"Father only ever has eyes for my outstanding older brother. He never notices me."
"Who says that? I'll tell you a secret. When he's with me, he actually talks about Sasuke quite a lot."
"Really? Even so, I still wish that once in a while Father would say to me, 'Well done. You really are my son.'"
Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke was immersed in memories of his childhood.
...
On the other side, faced with the clan head's questioning, Shisui stepped forward and positioned himself in front of the young Itachi, blocking his father's Sharingan gaze.
"Please, hear me out, Fugaku-sama!"
Shisui Uchiha spoke firmly. "Our world has already endured the Third Shinobi World War, the Nine-Tails' calamity, and the loss of the Fourth Hokage-sama, along with a great many outstanding ninja. Konoha's overall combat strength is now more fragile than ever before."
No ninja of Konoha, including the Uchiha clan, could refute this.
In the end, despite the deep-seated mistrust between them, they were still part of Konohagakure, an essential fighting force of the Land of Fire.
No one was willing to admit that their own nation was inferior to others, but the reality was that Konoha's current situation was far from optimistic. To be blunt, the new generation had yet to fully mature and simply could not withstand another war against the other great nations.
Shisui continued, "In the face of slander and provocation from the Land of Lightning, the Hyūga clan had no choice but to endure it for the sake of the village, even at the cost of Hizashi Hyūga's life."
Like the Uchiha, the Hyūga were one of Konoha's conservative great clans.
Hyūga Hizashi was the head of the Hyūga branch family and the biological younger brother of the main house's leader. Simply because he was born a moment later than his brother, he was branded with the Caged Bird seal for life, forever barred from touching the Hyūga clan's true power.
The Uchiha were well aware of this.
The Fourth Raikage of the Land of Lightning and the Eight-Tails' Jinchūriki were known together as the A–B Combo, and this was precisely the period when the two of them were most active. In contrast, Konoha had lost its Fourth Hokage not long after the Third Shinobi World War, and its Jinchūriki had become Naruto Uzumaki, who was still just a child.
From the start, Kumogakure's stance in this conflict was clear. Either Konoha swallowed the humiliation, or it prepared itself for war with Kumogakure.
Even though Konoha had deep foundations, powerful dōjutsu clans, and countless secret techniques, Kumogakure was infamous for coveting other clans' Kekkei Genkai and secret arts. If war truly broke out and those Kekkei Genkai and techniques fell into the hands of the A-B Brothers, then even if Konoha did not lose outright, it would still be the ultimate loser.
And there was an even greater possibility looming over them…
That a war between Konoha and Kumogakure would become the spark that ended the rare decade of peace they had enjoyed.
Shisui felt a deep ache in his heart. It was precisely because he foresaw such an outcome that he and Itachi had been so adamant that Konoha and the Uchiha must not descend into internal conflict.
What awaited them would not merely be the continuation of the hatred born from the Third Shinobi World War, but the outbreak of the Fourth Shinobi World War itself.
"We understand all of that perfectly well! Do you really think we want to start a coup and drag everyone into war?!"
Inabi Uchiha roared at Shisui Uchiha. "But have you ever stopped to think about why Konoha is always on guard against us?! Have we ever been given fair treatment?! During the Nine-Tails incident, it wasn't like we didn't want to go to the front lines! And yet, in the eyes of the entire village, we ended up being branded as cowards!!!"
That was what Inabi found hardest to accept.
Back when he was attending the Konoha Ninja Academy, Inabi had been considered a small-time prodigy in his class. He was certainly no match for Shisui or Itachi, but there was no way he should have been lumped in with people who hid in the back and didn't dare step forward.
Ever since the Nine-Tails incident, both he and the entire Uchiha clan had been reduced to cowards who couldn't even hold their heads up.
"Obviously, the Uchiha should be Konoha's strongest ninja! If it were the captain…"
The captain he was referring to was Fugaku Uchiha, the leader of the Konoha Police Force.
After a brief pause, Inabi Uchiha continued, "I think that if it were the captain, becoming the Fourth Hokage wouldn't be a problem at all!"
"Enough! Don't say such nonsense again!!" Fugaku Uchiha barked.
He had never harbored ambitions of becoming the Fourth Hokage. When it came to contributions during the Third Shinobi World War, he was far inferior to Minato. More importantly, shouting something like that out loud at a time like this was completely inappropriate.
At eighteen or nineteen, Inabi was at that age where he would accept being scolded on the surface, yet remain unconvinced and resentful inside.
Fugaku Uchiha could feel everyone's eyes on him, especially with two versions of the Fourth Hokage from different eras present. For someone like him, a Uchiha who cared deeply about his pride, this was an almost unbearable level of embarrassment.
"I'm sorry, Minato. He doesn't mean to deny you as Hokage."
It was just that, as members of the clan who had long served in the Police Force, their horizons were limited, and they had never truly witnessed the Fourth Hokage's legendary prowess.
Minato smiled gently, his usual easygoing expression unchanged. He didn't take it to heart at all.
Naruto and Sasuke, who had come from the world of mission scrolls, listened in a daze. Sasuke, in particular, hadn't expected that there were people within the Uchiha clan who admired his father enough to consider him worthy of being the Fourth Hokage. He exchanged a look with Naruto, and neither of them knew what to say.
Then Naruto turned his gaze toward the young man called Inabi Uchiha.
Naruto's direct stare made Inabi feel a little uncomfortable. After all, members of the Uchiha clan were naturally sensitive.
"What?" Inabi frowned. The boy in front of him looked oddly similar to that kid in the village who had the Nine-Tails sealed inside him.
"I'm saying, hey, man…" Naruto paused, trying to remember something. Then he turned to Sasuke and said, "He looks like a guy who went with us to the front lines to fight the masked man when we traveled back to the time of the Nine-Tails incident."
Young Sasuke had the same impression and gave a casual nod in agreement.
In just a few sentences, Naruto explained how, in another world, he and Sasuke had discovered that Danzo Shimura had been colluding with foreign enemies, trying to restrain the Uchiha clan, and even plotting to force the Fourth Hokage to die together with the Nine-Tails.
The Konoha ninja were utterly shocked.
"Is that true?! Fourth Hokage-sama?!"
"Stealing the Uchiha clan's Sharingan and even attempting to murder the hero of the Third Shinobi World War… were all of those things really done by Elder Shimura?!"
Some people turned directly to question the Third Hokage.
"You knew about all of this?! Hokage-sama!"
"And you two advisers as well! Did you know about what Danzo Shimura was doing?!"
The Third Hokage was left speechless. He couldn't evade responsibility, and the two advisers avoided everyone's gazes. As they cursed Danzo inwardly, a deep sense of sorrow rose in their hearts at how a former comrade had ended up like this.
The situation suddenly tilted in the Uchiha's favor. The Konoha ninja began reflecting on their own mistakes, while the Uchiha side finally felt a long-suppressed frustration ease. They glared angrily at the Konoha ANBU who had once carried out shady actions against them behind the scenes.
"Wait," ANBU Kakashi said, completely baffled. "Is Minato-sensei from our world actually still alive? Then why does Minato-sensei exist in the future?"
With that, everyone's gaze shifted to the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.
"That's… a long story," Minato said with a wry smile. "The me from your world really is dead. But because of some special circumstances, I was summoned back through Edo Tensei, and later revived again using the Rinnegan. Still, now isn't the time to go into that. While we're all here, resolving the conflict between the Uchiha clan and Konoha takes priority."
Hearing this, Inabi suddenly remembered something.
"Fourth Hokage-sama! What exactly happened during the Nine-Tails incident back then?! After your death, Konoha's upper ranks unanimously suspected that the Nine-Tails had been controlled by the Uchiha's Sharingan! All the blame was dumped on us, and our clan compound was moved to the village outskirts under constant surveillance!!"
In truth, when Inabi was younger, he had grown up listening to legends of the Fourth Hokage from the Third Shinobi World War. He still held a certain faith in that legendary hero.
"Uh…" Minato hesitated, clearly struggling with how to explain it.
Fugaku Uchiha spoke up coldly. "The story about Madara Uchiha using the Sharingan to control the Nine-Tails is nothing more than an old legend. How could anyone actually control a tailed beast with the Sharingan?!"
Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke, who had been lost in thoughts of his family, instinctively replied when he heard his father speak.
"I can."
"..."
The silence was absolute.
Every single gaze locked onto Sasuke Uchiha, the Sasuke who came from the era of the Fourth Shinobi World War.
Even his parents, his older brother, Shisui, and the Sasuke and Naruto from the mission scroll world were staring at him with stunned, bewildered expressions.
Sasuke felt awkward for a moment before honestly admitting, "I'm from the Fourth Shinobi World War. Before coming to this world, I used my dōjutsu to control and seal all nine tailed beasts, then used them to force Naruto into fighting me."
Nine tailed beasts and the Nine-Tails might sound similar, but the meaning was completely different!!
According to legend, Madara Uchiha could control the Nine-Tails with his Sharingan. Fugaku Uchiha had just firmly rejected that questionable legend, only for his son to casually drop the bombshell that he could control all nine tailed beasts at once.
One word: absurd.
Two words: absolutely absurd.