Chapter 14: Shadows Under the Moonlight
A certain crow's behavior had the Fugaku family on edge for a time, terrified it would cause trouble with Sasuke again... mainly afraid Kitahara would run away from home a second time. After all, Sasuke couldn't even crawl on the ground yet!
This behavior... was truly worrying...
The family tried various ways to separate Kitahara and Sasuke. Every morning, Uchiha Itachi went to the training grounds, taking the crow along for the entire morning.
After lunch, things were more flexible. Occasionally, Uchiha Mikoto and Itachi would take Sasuke out for some sun, or Uchiha Fugaku would take the crow to work with him.
After dinner, when Uchiha Mikoto and her husband went out visiting, they could conveniently take Kitahara along... By the time they returned home, Kitahara would already be drowsy. How could it have the energy to argue with Sasuke?
The rumors in Konoha Village gradually increased again, originating from two places: the Police Force and Ichiraku Ramen... It was impossible to handle; too many people, too many prying eyes, and quite a few witnesses!
Could the great leader of the Uchiha clan really not even resolve a quarrel between his pet crow and a baby? And rashly dispatching the Police Force to find a crow!
"I heard the whole village is talking about this!" Uchiha Mikoto said with a smile during dinner.
Fugaku felt like tonight's food was hard to swallow. He paused, then looked helplessly towards the other side of the table, "...Arguing again..."
It was quite lively over there now...
"Pff... Pff... Pff! Waaah... ah..."
"Caw~ Caw~"
"Sasuke, be good now, don't cry, don't cry, Big Brother is right beside you! You can't spit at others, you have to be polite!"
"Don't be angry anymore, Kitahara, hurry up and eat... Please, Sasuke is still little right now, you're not allowed to hold grudges against him!"
Uchiha Itachi, sweating profusely, separated the crow and the baby, then returned to his seat. Fugaku pulled out a tissue and handed it to him, "Well done, Itachi!"
"Looks like only Itachi can handle this!" Uchiha Mikoto brought over a cold drink, placed it in front of her son, and covered her mouth, stifling a laugh.
"Dad, Mom..." Utter helplessness was written all over the little boy's face...
"Alright, alright." Uchiha Fugaku skipped the teasing of his son and stood up, changing into his uniform, "I'm going to the Police Force to arrange the duty roster. Kitahara, want to come along?"
Kitahara, licking meat porridge, shook his head...
The Police Force was utterly dreadful; every time he went, those people stared at him strangely.
Uchiha Fugaku had only asked casually. His workload had been quite heavy these past few days. Recently, Konoha's barrier defenses had been experiencing frequent problems. The village suspected someone might be infiltrating Konoha by damaging the barrier.
Therefore, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, proposed that the Konoha Military Police Force dispatch personnel to form an emergency response team, thereby freeing up ANBU manpower for deployment outside.
Although the Hokage Advisor, Danzo Shimura, questioned the Police Force's capabilities and suggested that Root could supervise anomalies instead of the Police Force... essentially meaning he wanted to smash the Uchiha's "iron rice bowl"...
No matter who it was, this couldn't be tolerated!
Uchiha Fugaku was determined to find the potential enemy infiltrating Konoha and prove that the Uchiha were not just useless decorations!
"Itachi, Mom wants to go see Kushina in a little while..."
"Auntie Kushina, did something happen?" Uchiha Itachi hadn't seen Kushina Uzumaki for a long time. It seemed that after the Fourth Hokage took office, his wife had started living a secluded life.
Uchiha Mikoto shook her head, gently rubbing Sasuke's face, "I ran into her today. Looks like she's about to give birth. He'll definitely be Sasuke's contemporary in the future!"
Besides the chance encounter today, there was another reason: Kushina Uzumaki didn't have many friends in Konoha. Pregnant women tend to feel somewhat anxious during this period, and Mikoto planned to visit her best friend.
Although that thick-skinned Crimson Hot-Blooded Habanero probably... didn't know what anxiety was?
"I'll take good care of Sasuke." The little boy confidently took charge, holding his younger brother, his gaze subtly sweeping over the burping crow.
If both of these were home, and he was the only one left, it felt like he wouldn't be able to handle it...
Uchiha Mikoto noticed Itachi's movement, suppressed her laughter, and bent down to look at the crow, "Kitahara, come visiting with me! Kushina mentioned you today too!"
"Caw..."
The crow obediently landed on Uchiha Mikoto's shoulder... Consider it a post-dinner digestive walk... Definitely not because I'm scared of that little brat who only knows how to spit and make faces!
The weather was nice, the moonlight bright enough to outshine the streetlights. Apart from a slight chill in the air, it was quite the season for moonlit strolls.
Except... there was something different... the space-time fluctuations of the Flying Thunder God! Kitahara had practiced the Flying Thunder God Technique in private; his senses were particularly sharp!
The Fourth Hokage... uses Flying Thunder God like this to travel... just to save time to cook for his wife?
Truly worthy of being Minato Namikaze... In that case, couldn't I just draw a formula seal with chakra on Uchiha Itachi and in his room? Wouldn't that save me the daily bumpy ride?
"Eh? Why are the lights off at Kushina's house..." Uchiha Mikoto said in surprise. Logically, a pregnant woman shouldn't be moving around much at this time; she should be resting at home or awaiting labor in a hospital room.
"Caw?"
"Could she have gone to the hospital?" Uchiha Mikoto pondered the curve of Kushina Uzumaki's belly, "Judging by the look of it, it should be around these few days..."
Kitahara secretly pouted. I don't understand what you're saying. What do you mean 'around'? Are you saying Kushina Uzumaki is about to give birth? That future Child of Prophecy, master of Rasengan, Nine-Tails Jinchuriki...
Arguing with a little brat really does make one lose rationality...
"Caw..."
Kitahara looked up at the moon in the sky, the chakra in his body beginning to gather... Why would Naruto Uzumaki become the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki? Of course, because the previous Jinchuriki...
...Because of childbirth... lost the Nine-Tails... until she lost her life... So those space-time fluctuations weren't just Minato Namikaze's Flying Thunder God...
"ROAR!"
"Caw!"
Simultaneously, the giant beast that suddenly appeared in Konoha Village and the small crow perched on Mikoto's shoulder...
Nine-Tails!
Its terrifying aura was apparent the moment it appeared!
"Caw!"
Almost without thinking, Kitahara's small body strained to pull Mikoto away from a collapsing building!
"That... that's the Nine-Tails! Kitahara! Let's hurry home!" Uchiha Mikoto was panic-stricken, clumsily raising her arm to shield herself from the strong wind... At home, there were still two children!
Even though this was the first time the Nine-Tails had rampaged in this era, many knew its power... Those stinking racoon from the Hidden Sand Village and those little calves from the Hidden Cloud Village hadn't hesitated to use Tailed Beasts on the battlefield!
Especially the weakest Hidden Sand Village; quite a few Konoha ninjas had witnessed that fat tanuki going wild... And that was just the One-Tail, widely acknowledged as the weakest just by counting tails...
Appearing in Konoha now was the Tailed Beast with the most chakra and also the strongest – the Nine-Tails!
That being said... it was impossible to say the Konoha ninjas were scared! Honestly speaking, compared to the terrifying legends of the Nine-Tails, the story of the First Hokage thrashing the Nine-Tails was clearly more real...
Besides, those Tailed Beasts on the battlefields had also been dealt with...
Konoha ninjas certainly didn't possess the strength of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, but they carried the First's Will of Fire!
That leads to a very awkward problem... To put it bluntly, it's optimism... To put it nicely, it's arrogance!
Only when that fox under the moonlight... showed no possibility of being defeated, would the villagers of Konoha perhaps recall their childhood story's and fear of the strongest Tailed Beast...
And sear the memory of this moment into their hearts...
(End of this chapter)