Burdened Slave
Chapter 10
Headaches of Godaime Hokage Uchiha Fugaku
The elders sat in front of the Hokage silently after having discussed a new development with Kumo.
To his right were village elders Koharu and Homura. In the centre was Sarutobi Hiruzen. To his side was Shimura Danzo.
Kumo wanted to discuss peace. Hiruzen glanced towards Danzo; The action was not lost on Fugaku. When the Uchiha became Hokage, Hiruzen told him about Root. He told him how Danzo protected the village from the shadows, but mentioned how shadows consumed Danzo.
It was clear that Danzo did something to make Kumo back off and for that Fugaku was thankful. However, the era where a Hokage needs a shadow is over. Hashirama needed Tobirama and Sarutobi needed Danzo. Tobirama was more shadow then light and Minato was more light than shadow.
The way Fugaku sees it, with an Uchiha as Hokage, an era of balance has started. An era where the Hokage was both the light and the shadows. Both the leaf and the root of the great tree.
He had planned to send the strongest of the Maboroshi clan to assassinate Yondaime Raikage, Ei and the Kumo council in their sleep. He would have followed up with his Uchiha decimating Kumo's forces, then he would have personally placed the Lightning Daimyō and his court of nobles under the power of his Sharingan.
With Danzo doing something to make Kumo seek peace, they would now have just put off fighting for an unknown number of years. However, the battles if they had commenced would have been bloody. Kumo was strong and while Fugaku ensured Konoha was strong after the Kyuubi attack more than two years ago and before taking the mantle of Hokage, the risk of loss still existed at an uncomfortably high level. However, the guise of peace has its own advantages and could definitely aid Fugaku's plans in the shadows.
So, Fugaku was annoyed at Danzo, but grateful nonetheless.
Fugaku nodded. "Alright, we will hold peace talks in two months. We'll deal with Kiri and keep an eye on Iwagakure. Is there anything else?"
With no answer, the elders minus Hiruzen stood and bowed before taking their leave.
With no one but Hiruzen and Fugaku in the room, the previous Hokage spoke. "I understand you have been investigating Orochimaru."
Right to the point.
Fugaku nodded.
"I would like to handle Orochimaru myself," Hiruzen requested. "If he turns out to truly be a traitor, I will kill him with my own hands."
Fugaku kept himself from frowning, but thought it over.
"Very well," Fugaku said.
Hiruzen nodded in thanks and left.
Fugaku read the most recent report from a clan member he had placed to follow and spy on his nephew, Haru.
Still no signs of negative effects from killing. Fugaku was proud.
Haru truly is stronger than Itachi.
His mind flashed to Itachi and even more pride swelled in his chest. His own son and his team had recently been requested for an escort mission by the Fire Daimyō himself.
Focusing back on the report, he noticed that Haru had been to the Haruno household once more. The first and second time it happened, Fugaku was really suspicious. Although nothing in Haruno Kizashi's psychological reports suggested it, Fugaku still felt that the man was somehow trying to manipulate his nephew's feelings so the man could marry his daughter into the Uchiha clan.
But after remembering how strange his own nephew acts and the fact that his nephew hardly interacts with the Haruno daughter and just sits making up jokes with Haruno Kizashi—well, Fugaku was baffled and couldn't believe why he would think that there was some hidden agenda.
Continuing his reading of the report, he eventually stopped and shook his head. He's going to have to order his spy to ignore the Haruno meetings, because the reports were turning out to just be pages of jokes. Bad jokes on Haruno Kizashi's part and baffling jokes on his nephew's side. And hopefully she'll comply.
Speaking of the spy, though, maybe paranoid pseudo-mother-slash-aunt was a better term because he hardly had to manipulate her into spying on his nephew and reporting to him, she burst into his office.
Uchiha Hana, his younger sister. He would have glared at her if it weren't for the blank face she wore.
He didn't have to ask what happened when she spoke.
"The Hanakō twins killed themselves and Haru isn't talking to me," she spoke, though her voice wavered. "I only took my eyes off him for a few hours."
Uchiha Hana and Uchiha Kō. The kid twins and younger siblings of Uchiha Shisui.
Fugaku sighed after coming back to his house after looking at the bodies. It turned out they threw themselves from the mountain and they had been holding hands.
His wife greeted him silently. She was holding a confused Sasuke. Hana was hovering behind her.
"Where is he?" Fugaku asked.
"He's in his room," his wife said and concern was in her eyes.
Haru's room was right next to Itachi's and he half expected Itachi to be with Haru, but he had to remind himself that his son was on a mission.
He entered Haru's room and saw his nephew staring out of his window.
"What happened?" Fugaku asked and was startled when his nephew nearly collapsed away from the window in a clumsy effort to do something.
Was he not paying attention to his surroundings?
His nephew stared at him and for the first time, Fugaku saw the most broken and emotional expression on the young boy's face. He could not describe it.
"Oji-sama," Haru said in a watery voice. "I've caused the death of innocents."
And after looking closer at his nephew, he noticed blood at the side of his eyes and blood on his sleeve.
"You activated your Mangekyo," it wasn't a question. "Why?"
"I thought I could stop their fall, but I didn't know what I was doing," Haru replied.
"Why did they jump?" Fugaku asked.
Haru fell to his knees and tears started falling out of his eyes.
Not knowing what to do consciously, he let himself walk towards his nephew. He sat next to his sobbing nephew and gently placed his hands on Haru's head.
"Don't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you," Haru said and had a tone of pleading just behind his voice.
"I'll—" decide after I hear. Fugaku didn't finish his statement out loud, so he just nodded.
Haru of course saw through him, but sighed.
"I found them earlier today doing—performing mating,"
Fugaku frowned. It was strange. They were siblings and— "I didn't realise they hit puberty already," he said.
"Does it matter now?" Haru snapped once again startling Fugaku.
"What did you do?" Fugaku asked.
"They wanted me to promise to be quiet. They had looked so afraid of me. Instead of promising, I told them that blindly copying their parents would taint their love. I told them that the love between siblings was the strongest love if nurtured, and that the hate between siblings was the strongest hate if nurtured. The love between siblings and family is the most consistent and can last a lifetime.
"I told them that mating was a mechanism to ensure the survival of a species. I told them that it was only natural that emotions would be involved. But I told them that those emotions were inconsistent. That if they involved something base and inconsistent, that it could lead to hate."
Fugaku stared at Nephew with a slack jaw.
"I only wanted them to be careful in their bond. I should have never told them that story."
He was intangible and invisible as he tracked the strange Uchiha kid. He finally was able to separate the kid's shadow, but it took some finesse.
Zetsu had told him about two young Uchiha prodigies, one of whom he learned more about from his apparent brother whom he captured on the border of Ame.
The scene that both the kid and him stumbled on was just too strange. Something deep down in him, a kid that he used to be a long time ago, a loud, obnoxious, goggle-wearing kid who shouted he'd be Hokage to his clan's faces—that kid that he thought died so long ago, strangely resurfaced just a bit in his mind just enough that he had to control himself from not shouting a "Eww! What are you guys doing?!"
However, the orange masked predator controlled himself and silently watched as the kid he was following, Uchiha Haru, started speaking to the two other kids that were—
Bumping uglies. Ew. Ew. Ew. Tobi's never going to get that image out of his head.
But as he listened on to what Uchiha Haru was saying, he became so much more baffled.
"There once was a brother and sister very much like you," Uchiha Haru spoke as if telling a story. "They loved each other very much. But one day they spied on their parents doing what they have full right to do. The two siblings decided to blindly copy, but because a small instinct in them told them it was wrong, they kept it secret.
"They continued for many years, until one day the girl started to feel differently. She kept her misgivings to herself and while unwilling, continued to allow her brother to be with her as they always had been.
"Sensing the change in his sister, the brother began to feel as if his sister started to hate him. They argued and fought. Neither one truly understanding what changed and perhaps no one could have. Everyone is different after all and emotions are unpredictable.
"Eventually, the brother became depressed and killed himself. The sister lived alone for the rest of her life."
What the—?! This kid's a loonatic, Zetsu!
The two kids—twins from what the orange-masked-man could tell—they looked at each other and looked back at Uchiha Haru.
"Don't worry, Haru-sama," the brother said and grasped his sisters hand. "We'll never hate each other,"
The sister nodded. "We'd rather die than let that happen."
The masked-man noticed the two sibling's hands tightening their grip. He saw Uchiha Haru nod before jumping off back into the village.
With a last glance back at the creepy-twins, he followed Uchiha Haru.
He found Haru standing in a clearing having stopped, so the man quietly observed.
The kid seems disturbed. Can't blame him. That whole thing was just `turbing. Hehe. turbing.
Suddenly the boy turned around with a fully matured Sharingan activated.
The man almost thought that the kid sensed him, but that was impossible.
Ho. The Sharingan. So that means Uchiha Itachi is the one without it. Thank you Zetsu for being so damn vague.
The kid immediately jumped to the trees and retracted his steps back to where the two kids were.
When he got there, the twins were gone.
Uchiha Haru looked around, probably looking for tracks. When he found what he was looking for, he shot off in a direction.
The masked-man in quick pursuit.
In the distance, the man noticed two figures on top of a high cliff. Looking closer with his own Sharingan, he noticed it was the twins.
Uchiha Haru saw the same.
At that moment the twins jumped and Uchiha Haru screamed.
Suddenly a reddish-purple construct shimmered around the boy, though, what exactly it was not something many would recognise.
The masked-man, however, immediately recognised it and froze in his spot.
Susanoo?
The kid, clearly not knowing what he was doing, shot the shard of the most incomplete Susanoo the man has ever seen. It shot off into the sky. It's purpose is unknown.
The kid gasped for breath and fell to his knees as he watched the twins hit the ground.
"Hm," the man made a sound, but was glad that the kid was distracted and didn't hear.
The air started to swirl and the man teleported away.
In front of him was a plant-like creature, one half of it white and the other black.
"Did you just orchestrate that drama-show, Zetsu?"
The black-half chuckled darkly. "Those kids would have died in a few years along with their clan anyway, Madara."
The man was silent for a few moments.
"So, Uchiha Itachi still hasn't activated his Sharingan?" the man rhetorically asked. The air swirled once more, a destination mind. "I'll go fix that."
A/N: Sorry for such a late update. Honestly, I keep getting distracted by plot bunnies that I have to write down. My Google Docs is full of unfinished stories that I know better than to publish just yet.
To be honest, this story was my very first. I didn't have a writing or quality criteria and I thought it would have been a good idea to post this, even though it is first-draft quality, so that I could use the public as alpha or beta readers.
I know now I just wanted an ego boost. Lol. Anywho, since I already published this, I am going to continue posting, even if everything may remain first-draft quality. I don't want to keep everyone waiting while I finished the story and go through my personally-learned writing stages to start publishing that.
I started with a plot in mind, but I do realise it can be optimised. So I apologise if anyone is confused by this story. I'm going to finish writing and keep publishing. Once this version is complete, I'll go through my writing stages, hire some beta readers, proofreaders, editors, and all that with good money if I can scrounge it up, then publish the better version of this story.
Until then, I hope everyone at least enjoys this version of the story as I publish new chapters.
