My curious adventures with the Nine-Tailed Fox

A profound serenity enveloped the modest, two-story Clan Leader’s estate, which boasted a sprawling garden right in the heart of the Uchiha compound. Donning a comfortable kimono, Fugaku sat on the wooden floor of the veranda, silently watching the garden. He had sent his eldest son, Itachi, outside to train with little Sasuke. At this moment, keeping his mind as far away as possible from the clan's endless troubles and the village's suffocating politics, he was doing his favorite thing in life: spending private time with his beautiful wife.

Mikoto sat calmly right beside her husband, her arm wrapped affectionately around his. Resting her head on Fugaku's broad, reassuring shoulder, she watched the gently swaying branches of the sakura trees in the garden alongside him. Amidst this peaceful moment, Mikoto was the first to break the silence.

“Fugaku… aren't you being a little too harsh on Sasuke?”

Pleased with his current state and the atmosphere, Fugaku spoke calmly as he picked up the hot cup of tea resting right beside him.

“Yes… but I cannot help it, my dear. This world is unforgiving, and Sasuke is much more spoiled and arrogant than normal Uchihas… I fear this trait of his will cause him to suffer in the future…”

Pausing his words for a moment, he took a slow sip of his tea and, after wetting his throat, continued to share his thoughts.

“Frankly, I cannot bring myself to tell you or Itachi to treat him harshly; seeing the good relationship between you all makes me happy… but the reason I am strict with him stems from the harshness of life itself… I must admit, I am somewhat envious of Sasuke's brotherly bond with Itachi.”

Fugaku slowly raised his head toward the sky and let out a heavy sigh. He had lost his own father and brother in the Third Great Ninja War. These two sudden losses were what caused the Mangekyou Sharingan in his eyes to awaken. He did not want his own children to grow stronger by experiencing such pain in the future. Noticing that her husband had drifted into the past and grown melancholic, Mikoto gently changed the subject to prevent him from sorrowing any further.

“Fugaku… was your approach to Itachi today the right one? The boy lost all his teammates… it was wrong of you to congratulate him for awakening his Sharingan…”

Fugaku scratched his head helplessly in the face of this justified criticism.

“I constantly forget that Itachi has a different mindset, Mikoto… normally, a Uchiha ninja's greatest dream is to awaken the Sharingan and develop it into a 3 Tomoe. Itachi managed to awaken his Sharingan at the age of 7 and is more talented than all our ninjas… I wanted to make him forget his pain, guide him through this achievement, and make him happy, but I never imagined it would backfire… I suppose I have created a rift between us.”

To be frank, Fugaku loved his wife and two sons more than his own life and would risk anything for them, yet when it came to communicating with them, he frequently felt helpless as a parent. His greatest challenge in life was fathering a genius like Itachi. Itachi was a complete enigma to him; he could never quite gauge what his son was thinking, how he interpreted events, or how he would act next. The boy's thought process was far removed from the mold of a standard Uchiha. The worst part was that whenever Fugaku thought he was doing a good thing and supporting his son, he felt the invisible distance between him and Itachi widen just a little more, a reality that deeply saddened him on the inside. In truth, this very lack of communication would lay the foundation for him to treat Sasuke much differently and more distantly than Itachi in the future.

The poor man was truly floundering in his role as a father. Sometimes, no matter how much parents loved their children, a difficult-to-bridge void would form between the two parties at the very point they ceased to understand them. This was exactly what Fugaku was experiencing. Of course, this did not stem from him being an inadequate or foolish man. Being known in the ninja world as "Wicked Eye Fugaku" and assuming the leadership of the Uchiha clan were the greatest proofs of his intellect and strength. The Uchiha clan would never place someone weak or incompetent at the helm. Fugaku was an absolute strategic genius on the battlefield, but when it came to socializing with his own family and dealing with village administration and politics, matters unfortunately grew increasingly complex and inextricable for him. Understanding her husband's silent sorrow regarding fatherhood and not wanting him to blame himself, Mikoto spoke in an incredibly soothing and tender tone.

“Itachi is a gentle boy, Fugaku. I don't think he will resent you; he just needs to calm down a bit.”

Feeling the burden on his shoulders lighten, if only a little, Fugaku let out a troubled yet hopeful sigh.

“I hope so…”

The couple sat there for a while longer in the shade of the veranda without saying anything, simply drawing strength from each other's presence. In truth, Mikoto had questions in her mind regarding the current state of the village and the clan. Especially the day before, when she saw the hardships her close friend Kushina's orphaned son was experiencing in the village, she had been deeply saddened and wanted to tell her husband about them to vent a little. However, she knew just how intense the pressure her husband was already under due to the tension between the clan's extremist members and the Konoha administration. Realizing that he only needed to rest his mind right now, she did not want to ruin his rare moment of peace with her own troubles. Furthermore, she was well aware that her husband's hands were completely tied politically when it came to the Naruto matter. She had decided to go into the village less often, simply to avoid feeling the helplessness of seeing Naruto lonely and ostracized yet being unable to help him. With this bitterness in her heart, she hugged her husband's arm a little tighter and nestled deeply into those broad shoulders. Fugaku, on the other hand, turned into a happy man who forgot all the day's exhaustion in the face of his wife's affectionate demeanor. He smiled involuntarily and, struck by a sudden thought, asked curiously.

“Mikoto… shall we have another child?”

Mikoto was slightly startled by this unexpected proposal; lifting her head from her husband's shoulder, she looked at him in sheer astonishment.

“Where did this come from all of a sudden?”

Fugaku scratched his head with that shy demeanor he rarely showed behind his serious Clan Leader mask.

“… I mean… we have two boys… would it be so bad to have a girl? A cute, little girl who looks just like you.”

After listening to her husband's sincere wish in surprise, a warm smile spread across Mikoto's face. She reached out and planted a soft kiss on her husband's cheek, then replied with a flirtatious whisper.

“We can discuss this later bu in a more private place~"

Hearing these words, Fugaku involuntarily straightened his posture, a faint flush spreading across his cheeks. Kissing his wife on the forehead, he deeply inhaled the scent of her hair. Just as they were about to savor the moment, possessing the reflexes of professional ninjas, they both simultaneously sensed a chakra rapidly approaching their home. Instantly shaking off their relaxed states, they grew serious and corrected their postures. Seconds later, Akira, one of the clan gate guards, practically tumbled into the garden and swiftly dropped to one knee in front of the veranda.

“Patriarch, there is an urgent situation.”

Both Mikoto and Fugaku gave Akira a stern look and let out deep sighs. Fugaku rubbed his eyes with his fingers, as if trying to soothe an encroaching headache.

“What happened? Did elder Setsuna cause trouble? Or is it something related to the village?”

Raising his head, Akira spoke in the calmest tone he could muster.

“No, Patriarch, Hokage-sama is waiting at the clan gates…”

Fugaku recoiled upon hearing the news; all his weariness vanished instantly, and he stared at Akira in astonishment.

“What? Did he say why he's here?”

Akira hesitated briefly, not knowing how to explain the old Hokage's request to the Clan Leader, but ultimately reported it straightforwardly.

“Well… he said he wants to walk around the Uchiha compound with someone and asked for your permission…”

While Mikoto blinked in astonishment at what she heard, Fugaku's brows instantly furrowed.

“What did you say? The Hokage wants to walk around the compound?”

Fugaku immediately began weaving a multitude of political scenarios in his mind. 'Does he want to observe the state of the clan? Or is it a sudden inspection?' he thought. Just as he was weighing these possibilities, he noticed that small detail in Akira's sentence.

“With whom does he want to walk, Akira? Danzo? The elders?”

Knowing it was none of those names, Akira didn't know how to speak for a moment. He took a deep breath before speaking.

“No, Patriarch… how should I put this… he wants to walk around with the Kyuubi's Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Naruto… Naruto wants to go shopping in the Uchiha compound…”

For a few seconds, the couple on the veranda could not process the words spilling from Akira's lips. They both just stared blankly at the youth. For a moment, Fugaku felt the need to clean his ear with his finger, thinking he had grown old and misheard.

“Akira, did you just say that the Third Hokage came to the Uchiha compound to go shopping with Naruto?”

Akira nodded, maintaining the utter seriousness of the situation.

“Yes, Clan Leader.”

Fugaku was bewildered. Beside him, Mikoto was just as dumbfounded as her husband. Frowning deeply, Fugaku asked.

“How did this happen? Do you have any idea?”

Akira nodded and began to recount everything from the very beginning. He detailed how Naruto had suddenly appeared on the horizon while he and Tetsuya were keeping their routine watch at the gate, explaining step by step the reasoning of the boy who no longer had any expectations from the village. He explained that no one in the village would sell him provisions, that he had subsequently heard from Teuchi at Ichiraku that the Uchiha was the strongest clan that founded the village, and that he had come right to their gates to see if this "strongest" clan would ostracize him like the ordinary villagers did. He then summarized how Tetsuya had offered that while he couldn't let the boy inside due to clan rules, he could buy the desired supplies on his behalf and hand them over, and how, right at that moment, the Hokage had suddenly appeared and altered the course of events. Of course, while explaining, he did not neglect to mention the vile treatment Naruto faced in the village's shops and streets.

Listening to the story in silence, the couple was both surprised and frowning in anger at what they heard. Mikoto, in particular, was devastated by the loneliness and torment into which her dear friend Kushina's son had been dragged. Inwardly, however, she rejoiced that Naruto had sought refuge at their clan's gates, and she silently praised Tetsuya for taking the initiative at the door and not outright rejecting the boy.

Fugaku, on the other hand, just stood there, not knowing how to frame what he had heard in his mind. His simple dream for today had been to spend private time with his wife, sip his fresh tea, be a little lazy, attend to his sons, and shed the stress from his shoulders. But now, at a completely unexpected moment, a bouncing, blond-haired, political time bomb had dropped right into his lap.

Frankly, he too was exceedingly disturbed by this miserable life Naruto had been subjected to. There was a deep bond of comradeship and friendship between him and the Fourth Hokage, Minato. Especially with the women of the two families being close enough to be each other's confidantes, Fugaku and Minato had inevitably become thick as thieves. In the past, Fugaku had believed that with Minato ascending to the Hokage seat, the Uchiha clan would finally attain its desired peace. He had even envisioned that Minato would personally take on talents like Itachi and Shisui as his own students to train them, perhaps paving the way for one of them to become Hokage in the future. Had this come to pass, the endlessly restless and rebellious faction within the clan would have been silenced; he himself would have led a happy life, eventually passing on his seat after a calm and stress-free period of leadership. And then, he would have grown old in peace at home with his beautiful wife and grandchildren, waiting for death... But alas, the Nine-Tails incident had razed not only Konoha to the ground but also all of Fugaku's bright future plans.

He sighed helplessly beneath the weight of the past. Mikoto reached out, placed a hand over her own heart, and looked directly into his eyes.

“Fugaku…”

When Fugaku heard his wife's sorrowful voice, carrying a tender yet equally pleading tone, he saw the pain in her eyes and, without needing to think any further, made his decision and nodded.

“Do not worry, I am not about to chase them away from the gates. Since Minato and Kushina's son has come all this way on his own two feet, let him shop in our clan as he pleases. For the Uchiha never forget their friends, nor the orphans they leave behind.”

Rising to his feet decisively, Fugaku quickly and carefully straightened his kimono, putting on his serious demeanor.

“I should go and escort them personally; with the Hokage at our gates, me sitting at home would be quite unseemly, both politically and humanely.”

Once ready, he turned and looked at Mikoto.

“Would you like to come as well?”

Mikoto hesitated for a moment, thinking of the clan rules and the village's reaction. However, the fact that the Hokage himself had brought Naruto as a guest to the Uchiha clan of his own volition caused a small glimmer of hope to sprout within her. Casting her hesitation aside, she quickly stood up, smoothed her clothes, and nodded in agreement with her husband.

“I want to come.”

Fugaku smiled and nodded. The Clan Leader, his wife, and the guard Akira who had brought them the news vanished from the wooden floor of the veranda using a Body Flicker technique, setting off to welcome the guests at the clan gates.