Shadows Under the Moonlight

The behavior of a certain crow once had Fugaku's household on edge, fearing it would cause more trouble with Sasuke… mainly they feared Beiyuan running away from home again, especially since Sasuke couldn't even crawl yet!

This potential… it was truly worrying…

The family tried every way to keep Beiyuan and Sasuke apart. Every morning, Uchiha Itachi would take the crow to the training grounds and wander around with it for the whole morning.

After lunch, things were more relaxed. Occasionally, Uchiha Mikoto and Itachi would take Sasuke out to bask in the sun, or Uchiha Fugaku would take the crow to work with him.

After dinner, Uchiha Mikoto and her husband went out to visit friends, conveniently taking Beiyuan along… By the time they got home, Beiyuan was already sleepy and had no energy left to argue with Sasuke.

Rumors in Konoha Village gradually increased, stemming from two places: the Police Force and Ichiraku Ramen… There was no way to control it; too many eyes, too many witnesses!

Could the esteemed leader of the Uchiha Clan really not handle a squabble between his pet crow and a baby? He even rashly dispatched the Police Force to search for a crow!

"I heard the whole village is talking about this!" Uchiha Mikoto said with a smile during dinner.

Fugaku felt like the food tonight was a bit hard to swallow. He paused, then looked helplessly at the other side of the dining table. "…Are they fighting again…"

It was quite lively over there now…

"Puff… puff… puff! Wahhh… ah…"

"Caw~ Caw~"

"Be good, Sasuke, don't cry, don't cry, big brother is here with you! You can't spit at others, you have to be polite!"

"Don't be angry, Beiyuan, come and eat quickly… Please, Sasuke is still little, don't argue with him!"

Uchiha Itachi, sweating profusely, separated the crow and the infant and sat back down. Fugaku handed him a tissue. "Well done, Itachi!"

"Indeed, only Itachi can handle something like this!" Uchiha Mikoto brought over a cold drink and placed it in front of her son, covering her mouth as she chuckled.

"Dad, Mom…" The little boy's face was filled with helplessness…

"Alright, alright." Uchiha Fugaku bypassed teasing his son and stood up to change into his uniform. "I'm going to arrange duty with the Police Force. Beiyuan, want to come?"

Beiyuan, who was licking his congee, shook his head…

The Police Force was too troublesome; every time he went there, people looked at him strangely.

Fugaku was just saying it casually. His workload had been a bit tight these past few days. Konoha's barrier defenses had been frequently experiencing problems, and the village believed someone might have infiltrated Konoha by destroying the barriers.

Therefore, the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, proposed that the Konoha Police Force dispatch personnel to form an emergency team, thereby freeing up ANBU personnel to be deployed externally.

Although the Hokage advisor, Danzō, questioned the capabilities of the Police Force and suggested that Root could be included to monitor anomalies in place of the Police Force… the implication was essentially to take away the Uchiha's stable job…

No matter who it was, this was unacceptable!

Uchiha Fugaku was determined to find the enemy who might have infiltrated Konoha and prove that the Uchiha were not just decorative figures!

"Itachi, later Mom wants to go see Kushina…"

"Aunt Kushina, is something wrong?" Uchiha Itachi hadn't seen Uzumaki Kushina in a long time. It seemed that after the Fourth Hokage took office, his wife had adopted a reclusive lifestyle.

Uchiha Mikoto shook her head and rubbed Sasuke's face. "I ran into her today. It looks like she's close to giving birth, and she'll definitely be in Sasuke's graduating class in the future!"

Besides today's chance encounter, another reason was that Uzumaki Kushina didn't have many friends in Konoha. Pregnant women could get anxious during this period, and Mikoto planned to visit her best friend.

Although that oblivious, fiery red pepper might… not know what anxiety is?

"I'll take good care of Sasuke." The little boy hugged his younger brother with a sense of responsibility, his gaze subtly sweeping over the crow that was hiccuping.

If both of them were at home, and he was the only one left in the house, he felt he might not be able to handle it…

Uchiha Mikoto noticed Itachi's action, suppressed a smile, and bent down to look at the crow. "Beiyuan, want to come with me to visit? Kushina mentioned you today too!"

"Caw…"

The crow obediently landed on Uchiha Mikoto's shoulder… treating it as a post-meal digestion exercise… definitely not because it was afraid of that little brat who only knew how to spit and make faces!

The weather was nice, the moonlight was so bright it could outshine the streetlights, and apart from the slight chill in the air, it was a pleasant season for a moonlit stroll.

Only… there was something different… it was the spatial fluctuation of the Flying Thunder God Technique! Beiyuan had practiced the Flying Thunder God Technique in private and had particularly sharp senses!

Is this how the Fourth Hokage saved time for his wife by using the Flying Thunder God to travel… so he could cook for her?

Truly worthy of Namikaze Minato… In that case, wouldn't it be easier to just draw a summoning seal on Uchiha Itachi and in the room, so he wouldn't have to travel every day?

"Huh? Why are the lights off at Kushina's place…" Uchiha Mikoto said in surprise. Logically, it was not advisable for a pregnant woman to move around at this time; she should be resting at home or waiting in a hospital room.

"Caw?"

"Could she have gone to the hospital?" Uchiha Mikoto pondered the curve of Uzumaki Kushina's belly. "Judging by the look of it, it should be any day now…"

Beiyuan secretly curled his lip, not understanding what she was saying. What did she mean by "any day now"… Was she saying Uzumaki Kushina was about to give birth? That future child of destiny, the dumpling expert, the Nine-Tails jinchuriki…

Arguing with that brat really made one lose their reason…

"Caw…"

Beiyuan looked up at the moon in the sky, his chakra beginning to gather… Why did Naruto Uzumaki become the Nine-Tails jinchuriki? Of course, it was because the previous jinchuriki…

…Lost the Nine-Tails during childbirth… until she lost her life… Therefore, those spatial fluctuations were not just Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God…

"Roar!"

"Caw!"

In unison, the giant beast that suddenly appeared in Konoha Village and the little crow on Mikoto's shoulder…

The Nine-Tails!

It possessed a terrifying aura the moment it appeared!

"Gah!"

Without a second thought, Beiyuan's small body desperately pulled Mikoto to dodge a collapsing building!

"Th-that's the Nine-Tails! Beiyuan! Let's go home quickly!" Uchiha Mikoto was in a panic, raising her arm in distress to shield herself from the strong winds… At home, there were still two children!

Even though it was the Nine-Tails' first rampage in this era, many people were well aware of its power… Those brats from the Hidden Sand Village and the pups from the Hidden Cloud Village had used tailed beasts frequently on the battlefield!

Especially the weakest, the Hidden Sand Village; quite a few Konoha ninja had witnessed that fat tanuki unleash its fury… That was only the One-Tail, and even by tail count alone, it was widely recognized as the weakest…

The one appearing in Konoha now was the tailed beast with the most chakra, the strongest of them all—the Nine-Tails!

That's what they said… but if you said the ninja of Konoha Village were scared, that would be impossible! Frankly, compared to the terrifying legends of the Nine-Tails, the First Hokage's thrashing of the Nine-Tails seemed much more real…

Besides, those battlefield tailed beasts had all been dealt with…

The ninja of Konoha certainly didn't possess the strength of the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, but they carried the First Hokage's Will of Fire!

This would lead to a rather awkward situation… To put it bluntly, it was optimism… To put it nicely, it was overconfidence!

Only when that fox under the moonlight… made it impossible to see any chance of victory, would the villagers of Konoha perhaps recall the childhood fear of the strongest tailed beast…

And engrave the memory of this moment in their hear