"YOU HEARD ME RIGHT!" Mikoto screamed directly into his face, her voice cracking with a raw, agonizing emotion that shook the entire street. She grabbed Fugaku by the front of his robes, pulling him down to her level.
"This man is Hikaru!... Uchiha Hikaru! He entered our compound, Fugaku! He bypassed the barriers and he killed the child! He killed our child, Fugaku...! While your dumb son Itachi was standing right there, completely useless, watching his unborn sibling die!"
The words seemed to physically freeze the air on the street. A heavy, suffocating silence slammed into the crowd. Fugaku stood entirely rigid, his face completely pale as his world fractured into a million jagged pieces under his wife's hands.
The sheer psychological horror of her words left him utterly speechless, his Sharingan spinning in absolute shock.
Meanwhile, just a few yards away, Hatake Kakashi was trying his absolute best to process the massive information. His sharp eye was locked onto the Uchiha couple, his tactical mind trying to piece together the terrifying name 'Hikaru' with the brutal attack he had just survived inside the Dango shop.
But it was incredibly difficult to maintain the serious gravity of a cold, elite ninja when a small, heavy weight suddenly attached itself to his back.
With a sudden, cheerful scramble, Shinna had lunged forward. Using Kakashi's dark shirt as a climbing wall, the small boy hauled himself up until he was comfortably hitched up high, resting his tiny chin directly against Kakashi's shoulder.
Shinna's bright hair brushed against Kakashi's cheek as his small arms wrapped loosely around the silver-haired Jonin's neck, pointing eagerly toward the crowd with a bright expression.
Kakashi's entire body went rigid. His single visible eyebrow twitched violently as he felt the tiny toddler's warm breath right against his ear.
Slowly, with an expression of pure annoyance, Kakashi turned his head sideways to glare at Shinna sitting on his shoulder.
"Get off me—" Kakashi snapped, his voice dripping with a sharp, incredibly rude irritation. "I am not a playground tree, kid. Drop down right now before I throw you off myself. I have zero patience for this."
Any normal child in Konoha would have burst into tears or scrambled away in terror from the cold glare of the famous Copy Ninja.
But Shinna was a big one. He had a heart of absolute steel and completely lacked the ability to take Kakashi's harsh, rude words to heart.
Instead of crying, Shinna just gave a tiny, cheerful giggle, kicking his small feet slightly against Kakashi's back to secure his grip. He didn't take the rejection personally at all.
Leaning even closer until his nose was practically pressing against the silver hair, Shinna let out a loud, confident whisper right into the ninja's ear.
"Kaka-ni!"
Kakashi's visible eye widened in sheer, unadulterated bafflement. His mind completely stalled for a fraction of a second.
'What…?' he thought, his internal monologue completely abandoning the Uchiha drama for a moment.
'Kaka-ni…? Is that… is that derived from my name? Did this kid just make up a nickname for me on the spot?!'
Before Kakashi could even process the sudden, bizarre title, Shinna kept going, completely oblivious to the existential crisis he was causing the young anbu.
"Kaka-ni, that's wrong—" Shinna muttered very seriously, shaking his little head as he pointed toward Mikoto. "You know that very well. That woman... she is lying!"
Kakashi completely tuned out the actual warning. He wasn't even listening to the child's explanation about Mikoto's massive lie.
His entire focus was hopelessly stuck on that ridiculous, overly affectionate nickname. 'Kaka-ni… Kaka-ni… Yeah, it's definitely from Kakashi. Who taught this kid to speak like this?!'
As Shinna eagerly opened his mouth to explain further, gesturing with his tiny hands about why they needed to speak up and stop the drama, Kakashi finally snapped out of his thoughts.
Slowly, heavily, Kakashi turned his head around and leveled the boy with an intensely sharp, scary glare—a look designed to silence rogue ninja in an instant.
Shinna stopped dead mid-sentence. His cheerful face froze, his eyes going wide with sudden, genuine fright as he stared down the
eyes of that terrifying gaze.
'Oh no!' Shinna thought frantically, his little heart hammering against his chest as a wave of realization hit him.
'He glared at me because he thinks I'm completely dumb! I said Ke-chan… and in reality, he must not even know who Ke-chan is! I mean, who I call Ke-chan… Oh my god, I'm so dumbbbb!!!'
Panicking over his accidental slip-up, Shinna desperately scrambled to change the subject before the scary scarecrow ninja figured out the truth.
He shifted his grip on his shirt, his voice turning high-pitched and rushed.
"Kaka-ni!" Shinna squeaked out, trying to sound as convincing as possible. "What I—what I really meant to say was that… that man with the black hair behind Mini-Min—
Shinna's eyes practically popped out of his head. Before the words 'Mini-Mini' could fully escape his lips, he violently clapped both of his tiny hands over his own mouth, his cheeks puffing out as he forcefully swallowed the rest of the sentence.
Behind his tightly pressed fingers, his voice came out completely muffled and strained as he quickly tried to correct himself. "—I mean! I mean, Yondaime-sama! Hehe… Yondaime-sama!"
Behind the fabric of his mask, Kakashi's sharp, analytical mind began to race at a frantic pace. The initial annoyance of being used as a playground tree completely vanished, replaced by the cold, calculating instinct of a shinobi.
His eye narrowed into a sharp gaze as he stared back at the panicked, blonde toddler holding his own mouth.
'Wait a second...' Kakashi thought, a sudden chill running down his spine. 'First of all, this child... he really knows a lot. Way too much for a random kid picked up on the streets.'
He began to piece the fragments together, overanalyzing every muffled word and frantic correction that had just slipped out of Shinna's mouth.
The kid had just casually claimed that Mikoto was lying about the legendary Hikaru—a claim that seemed completely absurd on the surface, yet carried an strange weight of absolute certainty.
Kakashi's eyes shifted momentarily back toward the chaotic scene of Fugaku and Mikoto, before locking back onto Shinna.
'The kid maybe small, but his talks are actually right... there's a strange logic to everything he's saying. He noticed the discrepancies before any of the senior jonin even blinked.'
A deep sense of doubt heavy in his chest, Kakashi clenched his fist beneath his flak jacket. He couldn't just stand here and let the Uchiha clan collapse into a fabricated panic, not when he held a piece of the puzzle himself.
'I need to step in...' Kakashi resolved, his posture straightening beneath Shinna's weight.
'I will speak up. For the sake of that mysterious man who stepped into the shadows and saved both me and Asuma back in that dango shop... I can't stay silent.'
With a final, decisive breath, Kakashi prepared to break his silence and address the Yondaime Hokage, completely unaware that his sudden movement was about to throw the delicate timeline into even deeper chaos.
Kakashi didn't hesitate for another second. Carrying the small weight of Shinna on his back, he took a sharp, aggressive step forward, his voice cutting through the heavy air like a razor.
"WAIT! DON'T BELIEVE HER!"Kakashi shouted, his single eye wide with urgency. "IT'S A LIE!!!"
The sudden accusation echoed off the stone walls, but Mikoto didn't even turn around to look at him. Instead, she leaned into Fugaku's space, her fingers tightening into the fabric of his dark clan collar. She looked up at her husband with a face full of heartbreaking, simulated tragedy, her voice dropping into a fragile, devastating whisper.
"Only we both can understand the pain of losing..." Mikoto murmured sadly, her eyes locking onto his spinning Sharingan. "No one else... No one else knows what it feels like to lose a child, Fugaku."
That was the absolute breaking point. The fragile restraint holding Fugaku together completely snapped. Reaching up with a trembling, white-knuckled grip, he violently snatched Mikoto's hand away from his collar, holding it tightly in the air between them.
His chest was heaving, his face completely flushed with a mix of terrifying grief and exploding fury as he turned his roaring voice first toward Kakashi, and then directly back down to his wife.
"HOW THE HELL CAN YOU SAY THAT HE IS NOT HIKARU?!" Fugaku screamed, his voice cracking under the sheer weight of the panic before he whipped his head back to Mikoto, his eyes boring into her soul.
"AND HOW THE HELL CAN YOU SAY THAT HIKARU IS ALIVE?!" The entire street held its breath. The sheer force of his killing intent was suffocating.
"TELL ME!!!" Fugaku screamed again, his grip tightening on her hand as he demanded an answer from the breaking timeline.
Kakashi, completely unfazed by the terrifying Uchiha chakra flaring in front of him, stepped up even closer, opening his mouth to reveal what he knew.
"Fugaku-sama, listen to me! The man from the Dango shop—"
"Shut your mouth, kid!" Fugaku cut him off instantly, his head snapping toward the young Jonin with a murderous, bloodshot glare.
"This is an internal matter of the Uchiha clan! A brat like you knows absolutely nothing about our history or our losses! Stay out of this!"
"WAIT!!"
A voice of absolute, undeniable authority boomed across the entire street, instantly shattering the argument.
The Yondaime Hokage stepped forward, his bright blue eyes flashed with a rare, terrifying sternness. Minato placed himself directly between the debating people, his presence completely taking over the space.
"Let me hear Kakashi!" Minato ordered, his voice echoing with the full weight of the village leader.
"NO ONE INTERRUPTS!!"
The Yondaime's command left a ringing silence in the air, but Fugaku's mind was already too far gone to listen to the Hokage.
The sheer, twisting agony in his chest was making his vision blur. Slowly, rigidly, Fugaku turned his body back toward Mikoto, his bloodshot Sharingan locked entirely onto her face.
Mikoto, whose eyes were reflecting a strange, hollow coldness as Hikaru's dark influence tightly pulled the strings of her
consciousness, looked right back up at him. Her lips parted, her voice sounding eerily calm against the backdrop of his rage.
"Fugaku... you still don't understand—" Mikoto murmured, her fingers tightening even harder against his wrists, her grip almost uncharacteristically strong.
"The barrier didn't fail. The guards didn't sleep. He simply walked through them all. Because to him, our home is just a playground."
"WHAT THE HELL?!!!" Fugaku screamed that made several medical ninja take a step back.
He violently shook her hands off him, his chest heaving as he stared at her slim figure with absolute, desperate denial.
"If someone did this to you—if an enemy actually infiltrated our compound and struck you like that—you won't be standing here on your feet right now! You would already be at the hospital fighting for your life!!! Unless..."
Fugaku's voice suddenly cracked, a horrible, dark realization stopping his words mid-sentence.
But Mikoto cut his lines smoothly, her voice dropping into a devastatingly sharp, deliberate whisper that pierced right through his panic.
"It's not someone, Fugaku... It's Hikaru. Understand it. Accept it."
A suffocating, heavy pause fell over the street. The wind seemed to stop completely. Fugaku stood entirely frozen, glaring down at her as the absolute silence stretched between them like a taut wire.
He looked at her face, then down at her hands, noticing how her grip instantly tightened into the fabric of her own dress, her knuckles turning completely white.
The pieces in his mind was violently clashing against one another, forcing a terrifying, unthinkable conclusion to the surface.
"Unless..." Fugaku whispered, his voice suddenly dropping into a deadly, trembling register as he stepped closer, his eyes boring into her soul.
"Unless... you did something yourself."
Total, absolute silence slammed into the street. Mikoto didn't blink. She offered no answer, no defense, no tears—just a hollow, unreadable stare that made the hairs on the back of Kakashi's neck stand up.
Seeing her complete lack of denial, the last shred of Fugaku's sanity completely shattered. He lost all control, his chakra flaring outward in a dark, violent wave as he screamed right into her face.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO OUR CHILD?!" Fugaku roared, his face contorted in pure, agonizing fury.
"AND HOW DID A DEAD MAN COME INTO OUR TALK?! TELL ME, MIKOTO!!!"
The tension on the street grew so thick it felt like heavy iron, suffocating everyone present.
Standing a few paces back,
Nara Shikaku's sharp, analytical eyes darted rapidly between Fugaku's blind rage, Mikoto's eerie silence, and the tense posture of the Hokage.
His brilliant mind was working at frantic speeds, observing every twitch of their hands, the tone of their voices, and the massive contradictions in their stories.
'Something is completely wrong here...' Shikaku thought heavily, a cold sweat forming at his temples. 'The puzzle pieces aren't just mismatched—someone is actively reshaping them right in front of us.'
Breaking the heavy silence, Minato stepped closer to his student, his eyes softening with deep, protective concern. "Kakashi... are you okay...?" he asked quietly, questioning the young Anbu's fatigue.
"I'm alright, Sensei—" Kakashi replied instantly, his voice firm and steady despite the chaos. He shifted his stance slightly, making sure Shinna was secure on his back before pointing directly toward the traveler.
"But the thing is... this man ain't Hikaru."
The declaration caused a sharp ripple through the crowd.
"And like I told you before—" Kakashi continued, his single eye locking onto Minato with absolute urgency,
"I have met Hikaru. These two are quite similar, but Hikaru ran away—he was the one who tried to kill me back at the shop. And... he has something to do with Fugaku-sama's wife..."
Minato's expression hardened, his analytical gaze sharpening in an instant. "Like what?"
An intense, dark realization slammed into Minato's mind before Kakashi could even answer.
'If it's true that Hikaru is alive... then he will take help of Mikoto—' Minato thought, his chest tightening as he analyzed the Uchiha clan's ancient history and their current fractured behavior.
'No... let me restructure that more precisely. He wouldn't just ask for help. He will use her. He is using her right now.'
Kakashi nodded, pressing forward with his explanation. "I mean... there was a time when this man was fighting Hikaru inside, trying to resist him. But suddenly—"
"But suddenly a time came when both of them spoke a few lines together, as if they shared the exact same mind!"
Shinna's loud, childish voice suddenly chirped right next to Kakashi's ear, perfectly finishing the complex tactical sentence.
Kakashi's entire body went completely rigid in sheer shock. He snapped his head sideways, his eye wide with utter astonishment as he stared at the toddler hitched to his shoulder.
'Wow...' Kakashi thought, a chill running down his spine as he remembered that exact terrifying moment outside the Dango shop.
'This kid... he was really paying that close attention during the chaos? He picked up on the exact second their voices overlapped!'
Minato raised his eyebrows in deep surprise, his gaze switching from the brilliant toddler to his student. With a subtle, sharp gesture of his head, Minato silently asked Kakashi if the child's absurdly accurate interruption was the absolute truth.
Meeting the Hokage's questioning look, Kakashi slowly let out a breath and gave a firm, serious nod to confirm what they had both witnessed outside the shop.
"It's true—" Kakashi confirmed, his voice laced with a newfound dread. "They were speaking in perfect unison."
Sasuke had been listening to their exchange with a sharp, calculating intensity, watching the pieces of the puzzle finally click into place for the past timeline.
Seeing the perfect opening to solidify the narrative and protect the future, he stepped forward and butted into the conversation, his voice ringing with absolute judgement.
"Hokage-sama—" Sasuke cut in, drawing all eyes back to him as he locked his gaze onto Minato.
"That's exactly what I am trying to say. Uchiha Hikaru is very well alive... and this woman is being completely compelled by Hikaru. She is not Uchiha-sama's real wife right now."
Morino Ibiki suddenly stepped forward. He glared angrily at Sasuke.
"Hey... Come here!" Ibiki barked loudly. "How dare you talk to the Hokage-sama like that!"
A few steps away, the fight between the Uchiha couple exploded again. Mikoto twisted her body, trying hard to get her arm free. She screamed directly at her husband.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, FUGAKU?!" Mikoto yelled, her voice shaking with rage. "YOUR CHILD'S CULPRIT IS STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!! KILL HIM!"
Kakashi saw the danger and knew he had to speak up right now. He yelled over the noise.
"MINATO-SENSEI! THE TRUTH IS, HE IS AN ALLY!" Kakashi screamed, pointing at Sasuke.
"I declare it! I am the witness, and I know what help he did to us! He is totally different from the Hikaru whom I met!"
Shikaku's eyes went wide with shock. He looked at the young silver-haired ninja. "How do you know Hikaru, Kakashi?"
"I met him!" Kakashi answered quickly.
Ibiki did not wait. He instantly walked right up to Kakashi. "You are coming with me to the interrogation room. You sure do know a lot."
On Kakashi's back, Shinna got mad. He poked his head out and yelled at the scary interrogation ninja. "Hey! He is not doing anything wrong! Why take him for?!"
"Quiet, kid..." Kakashi whispered, trying to stop the toddler.
Ibiki stopped and looked down at the small boy with a scary frown. "Huh? What did you say, brat?"
Before things could get worse, Minato stepped in and raised his hand.
"Ibiki-san, Shikaku-san, interrogation for them is later—" Minato said with a calm but firm voice.
"First, my request is to deal with Mikoto. Shikaku-san, please tell Fugaku-san to calm down. We will investigate everything."
Then, Minato turned around. He called Kakashi to come closer. When Kakashi leaned in, Minato whispered something very quietly into his ear.
Sasuke stood nearby, watching them tightly. He tried to read Minato's lips to see what the Hokage was planning.
"YOU COMING WITH ME, OR I BREAK YOUR LEGS?!"
Kawaki was the one who had shouted. His face was dark with anger as he glared, completely ready to fight.
But suddenly, before anyone could move, Tenten let out a loud, terrified scream.
"THIS MAN..... THIS MAN IS TRYING TO KILL ME!!
Tenten's heart hammered wildly against her ribs. She took a panicked step back, her eyes filling with sudden, hot tears. Inside her mind, a wave of pure frustration and fear completely crashed over her.
'Gosh... Why me? Why me? Why me?!' Tenten thought desperately, her hands trembling as she reached for her weapon scrolls which were not there.
'I don't have the Byakugan. I don't have the Sharingan. I don't have the Kyuubi, or any Jinchuruki powers... I am just a normal girl who works hard with weapons! Then why me?! Why am I always the one getting targeted?!'
The heavy fear in her chest quickly turned into a deep, painful ache of loneliness. Standing in this unfamiliar past version of Konoha surrounded by angry strangers and massive killing intent, she had never felt more alone.
The regret of separating from her own time hit her like a physical blow. She missed home so much it hurt.
'I shouldn't have come here... We shouldn't have separated—' Tenten thought, a tear finally slipping down her cheek.
Tenten's heart hammered wildly against her ribs. She took a panicked step back, her eyes completely filling with hot, heavy tears that finally spilled over her cheeks.
Inside her mind, the absolute weight of her loneliness completely crashed over her, and she couldn't hold her feelings back anymore.
'When will I be back in my time...?' Tenten thought, her chest aching with a deep, painful sob. 'Why did I separate back in Tetsu no Kuni...?'
A wave of bitter anger and sadness mixed inside her as she thought about the two people who caused this whole mess. 'It's all Naruto and Sasuke's fault! Why did they have to fight in the first place?!'
The memories of their recent journey rushed through her mind, making her miss her friends so much it physically hurt. 'I miss everyone so much... I miss the sound of everyone's voices. I miss the warm meals we shared, the quiet nights, and the endless journey we took together. Why did we have to separate... after everything we went through together?'
She squeezed her eyes shut, remembering the exact timeline of their struggle. 'After those long, hard nine days... after surviving all of that together, why did we have to separate from the tenth day?!'
The unfairness of it all broke her spirit completely. She wrapped her arms around herself, her mind screaming in pure, agonizing despair.
'Why... why... why...?!'
The street was in absolute chaos. Fugaku's anger was boiling over, his face completely red as he screamed right into Mikoto's face, demanding to know how a dead clan member was involved in their tragedy.
Mikoto stood completely still under his grip. But suddenly, the sad, fragile look on her face completely vanished. Her eyes rolled back for a second, turning a cold, hollow color as Hikaru's dark control gripped her mind even tighter.
A creepy, twisted smile slowly spread across her lips—a smile that did not belong to Mikoto at all.
She wasn't looking at Fugaku anymore. Instead, she locked her cold, creepy eyes directly onto the olderSasuke. Her mouth opened, and she spoke in a a voice that sounded like a mocking hiss.
"Well... well..." she whispered, her voice dripping with pure malice. "You completely ruined my grand reveal."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed instantly, his body tensing up as he stared her down. He didn't say a word, his face completely stone-cold.
The smile on Mikoto's face widened, looking incredibly unnatural. "How about I give you a little surprise...?"
The very next moment, her eyes closed for a split second, preparing to snap open and unleash a devastating visual jutsu. But Sasuke was way too fast. He had already dealt with these tactics before.
Before her eyelids could even lift, Sasuke lunged forward like a lightning bolt. His hand shot out, grabbing Mikoto tightly by the throat and slamming her flat onto the hard ground in front of everyone. He pinned her down securely, his chakra flaring with absolute dominance.
"I won't let you use your Mangekyo on me!!" Sasuke screamed, his voice echoing with fierce anger. "The same trick doesn't work on me a countless number of times!"
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO MY WIFE?!" Fugaku roared in pure horror, drawing his kunai and preparing to murder Sasuke on the spot.
Sasuke didn't even flinch. He instantly activated his Kagutsuchi:Totsuka, the black flames sparking dangerously covered the Kusanagi sword.
He looked up at the raging clan leader, his voice cutting through Fugaku's rage like a knife.
"YOU BLIND MAN!!" Sasuke screamed back. "YOUR REAL WIFE IS SAFE BACK AT HOME WITH YOUR SON RIGHT NOW! THIS IS AN ILLUSION!"
The heavy words hit Fugaku like a physical blow...
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⚡NEXT CHAPTER⚡
'A familiar home... in an unfamiliar time.'
After escaping the chaos...
One lone traveler quietly enters the long forgotten home.
A peaceful afternoon... A warm welcome... A family he thought he had already lost...
But every step he takes brings him closer to a place that once changed the fate of his clan forever.
What awaits him inside the silent place?
👉Chapter 49:Crossing Paths
SNEAK PEEK LINES 💬
"That's a big name... Shinna."
'Nothing was even visible at night. Everything was just a blur of dark shapes.'
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—With love, one forehead poke away from collapse,
Sakura Shinomiya 💫
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