When Kitahara arrived at the shelter near the Uchiha compound, he saw Uchiha Itachi resting with Sasuke in his arms. Beside him, a little girl hugged his arm and pretended to sleep.
She looked familiar... Her name seemed to be Izumi...
No, it should have been Uchiha Izumi.
Her mother was an Uchiha, while her father was an outsider... The Uchiha might have been conservative and insular, but once love came, it could not be stopped—especially not for the emotionally intense Uchiha.
Marriage outside the clan was not exactly rare. However, if the couple had children, the entire family had to return to the Uchiha clan... to prevent their bloodline limit from leaking out.
Fugaku had once mentioned Uchiha Izumi's family. Apparently, both her parents were quite talented, so he had personally overseen their return to the clan...
The little girl's father had become a live-in son-in-law. After changing his surname, he became Uchiha Hazuki. As for whether they returned to live in the clan compound, Fugaku did not insist.
Honestly, if Konoha were full of the Uchiha clan's live-in sons-in-law, the clan head would have been delighted. He was exceptionally tolerant toward such people.
Really...
Some little ones were born beautiful.
Some little ones only knew how to blow bubbles.
Compared to Uchiha Itachi's achievement of fleeing to the shelter with his younger brother and even saving Uchiha Izumi along the way... the first thing Sasuke did upon seeing Kitahara after waking up was desperately blow out a bubble...
A red glint flashed through Kitahara's eyes. Little brat, there would be plenty of chances to deal with you in the future. He could casually dig a pit, and Sasuke would happily jump right in!
"Itachi..."
Hearing the commotion, the little girl woke up. Drowsily calling Itachi's name, her voice sounded lazy, tear tracks from before sleep still hanging on her face. The way her tiny fingers rubbed her eyes was especially adorable...
Was she... getting attached to my kid?
Uchiha Itachi did not think that much about it. He had raised his younger brother himself and understood how precious life was. He had lent a hand on the way to the shelter and saved her while he was at it.
Upon learning that his mother was safe, the little boy's tense state immediately relaxed. Then he saw the crow flap its wings and fly away...
"Kitahara!"
"Itachi, it's dangerous outside..."
"Waaah..."
Sasuke suddenly began crying in his arms. Itachi could only softly coax him back to sleep. No one knew when the chaotic battle tonight would end.
"It might have gone to find Mom..."
Uchiha Itachi comforted himself. What else could it be?
On his left was a child who had not been weaned. On his right was a child who had not even grown feathers... And he himself was still a child!
Tonight, besides disaster, Konoha had also seen things that sent chills down people's spines... conspiracies drifting through the thick smoke.
Uchiha Fugaku received a wartime order from the Third Hokage: remain in place and shelter noncombatants.
"What does the Third Hokage mean by this? Protecting the village is also the Police Force's duty!" Fugaku could not help demanding.
The masked Anbu had plenty of attitude. "Anbu are only responsible for relaying orders. The Police Force only needs to carry them out!"
"...What about the Hokage's orders?"
Fugaku casually tossed out a question, fully displaying a middle-aged man's shrewdness and ruthlessness...
The air gained a hint of awkwardness.
Well, as the Hokage's direct Anbu, they had failed to find their top leader, but they had their former leader giving orders...
The Anbu ninja said, "..."
They truly had not gone looking for Namikaze Minato. They probably would not have been able to find him anyway.
In all of Anbu, Namikaze Minato had only one direct subordinate: Kakashi, and he was a rookie who had only recently entered Anbu... Everyone else had been raised under the Third Hokage's influence.
The Fourth Hokage surely would not care about such a trivial matter. His relationship with the Third Hokage was plain for all to see, but Konoha's great clans, jonin, and other advisors would certainly seize the chance to question and attack them.
Advisors? Other advisors?
"I am from the Anbu Training Class directly under Hokage Advisor Shimura Danzō, and I answer directly to Lord Danzō! The orders concerning the Konoha Police Force were jointly issued by the Third Hokage and Lord Danzō!"
The Anbu ninja silently gave himself a thumbs-up. That group from the Anbu Training Class now called themselves Root, and the other Anbu had disliked them for a long time...
Root was not particularly large, nor did it have any specific duties. It relied entirely on Danzō going around and stealing other people's jobs. Taking the Police Force's responsibilities was one thing, but now they wanted to take Anbu's duties too?
Put nicely, they were stealing jobs. Put bluntly, they were just beggars...
"...You..." Uchiha Fugaku could only wave a hand. "I understand."
He did not directly answer whether he was willing to obey the order.
Before leaving, the Anbu ninja spoke pointedly. "Senior Fugaku should understand that the farther the Uchiha stay from the Nine-Tails at a time like this, the safer they will be."
Whether it was the enormous losses from fighting the Nine-Tails, or... the enormous Sharingan in that tailed beast's eyes... The Uchiha clan truly could only preserve its innocence after the battle by staying as far away as possible.
"The Uchiha's honor cannot be sullied... I will send Uchiha clan members from outside the compound to fight the Nine-Tails." This was Uchiha Fugaku's final answer.
Those outside the clan compound did not possess the Uchiha bloodline limit and did not belong to the Police Force. Most were sons-in-law of the Uchiha clan... Presumably, this was an outcome both sides could accept.
At the very least, no one could accuse the Uchiha of standing by while the Nine-Tails attacked Konoha. They could also use the opportunity to investigate who was controlling the Nine-Tails...
"I will report this truthfully to the Third Hokage... and Lord Danzō."
The Anbu ninja vanished into the moonlit night. Beneath the starry sky, the Nine-Tails continued to ravage the distance...
Elsewhere.
By sensing the fluctuations of space-time ninjutsu, Kitahara finally reached Namikaze Minato's battlefield. This battle concerned the fates of many people in Konoha.
Yet the only person in Konoha who could interfere, Kakashi... might have been off having some sort of story with the rival of his lifetime.
The enemy before Namikaze Minato... wore a patterned mask.
He alone had ambushed the defending Anbu, destroyed the seal inside Kushina, and controlled the released Nine-Tails to wreak havoc...
Only when he attempted to assassinate Namikaze Minato had Minato tracked him down... Or perhaps, in truth, Minato was the one being hunted by the masked man.
The mysterious masked man's right eye was a Mangekyō Sharingan with its own separate dimension... He could enter it anytime and anywhere, making him nearly invincible against anyone.
Namikaze Minato appeared to be handling things with ease. He had not needed to set up a Flying Thunder God barrier to transfer the Tailed Beast Bomb just now, saving quite a bit of Chakra.
But judging by the timing, Minato had to end the battle quickly... Whether it was Konoha under the Nine-Tails' devastation or his wife on the verge of death, both were still waiting for him!
"Caw..."
The crow's cry did not draw either man's attention. A battle between space-time ninjutsu and ocular techniques allowed no room for even the slightest distraction...
"Kamui!"
In the end, the masked man was one step faster. The Mangekyō ocular technique in his right eye activated wildly. The pinwheel-shaped Sharingan dragged in everything before it, nearly pulling Namikaze Minato into the Kamui dimension...
Flying Thunder God Technique!
The white Hokage cloak vanished in an instant... Namikaze Minato, who had escaped using the Flying Thunder God Technique, appeared in the distance and let out a soft breath.
Now!
"Caw..."
The scarlet crow eye shone brilliantly... What a perfect opportunity!
Kitahara instantly formed a shadow clone and rushed into Kamui's attack range. The pitch-black shadow clone disappeared in the blink of an eye, drawn into the dimension by the lingering force of the masked man's Kamui ocular technique.
It seemed... a crow had entered Kamui. The masked man did not care. His Kamui dimension could handle anything; it was only a crow...
Heh, still young... All that remained was to wait, until the masked man was forced by Namikaze Minato's attack to enter the Kamui dimension...
Then he would see a crow shadow clone in the Kamui dimension, holding a Tailed Beast Bomb in its beak and shouting "Surprise!" at him.
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