Mikoto and Anlan stepped one after the other through the courtyard gate of the "Uchiha Home."
Under the white walls and blue tiles, the children playing inside immediately spotted them.
Seven or eight small figures rushed over like a flock of cheerful sparrows, surrounding the pair with excited chirping.
"Anlan-nii!"
"Mikoto-nee!"
Anlan reached out and ruffled the spiky hair of the little boy who had rushed forward first.
Mikoto bent down with a gentle smile, straightening the collar of a little girl with twin pigtails whose clothes had become disheveled from running. She lightly pinched the child's rosy cheek and said warmly,
"Izumi, slow down."
"Don't fall like last time. You cried so hard your face turned into a little tear-stained cat."
At that reminder, the little girl—Uchiha Izumi, daughter of Uchiha Hazuki—immediately became embarrassed.
Her fair face flushed even redder. Her small hands nervously clutched the hem of her clothes, long eyelashes lowered as she avoided Mikoto's gaze.
Seeing this, the children around her opened their mouths, clearly about to tease her—
But suddenly, Izumi raised her head and shot them a fierce glare.
Her large black eyes widened as she tried to look intimidating. The effort only made her appear even cuter.
She raised her tiny fist and waved it threateningly in the air.
That blatant warning instantly silenced the restless children.
One by one, they pursed their lips and didn't dare make a sound.
Clearly, all of them had already experienced Izumi's punches.
Seeing the effect, little Izumi lifted her nose proudly and let out a satisfied snort, her earlier embarrassment vanishing instantly.
She raised her small face, her bright eyes sparkling with anticipation as she enthusiastically invited the two.
"Anlan-nii, Mikoto-nee, come watch our play!"
Izumi grabbed one of Anlan's fingers with one hand and Mikoto's palm with the other, pulling them toward the deeper part of the courtyard without giving them time to refuse.
Her little legs kicked rapidly as she ran ahead like a lively guiding lark, her whole body brimming with excitement to show off their performance.
The children who had been standing around like timid little quails immediately followed behind like a group of cheerful tails, laughing and chattering.
Anlan glanced at Izumi, who already showed the signs of a little tyrant, before shifting his gaze toward the courtyard.
The play that had been interrupted resumed.
Dozens of children under the age of six were reenacting yesterday's confrontation in front of the Police Force headquarters. They had split into two groups and were acting with remarkable dedication.
Izumi stood with a stern face, imitating Anlan's posture of standing with his hands behind his back. In a childish voice that tried very hard to sound mature, she declared:
"Hokage-sama, please come inside so we may discuss this in detail!"
Her deliberately serious expression made the real Anlan watching nearby smile faintly.
The "Hokage faction" opposite her refused to back down.
One child wore a Hokage hat made from pasted paper strips and puffed out his chest, imitating the tone of the Third Hokage.
"Members of the Uchiha clan, why have you gathered here in such numbers today?"
But before he could finish, he burst out laughing himself.
"We are maintaining the village's stability!"
Izumi declared righteously, waving her small hand.
Behind her, the "Uchiha elites"—a group of four- and five-year-old toddlers—immediately shouted in unison with great seriousness.
"Maintain stability! Eliminate hidden dangers!"
The children playing the Hokage side seemed to run out of lines.
They exchanged glances before raising their hands together and shouting in a slightly shameless tone,
"We… we'll come back next time!"
Then they pretended to retreat, laughing as they ran a few steps away before turning back to make silly faces.
These idiots forgot their lines again, Izumi thought helplessly.
She secretly glanced at Anlan and Mikoto, then raised both arms high and announced the victory.
"We won!"
"Uchiha forever!"
The children behind her erupted into enthusiastic cheers, their little faces glowing with pure pride and excitement.
Anlan smiled as he watched the scene.
Standing beside him, Mikoto gently took his hand.
The wind swept through the courtyard. Cherry blossom petals drifted softly down, landing on the children's hair—and on the couple's joined hands.
After that brief moment of warmth, Mikoto was pulled away by Izumi, who wanted to ask about the details of that day.
Anlan's gaze moved past the children toward a corner of the courtyard.
There, more than ten clan members sat scattered about.
They still wore the Uchiha clan uniform. The deep blue cloth and the fan crest were still clearly visible.
But their posture was completely different from the clan's usual sharp and disciplined demeanor.
They looked like blades weathered by wind and rain—rusted and worn.
One leaned against a mottled pillar, staring blankly through the playing children as if looking toward some distant past.
Another sat alone on a stone stool, slowly polishing a perfectly clean tea set over and over again, his movements sluggish as if time itself had frozen.
Others sat silently in the shadows, separated from the surrounding laughter by an invisible wall.
Under the sunlight, their various injuries could not be hidden.
Empty sleeves swayed lightly in the breeze.
Deep eye sockets filled with shadow.
Twisted scars across faces like crawling centipedes.
Crude crutches resting beside them.
The blood of the Uchiha clan still flowed in their bodies.
Yet they were also fragments left behind after being mercilessly devoured by the smoke of the clan's internal war years ago.
The excitement of the clan meeting had nothing to do with them.
The coming battles would exclude them as well.
They were merely people waiting for death—souls holding faint hopes while closing themselves off from the present.
Complex.
Sensitive.
And "Uchiha Home" was both a carefree paradise for young Uchiha children not yet of academy age…
…and a refuge for these lonely souls who, in the eyes of many clansmen, had already "died." Even the right to end their own lives had once been denied by Anlan, who insisted they stay.
Anlan's gaze remained calm.
There was no pity, no regret.
He gestured lightly to Mikoto before walking toward that corner.
Several of the injured clan members instinctively tried to stand, but Anlan stopped them with a hand gesture.
"Uncle Sosuke, has the old injury in your left leg been hurting lately?"
He stopped in front of a middle-aged man whose face was badly burned and whose left sleeve hung empty.
The man, Uchiha Sosuke, forced a crooked smile, his voice hoarse.
"Thank you for remembering, Anlan-sama. Just an old problem. It aches a bit when it rains. Nothing serious."
Anlan nodded, then turned toward another clansman beside him.
"Uncle Ryu, how are the new prosthetics I sent a few days ago working?"
Uchiha Ryu, who had lost part of his leg and relied on a metal crutch far more refined than a simple wooden stick, touched it gently.
The prosthetic also allowed simple grasping functions.
Gratitude flickered across his face.
"Very good. Much more flexible than before. Thank you, Anlan-sama."
Anlan continued greeting each of them.
He could accurately call out every name, remember how each had been injured, and even ask about small details of their daily lives.
Finally, he stopped at the center of the quiet corner.
His gaze slowly swept across the faces marked by a past the clan preferred to forget.
"The clan meeting's decision—you all already know."
"The Uchiha have gained the right to form an independent army."
"This is the first step in breaking Konoha's blockade."
"But what follows will be a brutal war—a battle that cannot be avoided."
Anlan paused slightly, letting the weight of his words sink into their hearts.
"In this war, many clansmen will die."
"The clan itself may suffer greatly… perhaps even collapse entirely."
The air in the corner seemed to freeze.
Someone clenched a fist unconsciously until the knuckles turned white.
Someone lowered their head, staring at their damaged limbs with dim eyes.
Heavy silence descended like dark clouds.
Seeing this, Anlan's voice softened slightly, yet carried a deep power that struck straight into their hearts.
"Do you remember what I once told you?"
He didn't wait for an answer.
"The flame of the Uchiha has never burned only through swinging swords."
"And the clan's war is not fought only on battlefields littered with corpses."
His gaze sharpened as it swept across them—many of them three-tomoe Sharingan users, some whose ocular power even surpassed his.
"Experience. Insight."
"And the will to protect one's home."
"These things do not disappear just because your bodies are injured."
"Patrols. Guard duty. Teaching the younger generation. Protecting our home."
"The 'Uchiha Home' I established is not a shelter for the weak."
"And you are not pitiful people who need sympathy."
Anlan's voice rose sharply.
"Look into my eyes and tell me—proud Uchiha!"
"Why should you bow your heads?!"
His words struck like stones thrown into stagnant water.
Ripples spread.
The disabled clansmen who had once believed they came here merely to wait out the rest of their lives slowly felt something stir inside their dull eyes.
They were needed.
Their value had not vanished.
They still had purpose.
Uchiha Sosuke stared deeply at Anlan with his remaining eye.
The hardened warrior who had once faced blades without flinching now trembled uncontrollably.
"Anlan-sama… we… sinners who spilled the blood of our own kin…"
"Can we… truly still do something for the clan?"
"Not 'can,'" Anlan answered without hesitation.
"You are indispensable."
"The mistakes of the past were not your fault."
"After more than ten years of suffering, any sins have long been repaid."
"You have always been part of this clan."
That internal war that once plunged the Uchiha into chaos was not so distant.
Its truth had long been buried with the deaths of the older generation and the deliberate concealment of the higher authorities.
It was also that conflict that left the Uchiha too busy with their own survival to interfere—allowing Hiruzen Sarutobi to firmly secure his position as the Third Hokage.
And judging by the final beneficiary of that chaos…
Behind the internal strife undoubtedly lurked the shadow of the so-called "inherently evil" Second Hokage—Senju Tobirama.
After all, every misfortune that befell the Uchiha could be blamed on the Senju faction.
If it wasn't Senju Tobirama, it was Shimura Danzo.
"Indispensable…"
Sosuke repeated quietly.
His hunched back slowly straightened, as though throwing off the burden that had weighed on him for years.
He no longer looked at his empty sleeve.
Instead, he stared firmly at Anlan.
"My eye is not blind yet!"
"I can still watch the shadows for threats against the clan!"
"That's right!"
Another man with a terrifying scar across his face slammed his fist onto his thigh with a heavy thud.
"My legs might not work well anymore, but my hands are still fine!"
"I can still mold chakra!"
"Teaching the kids shuriken techniques and Fire Release seals will be easy!"
"Leave patrols and guard duty to us!"
A middle-aged woman missing one arm stood up.
Her figure was slender, but her posture was straight as a pine tree.
"Anlan-sama, go to the battlefield without worry."
"We will guard this home."
"That's right!"
"We'll protect our home!"
"We're not useless!"
"Our flames can still burn!"
The atmosphere changed completely.
Where there had once been despair now burned renewed responsibility and purpose.
Sosuke looked around at the crowd before turning back to Anlan.
He inhaled deeply.
"Anlan-sama, please give the order."
"The clansmen on the front lines can entrust their backs to us."
"As long as we still breathe…"
"No enemy will ever defile this sacred ground or harm the future of the Uchiha!"
Standing nearby, Mikoto watched Anlan rekindle the spirits of these marginalized clansmen with only a few words.
Emotion flickered in her eyes.
Ten years of patient persuasion had finally borne fruit today.
The children playing in the courtyard had also fallen silent.
They stared with wide curious eyes at these uncles and aunts they had always thought were simply "quiet."
Izumi clutched Mikoto's sleeve tightly.
She sensed that something important—something about the clan—was changing before her eyes.
And she didn't dislike that feeling.
Anlan nodded slowly.
"Good."
"Then the protection of the Uchiha Home, the nurturing of the clan's young seedlings, and the maintenance of order and security within the clan grounds…"
"I leave them all to you."
"Yes, Anlan-sama!"
Their unified response echoed loudly.
After finishing the matter here, Anlan and Mikoto left with the group of children, watched off by Sosuke and the others.
Once they had escorted the last child home, Mikoto's expression was bright with excitement.
"Uncle Sosuke and the others have finally regained their spirits."
"That must ease one of grandfather's worries."
"But… asking them to patrol the clan grounds…"
"Isn't that a little too much?"
Her question made Anlan reveal a mysterious smile.
"Mikoto…"
"Don't underestimate those uncles."
"Eh? What do you mean by that? Anlan, explain it properly!"
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