Matsuri's Brother

"One day," Minato Namikaze said.

"What about Teacher Jiraiya and E? Are they all right?" Uchiha Matsuri asked.

"Don't worry. Teacher Jiraiya and E are in another room. The Six Rogue Ninjas were driven off by Teacher Jiraiya a while ago," Minato Namikaze replied with a smile.

A short while later, Jiraiya and Kiba Inuzuka entered the guest room. Seeing that Uchiha Matsuri had woken up, Jiraiya asked with concern, "How are you feeling? Is anything bothering you?"

"I'm all right. I'm just a little weak," Uchiha Matsuri said with a smile.

"That's good," Jiraiya said, smiling.

"Matsuri, did you lose your nerve?" Kiba Inuzuka suddenly asked, in a rather clueless way. "When Teacher Jiraiya found you, you were unconscious more than a hundred meters away from us."

"E has a point. What happened to you back there?" Jiraiya asked, just as curious.

"Back then..."

Uchiha Matsuri recounted everything that had happened in detail, from his fight with Yoru Mizuzuki to his later desperate battle against Mu Liuye and Showa Yoko.

Beside him, Jiraiya, Minato Namikaze, and Kiba Inuzuka listened carefully, nodding from time to time.

When Uchiha Matsuri mentioned the names "Showa Yoko" and "Mu Liuye," Jiraiya's eyes suddenly flickered.

"What's wrong, Teacher Jiraiya?" Minato Namikaze was the first to notice the change in Jiraiya's expression and asked in confusion.

"I know those two, Showa Yoko and Mu Liuye," Jiraiya said calmly.

"What?"

The three of them blurted out in unison.

"Teacher Jiraiya, where did they come from?" Uchiha Matsuri asked, puzzled.

Jiraiya glanced at Uchiha Matsuri and spoke slowly. "Those two used to be Leaf Village ninja. For certain reasons, they defected from the village and then disappeared without a trace."

So that's it, Uchiha Matsuri thought.

During the fight, Uchiha Matsuri had caught a glimpse of Showa Yoko and Mu Liuye's Forehead Protectors and was surprised to see what looked like the Leaf Village symbol on them.

"Also, Matsuri, you might not know much about those two, but your brother knows them inside out," Jiraiya added suddenly.

"Matsuri has a brother?" Minato Namikaze and Kiba Inuzuka asked in astonishment.

Until then, Minato Namikaze and Kiba Inuzuka had thought of Uchiha Matsuri only as an orphan who was staying at Jiraiya's home. The sudden revelation that Uchiha Matsuri had a brother naturally surprised them.

If he had a brother, how could Uchiha Matsuri be an orphan?

Seeing the disbelief on Minato Namikaze and Kiba Inuzuka's faces, Jiraiya smiled and explained, "That's right. Matsuri really does have an older brother."

"Matsuri's brother is called Fugaku Uchiha. He's an orphan too. Like Matsuri, after their parents died in battle, Fugaku Uchiha was adopted by the Uchiha Clan head when he was only nine years old. Now, Matsuri's brother is the deputy captain of the Konoha Military Police Force."

Hearing Jiraiya talk about his brother, Uchiha Matsuri couldn't help recalling a few things.

In this life, Uchiha Matsuri really did have an older brother, and that brother happened to be Fugaku Uchiha, the head of the Uchiha Clan in the original Naruto story—the father of Sasuke Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha.

So that makes me Sasuke and Itachi's uncle, Uchiha Matsuri muttered to himself.

Unlike Itachi Uchiha and Sasuke Uchiha, the relationship between Fugaku Uchiha and Uchiha Matsuri wasn't particularly close. In the ten years since becoming his older brother, Fugaku Uchiha had visited Uchiha Matsuri only twice.

As a result, Uchiha Matsuri didn't feel much affection for Fugaku Uchiha.

"Deputy captain of the Konoha Military Police Force? Matsuri's brother must be impressive," Minato Namikaze exclaimed.

"Indeed. Since the Uchiha Clan head has no children, he's been grooming Fugaku Uchiha to be his successor," Jiraiya said with a nod.

"Uh, Teacher Jiraiya, what's the Konoha Military Police Force?" Kiba Inuzuka asked, looking utterly confused as he listened to Minato Namikaze and Jiraiya talk.

"..."

The atmosphere in the room immediately fell quiet after Kiba Inuzuka asked. Realizing he might have said something wrong, Kiba Inuzuka said awkwardly, "I was just asking."

"Minato can explain the Konoha Military Police Force to you later," Jiraiya said.

"Back to the point." Jiraiya glanced at Uchiha Matsuri, who was listening intently. "Of the two people Matsuri encountered that day, Showa Yoko used to be Fugaku Uchiha's teammate, while Mu Liuye was Fugaku Uchiha's teacher at the Ninja Academy."

"Then, Teacher Jiraiya, how strong are they?" Kiba Inuzuka asked impatiently.

Kiba Inuzuka still had a fierce competitive streak when it came to Uchiha Matsuri. He was extremely interested in collecting reports about any of Uchiha Matsuri's battles.

"Those two? On their own, they're only as strong as ordinary Chunin," Jiraiya said.

"Tch, they're just Chunin," Kiba Inuzuka said disdainfully, casting a sidelong glance at Uchiha Matsuri.

Although Uchiha Matsuri had already been fighting Yoru Mizuzuki for quite a while when he fought the two of them, he'd activated the Yin Seal and had Medical Ninjutsu and the Sharingan as backup. In theory, dealing with two extremely ordinary Chunin should have been easy.

Yet according to Uchiha Matsuri's account, he had only managed to seriously injure the two of them.

Thinking of this, Kiba Inuzuka secretly mocked Uchiha Matsuri.

"But..." Jiraiya paused dramatically, then spoke again.

"But what?"

"But if they joined forces, their strength would at least be on the level of a Jonin," Jiraiya said with a shrug and a smile.

"What?" Kiba Inuzuka felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck him.

Since Uchiha Matsuri had managed to seriously injure the two of them when they were working together at Jonin level, that meant Uchiha Matsuri wasn't all that weak, either. At the very least, he was no weaker than an average Chunin.

Even after being doused with cold water, Kiba Inuzuka refused to give up. He asked Jiraiya, "Teacher Jiraiya, how strong was the person who faced off against me yesterday?"

"That person?" Jiraiya said casually. "He was the weakest member of the Six Rogue Ninjas. At best, he was about as strong as an ordinary Chunin."

In an instant, Kiba Inuzuka's last shred of hope was crushed.

Yesterday, that guy had been beating Kiba Inuzuka down the whole time! And in the end, he was only an ordinary Chunin. Kiba Inuzuka immediately felt thoroughly humiliated.