Miyu grimaced with displeasure upon hearing Itachi's remarks; he had returned the day after the selection of the next Uchiha clan leader.
"That would be all, Hokage-sama," Itachi stated, dressed in standard ninja attire rather than his ANBU gear.
The blue-haired woman stared at the young man, unsure of what was going through his mind. His perpetually deadpan expression made it impossible to discern his true emotions.
Yet, surely he felt something regarding the situation; after all, he had wept when he killed his parents—at roughly the same age he was now.
Fugaku had never been a good father—that was clear. His obsession with making his son strong had deeply affected the young man standing before her, not to mention the pressure and the questionable decisions he had been forced to make—actions that only compounded the tragedy. From Miyu's perspective, Fugaku had simply been a bad father who made highly questionable, and at times downright stupid, choices.
However, Miyu never blamed Fugaku for those actions; she blamed Kishimoto. Those plot points were contrived to make Itachi appear mature—to show him thinking like a Hokage at the age of thirteen. It was absurd.
He had likely already vented his rage, frustration, and sorrow the day before—or perhaps he would never let them out at all. It was one or the other. There was nothing Miyu could do about that, but there was something else she could intervene in.
She had to decide: let Itachi continue his life in the ANBU and leave his fate to chance, or have him resign from the ANBU and assign him the mission of "infiltrating" the clan. Honestly, I don't think he can infiltrate them; after all, from what he said, the clan leaders loathe Itachi. However, the young Uchiha possessed the skills to gather the necessary information to determine if the clan was about to do something foolish.
It had to be either Itachi or Shisui—they were the only two active Uchiha ninjas she knew were loyal to her—and Shisui would be occupied with Yami.
Given the circumstances, the reason was obvious.
Miyu sighed as she reviewed Uchiha Matsuda's background.
"Considering the situation—and knowing your clan doesn't always think things through—I am assigning you the mission of infiltrating your clan's politics and reporting anything that might pose a threat to the village," Miyu declared, looking seriously at Itachi.
"Understood," Itachi replied emotionlessly.
"To do this, I need you to leave the Anbu and appear to have broken ties with my faction. It doesn't matter if you can't get deeply involved in the politics or if you feel like a spy; I trust your ability to obtain the information, so I authorize you to use any method necessary to achieve your objective."
"As you command, Hokage-sama," Itachi said without hesitation, causing Miyu to frown.
She didn't know where this level of loyalty came from, and honestly, she had no desire to find out.
...
Yami performed three hand signs at lightning speed.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" the young man roared, sending his attack to collide with the incoming fireball.
"Good," Shisui exclaimed, watching his pupil transition seamlessly from quick action to successfully neutralizing the fireball.
At the same time, Shisui threw a single kunai while weaving hand signs, causing it to multiply into twenty.
The half-Senju, half-Uchiha reacted instantly; he threw a kunai at a distant tree and leaped, pulling himself toward it to dodge the rain of projectiles.
Both drew shuriken from their pouches and began trading throws, countering each other's attacks.
As they darted between the trees, the sound of clashing metal rang out. Shuriken clattered to the ground while neither fighter took their eyes off the other's movements.
Yami kept his gaze fixed on Shisui's shoulders, feet, and hands; the last time he had looked into Shisui's eyes, he had suffered the consequences of instantly falling victim to a genjutsu.
Although both possessed the Sharingan, his opponent held not only the three-tomoe version but also the next evolution of the dōjutsu—an evolution Shisui had never actually used, yet one that granted him mental energy and power hundreds of times greater than his pupil's.
Grabbing a wire-attached kunai, Yami released it from the tree and swung it, knocking aside several shuriken and shattering the enemy's attack formation.
But Shisui didn't stop there; drawing three kunai, he threw two in quick succession, followed by a third.
Anticipating his master's tricks, Yami performed a hand sign just as the thrown kunai struck his shoulder and leg; yet, the very next instant, Yami vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a log with the projectiles embedded in it. "I see I can't always use the same tricks on you," he remarked cheerfully as he fell to the ground.
At that moment, I sense his pupil's presence behind me, so I vanish using *shunshin*—leaving Yami bewildered by his master's reaction speed—only for him to feel a kick to his back.
The blow wasn't particularly hard, but it was enough to send him stumbling back three paces. At the last possible moment, he triggered a trap; several bindings sprang up to encircle him, pinning his hands and feet and leaving him suspended in mid-air, unable to move.
"These things are still effective," Shisui teased good-naturedly, looking at Yami, who was staring back in disbelief.
"When did you have time to set this trap?" the young man asked.
"It's been there for days; I just never had the chance to trigger it until now," the master admitted, scratching the back of his neck. He then adopted a more serious, instructional tone. "Lesson seven: Always be aware of your surroundings, especially in enemy territory. Look out for traps—and set your own whenever you can. It might come in handy someday."
Yami just grimaced in annoyance.
"You really ought to write a guidebook full of these last-minute, made-up tips of yours," Yami couldn't help but remark with his characteristic dry humor.
A bead of sweat rolled down Shisui's temple; that particular way of speaking reminded him of the Hokage—proof enough that they were truly mother and son.
...
That day, Yami returned home exhausted and wounded, expecting the usual routine: Naruto and Hikari wreaking havoc and devising creative ways to break into Miyu's reinforced kitchen; Shizune, Junko, or Tsunade—the latter frying eggs, as her culinary skills began and ended right there—preparing a meal; and his mother sitting and reading secret jutsu scrolls, oblivious to everything around her.
Expecting the god of chaos to spring a trap upon his entry, he opened the door—but there was no trap waiting for him inside.
The half-Senju stood there waiting for something to happen, but nothing did; however, he did notice that the kitchen wasn't active, which was odd.
Dinner was usually prepared around this time to coincide with his likely arrival, but he didn't hear the usual sounds—he heard others instead.
He recognized them: three shouts—one from Hikari, one from Naruto, and the last, for some reason, from Sasuke.
He walked into the living room only to see the three of them fighting—apparently a fight to the death. His mind struggled to process Sasuke's presence there until he noticed Sasuke's mother, Mikoto, sitting at the dining table and chatting with his own mother.
The latter noticed his presence and looked at him.
"Oh, you're home," she said with a smile. "I saved your share of the sushi—we have two people joining our household."
At this announcement, Yami looked at Mikoto, who smiled at him maternally—unlike the chilling way his mother smiled when she tried to be affectionate.
"Hello, dear. It's been a long time," the Uchiha woman said. "Hello," Yami replied simply, not knowing what else to say; he walked over to the table only to find that the only food left was his own portion and a single piece of sushi.
It didn't take a genius to connect that piece of sushi to the fact that the three of them were fighting a battle to the death over it.
Yami felt a strong urge to ask how long Mikoto and Sasuke would be staying, but seeing the two women resume their village gossip, he decided to keep quiet and eat his share—after all, he was genuinely hungry, hungry enough to join that fight to the death for the last piece of sushi.
...
In the end, Mikoto and Sasuke's stay at the Senju residence wasn't just for a few days but for an indefinite period.
After Fugaku's funeral—which the current Uchiha clan leader and several others did not attend—the clan began to ostracize his family.
It wasn't everyone, but the clan leader and his faction pressured the rest of the clan to treat the former leader with hostility.
It wasn't a matter of physical abuse or anything of the sort; the harm was purely psychological.
The way they spoke of Fugaku was not unlike how people referred to that painter with the funny mustache who started a world war—and that stigma rubbed off on his family, too.
Mikoto didn't tell Miyu about her situation—a situation that had been alarming from day one, ever since her house was daubed with blood; as far as she knew, the blood symbolized the Uchiha lives lost under Fugaku's command.
It was a bit of a stretch, perhaps, but it made a certain kind of sense in the Uchiha world.
Itachi was the one who recounted this; his mission was incredibly complex. In fact, he found it easier to steal information than to obtain it from his own clansmen. Nevertheless, he was gradually trying to break into the clan's political inner circle—something they couldn't outright reject, given his status as an elite Jonin; a flat refusal would have been an insult, and they knew it.
But returning to the rest of the family: seeing the situation escalate, and knowing Mikoto—whom she considered one of her few true friends—along with feeling a sense of debt toward Fugaku, and considering the lingering possibility that Kushina might wake up alone, Miyu decided to ask Mikoto and her son to come live with her family. Mikoto hesitated, but after seeing the consequences of it all—and how it could deeply affect Sasuke, for whom losing the figure he had always wanted to impress (but never could, and now never would) had already been so painful—she decided to accept.
Of course, it didn't come without a price. This was largely for the sake of Mikoto's mental well-being; she might have felt useless or fallen into depression living in the house without doing anything. So, to the delight of Junko and Shizune, Mikoto took charge of the housework.
She would clean, do the laundry, cook, go shopping, and—if necessary—accompany Naruto, Sasuke, and Hikari to the Academy; essentially, she took on the role of a homemaker.
There was an end date to this arrangement, however: once the Uchiha madness subsided and Miyu deemed it safe—meaning there was no longer a risk of an Uchiha attacking her while she was alone or with Sasuke—she would let them live on their own.
This was necessary because the moment news broke that Mikoto had gone to the Hokage, chaos ensued—specifically among the Uchiha.
To them, this was definitive proof that Fugaku's family were traitors. Fortunately, Itachi could fend for himself and couldn't be expelled from the clan, but Mikoto and Sasuke were—theoretically, at least—practically no longer part of the clan.
They would still retain the surname and the clan crest, thanks to Miyu's intervention, though there was only so much she could do regarding clan politics.
While all this was happening and tension was mounting, what was Miyu doing?
Well, at that moment, she was meditating in a secluded spot within the clan's forest.
She was on the verge of mastering the signature jutsu of her father, Dan Kato—a technique that allowed one to enter another person's mind.
What was the purpose of this? To snap Kushina back to reality, of course. She had never forgotten about it, but she had been busy; furthermore, she hadn't fully mastered the jutsu yet and didn't want to risk leaving the redhead with mental instability, so she had waited until she had complete command of the technique. There was also a specific reason for the delay: the start of the Naruto Academy.
The blond boy had been taken by the blue-haired woman to see his mother, so he recognized her for who she was. He called Miyu "Mother" out of respect—a lesson instilled through beatings, but a lesson learned nonetheless.
So, she planned to surprise the brat.
"Well, I think it's time," the Hokage said, looking toward the Konoha hospital.
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Hi everyone.
I wanted to mention something important. Before changing the story, the plan was for the massacre to unfold just as it did in canon; afterward, Miyu was supposed to take over as Hokage—something that never actually happened.
From there, she would have adopted Sasuke, and... well, saying any more would be a spoiler. I ended up having Mikto and the "emo avenger" move in with Miyu to try and salvage as much of my original plan as possible.
That's all I wanted to say. The way I set it up might not be ideal, but I couldn't think of a better way to do it—at least, nothing else occurred to me during this time. If anyone has a better idea before I upload this chapter in a week, I can still make changes; after that, I won't be altering anything, as I'll be moving forward with the story based on this established premise.
With that said, I hope you enjoyed it.