Naruto: Unhinged Uchiha

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“No, Hokage-sama… he is still there… sitting in protest and refusing to stop creating trouble unless you appear there to meet him personally…” The ANBU responded helplessly.

Hearing that response, Hiruzen couldn’t help but murmur tiredly, “So troublesome...”

It had been a few days since the rumors had spread about him, and that unknown bearded man, who claimed to be his ‘illegitimate’ son, had appeared out of nowhere. Since then, that man had been sitting in front of the Hokage Building in open protest, refusing to leave. He demanded that Hiruzen take responsibility, acknowledge him as his son, and grant him the heirship of the Sarutobi Clan as the eldest son, despite being his illegitimate son.

Hiruzen, of course, doesn’t believe for a second that the man was truly his son.

Hiruzen doesn’t even have any idea at all about who the man is in the first place. Nor did he know who his supposed deceased mother, who fed him utter nonsense about being Hiruzen’s son, might be.

Heck, Hiruzen doesn’t even know the man’s name or the name of his deceased mother. The man refused to give his name to the guards and only said that Hiruzen, being his father, could guess the names.

What sort of unreasonable behavior is this? Leaving it upon Hiruzen to guess the names... This makes it impossible to verify anything about his background, or anything related to him... not to mention it’s making things more difficult for him as people aren’t talking about the man with his name but as ‘Hokage-sama’s illegitimate son.’

Even if, by some absurd chance, that man really was his son, Hiruzen still wouldn’t acknowledge him. That wasn’t how clans worked. Loyalty within the clansmen had to be cultivated from a young age. For a man already in his late twenties to suddenly be taken into the Sarutobi Clan… who knew where his true loyalties lay, or what hidden intentions he might have?

More than anything else, acknowledging that man as his son and bringing him into the clan would be tantamount to publicly admitting that he had a secret lover behind his wife Biwako’s back. Given the vicious rumors already circulating about him and Elder Koharu, acknowledging an illegitimate son from another woman would only prove the rumors right, something he absolutely refused to do.

“That man is creating such a scene for so many days… how come the Police Force is not dealing with him…?” Hiruzen murmured, unhappy. It was the Police Force’s responsibility to handle such public disturbances, yet they were doing nothing!

What is he paying 10 billion ryō to the Police Force for?

“Police Force is saying that this is a personal matter of the Sarutobi Clan… and they don’t want to interfere…” the ANBU responded. If only things were limited to that, it would have been fine, but no... that’s where things ended, which made the ANBU feel helpless, “Despite not wanting to interfere in the personal matter of the Sarutobi Clan... they are still providing security to the man and preventing the guards from taking him away to question him and his motives… as a result…”

‘That damned Uchiha Clan…!’ Hiruzen cursed inwardly.

It was quite obvious that the Uchiha Clan was intentionally not imprisoning the man...

Let alone that, Hiruzen is even certain that this entire situation had to be Uchiha Kanzou’s doing. The sudden rumor about him having a secret affair with Utatane Koharu, and him fathering Koharu’s children... followed by the appearance of this unknown man claiming to be his illegitimate son and sitting in front of the Hokage Building in protest.

It would be too much of a coincidence if all these things occurred at the same time. Rather than coincidence, it would make more sense if they are someone’s deliberate calculation.

And Hiruzen firmly believes that this must be Uchiha Kanzou’s doing.

Uchiha Kanzou intentionally spread rumors about him and Koharu to defame him, and even sent this man claiming to be his illegitimate son to make things difficult for him.

Kanzou must be doing all this to spite him because of the rumor Hiruzen himself had spread about Kanzou having a secret affair.

He must have figured out the source of that rumor and was retaliating against him.

‘How did he even manage to figure out the source of the rumor?’ Hiruzen wondered with a frown.

He had been very careful of that to ensure that the rumors don’t lead back to him... but Kanzou seems to have guessed nonetheless.

‘Is there a traitor on my side?’ he wondered with a frown. If there is a traitor, it would make sense.

‘Or is it possible that Uchiha Kanzou had noticed Jiraiya?’ he thought of another reason. If Uchiha Kanzou had noticed Jiraiya in that town... Kanzou can associate the rumors with him.

‘Sigh... another troublesome problem...’ he pressed his temple. It would be fine if Kanzou had noticed Jiraiya because the possibility of a traitor on his side was not good.

Shaking his head, he thought back to the rumor he had spread about Kanzou and turned to the ANBU, “Is there any result on Uchiha Kanzou and Uchiha Mikoto’s end?”

Even if it was creating a lot of trouble for him, if there was also trouble on Kanzou’s end, if his relationship with Mikoto had cracked and his position as Patriarch became difficult to retain, Hiruzen would still feel a little content.

It was a pity that Hiruzen had to be disappointed because the ANBU shook his head. “According to what we have gathered... Uchiha Kanzou himself hasn’t said anything pertaining to the rumors about him…” Then he paused and added, “Uchiha Mikoto, on the other hand... she publicly dismissed the rumors and asked the clansmen not to pay them any mind. She stated that Uchiha Kanzou isn’t having a… secret affair… and that trusting such baseless rumors is disrespectful to Uchiha Kanzou…”

“That’s what she said?” Hiruzen asked with a deep frown.

The ANBU nodded. “These are indeed her words…”

Hiruzen was left speechless. Although from such a statement it was difficult to determine things correctly, it seemed to suggest that there was no real crack in their relationship at all.

Well, cracks might have appeared behind the closed door... but...

“What did Uchiha Tadayoshi say?” Hiruzen asked next.

“Uchiha Tadayoshi doesn’t seem to have said anything at all regarding the rumors… he hasn’t even visited the Uchiha Patriarch and doesn’t seem to have any intention of involving himself in anything,” The ANBU shook his head.

Hiruzen pursed his lips... Uchiha Tadayoshi’s silence was as troubling as Uchiha Mikoto’s public defense of Kanzou.

If Uchiha Tadayoshi hasn’t done anything despite there being rumors of Kanzou having a secret affair behind his granddaughter’s back... then Hiruzen’s plan seems to have gone to complete waste because Kanzou doesn’t seem to be affected by his scheme.

No... not only has it gone to complete waste, but it has also even backfired!

While Kanzou doesn’t seem to be much affected at all... he, on the other hand, is subjected to a messy situation with rumors involving a secret affair with Koharu, sudden appearance of an ‘illegitimate son’, and internal problems in his family that he is avoiding having to deal with...

Let alone the rumors and the matter of the ‘illegitimate son’, he hadn’t even dared visit his home in all this time for fear of not knowing how to face them.

But just because he hadn’t dared to visit his family didn’t mean his family wasn’t going to come to him to question him.

His wife and younger son could still stay silent… but how could his eldest son stay silent?

Not only did Shinnosuke refuse to stay silent, but he even arrived directly to confront Hiruzen.

“Old man… how long are you going to hide here?”

“Shinnosuke, what are you doing here?” Hiruzen questioned with a deep frown as he looked at his elder son, who had forcefully broken into his office despite other ninjas trying to stop him.

It’s not that these ANBU ninjas didn’t have the power to stop him... they did, but Shinnosuke’s identity prevented them from stopping him.

“You think just because you aren’t going to the Hokage Building, I wouldn’t know that you are still in Konoha?” Shinnosuke snorted coldly, looking at his father in dissatisfaction.

Officially, Hiruzen wasn’t in Konoha at the moment. He had gone to the Capital of the Land of Fire to deal with a ‘national issue’. But of course, that was only the official story because he didn’t want to deal with the rumors and the public pressure, and was waiting for it to die down. In reality, he had been hiding in the ANBU base and managing the village from there.

But this information… it shouldn’t have been known to anyone but his trusted ANBU ninjas. Not even his son should have been aware of this. After all, Hiruzen was currently hiding from his family. So how could he have let this information be known to them?

Yet Shinnosuke had arrived at the ANBU base to confront him. Clearly, he was aware of his whereabouts.

The reason… Hiruzen looked at one particular ANBU who was trying to stop Shinnosuke with a sharp frown. “Spider…!”

In Hiruzen’s opinion, it could only have been Spider who informed Shinnosuke. Well… she seemed to have a somewhat ambiguous relationship with Shinnosuke… so…

The Spider-masked ANBU lowered her head and kneeled in front of him. “Please… please forgive me, Hokage-sama… I…”

Shinnosuke slammed his hands on the table, attracting everyone’s attention back to him.

“Instead of worrying about what Uroko did… why don’t you give an explanation about everything that’s going on…?” he paused, his voice rising with anger. “You have hidden yourself here… but don’t you know the kind of gazes Kaa-san has been dealing with ever since this matter broke out…? The way everyone is looking at her… You owe her an explanation…!!!”

“...” Hiruzen was silent for a while, his expression heavy. But then he waved his hand, dismissing Shinnosuke’s question, “There is no need for explanation… It’s just rumors… and politics. Biwako should understand this… and you need to stay quiet too… it’ll pass…”

“It will… pass? Is that all you have to say?” Shinnosuke questioned, gritting his teeth. He couldn’t believe that this was what his father was saying. There wasn’t a single word of apology in his mouth for the troubles and pitying gazes that his wife was dealing with…

“…” Hiruzen looked at him silently…

Shinnosuke only grew angrier and slammed his hands on the table again, shouting, “Fine then… We’ll stay silent… but don’t you dare come home… you’d better stay at the house of your so-called secret—!!!”

“Shinnosuke!!!” Hiruzen scolded, his temper flaring.

Faced with that glare from his father, Shinnosuke trembled in fear and became quiet, lowering his head as he dared not utter a single word. He knew full well that if he said anything more, it wouldn’t result in anything good for him…

This reaction wasn’t surprising. Even if Shinnosuke was already more than eighteen years old, the fear of one’s father was still rooted deep in his bones and not something that went away easily.

Hiruzen hummed, satisfied with Shinnosuke becoming quiet… and ordered him while pointing toward the door, “Instead of questioning me or creating problems for me… go and do some training… You are already a disappointment… just don’t try to embarrass me any further…”

Being called a disappointment by Hiruzen… Shinnosuke clenched his fist in anger. Yet there was nothing he could do to refute that. After all… he really was a disappointment for Hiruzen.

Why was he a disappointment for Hiruzen? Well… that’s because…

Despite being the son of the Hokage, Shinnosuke was nowhere near as strong as Hiruzen would have preferred his son to be. In terms of strength, even at the age of 18, at most, Shinnosuke was at the level of a Jōnin, and that was still being generous.

Now, being a Jōnin at the age of 18, even if barely making that standard, wasn’t bad. In fact, it was actually quite good, as the average age by which ninjas get promoted to the rank of Jōnin is normally mid to late twenties… sometimes even thirties.

It’s just that the standard only applies to the so-called ‘normal’ people, not geniuses.

Being the son of the Hokage, especially the greatest and strongest Hokage, who is also widely known as the God of Shinobi, Shinnosuke should have been exceptionally talented and outclassed everyone in his generation.

It was a pity that Shinnosuke was neither exceptionally talented nor did he outclass everyone else in his generation.

Let alone people like Uchiha Kanzou and then Uchiha Fugaku, who are far more talented and stronger than Shinnosuke, even the likes of Hyuga twins, the Ino-Shika-Chō of this generation, the Inuzuka Patriarch, Aburame Patrich, the Takemichi Patriarch, and so on… all of them had much better performances compared to Shinnosuke.

Forget about comparing him to the future leaders of the major clans like the Uchiha and the Hyuga; his son wasn’t even as good as the leaders of the clans that were not as powerful as the Sarutobi Clan. How could such a son not be a disappointment to Hiruzen?

Did Shinnosuke not get resources? Did he not get the best and most exclusive teachers, trainers, and instructors to train him? Did he not get access to any and all jutsu that he wanted to learn? He did! As the son of Hokage, Shinnosuke was provided with all of it. He was given the best of everything, but even then, he didn’t become capable enough to surpass any of them.

At this point, Hiruzen didn’t even have much hope and didn’t expect much growth from his son simply because he felt that Shinnosuke didn’t have that potential. The boy had already tapped whatever potential he had… and there was not much room for growth left. So… Shinnosuke would at most remain a Jōnin… not even a proper Elite Jōnin by strength… just a Jōnin, which was even very embarrassing for Hiruzen.

Hiruzen himself was a proper Kage-tier ninja… but his eldest son wasn’t good enough at all… how could that not be embarrassing for him?

‘Hopefully Asuma won’t be such a disappointment…’ he thought, shaking his head and scolding Shinnosuke again, “What are you standing there for… go… and train otherwise, you’ll only disappoint me more…”

Although extremely angry and humiliated, Shinnosuke could do nothing and turned to leave. But before leaving, he said to Hiruzen, “Regardless of what you think of me, at least think of Kaa-san, and give her an explanation, an apology or something, that’s the least she deserves…”

Having said that, he left.

Watching his son leave, Hiruzen decided to himself, ‘Later, it’s best to transfer him to the ANBU…’

He believed that by transferring him into the ANBU, he’d remove Shinnosuke from public sight, which would ensure that his son wouldn’t keep embarrassing him any further. After all, working in the ANBU, Shinnosuke’s faults, weaknesses, and so on wouldn’t become well known, which would allow Hiruzen to save face.

Shinnosuke didn’t know that Hiruzen had already prepared in his mind to sideline him, and left while angrily slamming the door behind him.

When Shinnosuke was gone, Hiruzen turned his gaze to the Spider-masked ANBU who was still kneeling.

Feeling the Hokage’s gaze upon her, the Spider-masked ANBU trembled and apologized once again, “Please forgive me, Hokage-sama… Shinnosuke-sama... he was just…”

Hiruzen interrupted her halfway, and reminded her, “I understand that you owe him a lot as it was he who recommended you to me, but you need to understand that even if you owe him a lot, have a certain relationship with him, and he is my son, protocols are protocols…”

“I... I know...” Spider-masked ANBU nodded, feeling guilty.

“I’ll let this slide for once, but don’t let it repeat. Even if he is my son, you are not to reveal anything to him without my permission…”

“Hai… I won’t, I swear, Hokage-sama…!” She nodded, relieved that she wasn’t going to be punished or removed from the ANBU.

“Hope not…” Hiruzen murmured and waved his hand. “Go and keep a watch over Shinnosuke. I am worried that he might end up doing something reckless. If that happens, it’ll only be a problem for me, so stay with him.”

“I… understand, Hokage-sama,” The ANBU nodded and left in a hurry, afraid that if she lingered, she would be scolded or punished.

Watching the Spider-masked ANBU leave, Hiruzen shook his head. The only good thing Shinnosuke had done so far was to recommend Spider to him… She was a talented kunoichi whom Hiruzen might not have noticed if not for his son mentioning her to him. Indeed, it was only through Shinnosuke that he had heard of this talented kunoichi specializing in Genjutsu and recruited her into the ANBU…

Of course, Shinnosuke’s recommendation was also related to the ambiguous intentions he seemed to have towards Spider… but in that regard, Hiruzen didn’t care much and actually supported it because Spider seemed to have a good kekkei genkai. If that kekkei genkai got added to the Sarutobi Clan in the form of a child between the two… then it would be a good thing…

‘Hopefully, he won’t disappoint me on this…’

With that, Hiruzen decided not to pay attention to that matter and wondered about something else… about how to deal with the matter of the rumors, that so-called illegitimate son, and so on…

It’s just that even if he thought about how to deal with the rumors… There wasn’t much he could do about them except wait for the rumors and so on to just pass all while spreading other rumors that discredit the rumors of a secret affair… and that’s what he decided to keep on doing while waiting…

As he waited and waited for several days… suddenly, he received word from the Eagle-masked ANBU ninja who had returned to the village, “Hokage-sama, we managed to find Uchiha Fugaku and brought him back to the village…”

“Huh? Uchiha Fugaku has been found…? Take me to him…” Hiruzen immediately said, his eyes lighting up.

The ANBU nodded and led the way.

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