As Uchiha Fugaku pushed open his courtyard gate, the night breeze stirred his casual kimono.
He walked quietly through the front courtyard, Chikage's red-glowing One-Tomoe Sharingan lingering in his mind.
The memory of those eyes flashing in the darkness weighed heavily on him.
He slid open the living room door. The lights were still on.
Uchiha Mikoto sat beside the low table, mending a piece of clothing.
Hearing him, Mikoto looked up and set down her needle and thread.
"You're back?"
She poured a cup of hot tea and slid it across the table.
"What did Chikage say?"
Fugaku took off his wooden sandals, sat at the table, and took a long drink.
The tea had already turned lukewarm. It slid down his throat, but did nothing to quell his anger.
"What else could he say?"
"That boy is stubborn as a mule. He wouldn't listen to a word."
Fugaku set his cup down hard, making a dull thud.
Mikoto stopped what she was doing, her expression worried.
"What exactly happened?"
"You rushed off to his house in the middle of the night without even putting your shoes on properly."
Fugaku sighed and clasped his hands on the table.
"That old bastard Danzo sent someone to the Konoha Military Police Force this afternoon with an Official Dispatch assigning Chikage outside the village."
"On paper, he's supposed to investigate a smuggling case at the border."
"In reality, they're after his life!"
Mikoto's expression changed at once.
"The border?"
"Chikage is only a clerk. He's never even carried out a C-Rank mission."
"Isn't Danzo blatantly sending him to his death?"
Fugaku snorted and slammed his fist onto the table.
"Exactly!"
"Danzo lost out in the Hokage's Office. Chikage forced him to sign a Payment Receipt for 350,000 Ryo."
"He couldn't swallow that humiliation, so he set this trap."
"The moment Chikage leaves the village, Root's Assassination Unit will be waiting for him on the road."
Mikoto rose anxiously to her feet.
"Then why didn't you stop him?"
"He absolutely cannot accept a mission like this!"
"At worst, we can send the Official Dispatch back. Are we Uchiha supposed to be afraid of them?"
Fugaku gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
"You think I didn't consider sending it back?"
"That's exactly what I went there to tell him to do."
"But do you know what that boy did?"
Fugaku raised two fingers and waved them in the air.
"Not only did he accept the mission, he forced Danzo to complete every last procedure."
"The Hokage Mission Seal, the Military Police Filing Receipt-he got them all."
"He even squeezed two hundred thousand ryo in mission funds out of Danzo!"
Mikoto froze, taking a long moment to recover.
"Two hundred thousand ryo?"
"What does he need that much money for?"
Fugaku let out a long breath.
"He said it was funding for a joint law enforcement operation."
"With that money, he has every right to leave the village to investigate."
"If he's attacked on the road, it will constitute the deliberate attempted murder of a Military Police deputy captain carrying out his official duties."
"When that happens, Danzo won't get away so easily."
After hearing him out, the worry in Mikoto's eyes only deepened.
"He usually seems so meek and honest, doing nothing but going to work and coming home on time."
"How can he be so bold when it really matters?"
"What does he have to fight Root's elite assassins with?"
"Even if he has money, can money buy him his life?"
At those words, Fugaku's eyes reddened.
He looked up into his wife's eyes.
"Do you know what I saw at his house just now?"
Mikoto shook her head.
"I saw the Sharingan."
Fugaku's voice trembled slightly.
"Chikage awakened his eyes."
"The One-Tomoe Sharingan."
Mikoto gasped and covered her mouth with both hands.
As the matriarch of the Uchiha Clan, she knew exactly what awakening those eyes meant.
"Hasn't he always been unable to awaken them?"
"How did it happen so suddenly?"
Fugaku pounded the table and voiced his suspicions.
"What else could have caused it!"
"That boy made it sound easy, but he must have been terrified."
"He knows Danzo wants him dead. He knows he has almost no chance of surviving this mission."
"But to keep the Family from breaking completely with the higher-ups, he took all that pressure upon himself."
"That fear and pressure forced his eyes to awaken!"
Mikoto was close to tears.
"That poor boy."
"He's only seventeen. Why should he have to bear all this?"
"Fugaku, you're the clan leader. You have to find a way to save him!"
Just then, soft footsteps sounded outside the living room.
The sliding door opened, revealing eight-year-old Uchiha Itachi.
He wore pajamas, his small face tense and his gaze composed beyond his years.
"Father, Mother."
Itachi entered the living room and sat beside Fugaku.
"I heard everything you just said."
Fugaku looked at his son in surprise.
"It's so late. Why aren't you asleep?"
Rather than answer, Itachi looked straight at his father.
"Deputy Captain Chikage is going to the border on a mission tomorrow?"
Fugaku nodded.
"Yes. He leaves at nine tomorrow morning."
Itachi lowered his head, his hands resting on his knees as his fingers tightened slightly.
Emotion stirred within him.
Outside the Hokage Building that day, he had personally watched Chikage use the rules to force the higher-ups to back down.
Even then, he had thought Chikage was a wise man.
Now, after hearing his parents' conversation, Itachi believed that Chikage had accepted the mission despite knowing a deadly trap awaited him at the border because he wanted to silence the higher-ups for the Family's sake.
He had even hidden the pressure that awakened his eyes behind excuses of "greed" and "balancing the books."
Such forbearance and willingness to shoulder responsibility were beyond most people.
"Father."
Itachi raised his head, his eyes bright.
"Deputy Captain Chikage is truly strong."
Fugaku paused, not understanding what his son meant.
"Strong?"
"He barely has any actual combat experience. How does that make him strong?"
Itachi shook his head, his tone earnest.
"Not strong in combat. Strong at heart."
"Shisui has always hoped to achieve peace through concessions."
"But Deputy Captain Chikage has shown us through his actions that rules are the weapon that protects our Family."
"He left the higher-ups speechless, then accepted the mission, silencing Danzo."
"Now the village has no excuse to use this matter to move against the Uchiha."
Itachi analyzed the situation clearly and methodically.
As Fugaku listened, surprise filled him.
He had never imagined that eight-year-old Itachi could see the situation so clearly.
"You're right."
"Chikage really is risking his life to buy the Uchiha time to breathe."
Fugaku let out a long sigh.
"But I can't just watch him go to his death."
"I wanted to send Yashiro or Inabi with a team to protect him in secret, but he refused."
"He said too many people would make it easy to expose them and give Danzo something to use against us."
At that, Itachi's eyes lit up.
He stood, walked over to Fugaku, and bowed respectfully.
"Father."
"Please let me protect Deputy Captain Chikage in secret."
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