A Broken Engagement, Mikoto's Resolve, and Sosuke's Protection

The moment the fox-masked ANBU finished speaking, the stagnant air in the courtyard seemed to loosen slightly.

Fugaku raised a hand and wiped away the blood seeping from his neck. The madness that had been suppressed by the killing intent of the Senju guards climbed back onto his face. He glanced at the ANBU standing atop the wall, a venomous calculation flashing through his eyes.

"Your arrival is most timely, sir!" Fugaku suddenly pointed at Sosuke, his voice hoarse with accusation. "Senju Sosuke has privately raised death warriors, attacked the Konoha Military Police Force, and even used despicable means to kidnap a core member of the Uchiha clan! I demand that ANBU immediately assist the Military Police Force in apprehending this village-traitor madman and return Mikoto to me!"

The fox-masked ANBU remained silent instead of immediately refusing. Beneath his mask, his gaze swept repeatedly between Sosuke and the subdued Military Police officers. Clearly, the Third Hokage's orders carried an intent to test the Senju Clan's limits. If Sosuke yielded now, the higher-ups would descend like sharks that had smelled blood and devour the Senju Clan, skin and bones alike.

"Senju Sosuke, Lord Hokage has summoned both you and Captain Fugaku." The ANBU captain gripped the hilt of his blade. His tone was official, yet pressure lurked beneath it. "As for Uchiha Mikoto, since Captain Fugaku has made accusations against her, she should be temporarily taken into ANBU custody to avoid suspicion..."

"Try touching her."

Sosuke's voice was quiet, yet it was like a blade quenched in ice water, cleanly cutting off the ANBU captain's words.

He did not look at the ANBU atop the wall. Instead, he drew Mikoto tighter into his arms. His broad, moon-white sleeves fell around her, sheltering her slightly slender shoulders securely beneath his wings.

Sosuke slowly raised his head. The warmth that had once filled his deep black eyes had vanished, replaced by the aura of a tyrant capable of crushing people beneath his feet.

"Go back and tell Hiruzen Sarutobi." Sosuke addressed the Third Hokage by name, each word hard as iron. "Uchiha Mikoto is not some suspect, much less a bargaining chip to be handed around at will. She is the woman Senju Sosuke has chosen, the future mistress of this estate, and the matriarch of the Senju Clan!"

The words landed like an explosive tag detonating on level ground.

Fugaku's face instantly turned as pale as paper, his eyes bloodshot with overwhelming jealousy and humiliation.

Sosuke paid no attention to Fugaku's collapse. His gaze nailed itself to the ANBU captain's mask like a sword. Though the chakra around him remained hidden and unspent, the pressure of a warlord long accustomed to power made all four ANBU atop the wall tense their muscles at once.

"Today, whoever dares take even half a step through this gate, whoever dares reach for my woman..." The corner of Sosuke's mouth curled into an incomparably cold arc as he softly uttered one word. "Die."

Whoosh!

With Sosuke's words, twelve Senju guards in pure white masks simultaneously lowered their stances. Cold kunai instantly pierced the veins beneath the skin of the Uchiha elites' necks, blood dripping down the blades onto the stone slabs. There was not the slightest hesitation or retreat. These death warriors who had crawled out of heaps of corpses declared their will to all of Hidden Leaf with the most direct killing intent—at a single command from Sosuke, they would unhesitatingly drag these Uchiha elites, and even the ANBU atop the wall, down with them!

Utterly protective, utterly domineering, and utterly mad in their refusal to accept anything less than mutual destruction.

The fingers gripping the ANBU captain's blade hilt turned faintly white. He understood the resolve in Sosuke's eyes. If they tried to take her by force today, the Senju Clan Grounds would immediately become a battlefield awash in blood, and the fuse of a Hidden Leaf civil war would be lit here completely. He could not bear that responsibility, and neither did the Third Hokage wish to see it happen.

"...I understand." The ANBU captain released his blade hilt, his tone finally softening. "Lady Mikoto may remain within the Senju Clan Grounds. But please do not delay Lord Hokage's summons, Young Master Sosuke."

The night wind swept through the courtyard, dispersing the faint scent of blood in the air.

Mikoto quietly nestled against Sosuke's chest, listening to his steady, powerful heartbeat and feeling the startling warmth radiating from the arms holding her.

She raised her head and stared entranced at the sharply defined line of his jaw. For more than a decade, her clan had taught her to be obedient, to sacrifice everything for the Uchiha clan's interests. Fugaku had treated her only as a trophy to flaunt and a tool for breeding. Never had anyone dared to oppose an entire clan for her, to confront Hidden Leaf's highest center of power head-on.

The matriarch of the Senju Clan... Mikoto turned the title over and over in her heart, her eyes reddening beyond her control.

The heavy shackles bound around her in the name of "clan honor" were utterly shattered by Sosuke's overwhelmingly domineering declaration. In their place came a sense of belonging and security she had never known before.

She clasped Sosuke's hand in return, their fingers interlocking tightly. No more words were needed. The melancholy that had always lingered in her eyes was gone, leaving only unreserved love and absolute devotion. From this moment on, even if Sosuke became the enemy of the entire world, she would stand behind him without hesitation and offer him the sharpest blade.

Sosuke lowered his head and looked at the Uchiha jewel in his arms, now completely fallen for him. The coldness in his eyes instantly melted into a tenderness deep enough to drown a person.

He raised a hand and gently tucked the loose strands of hair by Mikoto's temple behind her ear, his fingertips brushing over her cool cheek.

"Stay here and wait for me to return." Sosuke's voice was soft, yet it carried an unquestionable steadiness. "Toka will have people guard the courtyard. Do not open the gate for anyone except Sister Tsunade."

"Mm." Mikoto nodded obediently, her eyes full of trust.

Sosuke released her hand and turned toward the ANBU atop the wall.

The instant he turned around, his straight back suddenly hunched over.

"Cough... cough, cough!"

A violent, heart-wrenching fit of coughing abruptly rang through the courtyard. Sosuke covered his lips with a handkerchief. The flush on his face, brought on by his fully unleashed presence, visibly drained away at a rapid pace, leaving him pale as paper. When he lowered the handkerchief, a glaring crimson stain marked the white cloth.

He breathed faintly, his body swaying as though the domineering declaration just now had exhausted the final trace of life in his ruined body.

"Sosuke!" Mikoto cried out, about to step forward to support him, but Sosuke raised a hand to stop her.

"I'm fine... I was merely agitated and stirred up an old injury." Sosuke weakly waved his hand and tucked the bloodstained handkerchief into his sleeve.

He lifted his eyes toward the ANBU atop the wall. The arrogance and madness from before had vanished from his gaze, leaving only the bleakness and deference of someone forced to the brink.

"Forgive the spectacle, sir." Sosuke's voice was terribly hoarse. "Since it is Lord Hokage's command, even if I must crawl, I will crawl to the Hokage Building. Please lead the way."

The ANBU captain watched the young man before him transform in an instant from a tyrant back into a sickly invalid, his brows tightly furrowing beneath his mask. Had the tangible killing intent from before not still lingered in the air, he might have believed everything just now had been an illusion.

What sort of monster was this last remaining seedling of the Senju Clan?

"...Please follow me." The ANBU said no more and turned to lead the way across the rooftops.

Fugaku gritted his teeth hard enough to crack them, shot Sosuke and Mikoto a vicious glare, then led the remaining Military Police officers away in disgrace.

Sosuke pulled his yukata more tightly around himself and stepped out through the shattered gates of the Senju Clan Grounds. In the darkness, a hidden, mocking curve lifted at the corner of his mouth.

The fish had taken the bait. Now it was time to meet Hidden Leaf's two greatest fishermen.

Half an hour later.

Hokage Building, top-floor offices.

The heavy oak doors opened with a dull groan of grinding hinges. Under ANBU's watchful eyes, Sosuke dragged his unsteady steps across the threshold that symbolized Hidden Leaf's highest authority.

The office was thick with smoke.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sat behind a broad mahogany desk, his signature pipe held in one hand. His seemingly clouded gaze pierced through the curling smoke like a rusty yet deadly scalpel, landing precisely upon Sosuke's pale, gentle face.

And in the dark blind spot behind the bookshelves, another serpent-like gaze seemed to be fixed on his back, its undisguised malice unrelenting.

Sosuke lowered his eyes and carefully forced out a trace of fear and grievance as he faced this bloodless political strangulation.