Loyalty

Qi thought he had made himself clear enough. This was more than enough to justify his not going to the battlefield.

But reason had never been the guiding principle behind people's actions. Self-interest was.

The war on the front lines had put Minato Namikaze under tremendous pressure. His marrying Kushina Uzumaki hadn't been down to his good looks alone. He'd also had to agree to marry into her family. He was willing to make that sacrifice for love, but that didn't mean he wanted to remain beneath others forever. He yearned to make a name for himself.

But he couldn't do that on his own.

So he pinned his hopes on the Uchiha Clan, whom he had visited once under the guidance of his teacher, Jiraiya.

He was a kind man, but he wasn't a fool. He knew that the clans he'd visited with his teacher all seemed kind and eager to get close to him, but the Uchiha were the only ones who seemed to have a use for him.

He'd thought that with the Uchiha Clan leader's approval, he would get what he wanted today and persuade the clans to send some of their ninja to the battlefield, easing the pressure on the front lines.

With a powerful clan like the Uchiha taking the lead, the others would at least contribute a little.

Even if the major clans only contributed a little, the tide on the front lines would turn.

There was no helping it. Compared with ordinary ninja, those from clans with secret techniques could each take on two or three civilian-born ninja. Every ninja knew that.

But now it seemed he'd been too optimistic. The Uchiha weren't a monolith, and not everything could be decided by the clan leader alone.

Still, Minato felt that although the situation before him wasn't promising, there was still hope of turning things around. At the very least, he knew that the man who dared to contradict the clan leader was a responsible Uchiha elder.

He might be young, but young people were always passionate. If Minato could redirect his sense of responsibility toward the Uchiha to the village, then he could still get what he wanted.

Fortunately, Qi had no idea what Minato was thinking. If he had, he would have said, "What an overconfident creep. So gross."

"Qi, you're still a child. You don't understand. Without the village, there can be no home. If everyone were like you, concerned only with protecting their own little homes and not the village, then our village would cease to exist."

Listening to Minato, Qi thought that ninja really were a bunch of muscleheads with no education. He'd been hoping for so long that someone as much like an idol as Minato would say something profound, but in the end, it was the same old nonsense.

"Minato, the village was founded to protect our families. If it can no longer protect our families, then it has no reason to exist."

"Don't you dare! How can you say that? Our ancestors built this village with their blood!" Fugaku couldn't hold back any longer.

Now that Qi had turned the idea that the Uchiha were the masters of Konoha into something everyone accepted, Fugaku didn't want him to destroy that consensus.

Minato was also stunned by Qi's words, which sounded as if he were about to start a rebellion. He stared at him, dumbfounded. "Qi, don't you love your village?"

"For all these years, the village has kept asking whether we Uchiha love it. But it's never once asked whether the village loves us."

"But! How could the village not love you? The village loves everyone in it. The Uchiha are no exception."

"Love has to go both ways. The Uchiha are willing to take ninety-nine steps toward that love, but only if the village takes the first one. The Uchiha have already given so much to the village, and yet we've received no response at all."

"Then what do the Uchiha want the village to do?"

"Minato, you're being too idealistic. This isn't something you can decide. Go enjoy your welcome ceremony today. You won't have many happy days like this in the future."

Minato fell silent. Orochimaru fell silent. Fugaku didn't want to be silent, but he felt that the welcome ceremony Qi had seemed poised to ruin had somehow taken a different turn. He neither wanted to keep quiet nor had anything to say.

The sun sank in the west. There was no reason to linger at a gathering where no one had anything to say. The sunlight stretched Qi's shadow long, and everyone had their own plans.

Perhaps the only ones without any plans were those hot-blooded youths with nothing in their heads.

Watching Qi walk away, Uchiha Itachi suddenly called out, "Uchiha Qi, when Konoha faces life or death, will you go to the battlefield? Or will you still find an excuse not to fight?"

Everyone was shocked by Uchiha Itachi's blunt question.

A moment ago, they'd all been lost in thought about what they were fighting for. How could anyone still think Lord Qi was afraid to fight?

Qi felt sick with disgust. He couldn't stand people with an uncanny sixth sense like that.

The mood had been built up so perfectly. How could someone still come to the right conclusion?

Minato immediately realized that Itachi's question favored the village. Whether Qi answered or not, it would benefit the village: if he answered, it would look like sophistry; if he didn't, he'd look guilty.

Orochimaru's eyes grew even colder. If he ever had a son like that, it would give him a lot to worry about.

What exactly did marriage bring to a man?

Fugaku also felt a little uneasy. If Itachi were the Hokage, the question would have been perfectly appropriate. But whether it was appropriate for Itachi to say it now was another matter.

Everyone held their breath, waiting to see how Qi would react.

After all, his great image as a man who served the village and its people had been established by his speech just moments ago. He couldn't contradict himself now.

Itachi's response would be interesting, too.

On a broader level, this was Konoha questioning the Uchiha, with the words simply coming from the mouth of an Uchiha child. If it proved inappropriate, they could always treat it as an internal disagreement within the Uchiha Clan.

The few seconds stretched endlessly.

Then a voice rang out from the distance:

"My heart and my actions are as clear as a mirror. Everything I do is righteous!"

Without a care for how the others reacted, Uchiha Qi raised his arm and called, "Uchiha, let's go home!"

At that moment, the cry of "Uchiha" seemed to include more than just the Uchiha of Qi's own branch. The Uchiha who had been scattered across different fronts and had finally been rotated out, the Uchiha who felt out of place in the village—all of them seemed to have found somewhere they belonged.

The Uchiha of the Shinsengumi sheathed their swords and marched in step back to Qi's side.

"Loyalty!"

The disciplined chant infected every Uchiha.

Then, though they didn't know what it meant, they still found it stirring, and one after another they shouted:

"Loyalty!"

The chant rang out without end from the Uchiha.

Then they joined Qi's group heading home of their own accord.

At that moment, Konoha's chaotic, unrestrained revelry and the Uchiha's iron discipline stood in stark contrast, splitting the village into two worlds.

The Konoha villagers left behind looked at one another. Beneath their contemptuous gazes, another emotion seemed to flicker.

That emotion was longing—and envy.