Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its character belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I make.
Chapter 200: Itsuki The Curious
"Grandma, why have you never visited me before?" asked Itsuki innocently.
Kaguya's fingers paused as she stroked Itsuki's hair. She looked at him, and the way he gazed up at her softened her heart.
"I am sorry, Grandma was occupied with something," Kaguya said with a smile.
"Ok," Itsuki said, nodding before jumping up with his small feet. He kissed Kaguya on the right cheek. "You are forgiven."
Madara raised an eyebrow as he watched Kaguya and Itsuki interact.
"This is dangerous," whispered Madara to himself.
"What's dangerous, Madara?" Raiken asked, having overheard him.
Madara's head snapped towards Raiken.
"How can you hear me?" Madara asked, looking annoyed.
"Magic," replied Raiken with a smile.
"Magic?" Madara asked, confused.
"Oh, I forgot, old fossil. You've never seen a movie," Raiken replied.
Madara was close to unleashing his Susanoo but stopped himself. He had held back his anger many times today, and even now, he wasn't sure why he did.
[DING! 1000 Stars donated by Star Lord]
[Message: Hahahaha, I didn't expect Raiken would still roast the fossil even in front of his family]
[DING! 2000 Stars donated by Tony Stark]
[Message: His roasting is even better than mine, but he did it to some madmen without even getting wrecked by Madara]
[DING! 1000 Stars donated by Peter Parker]
[Message: Mr. Stark, you are not that roasting person, you just spoke the truth]
[DING! 2000 Stars donated by Tony Stark]
[Message: Hey kid, you are here. Good luck with school]
Before Raiken could explain what movie really was, Itsuki, who had spoken with Kaguya, shifted his attention to Madara.
"Are you the real Uchiha Madara?" asked Itsuki.
Madara just stared at him. Raiken, who had been joking with Madara, tensed up. He knew how unstable Madara could be. Raiken only teased him because he was confident in his own strength, and because no one had ever dared to do this to Madara before.
In the Naruto series, Hashirama is always the one who makes Madara angry. So he tried to reverse psycho Madara by doing almost the same thing, but this time, he didn't do it by fooling himself, instead, he fooled Madara.
Every time he did, he watched every small expression and gesture from Madara each time he teased him. Raiken found himself smiling, realizing that teasing Madara was the right thing to do.
"You are looking at the real Madara," Uchiha Madara replied.
Raiken felt relieved inside.
"Whoa, I heard so many of your stories," commented Itsuki.
"Which stories?" said Madara.
"The ones where you tried to destroy the village," Itsuki said. He asked without any malice, in the innocent way only children can.
Madara looked at the boy for a long moment. For some reason, he felt like he was looking at a clone of Raiken.
"Yes," he said simply.
"Okay," Itsuki said, and climbed onto the cushion next to him without another word. It seemed that being a villain in stories wasn't enough to keep him away.
Raiken watched Itsuki; he had mentally decided to buy protection from the system for his family later. The price of protection was so high, but now he was willing to pay.
Raika, three years old and much more expressive than her brother, came into the living room chasing a small ball. She stopped when she saw the two unfamiliar adults, looked at Madara with wide, curious eyes, and then walked right up to him and held out the ball.
"Play," she said.
Madara looked at the ball, then at the small girl holding it out to him, sure he would say yes.
He took the ball. Something inside him, closed off for longer than most people there had been alive, shifted a little at her gesture. He rolled the ball back to her, more gently than needed.
Raiken, still watching closely and having mentally called the livestream mall, clicked the add to cart option to protect his child against Madara, Black Zetsu and Kaguya.
Although he noticed how Madara's attention lingered on his children, these were his biological children, and there is no way he would play around with their safety.
'Interesting,' thought Madara. He had felt the power radiated from Raiken's children; their strength was obvious, a clear result of his powerful bloodlines. But Madara's eyes focused on Raika, watching her play with an intensity that was more than just curiosity.
Later that evening, after the children were in bed and the house was quiet, Raiken found Madara standing by the window, looking out at the village.
"You were watching my daughter closely," said Raiken.
"She carries something unusual," Madara said, still looking out the window. "I can't fully explain it. It's not just the mix of Uchiha and Uzumaki chakra. Something in her feels closer to what I sensed from you, it feels very strong for some reason."
Raiken made a mental note of that, just as he did with anything that might be important later.
Kaguya, sitting nearby with a cup of tea she had come to like in just one day, watched them. Her expression was much softer than it had been when she first arrived in Konoha.
She had spent a hundred years sealed away, haunted by memories of her actions and what her will had caused while she was gone. The guilt from a century of conflict and manipulation weighed on her. In her darkest moments, she believed the only way to fix the broken world was to put everyone in an illusion, ending suffering by taking away choice.
But when she saw Itsuki climb onto a cushion next to a man history called a monster. She watched Raika hand a ball to Madara without any hesitation. She saw her descendants build something stronger than all the broken pieces she remembered leaving behind.
She put down her tea. 'This,' she thought. 'It is better than what I have done in the past.'
The children of this world might be powerful enough to deal with the threat from the other Otsutsuki Clan member.