Thank you to the nice person who left the nice reviews, you are nice. I'll try to live up to your expectations haha.

Sports and stuff are starting up, so expect chapters to slow down a little from here on out.


A colossal vortex of water barreled towards the Konoha shinobi, tearing up the ground underneath it. Fugaku flooded his legs with chakra, and disappeared in a burst of speed, reappearing on the edge of the crater.

He had no time to check on his allies; however, because the man with multiple chakra signatures was rapidly closing in on him. Fugaku's hand blurred together before he sent a fireball towards the man, but he just ran straight through it.

His burnt and tattered cloak fell off of him as his blackened fist shot forward, clipping the surprised Uchiha's shoulder. The strike sent Fugaku stumbling backwards with a hiss, his burnt flesh magnifying the pain tenfold. His Sharingan spun, and the world through his right eye slowed to a near standstill.

Ignoring the searing pain in his eye, Fugaku composed himself, and prepared for the coming assault. Punches and kicks that would have struck with lightning speed were reduced to a snail's pace as Fugaku weaved through the attacks with ease. He sidestepped a punch, and gave one of his own.

And immediately regretted it. Fugaku was a man that could shatter boulders and punch holes through solid steel, but this man's skin was something else.

The man's body spasmed, and Fugaku took note of the massive buildup of fire and wind chakra in his shoulders. He jumped backward, his hands coming into a cross seal, and then continued to flip through seals alongside his newly formed clone.

Blasts of fire and wind tore through the man's shirt, fusing into a blinding inferno. Two vortexes of water met the inferno, similar to the blast of water the man's ally sent, albeit smaller. Despite Fugaku's elemental advantage, the jutsu canceled each other out, and saturated the area in a thick mist.

Fugaku still saw the chakra of the man, taking note of the four other signatures separating from his body, and going up into the air.

"I've fought the first Hokage and survived," the man called out through the mist. "Do you really think your efforts can amount to anything?"

Fugaku didn't bother answering, and chose to body flicker out of the mist instead, and out of the way of a bolt of lightning. He stumbled to a stop outside the cloud of mist, his body was already beginning to fail him.

With a proper view of his situation, Fugaku saw the four chakra signatures for what they were, black masses of convulsing tendrils. Their limbs were loosely defined, with their most stand out feature being the different masks that each of them wore.

The wind natured one noticed him first, and spat a burst of wind at him. Fugaku went to dodge, but a hand wrapped itself around his ankle before he could move out of the way. He swore as his Susanno manifested around him, blocking the blast of wind.

The ground in front of him tore apart as the threads attached to the hand surfaced. Fugaku was soon lifted off of his feet, and flung into the air. Fugaku's right eye bled as the world once again slowed to a standstill. He took note of the four creatures approaching him, and the mouths of their masks slowly opening.

Pushing chakra to his left eye now, Fugaku focused on each of the masks, and black flames followed his gaze. The creatures all fell to the ground, and lost their form, becoming a pile of threads and black flames. Fugaku touched down a second later, and despite himself, fell to one knee.

His opponent wasted no time, and rushed Fugaku. His black fist struck towards Fugaku's temple, but was stopped short by his raised forearm. His blackened forearm.

"What?"

Fugaku surged forward, slamming his free fist into the man's stomach, folding him in half. He tumbled backward, and stopped in a crouch, gasping for air.

Earth chakra coursed through his body, dulling the pain, and strengthening Fugaku past his limits. He stood with newfound strength as he stalked towards his enemy, doing his best to ignore his flagging chakra levels.

"It's starting to make sense why you've survived for so long," Fugaku said. "You must have never fought an Uchiha before."

Fugaku's advance was cut short by a single-edged massive sword, forcing him to hop backwards as it cleaved through the spot where he once stood. The swordsman was heavily bleeding, with a piece of his ear, and multiple sharp teeth missing.

"Sasori scratched them, it's time to go," the swordsman said to his ally as he hoisted him up.

"I'm not done with him yet," Fugaku's original opponent said as he shrugged off his ally's hand.

"Do what you want, but we're all leaving," the swordsman said as he turned to run.

His ally spared a glare towards Fugaku before turning to join him. Fugaku made to follow, but was cut off as a hail of burning paper filled the space between him and the pair. He flared his chakra, and his ribcage manifested, barely making it in time to block the worst of the attack. The force of is still threw him off his feet; however, and he was sent tumbling across the ground.

Every cell in his body hurt, and he couldn't tell if it was from the explosion, or the activation of his most powerful defense. But the pain let him know that he was still alive.

He forced himself back to his feet, wary of a follow up attack, but none ever came. They were gone.

He searched the battlefield for any sign of his allies, and took note of the bits and pieces of what looked like wooden human limbs. There must have been hundreds of them.

Fugaku eventually found his allies, and to his horror, they were on the ground. They were surrounded by scraps of paper and black powder. Fugaku rushed over to their side, and willed his Sharingan to activate again. They still had chakra, so they were still alive. Aside from the injuries from the initial explosion, Fugaku didn't see any other wounds.

"Poison," Minato moaned.

Sensing the man's waning strength, Fugaku didn't waste time asking him any questions, and placed a hand on Hiruzen's and Minato's shoulder.

"We're all in contact, take us back," Fugaku commanded, praying that the Hokage was still conscious.

For three painful seconds, nothing happened, but then they were in the Hokage Office, back in Konoha. Two Anbu immediately came out of the shadows, and gently lifted the pair of Hokage.

Fugaku made to follow, but only stumbled forward, his legs turning to jelly. He crashed down in a heap, too weak to get back to his feet. That final use of his Susanno must have taken more chakra than he thought.

"Is there anyone else here that could take me home? My food's going to get cold."

He was met with silence.

/-/

Fugaku's breakfast was in fact cold when he got back home, which was only the third worst thing that had happened to him today. The second was definitely the trap that Obito had set for them, and the first was how worried his family had been about him when he finally got back.

Mikoto's reaction was to be expected, but Itachi's was a little off putting.

His normally aloof son hadn't left his side since he got back. He had claimed it was only coincidental, but the subtle glances his son had taken of his wounds said otherwise. His family shouldn't have been worrying about him like this, he was THE Wicked Eye Fugaku.

Nevertheless, the remainder of his day was spent in monotony, until once again, a knock at his door forced him out of it.

This time, it was Shikaku Nara.

"Shikaku? Do you need something?"

Shikaku scratched at the back of his head and sighed, as if Fugaku was the one inconveniencing him. You came to my house, why do you look so annoyed?

"As the Jonin Commander, I'm responsible for the safety of the village when the Hokage isn't around," he drawled. "But with the state of the village, and Lord Third also being out of commission, I just wanted to make sure that I could count on the police to maybe, I don't know, fill in the gaps."

"So, you want us to also prepare for non-domestic conflict. That shouldn't be a problem," Fugaku replied. "More importantly, are those two still down?"

Shikaku sighed again. "Yeah, it's not great. The poison is more potent and complex than anything the doctors had seen before, and it was going through Minato's body at an especially alarming rate. Luckily, his wife came in, and put the two of them under some weird time seal. But that's just a stop gap solution to give us some more time."

"Is there anything being done for them? Can we do anything?"

"A team's already been dispatched to find Lady Tsunade," Shikaku replied. "If anyone can save them, she can."

Shikaku left soon afterward, claiming that he forgot to feed his deer. Fugaku wasn't sure how to respond to that, even after he left.

All Fugaku could do was put his trust in the team sent to find Tsunade. Tracking wasn't his specialty, so he begrudgingly had to accept that he'd be entirely useless in this situation. Investigation, combat, and espionage were his strong suits.

He also wasn't sure what his next steps would be in regards to Obito, or even if he should be considering his next steps. As the Chief of Police, Fugaku rarely went out into the field anymore, his most recent outings being his first time outside the village in over a month.

His stake in this conflict was definitely personal, but Fugaku had to think about how the elders would react to him, as they would put it, "overstepping his bounds." Without Danzo, they lost a lot of their sway, but Fugaku didn't want to make things worse for his clan after they were finally starting to get the respect they deserved. But he couldn't just sit back and do nothing.

"Fugaku, dinner's ready!"

His stomach rumbled, and he was quickly reminded of the meals that he missed today. Maybe he'd be able to make a proper decision with some food in his stomach.