Dilemma, the Beginning of a Rift

The training ground deep within the Uchiha Clan Grounds was rarely used in winter. It was too far inside; getting there from the clan grounds entrance meant taking several turns, passing through two gates and a bamboo grove. The younger clan members would rather go to the large training ground on the outskirts, where there were more people and more excitement, and where they could head off together afterward to unwind elsewhere. Fugaku had chosen this place because no one came here.

By the time Bai Ye arrived, Fugaku had already been standing there for a long time. Fires burned inside the stone lanterns at the edge of the training ground, casting his shadow across the fine sand. Fugaku wore dark training clothes, a kunai pouch at his waist, and held nothing in his hands. He simply stood there, facing the row of wooden posts that had been hacked at countless times.

Bai Ye emerged from the bamboo path without deliberately softening his footsteps. Fugaku only turned around when he heard him approach.

"You're here."

"Yeah."

There was no unnecessary small talk between them. Bai Ye leaned against the wooden rack at the edge of the training ground, drawing his blade to wipe it down and maintain it. Fugaku stood two steps in front of him. Moonlight filtered through gaps in the bamboo leaves, brightly illuminating half his face while the other half remained in shadow.

After a moment of silence, Fugaku got straight to the point. "The clan is discussing Hatake Sakumo's situation."

Bai Ye's hand paused on the blade, and Fugaku told him everything he knew.

The clan elders had split into three factions—one advocated supporting Sakumo, one favored absolute neutrality, and one wanted to align with the Third Hokage. Those who supported Sakumo believed that if Hatake Sakumo became Hokage, the Uchiha Clan could reclaim its voice at the center of Konoha's politics through the merit of backing the new ruler and Bai Ye's connection to him. This was the Uchiha Clan's best chance in decades to turn things around. The opposition argued that it was a gamble, and if they lost, given the Uchiha Clan's current position, they would never recover. The neutral faction believed it was better to do nothing than risk picking a side; the Uchiha Clan's strength was enough to preserve its neutrality.

Fugaku lowered his voice. "You know my father's stance at the high-level meeting."

Of course Bai Ye understood. Uchiha Masaki was not unaware of what Hatake Sakumo becoming Hokage would mean for the Uchiha Clan. But the Uchiha Clan's current political position did not allow them to openly stand against the Third Hokage. Even if they were merely "supporting someone else," it would be interpreted as "opposing the Third Hokage." The Uchiha Clan was already in a difficult enough position. It could not withstand any further disturbance.

"What do you think?"

Fugaku leaned against the wooden rack, looking up at the moon through the gaps between the bamboo leaves without saying a word.

"I understand." Bai Ye's voice was quiet. "You're the heir to the clan. Your concerns make it impossible for you to speak."

Bai Ye placed a hand on Fugaku's shoulder.

Fugaku looked at the hand resting on his shoulder. His lips moved, and his Adam's apple bobbed once, but in the end, no sound came out. Only the wind remained in the training ground, along with the occasional bark of a dog drifting from the distant Uchiha Clan Grounds.

Fugaku lowered his head and looked at his moonlit shadow. "It's enough that you understand. There's nothing I can do about the clan's decision, but I can tell you what that decision is. That's what friends can do for each other."

Fugaku left, his back stretched by the moonlight into a long, thin ink-blue line that extended from the center of the training ground into the darkness deep within the bamboo grove.

Bai Ye sheathed his blade and stood. Moonlight blanketed the ground. He left the training ground, walked along the stone paths of the Uchiha Clan Grounds, passed the two old pines by the entrance, and crossed Konoha's streets. There were few people out. The winter night wind swept fallen leaves into the walls. Passing through the narrow alley behind the Hokage Building, he saw someone standing before the gray building's entrance.

Minato.

He leaned against the wall, his blond hair a little messy from the wind.

Bai Ye stopped. "Why are you here?"

"Waiting for you."

Bai Ye looked at him. Minato wore training clothes, his forehead protector tied around his brow, his face devoid of expression. In Bai Ye's memories, that face rarely lacked one.

"I waited for you at the training ground for a long time today. You never came."

Bai Ye's fingers tightened around his sword hilt. He had forgotten.

He had arranged to spar with Minato at the Third Training Ground that afternoon, but Fugaku's invitation had disrupted his plans. Counting the time, Minato had waited there for at least four hours.

"Sorry. I forgot."

"Come on. We'll make up that spar." Minato pushed himself off the wall and headed toward the training ground.

Bai Ye followed behind him, and the two walked one after the other for a long stretch of road.

The wooden posts at the Third Training Ground had been replaced with new ones. Their surfaces still bore bark and had never been cut. There were no blade marks or kunai holes yet, clean as a sheet of paper that had never been written on.

Minato stood in the middle of the training ground, pulled a kunai from his ninja tool pouch, and held it in his right hand. Bai Ye stood opposite him, his blade still at his waist.

They faced each other for a few moments before Minato moved first.

The instant he launched himself, his body stretched into an afterimage, his kunai stabbing straight for Bai Ye's throat. Bai Ye activated his Sharingan almost at the same time. In his blood-red pupils, the tomoe slowly turned. The insight of a single tomoe was no longer enough to fully decipher Minato's movements, but it was enough to catch the start of them. Before moving, Minato's shoulder had dipped ever so slightly.

Flash Step.

Chakra exploded beneath his feet. Rather than retreat, Bai Ye charged forward, vanishing from directly in front of Minato just before the kunai struck and appearing in his blind spot to the right. His short blade came out at the same time, blue-white arcs of electricity dancing along it—Blue Steel Shadow. The high-frequency vibration of chakra made the air around the edge crackle faintly. His blade swept horizontally, aiming to knock away Minato's kunai.

Minato reacted faster than Bai Ye's blade. The moment Bai Ye vanished, he abandoned the thrust, his left hand already reaching for a second kunai. Without turning his head, he shifted the kunai in his right hand from a forward grip to a reverse grip and raised it into the blind spot on his right. The shriek of metal colliding tore through the night wind. The lightning-enhanced blade carved a notch into the kunai, but it was blocked.

Minato used the force to leap backward, flinging three kunai with his left hand at the same time. None were aimed at Bai Ye. Two flew to either side, while the third buried itself in the ground half a step in front of Bai Ye. Bai Ye's Sharingan swept over their landing points and caught the technique markings engraved on the kunai handles. The writing was crooked, like the handwriting of a child who had only just learned to write.

Flying Thunder God.

Minato's figure vanished from midair and appeared beside the kunai to Bai Ye's left. His teleportation was far faster than before, by more than an entire level. A single tomoe could not begin to track his path. His kunai stabbed diagonally from the left, aimed beneath Bai Ye's ribs. Bai Ye had no time to block with his blade. He took half a step back with his right foot and twisted his body, and the kunai scraped past the side of his combat uniform.

But Minato's landing was unsteady. When he appeared beside the kunai, he stumbled slightly. There was a beat's break between activating the Flying Thunder God technique and fixing his landing point. In a true fight to the death, that beat would have been fatal. But in tonight's training ground, it merely slowed his chain of attacks by half a second.

Bai Ye did not let that half-second pass. Lightning chakra gathered in his throat. He did not form seals, using the lightning he spat from his mouth in place of his blade. A thin, brilliant bolt shot from between his lips and teeth, a stripped-down version of Lightning Release: False Darkness.

The gap in the Flying Thunder God technique's connection left Minato unable to evade. He formed hand seals, drew in a sharp breath, and his chest swelled.

Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.

Wind surged from his mouth and collided with the lightning bolt in midair. The two forces exploded on impact, and the blast of air shoved both of them back several steps.

Minato did not continue his attack after landing. He returned his kunai to his ninja tool pouch and dusted himself off. "You're not in the right state today."

"Again."

"No." Minato walked over to the wooden posts at the edge of the training ground and pulled out the kunai embedded there, inspecting their edges one by one. "That Lightning Release of yours just now had no hand seals. If you had formed seals, my Wind Release wouldn't have stopped it. But you normally wouldn't fight like that. You were too impatient."

Bai Ye was silent for a while.

Minato walked over and stood beside him.

"What did Fugaku tell you?"

Bai Ye did not hide anything and recounted Fugaku's words.

Minato fell silent for a moment after hearing it. Wind passed over the training ground, lifting fine sand and scattering it against the wooden posts with soft rustling sounds.

"The Third Hokage won't move against Lord Sakumo."

Bai Ye looked at him.

"The Third Hokage is the Hokage. A Hokage's duty is to protect the village and every person in it. Lord Sakumo has done so much for Konoha. The Third Hokage won't turn on a hero because of political pressure. I believe in the Third Hokage."

Bai Ye asked, "Minato, let me read you an ANBU intelligence report: In Konoha Year 38, a Chunin from the Intelligence Division was carrying out a long-term infiltration mission in the Land of Grass. After his identity was exposed, he was detained by the Hidden Grass Village. During negotiations between Konoha's diplomatic department and the Hidden Grass Village, the advisory council made major concessions, citing the need to 'avoid provoking the Land of Grass into aligning with the Hidden Stone Village.' In the end, that Chunin was executed by the Hidden Grass Village on the charge of 'illegally crossing the border.' Konoha did not pursue the matter."

Minato's lips moved.

"These two things are different. The village's compromise meant the Third Hokage failed to protect that Chunin in this matter. I admit that. But that was a diplomatic failure, not the Third Hokage actively choosing to strike. Lord Sakumo's situation is different. He is Konoha's hero. Konoha needs him, and the Third Hokage knows that better than anyone."

Bai Ye asked, "What about Danzo? The Root archives, the reports to the Daimyo's residence, the advisory council's votes against it—did the Third Hokage not know? He knew, and he did not stop it. He needs my teacher to hold things together for him, and he needs Danzo to do his dirty work. My teacher is a piece on his board. As long as the piece's life or death does not affect the bigger picture, he won't care."

"The Third Hokage isn't perfect. He has his limitations, but he has done a great deal for Konoha. Postwar reconstruction, border stability, the balance between the major clans—which of those hasn't he been holding up? The things you mentioned are part of Konoha's politics. The Third Hokage alone cannot change the entire system. He can only do what is right as best he can within that system."

"Minato, I believe in the Will of Fire, but the Will of Fire is not the Third Hokage's will. It belongs to Konoha itself." Bai Ye's voice was calm. "I'm not saying the Third Hokage is definitely wrong. I only think the Will of Fire should not be used to justify every decision. Good decisions are called the Will of Fire, and bad decisions are also called the Will of Fire—that isn't the Will of Fire. It's a fig leaf."

Minato looked at Bai Ye. The wind swept between them, lifting the fine sand and spinning it through the air before letting it fall in the distance. Neither moved. The grains glimmered faintly beneath the moonlight.

"Bai Ye, we're talking about the same thing, but we stand in different places and see different things. I stand beside the Third Hokage, and I see him working late into every night, facing pressure from Danzo and constraints from the advisory council, doing everything he can to keep the village stable. You stand beside Lord Sakumo, and you see a hero being sidelined, used, and treated as a piece on a board. Neither of us is wrong."

"But if we keep arguing here, then even whoever wins the argument will gain nothing from it."

Bai Ye took a deep breath. He did not want to push their relationship to some point beyond repair here.

Minato extended his hand, palm up.

Bai Ye looked at it. Minato's hand was steady, without the slightest tremor in the night wind. Bai Ye placed his hand in it, and their hands clasped. Minato's fingers tightened, the pressure carrying through Bai Ye's knuckles.

"I'll do everything I can to help with Lord Sakumo's matter."

Minato released his hand, turned around, and walked out of the training ground.