There he stood, hands gripped tightly while still retaining an appearance of grace and freedom from any indicators of stress.
"With all due respect, Sir. May I speak freely?" The status identifier stated with a clear sarcastic intent.
"You may." The wizened old man replied, in a rare instance of interest due to not knowing what would come next.
"What in the hell did you just ask me?" While he wouldn't admit it his voice almost quivered in shock that he was even voicing such thoughts to his supreme commander.
The old man pondered a moment then leaned back, taking out his pipe. He slowly and meticulously filled it with tobacco, lit the end puffed it twice and set it down on his podium allowing the smoke to rise slowly for fifteen seconds. His face calm during this process suddenly grew hard.
"I did not ask you anything, Fugaku. I gave you an order, and you will follow it." Silence encompassed the room and all watched as Fugaku slowly went through a series of emotions, something rarely shown on his face in public, bared for all to see. It finished with resignation as he understood what was needed. Fugaku sat back down, apparently defeated in this endeavor.
"As I have no other matters to discuss this meeting is adjourned." The old man spoke with finality and authority rare in one so venerable.
The council members slowly left the room until only the Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, and the Captain of the Military Police Force, and head of the Uchiha Clan, Fugaku Uchiha, remained.
Silence was met between the two as they starred at each other. Finally Sarutobi waved his hand in the ai with a flourish, indicating to one of his ANBU stationed nearby to bring him a small cradle with a child inside.
Uzumaki Naruto, seventeen hours and fifty seven minutes old, the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the greatest of all the demons in the land. He lay almost unmoving asleep. Fugaku reluctantly walked up to the basket the child was in and lifted it gently. He then made as to leave for home when Sarutobi put a wrinkled hand on his shoulder.
"You are a very intelligent man, and I have no doubts you have already ascertained who his forebears were. Nobody is to find out. As stated in the meeting only the council shall know of his charge, and it is an S ranked secret." The wrinkled man paused for effect. "As far as the world is concerned he is the illegitimate child of an old comrade of the leader of the Uchiha, who at the request of the father's dying will asked for your family to be his charge. It is merely a favor to repay a battlefield debt to an old estranged friend. You may not have liked his father, you may even resent the boy for what he represents, but I will make this clear. No undue harm shall come to this boy, as long as you keep this to be true you may handle him as any other charge of the Uchiha."
Fugaku nodded and quietly left, his wife would not be particularly happy about the unexpected addition to the family, but thankfully he had already had a plan for such a scenario.
The middle-aged Uchiha leader entered into his district with a purpose. With naught but a flare of chakra three of his aides were at his side.
"Take this boy to my home, inform the missus that we have an unexpected 'gift' from an old colleague of mine that we will be taking care of." Without even a dismissal Fugaku walked toward the three story building in the direct center of the Uchiha district, the mansion of the Uchiha elders.
"Elder council, I am here to inform you of a grave situation. Mori Takahashi, my colleague from the academy who perished during the attack, has left behind a child. The child's mother died during labor and the will requested that I take him as a charge of the Uchiha Clan." He stated his case firmly, and though he did not practice the speech he conceived on his journey from the tower to his home, he had every confidence that it would be believed.
"This is preposterous!" a decrepit woman from the back file shouted. "For what reason should the great Uchiha clan listen to the last rites of some third-rate shinobi?" many of the elders in the room seemed to be of the same mind, though less vocal.
"Objection allowed." The booming voice of the man who presided over the council to ensure things did not get out of hand, the previous leader of the Uchiha, and Fugaku's father, Teppei Uchiha. "Present your case as to why this child should be our ward."
"He is the only son of a colleague from my academy days, who while I may be reluctant to admit it, I owed a debt." There were murmurs in the crowd that the current leader could be indebted to anyone in the village, let alone a rank and file shinobi. "During the Third great war we were assigned to the same platoon, and during an encounter I had grossly underestimated the capabilities of on of the enemy's siege weapons. His quick thinking saved all but one member of our squad, and left him greatly injured. As you know he lost all capability of fine motor control of his left leg during that battle, and it was my oversight that led to it." The council nodded knowing the horrors that occurred during the bloodiest of wars to date. "Though he was only performing his duty it was his act that saved my life, and as a man I could not go to my grave knowing I did not repay the only request he ever had of me."
Chatter filled the room as discussion took hold. Almost half an hour later the chatter died down, and the old woman who had previously spoken out rose and spoke.
"Objection withdrawn, we will accept this child as one of our own. However I request that you at least inform the council of any other 'debts' you may have acquired so that we are aware of them in the future." The latter half of the statement caused many in the room to chuckle slightly at the straight-faced humor presented. Within the council it was widely accepted that any weaknesses or debts of the leader should be on a need-to-know basis, in order to prevent any attempts at blackmail.
"Request denied." Fugaku spoke with a small amount of mirth at the old woman's strange sense of humor. "As there are no other topics to be handled at this time, you are dismissed."
Fugaku upon leaving called for his private contingent of intelligence officers, and quickly scribbled out something in code.
"Give this to the Hokage himself, and tell him it is in regards to a mission report involving the late Takahashi, and his newborn son."
Fugaku approached his home to find his son Itachi holding his younger brother, and his wife holding the newborn Naruto standing at the gate.
"Well seeing as you are both here already this will save time." He then pointed at the young Naruto. "He is the newest charge of the Uchiha clan, I have the intention of personally seeing to his integration into the clan as a favor to a now departed friend." His lie did not go unnoticed by his wife, though his son did not seem to notice or care. "He will be raised as both a confidant, and a protector, for young Sasuke. His service shall last until he enrolls in the ninja corps. proper, at which point we will allow him to move out if he so wishes." He then quickly decided an addendum to his prepared speech was needed. "I have also been informed that his mother's side has a latent bloodline that is likely to manifest, as such if anything strange seems to happen please immediately inform either myself or the Hokage, and we will take care of it. As a confidant to the younger heir of the main family he is to be treated properly, however he must also be trained in his duties as a protector as well." He then took the child who was now awake and cooing at who the infant was soon to see as a father figure.
After about an hour Itachi went off to prepare for his mission the next day. This left Fugaku alone with his wife.
"So what aren't you telling me?" The Uchiha matriarch asked coyly.
"Two S-ranked secrets, one of which you will likely figure out yourself, at which point please inform me as I will need to debrief you." He paused for a moment thoughtfully, which caused his wife to chuckle at his surprisingly childish sense of humor. "The other is for council ears only." He let out quite exasperated.
"Ah, is that so. I suppose having another mouth to feed won't be too troublesome. Please try to keep your new found habit of adopting orphans, whose parents you owed a favor, to a minimum." She said quite amused. Sometimes it bothered him how fast news got from the council room to his wife's ears. He chalked it up to the fact that, while those outside the compound would never know, the Uchiha women were avid gossips about clan affairs.