Stripping Surnames

At the call of Uchiha Fugaku, the Uchiha Clan meeting was held ahead of schedule. Adult members from every household came to attend.

Uchiha Kenji was forbidden from participating in this gathering. Even Uchiha Fugaku was worried he might stir up more trouble and dredge up the scandal that had finally settled down.

The meeting was held at Naka Shrine, the secret gathering place of the Uchiha Clan.

Uchiha Fugaku sat in the main seat and explained Uchiha Mika's request for divorce to the assembled crowd, asking everyone to reach a collective decision.

As Fugaku finished his account, the eldest elder spoke coldly:

"She is merely a woman from an outside clan. Since she is divorced, she is no longer a member of the Uchiha Clan. What right does she have to take a child of our Uchiha Clan with her? Just kick her out."

"Exactly," added a middle-aged man sitting near the front who appeared to hold a high status. "She was only caught in the blast of an Explosive Tag; letting her leave is already a massive act of mercy. How dare she make demands?"

The crowd nodded in agreement.

Mika felt a wave of panic. She knew this would face great resistance, but she hadn't expected such immediate opposition from everyone.

Uchiha Fugaku said, "Even so, the party involved, the child named Uchiha Cheng, insists on leaving with his mother. We should consider the child's own wishes."

The elder from before opened his eyes, revealing a sharp gaze, and said, "A traitorous brat! With the blood of my Uchiha Clan flowing through his veins, he actually sides with an outsider. Why consider the thoughts of such a turncoat? Lock him in the clan grounds and teach him a lesson. Only when he is corrected should he be released."

However, at this moment, another middle-aged man sitting in the front row said with a sneer, "The elder is wrong. Since the child wants to leave, we should respect his wish and let him go. But before he leaves, we should just gouge out his eyes. That way, we keep the Uchiha bloodline in the clan while satisfying the child's request. Why not do it?"

A chill ran through the crowd; such a method was truly too vicious.

Uchiha Cheng, who was listening from the side, stared at the man who had spoken, a murderous intent rising in his heart. They had no grudge, yet the man was so sinister.

"Mother, who is that man?"

Mika's voice was also icy.

"He is the father of the child you injured before, Uchiha Kento. I suppose he said that to take revenge."

He hadn't expected this man to be so insidious and cruel, wanting to gouge out a child's eyes over a small scuffle between kids. Uchiha Cheng secretly marked him in his heart.

You old bastard, just you wait. Once I get through this, if Uchiha Itachi doesn't finish you off, I'll do it myself.

Seeing that the situation was spiraling out of control, Uchiha Shisui spoke up to stop it. Although young, he was the most outstanding genius of the Uchiha Clan, possessing great strength and a level of influence and authority that belied his age.

"Gouging out his eyes is going too far. Uchiha Cheng is, after all, a member of our clan. If word got out that we treated our own kin this way, wouldn't people laugh at us? It would make outsiders think the Uchiha are just like the Hyuga Clan, a family that enslaves and persecutes its own members."

The crowd felt this made sense. They often attacked the Hyuga Clan for enslaving their own kin.

Uchiha Fugaku nodded and said, "As Shisui said, the act of gouging out eyes is absolutely unacceptable. Since everyone cannot reach a decision, I have a proposal.

In the past, women of the Uchiha Clan have married outside the clan, but they must still obey the family's orders. Furthermore, if the children born to them awaken the Sharingan, they must take the Uchiha surname and be brought back to the clan to be raised.

Since Uchiha Mika married into the Uchiha Clan, she is considered a member of our clan. I think we should handle this matter according to this precedent.

Let Uchiha Mika take the child and leave, and we will send people to periodically check if the child has awakened his eyes. If he awakens the Sharingan, we bring him back to be trained; if he doesn't, the family loses nothing.

Elder, what do you think?"

The elder pondered for a moment and nodded in agreement.

As it stood, Uchiha Fugaku's proposal was the most appropriate. Imprisonment and eye-gouging seemed too cruel and could easily be used as ammunition by outsiders. Moreover, during this period, the relationship between the clan and the village was increasingly tense; if this minor matter became an excuse for the village to attack them, the loss would outweigh the gain.

Seeing that the clan head and the elder had reached a consensus, the others followed suit.

"But there is one more thing," the elder said. "Since this child is so partial to outsiders, I want to strip him of his surname. Unless he awakens the Sharingan, he is not allowed to carry the Uchiha surname, enjoy the protection of the Uchiha Clan, and he will be removed from the clan genealogy."

Hearing the elder's words, Uchiha Cheng's eyes lit up. He had been worried about how to avoid the Uchiha Clan massacre! He hadn't expected someone to hand him a pillow just as he was getting sleepy.

If he lost the Uchiha surname and was removed from the genealogy, then no matter how the Uchiha massacre played out, it wouldn't involve him. He only needed to keep an eye on that old silver coin, Danzo.

He had solved two difficult problems—the divorce and the massacre—in one go.

A double blessing.

He looked at the old man and found him increasingly pleasing to the eye.

It's a deal, no backing out.

Uchiha Fugaku nodded in agreement. If he wanted to fulfill the agreement and secure the child's departure, he had to make concessions on this point.

In reality, he didn't want to strip the child of his surname. If the connection remained, the child might have returned to the family when he grew up. Now that the surname was severed, the child would have no sense of belonging to the clan.

However, it didn't matter. The child was Uchiha Kenji's son, and Uchiha Kenji's bloodline was quite inferior; he had barely awakened a single tomoe in his twenties and had married a woman from an outside clan. The possibility of the child awakening the Sharingan was minimal.

The crowd voted by a show of hands, and more than half agreed with the decision. Some still felt that gouging out the eyes was more appropriate, such as Uchiha Kento.

The minority bowed to the majority. In the end, Uchiha Cheng was stripped of his surname and driven out of the Uchiha Clan. The subsequent division of property was left entirely to the Uchiha Clan to handle.

The Uchiha Clan was highly efficient in this matter. The mother and son had nothing to their names and were driven out of the Uchiha clan grounds that very night.

Having left the Uchiha Clan, it felt as if a heavy stone had been lifted from her heart, and Mika revealed a long-lost smile.

"Mom, where are we going now?" Cheng asked.

Mika ruffled Cheng's hair and smiled.

"I've already asked a friend in advance and found a place for us to rent. Let's head there."

"A friend? Which friend?"

"Her name is Haruno Mebuki, a former patient of mine. She thought my medical skills were quite good and often came to me for treatment, so we grew familiar over time."

Haruno Mebuki? If memory served, that was the name of Naruto's heroine Haruno Sakura's mother.

The mother and son walked toward the village, their figures vanishing into the night.