The Enemy in the Shadows

"Waaah!" Uchiha Zongxin was so startled that the pudding nearly flew out of his hands. He jumped behind his older brother.

Uchiha Zongye stayed calm, only coughing awkwardly. "Naoki, you're still up? One corner of our house was knocked down by the Nine-Tails' tail, so we can't stay there for now..."

"Guess that means you've come to mooch food and lodging at my place?" Naoki set down the broom, deactivated his Sharingan, switched on the kitchen light, and eyed the two of them.

In the light, Uchiha Zongxin was clutching a pudding, with a smear of cream at the corner of his mouth. Uchiha Zongye had two sleeping bags in hand. The sight was rather comical.

"We saved your life!" Uchiha Zongxin poked his head out from behind his brother, sounding indignant. "If my brother and I hadn't been there, you'd probably be lying somewhere and starting to stink by now!"

"And?"

"That means we're entitled to reasonable compensation!" Uchiha Zongxin had already torn open the pudding and started eating. "Mmm, it's delicious. Where'd you buy it?"

Seeing Naoki's face darken, Uchiha Zongye hurriedly tried to smooth things over. "We'll pay for lodging! And we'll only stay one night. We'll find somewhere temporary tomorrow."

Naoki looked at Uchiha Zongye's earnest expression. Uchiha Zongxin was eating pudding while staring at him as if to say, "Just try refusing." In the end, Naoki sighed.

"Fine, stay. My house is pretty big, so there's no shortage of places for you to sleep. But next time, don't sneak in like this."

He tossed aside the broom and pointed to two guest rooms.

"There are two empty rooms over there. You can have them."

After saying that, he headed for his room to get back to sleep.

But before he could even make it inside, someone knocked on the gate outside the courtyard.

"They're probably here for me. You two get some rest."

After speaking to the pair in the living room, Naoki stepped outside and opened the gate.

The visitor was a colleague from the Police Force.

"Naoki, get changed. Yashiro wants to see you."

Dawn was close, but Konoha still seemed trapped in a long nightmare. The dull crash of collapsing buildings sounded from time to time in the distance, while Medical Team personnel hurried past carrying stretchers.

Naoki silently followed the way to Uchiha Yashiro's office at the Police Force.

After the colleague who had brought him left, Naoki pressed two fingers together and knocked on the wooden door.

Uchiha Yashiro was bent over some paperwork. Without looking up, he said, "Come in!"

Naoki entered and walked up to the desk. "I heard you wanted to see me. What is it?"

Uchiha Yashiro tossed aside his pen and looked at Naoki with a smile. "You really are something... You usually keep a low profile, but when it matters, you've got even more guts than your father did back in the day."

Naoki smiled.

"I just had a slight edge in information. It's nothing special."

"Still so modest." Uchiha Yashiro laughed heartily.

Naoki asked, "How is the Hokage...?"

Uchiha Yashiro shook his head. "Namikaze Minato is dead."

Naoki pressed him. "How did he die?"

Leaning back in his chair, Uchiha Yashiro spread his hands and smiled bitterly. "He used the Reaper Death Seal to seal half of the Nine-Tails inside his child, so he lost his life."

"That's not good news." Naoki slowly shook his head.

Namikaze Minato's death was a real shame for Naoki. With someone so powerful in Konoha, many troubles could have been avoided... And more importantly, with Namikaze Minato dead, the Uchiha Clan no longer had any future to speak of.

Uchiha Yashiro sighed. "Yeah. We were on good terms with Namikaze Minato. If things had gone well, the Uchiha Clan might have had someone become a Hokage Advisor, or even the Hokage... What a shame."

"Anyway, let's not talk about that." He didn't want to dwell on the subject. "Your suggestion last night was very good, but things are quietly changing..." He stood, walked over to Naoki, and plopped down on the desk. "You don't know this yet, but I just got word that the Third and some other higher-ups are still quietly questioning why we suddenly 'disobeyed orders' and joined the fight."

Naoki fell silent.

The Military Police Force's decision to join the battle had cleared them of the most obvious suspicion, but it hadn't dispelled all the doubts. It might even have made some people think the Uchiha had "overreacted" or had "ulterior motives"...

"We can't fully guess what the higher-ups are thinking," Naoki said slowly. "But we did the right thing. We saved people and shared the losses, and everyone saw that. At least we've undermined the basis of the most damaging rumor. The rest will take time." He gave a bitter smile, then added, "Who could've guessed the Nine-Tails would happen to have a Three-Tomoe Sharingan in its eye..."

"Yeah." Uchiha Yashiro murmured, then shook his head. "What scares me is that someone might not let us take our time. This whole incident is bizarre... I've racked my brains, but I can't think of anyone who could control the Nine-Tails to that extent."

"You mean..."

"There's someone we don't know about, lurking and watching from the shadows, either inside or outside the village. If this hadn't happened, that person might have stayed hidden indefinitely."

"Naoki, your performance last night was remarkable. I want you to help me figure out who might have done this."

Naoki knew the answer, of course, but he couldn't say it outright. He thought for a moment, then pretended to hesitate as he reasoned it out.

"If you look at our connection to the Nine-Tails, then among the tens or even hundreds of thousands of people from eighteen generations ago, there's probably only one candidate."

Uchiha Yashiro ventured, "Uchiha Madara?"

Naoki nodded. "That's right."

"How is that possible? Ever since the village was founded, apart from seeking out the First for a fight, he never caused trouble for the clan. And after the Battle of the Valley of the End, even the First died. How could Madara have survived and lived this long?"

"Once you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however unbelievable, must be the truth." Naoki spread his hands. "I can't think of anyone else besides Uchiha Madara."

"And think about it. Is the Nine-Tails something an ordinary ninja can control? Your own Sharingan is Three-Tomoe, right? You know better than anyone whether it could reach the level we saw last night."

Uchiha Yashiro slowly nodded.

"That makes sense." Then he added, "But it's still unbelievable. How could Uchiha Madara have lived this long, let alone fought Namikaze Minato..."

"It doesn't necessarily have to be Uchiha Madara."

Naoki began to "analyze."

"Maybe a nephew, student, or someone else inherited his will..."

Uchiha Yashiro got up and walked to the window. After thinking for a long time, he shook his head.

"That's unbelievable too. The Sharingan that controlled the Nine-Tails last night couldn't possibly have been Three-Tomoe. It had to be the Mangekyō Sharingan." He finally realized what that meant and whipped around to look at Naoki. "So there's another enemy this powerful lurking in the shadows?"