Setting his sights on the Nine-Tails

"Then what do I do now?"

Seiichi scratched his head and frowned as he began considering his next steps.

Originally, according to Seiichi's plan, he had two options.

The first was to wait for Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others to pick a fight and attack, after which the Uchiha would be "forced" to retaliate.

Only by waiting for them to strike first and giving the Uchiha the moral high ground could he avoid pitting the Uchiha Clan against all of Konoha's armed forces.

And as long as they struck first, the Uchiha would have a legitimate reason to kill them.

Then the Uchiha could unleash their full strength, which would be enough to take down the opposing leadership in the shortest possible time and win at the lowest possible cost.

This plan did not involve using the Mangekyō to intimidate them into not going to war.

After all, as long as that bunch remained in power, they did the Uchiha harm and no good.

If they did not dare go to war, they would turn around and pull more underhanded tricks behind the scenes.

Better to take the opportunity to wipe them out in one go and be done with it.

The second was to wait for Hiruzen Sarutobi to step down and Minato to take office.

This was the bloodless plan he had considered before.

Executing it would be even simpler.

By then, Shisui would definitely have awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan too. All four pairs of the Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan just needed to manifest their Susanoo together in the village for a little demonstration.

Among them would even be a pair of Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, the same eyes as Madara Uchiha, the "Asura of the shinobi world (dance king of Konoha)."

Those gigantic Susanoo that blotted out the sky would be enough to strip every last shred of courage to keep fighting from their opponents' bodies.

By Seiichi's reckoning, chances were they would not even need to fight. The Uchiha would win without a battle.

After that, all they needed was for Minato to do a good job as Hokage and live a little longer.

Although this did not do the Uchiha much good, it did not do them any harm either, did it?

That was enough.

Seiichi did not care about being Hokage or about the village anyway. With strength, he could have anything he wanted!

Seiichi sighed again.

Plans never kept up with changes!

Of those two plans, only the first was still somewhat usable.

The second was pretty much dead.

Besides, as time passed, Seiichi grew increasingly reluctant to solve the problem by resorting to outright violence.

Because no matter how strong Seiichi and his side were, at this stage—or rather, in the short term—they could not improve enough to instantly kill everyone on Hiruzen Sarutobi's side.

So if they went to war with Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others, casualties among their clansmen would be unavoidable.

Comparing that outcome with the earlier plan of winning without a fight...

Seiichi felt this option could serve as a backup to his backup. Unless he had absolutely no other choice, he did not want to use it.

He would see whether there was another bloodless solution.

Or, failing that, one that did not spill his clansmen's blood.

Seiichi burned all his draft papers to ash and flushed them down the drain.

With a pocketful of sunflower seeds, he sat alone on the roof ridge, cracking seeds as he stared blankly at the distant Hokage Rock.

"Seiichi, what are you doing up there?"

Seiichi looked down into the courtyard.

First, the conspicuous carpet of sunflower seed shells caught his eye, and only then did he notice Fugaku and Mikoto, two living, breathing people.

The two stood in the middle of the courtyard, Fugaku positioned slightly farther back, looking up at him.

With a tap,

Seiichi jumped straight down.

"Nothing, just thinking! Father, Mother, what's this about?"

Seeing how Fugaku seemed to be subtly shielding Mikoto,

Seiichi was a little puzzled.

Mikoto possessed a Mangekyō Sharingan. Was he really worried she might run into danger in the village?

It was not that he did not care about his mother. Judging by Mikoto's strength alone, only Hiruzen Sarutobi in the village counted as an opponent, and even that old monkey would not be able to defeat her anytime soon.

"Oh, your mother is expecting again. Do you think it'll be a little brother or a little sister?"

Fugaku wore a gentle smile.

Life had been particularly comfortable for him lately.

At home, his family was harmonious, happy, and content.

At work, he was gradually handing authority over to Seiichi, and clan troubles no longer came his way.

His own strength had improved by leaps and bounds too, though he still could not compare with that freakishly talented eldest son of his.

But he was satisfied. Thus, the perpetually stern "Wicked Eye" Fugaku of the past had become the "nice guy" Fugaku who greeted everyone with a smile all day long.

"Really? Then I'll guess another little brother. A little sister would be too cute. If she misbehaved, it'd be hard to bring myself to hit her. A little brother wouldn't be a problem. Once he's a bit older, I can beat him whenever!"

(Itachi, who was training with Shisui, shivered for no apparent reason!)

Seiichi's words made both of them feel a surge of sympathy for the baby in the womb.

Child, your father/mother advises you to be a girl, if only because of this big brother of yours.

(Itachi: Hey, hey, hey, you have another son, you know! And going by what that guy said, doesn't that mean I'm old enough already?!)

"Oh, right, we also ran into Kushina and Minato at the hospital today. It looks like Kushina is expecting too."

Mikoto suddenly remembered something and told Seiichi.

"Mother, I remember you're good friends with Kushina. Could you help me arrange a meeting with her and her husband?

"Minato and I had a rather unpleasant encounter over Kakashi a few days ago. I'd like to take this opportunity to talk to them and smooth things over."

"Of course." Mikoto nodded.

He watched the two enter the house one after the other.

Seiichi turned to look in a certain direction in the distance.

There was a cherry blossom tree in the courtyard that way!

But Seiichi was clearly not looking at the tree.

That direction led to... Minato Namikaze's house!

"Minato, I ran into Mikoto on the road today. She asked whether we'd be free sometime soon. On behalf of her son Seiichi, she wanted to arrange a time for him to meet with the two of us. She said her son wanted to talk to us."

That evening, when Minato arrived home, Kushina had already brought all the food to the table.

The two were eating.

Kushina suddenly spoke up.

At her words, Minato frowned slightly.

"Mikoto said Uchiha Seiichi wanted to talk to both of us?"

"Yes. We can meet at our house or theirs. If we choose theirs, she said we could go straight to Seiichi's laboratory. He's been there lately."

Minato put down his chopsticks, his gaze unfocusing as he began considering why Seiichi wanted to meet them.

He and Seiichi were not particularly acquainted.

They had only met twice, and things had ended rather unpleasantly.

Of course, Seiichi had not deliberately targeted them during the earlier incident, so it was not enough to make them enemies.

Then why would Seiichi suddenly think of asking to meet him and Kushina?

Hmm?

Kushina?

Minato's pupils contracted, and cold sweat broke out on his back.

Could Kushina be Seiichi's target?

Judging by the only two interactions he had had with Seiichi,

Seiichi's thinking was very mature. Yes, his body, standing over 1.8 meters tall, was very mature too.

So he absolutely could not be treated as a ten-year-old child.

He could not think of anything he and Seiichi had to discuss.

He had invited two people. Excluding himself, that left Kushina.

Was there any connection between Kushina and Seiichi?

No.

He tried thinking about it from another angle.

Was there any connection between the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and the Uchiha?

Yes!

Not only was there a connection, it was a fucking enormous one!

Kushina watched Minato put down his chopsticks and stare into space. After a while, his forehead actually became covered in sweat.

Kushina tilted her head in confusion. What was wrong with her husband?

Had she undercooked the mushrooms in tonight's mushroom soup?

Mushroom Genjutsu?!

Startled, Kushina hurriedly took a sip of mushroom soup to calm her nerves.