New Year was an important festival for the people of Konoha, second only to a Hokage inauguration ceremony.
Early morning.
Fugaku Uchiha put on an elaborate black kimono. After offering incense at the household shrine, he returned to the bedroom and noticed Mikoto's heavy junihitoe. "Hm? Didn't we agree yesterday that you'd stay home and get some proper rest? The first shrine visit of the year is too exhausting."
"It hasn't even been three months yet... Besides, as Fugaku's wife, it would be terribly disrespectful not to attend the clan's New Year shrine visit!" Mikoto, lightly made up despite her pregnancy, asked, "Did you see Itachi just now?"
Last year, Itachi had obediently gotten dressed and waited for his parents in the hall. Children had little resistance to New Year festivities and were often more eager than their elders to attend the rituals. Taking part in adult activities meant their parents acknowledged that they had grown up.
This year seemed a little different...
Kitahara was curled up beneath the blankets, refusing to get up no matter what.
Beside him, Uchiha Itachi wore a child-sized kimono and sat on his knees next to the small quilt. "Kitahara, wake up! The first shrine visit of the year is today. Let's go together!"
Caw!
The crow's muffled cry came from beneath the blanket. Getting out of bed in winter was...
Itachi scrunched up his little face and knitted his tiny brows as he pushed at Kitahara through the quilt. "You can't sleep in on the first day of the New Year!"
The Uchiha clan's first shrine visit referred to how, on the first day of the New Year, every clan member, young or old, male or female, went to Naka Shrine to worship the gods. As a ninja clan famous for Fire Release and the Sharingan, the deity they worshipped was rather unusual: the River Earl of the Naka River... Probably because farming had been difficult during the Warring States Period, and they had hoped the River Earl would bless them with abundant rainfall or something.
Five minutes later.
When Fugaku Uchiha's family left their home, the Uchiha clansmen streaming toward the shrine moved aside one after another, clearing a path for them. It made Fugaku look every bit the clan head. Someone even called out loudly, "Clan Head, everyone's waiting at the shrine! Please hurry!"
Fugaku's mouth twitched slightly...
"Dad is very respected..." As Itachi spoke, he cupped a hand around the sleepy Kitahara perched on his shoulder. The crow that had insisted on sleeping in had still been dragged out of bed by him.
"..."
Fugaku Uchiha did not answer. Instead, Uchiha Mikoto smiled from the corners of her eyes. "Just like last year... Looks like it'll be hard work again this year!"
Even someone as dull as Kitahara could tell that something felt off.
As they moved with the crowd, Kitahara noticed that the event was not particularly solemn. Many young people and children wore simple loungewear... Yet the clan head's family was dressed noticeably more extravagantly.
Some people were even wearing ninja uniforms!
That was a big-eyed boy. People more or less gave way when facing him too. One look was enough to tell that he was not someone to mess with... This guy...
"Do you like Ninja Crows too?" The boy stepped up beside Itachi, somehow not seeming out of place at all. He looked at Itachi and Kitahara, his clear youthful voice reaching their ears. "I'm Shisui, Shisui Uchiha."
The little boy stiffened his face. "Uchiha Itachi."
"Well, relax a little." Shisui Uchiha bent down and draped an arm around the boy's shoulders. "You're dressed so formally for the New Year shrine visit? Then again, you are the clan head's son..."
"Itachi, stay with Shisui and take your time getting there!" Fugaku Uchiha turned around and saw Shisui beside Itachi. Helplessly, he continued, "I'll leave him to you, Shisui. Mikoto and I need to get there quickly to preside over the start of the shrine visit..."
Shisui nodded to the couple. "Don't worry. I'll take good care of him."
As the Uchiha clan's rising genius, Shisui Uchiha had been permitted to take the Chunin Exams after graduating from the first year with an exceptionally high mission completion rate, advancing to chunin... But most importantly, Shisui Uchiha already possessed the Three-Tomoe Sharingan!
Most importantly, he was only eight years old... The Uchiha clansmen believed that he would surely awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan...
The universally acknowledged future strongest Uchiha...
The two future pillars of the Uchiha clan met as though destined to do so. The young boy was clearly not in high spirits, lowering his head despondently. "It was all my fault. I forgot that Dad had to be the first to worship the gods..."
Caw...
Clearly, it was the crow on his shoulder that had slept in.
Hearing Itachi's words, the boy could not help laughing. "Hahaha... The clan head won't blame you! If someone can't wait to be the first to worship the gods, he'll be even happier than before!"
The little boy and the red-eyed crow both looked at Shisui Uchiha with curiosity.
"The clan head definitely never told you this!" Shisui Uchiha did not keep them in suspense. Looking toward Naka Shrine on the mountain, he quietly began telling them about an Uchiha clan tradition.
"According to legend, in a very distant age—probably even before the Warring States Period—Naka Shrine once had male and female shamans, and they held high status. The men presided over worship; the women handed out purified water. But later, with the rise of ninja and the arrival of war..."
"The powerless shamans died out... Later, the clan head's family became the ones to preside over Naka Shrine's New Year visit. The clan head took the place of the male shaman, while his wife took the place of the shrine maiden... It was a very tiring task."
"At the end of the Warring States Period, the Uchiha clan grew stronger and its numbers increased, so the shrine visit procedures were greatly simplified... However, a new problem arose... The clan head at the time, Uchiha Madara, was one of the men who ended the wars and founded Konoha alongside the First Hokage."
"He had no wife, and he was a very willful man."
"The New Year shrine visit was a grand event that could unite all clan members. Every clansman opposed his decision to cancel the collective shrine visit and have people worship separately, because the shrine maiden's role was important."
"Uchiha Madara decided that on the first day of the New Year, whichever clansman was the first to reach Naka Shrine and worship would become the person, along with his wife, to preside over the New Year shrine visit."
"Because the clan head at the time had no heir."
"During that period, many powerful Uchiha wanted to preside over the shrine visit, using it to gain enormous prestige and run for the next clan head... So the clan grew more and more prosperous... Its numbers kept increasing..."
At this point, Shisui Uchiha paused and said helplessly, "Later... the clan head's line never lacked successors, and presiding over the New Year shrine visit for so many clansmen became a thankless chore... Everyone went back to the old ways and tacitly accepted that the clan head would handle it... The rare exceptions were only when the clan head's family had pressing matters and could not preside..."
"..."
Both Kitahara and Uchiha Itachi felt as though their worldview had been shattered. This attitude of dumping all the dirty, exhausting work on the clan head... Was this truly the Uchiha way? No wonder Fugaku had not looked too pleased after leaving home...
Was the reason Madara defected from Konoha, aside from his clansmen yearning for peace, also because he liked avoiding all sorts of messy, exhausting chores, and the Uchiha clan ended up no longer approving of him as their clan head...
"Don't make that face!" Shisui Uchiha smiled as he took Itachi's hand and led him over a step. He continued, "After all, it's also the clan head's responsibility! Future Itachi, don't run away from it either!"
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