"I said call me 'Big Brother'! And if I put this much food in front of you, the least you can do is keep your mouth shut!"
Itachi Uchiha was wise beyond his years; he had clearly picked up on the fact that this "Uncle's" feelings toward his mother were anything but ordinary. He simply curled his lip, however, and went back to enjoying his sweets.
Hiruko looked at little Itachi and shook his head, offering no further comment. As expected of a child prodigy, the boy's observational skills were terrifyingly sharp.
In his previous life, Hiruko had never been fond of overly sugary foods, mostly due to the fear of gaining weight. But in this life, all those inhibitions were gone. With Chakra being practically omnipotent, he could effortlessly regulate his metabolism and weight. He could eat whatever he wanted, and right now, his mouth was stuffed with his favorite treats.
Sweets triggered the release of dopamine in the brain, and for Hiruko, this had become a vital daily source of joy. Furthermore, as a researcher whose work demanded high mental output, consuming massive amounts of glucose was practically a professional necessity.
"Thank you, Big Brother."
Itachi offered a polite word of thanks and a small bow. In truth, he had been somewhat hesitant about accepting the treat—he really did act like a little adult. But under Hiruko's persistent prodding, he finally took a bite of a three-color dango.
"So sweet!"
Itachi couldn't help but chew faster, a happy flush creeping onto his cheeks. He murmured to himself, "It feels exactly like the feeling I get from my brother."
Before he knew it, he had polished off over a dozen sticks. Gradually relaxing, Itachi began to mimic Hiruko, unceremoniously gulping down the dango. After the sticks were cleared, he picked up a sundae and took a tentative lick. Instantly, his eyes lit up like stars.
In the face of high-quality desserts, he was still just a child, completely unable to resist the sweet temptation.
Watching him, the corners of Hiruko's mouth curved into a faint smile. This is how a kid should be, he thought. Being dragged onto a battlefield at such a young age was a recipe for a mental breakdown.
As he watched the smiling Itachi, Hiruko's vision blurred for a moment. In that hazy second, the face of that silly kid, Nawaki, seemed to overlap with Itachi's.
Once they had their fill, Hiruko escorted Itachi back to the Uchiha compound before heading back to his laboratory.
In the Uchiha head's residence, Mikoto and Fugaku sat opposite each other.
"So, Hiruko thinks highly of Itachi?" Fugaku asked.
"Hard to say. Perhaps seeing Itachi just reminded him of that boy, Nawaki," Mikoto replied.
"I see." Fugaku fell into deep thought. "If the opportunity arises, we should have Itachi apprentice under Hiruko."
"Mm." Mikoto nodded slightly. She thought of the way Hiruko had looked at her, and she bit her lip, hesitating. In the end, she chose to remain silent.
After all, Hiruko's reputation as a lecher was common knowledge in Konoha. Combined with how he had looked at her back on the battlefield...
"What is it?" As a wielder of the Sharingan, Fugaku was acutely sensitive to detail. He quickly noticed his wife's unease.
"Hiruko's... the way he looked at me felt a bit off." Mikoto's face reddened slightly. She felt a bit embarrassed saying it out loud. Hiruko was the village's "golden boy" now; countless clans had sent beauties his way, many far more striking than herself. If she suggested that he was interested in a pregnant woman like her, it might sound like she was being narcissistic.
But she had felt it—a gaze like a hungry wolf's. Moreover, she had sensed a flicker of his chakra that he hadn't fully suppressed. It was bone-chillingly cold, strikingly similar to Orochimaru's aura.
"Is that so?" Fugaku replied noncommittally.
The Uchiha's situation had finally begun to improve under Minato Namikaze's leadership; he wasn't about to disrupt that harmony over the perceived gaze of a man toward a woman. Besides, Hiruko hadn't actually done anything inappropriate. If the Uchiha started picking fights just because of what someone might be thinking, they would be seen as far too tyrannical.
For a moment, the atmosphere in the room grew stagnant as both parents retreated into their own thoughts.
Elsewhere, Hiruko had submerged himself into his sea of consciousness.
In his mental world, an eerie energy permeated everything, tinted with a dark, yellowish haze. Opposite him stood a figure that looked identical to how he had appeared as a child. However, this figure had long since lost all autonomy; it was merely a spiritual husk waiting to be harvested.
When Hiruko transmigrated, he had devoured his "other-world counterpart," but he had never been able to perfectly process this residual soul-body.
The physical assimilation had been easy. In his past life, Hiruko had a prominent birthmark; in this life, he did not. Furthermore, a genetic test against his parents in this world showed no biological relation, confirming his physical body was his original one, brought over from his previous world.
Regarding the soul, however, Hiruko was cautious. Would devouring another's soul alter his own spiritual structure? In the movies and anime of his past life, there were plenty of cautionary tales about souls being corrupted by such acts.
Especially in this world, where "will" was everything and the combination of soul and chakra could influence reality, he didn't dare be careless. He moved with extreme caution.
He had used sealing techniques to lock the soul-body deep within his subconscious, slowly siphoning off its pure spiritual energy bit by bit. The figure before him was now little more than a collapsing frame, ready to crumble at any moment.
After first realizing there was a mental "impurity" within him, Hiruko had launched a detailed analysis of his own mental state. Dissecting his own consciousness was the key. While words like "transmigration" or "soul-snatching" seemed to explain it, the reality was far more complex.
He possessed all the memories of his past life, yet how he had actually crossed over remained a mystery. Even his mysterious "Golden Finger" had done nothing but drop a template into his lap before going silent.
Sometimes he wondered if he was just a collection of memories, or if a "self" had simply replaced the original. But eventually, he realized it didn't matter. His past life was fading. No matter how hard he tried to hold on, he was being assimilated by the Ninja World.
Setting a "mental anchor" for oneself was crucial. And the anchor Hiruko chose was a very specific one—especially for a transmigrator like him.