Gojo Satoru was happily stuffing his face with huge mouthfuls.
Sasuke watched him for a while, then scraped off a tiny bit with his fork and put it in his mouth.
What was going on?
Wasn't this just an ordinary cake?
But he remembered perfectly well that they had added plenty of nasty stuff to it.
Fugaku, meanwhile, smiled as he accepted the cake Mikoto had made herself.
"Is it good?" Mikoto watched him eagerly, waiting for an answer.
"It's all right." Fugaku nodded.
"Really?"
Mikoto was so delighted that her eyes curved into crescents.
Her husband was a man of few words. Getting an "it's all right" out of him was already high praise.
In a wonderful mood, she cut up the remaining cake and handed it out.
"You boys should try my baking too."
Shisui cheerfully accepted his slice.
He took a forkful and put it in his mouth, and the smile on his face nearly cracked.
This was the cake the Clan Head had called "all right"?
Under Fugaku's gaze, Shisui fought the urge to spit it out and swallowed the mushy mouthful with tears in his eyes.
He struggled to force the corners of his mouth upward.
A man who could become Clan Head really was something else.
He could keep every emotion locked down.
Itachi also sensed that something was off.
He took only a tiny bite, his expression not changing in the slightest.
His movements remained as unhurried as ever.
There was no telling what was going through his mind.
Gojo Satoru, sitting beside him, also received a slice and casually set it at the edge of the table.
Unlike those two, he didn't dig in right away.
Sasuke was the last to receive his.
He happily took the cake from his mother and shoved some into his mouth without the slightest suspicion.
"Cough, cough, cough-"
"What is this taste?"
A pungent blast of mustard exploded in his mouth, nearly bringing tears to his eyes.
Could his slice be the one they had tampered with?
But that wasn't right. Hadn't this one been taken out of the scroll afterward?
His cry shattered the strange silence that had settled over them.
Everyone let out a breath of relief at once, grabbed their cups, and gulped down water.
Their faces all wore the same look of deliverance.
Across from them, Mikoto's heart sank.
By now, there was no way she could miss what had happened.
Well, well. Someone had secretly switched out the cake she'd made.
When Sasuke kept staring at the strawberry cake on the table earlier, she'd assumed that was the one with a problem.
Who would have thought the culprit was the cake she'd taken out of the scroll herself?
That also explained why her cake looked exactly like the one the children had made.
It had all been for a little switcheroo.
Which raised a question.
"Uchiha Satoru." Mikoto's voice turned chilly.
She sounded furious, but she couldn't hide the pride in her eyes.
That brat had actually undone every last one of those layers of seals.
The corners of her mouth rose ever so slightly despite herself.
He really did have some skill.
The others weren't looking at him nearly as fondly.
One hostile gaze after another fixed on Gojo Satoru.
So you were the brat behind all this.
Under the combined assault of their stares, Gojo Satoru's brilliant smile slowly faded.
"Hey!"
"What's wrong?"
"It's a birthday party. Cheer up, everyone! Why the long faces?"
"So you do know it's a birthday party." Itachi's voice was as soft as ever.
"Heh. Yes, we're having a wonderful time." Shisui gave Gojo Satoru a cold smile.
Then someone flung a shuriken. With a smack, it hit the switch, and all the lights in the room went out.
And just like that, a chaotic cake fight began.
When the lights came back on, the person in the sorriest state wasn't Gojo Satoru, who had just incurred everyone's wrath.
It was Shisui.
For once, Shisui was dumbfounded, unable to wrap his head around it.
Hadn't everyone been aiming at that brat?
How had he ended up the most thoroughly splattered of them all?
A mysterious smile curled Gojo Satoru's lips.
Light or dark, he could see everything before him perfectly clearly.
With his Six Eyes, no one could pull any sneaky tricks in front of him.
That included the master of switching off lights, his mother, Mikoto.
Her shuriken throw had been precise and steady, striking the switch with exactly enough force to flip it.
Without control and accuracy, it wouldn't have worked-too much force or too little would both have ruined it.
He couldn't help wondering, Had Mom really known nothing about the tampered cake?
How could it be such a coincidence that he and Sasuke had picked that particular one?
Fugaku coughed and left them with a single instruction. "Clean up the room afterward."
With that, he left with Mikoto at a leisurely pace.
"Huh?"
"You're just leaving?"
Gojo Satoru clicked his tongue in disbelief.
The remaining boys looked at the wreckage filling the room, all of them overwhelmed.
What were they supposed to do now?
Before you continue