voice tinged with panic. "Yue, is he trying to attack me? Should I counterattack?"

"Pfft..."

Yue nearly dropped the child, and Mikoto, standing nearby, covered her mouth to stifle a giggle; the previously tense atmosphere eased instantly.

"He's just saying hello to you, you silly girl."

Yue shook his head with a smile, then handed Sasuke back to Mikoto.

"Raise him well; this child will be formidable in the future."

Having said that, Yue withdrew the smile from his face, turned, and walked straight to the head seat of the tatami room, sitting down without ceremony as if he were the master of the house.

"Alright, the small talk is over."

Yue raised his head, his deep right eye turning cold and sharp once more, staring directly at Fugaku Uchiha.

"Lady Mikoto, please take the children and step out for a moment. The following conversation is not suitable for children to hear."

Fugaku nodded at Mikoto.

Though Mikoto's heart was filled with worry, she was a smart woman and knew there were some things she could not interfere with.

She took one last deep look at Yue and Hikari, then held Sasuke and took the hand of Itachi, who kept looking back, before exiting the room and thoughtfully sliding the shoji door shut.

As the sound of footsteps faded, the air in the room solidified once again.

Hikari walked silently into the shadows behind Yue, her hand resting back on the hilt of her blade, returning to her "keep away" posture.

"October 10th, the time of Kushina Uzumaki's childbirth."

Yue Uchiha did not beat around the bush, throwing out the bombshell that could blow up all of Konoha right from the start.

"A masked man from the Uchiha Clan will take advantage of the moment when the seal is weakest to undo the Nine-Tails' seal and use the Sharingan to manipulate it into destroying the village."

Fugaku's hand jerked violently, splashing a few drops of tea.

There was still over a month to go, and even the high-ranking officials likely didn't know the specific day of the birth; how did this person in front of him know? Was it the power of his Mangekyo?

"When that time comes, as long as the reflection of a Sharingan is seen in the eyes of the Nine-Tails that night, the fate of the Uchiha Clan goes without saying."

"Let me tell you what I have seen: after the Nine-Tails goes on a rampage, they will immediately order the Uchiha Police Force to evacuate civilians, strictly forbidding you from getting within half a step of the Nine-Tails. Because they are afraid—afraid that you will control the Nine-Tails, and even more afraid that this is a coup you have orchestrated."

"And when the disaster ends, the villagers and ninja who have suffered heavy casualties will discover that the Uchiha Clan, who possess the Sharingan and should have been able to suppress the Nine-Tails, remained completely unscathed during the catastrophe."

Yue leaned forward slightly, staring fixedly at Fugaku's pale face:

"By then, even if Danzo and the Third Hokage do nothing, the seeds of suspicion will have taken root in everyone's hearts. The Uchiha's situation will be even worse than it is now; you will go from being the 'founders' of Konoha to 'suspects,' eventually being driven to the corner of the village and monitored like thieves."

"This is the 'boiling a frog in warm water' method."

Fugaku's breathing became rapid.

"The Fourth Hokage would never do that; he and we are in an alliance."

"Oh? That's right, I forgot to mention: the Fourth Hokage will sacrifice himself in this Nine-Tails Incident, and then the Third will continue to hold power, with Danzo right alongside him."

He wanted to refute, to say how could the Fourth Hokage possibly die, to say that the Third would not be so heartless.

But what if it were true?

Reason told him that if the Fourth died and the Third regained power, the situation might truly be as Yue said.

After all, during the years the Third held Konoha, he had watched bit by bit as the power of the Police Force was slowly whittled away.

That sense of distrust had long since become like maggots in the bone, burrowing deep into his marrow.

"Then... what do you want me to do?"

Fugaku looked up, his eyes bloodshot. "Since you have this intelligence, are we supposed to stop that masked man? Or prove our innocence to the village on that very night?"

"Prove your innocence? Don't be naive."

Yue sneered, as if he had heard a joke.

"No matter what you do, as long as the Nine-Tails appears, it is a dead end, unless..."

Yue's tone shifted, suddenly becoming filled with temptation.

"Unless the Uchiha stop playing this game of house with these hypocritical Konoha higher-ups."

He pulled a special metal plate engraved with the coordinates of Rōran from his robes and pushed it gently toward Fugaku.

"Take the clansmen and come with me."

"Go where?" Fugaku stared at the metal plate.

"Rōran."

Yue leaned back in his chair, spreading his arms to paint a grand blueprint. "It is an independent kingdom entirely under my control. There are no feudal lords pointing fingers, no Hokage's suspicion or suppression. There, you will find inexhaustible energy and technology that transcends this era."

"If the Uchiha Clan goes there, you won't need to be some gatekeeping Police Force. Your power will be respected, not feared."

"The entire clan... migrate?"

Fugaku stood up abruptly, his wide sleeves knocking over his teacup.

"That is impossible! The Uchiha are a noble clan of Konoha; our roots are here! Our honor, our land, the stone tablets of our ancestors... they are all here! If we flee now, we will become true rogue ninjas, nothing more than stray dogs!"

Fugaku's chest heaved violently. As the head of the clan, a decision to abandon his ancestral foundation and betray the village was something he could not easily agree to, even with a blade held to his throat.

That deep-seated "clan honor" and "bond with Konoha" made him instinctively reject the proposal.

"Honor?"

Standing in the shadows, Hikari suddenly spoke coldly.

"The dead have no honor."