Chapter 11: I Was Overthinking It...
After the Hokage Inauguration Ceremony ended, Uchiha Itachi and the crow bought a bag of sticky rice dumplings... Then they stood below the Hokage Building, waiting for Fugaku to go home together.
Itachi didn't yet understand that he had awakened the Sharingan, and certainly didn't know how to deactivate it. Because he constantly communicated with Kitahara using chakra, the Ninja Crow's vast chakra reserves were being used to maintain the pair of Sharingan...
It was roughly equivalent to using Asuma's head bounty to buy Jiraiya's books... Hmm, Asuma's head bounty... So, the little boy didn't notice his chakra rapidly depleting.
He just stood there with his Sharingan active... on a Konoha street... with a cawing crow beside him... until members of the Police Force saw him.
It was a good thing for an Uchiha clan member to awaken their eyes, but walking around the streets with the Sharingan active wasn't ideal...
Just as the Police Force dispersed the onlookers, Fugaku emerged from the Hokage Building. His first words upon seeing Itachi were, unsurprisingly... likely: "To awaken the eyes at this age... Truly my son!"
Kitahara: "..."
This... praising his son is like an addiction!
It must be said, for Uchiha Itachi to awaken the two-tomoe Sharingan at age five was indeed a source of pride for his father... And it happened during the Hokage Inauguration Ceremony, due to intense emotions...
Upon hearing the news, both the current and former Hokage immediately became very interested in Uchiha Itachi. If Itachi weren't so young, they'd be tempted to have Uchiha Fugaku suddenly die... and then support his son's rise to power!
...What kind of people are these...
"Let's go home first, we'll talk slowly on the way..." Fugaku supported the back of Uchiha Itachi's neck, addressing the excited clan members, "You all go back too! Don't spread random rumors about Itachi within the clan..."
"Yes, Captain!"
The little boy keenly noticed the change in his father's mood, "Dad, are you unhappy?"
"Well, it's okay! It feels quite strange..." Uchiha Fugaku, breaking character, picked up his son and suddenly laughed, "The last time I felt this way was when Itachi was born!"
"..."
Kitahara, who had lived his life based on the three great illusions that movies are good, games are fun, and snacks are tasty, along with the young Uchiha Itachi, didn't quite understand his feelings.
Fortunately, Uchiha Mikoto's feelings were easy to understand...
"Amazing, Itachi!" Mikoto praised him, placing a hand on Itachi's shoulder, then looked up at her husband, her eyes filled with worry, "Itachi is still young... His body..."
"It's fine, he'll gradually adapt."
The younger an Uchiha awakens the Sharingan, the longer the Sharingan accompanies them, and the easier it integrates with their internal chakra... The only trouble, perhaps, is the psychological aspect.
It's less accurate to say the Sharingan is controlled by negative emotions, and more that it awakens when spiritual power, influenced by emotions, suddenly erupts. The body's cells generate energy but cannot quickly fuse this burst of spiritual power to form chakra.
The Uchiha bloodline transforms this spiritual power into a special kind of chakra, directing it to the eyes, thereby awakening the Sharingan.
Fortunately, the people of Konoha only had a partial understanding of the Sharingan, with differing views. Some believed it stemmed from negative emotions, others from extreme feelings, and still others from losing something important.
The psychologically confused Uchiha Itachi, having just found a Will of Fire he could acknowledge, was then indoctrinated with the crow's ideas of loyalty and filial piety, losing his sense of direction...
This matter definitely couldn't be discussed with outsiders...
As a Konoha villager, being brainwashed by foreign ideology, what talent! When it comes to Talk-no-Jutsu, who in Konoha has ever been afraid!
"Itachi, you now need to learn how to control the chakra within your body, in order to deactivate and activate the Sharingan..."
"First, maintain the Sharingan's active state, let it deplete the chakra in your body, thereby sensing every pathway supplying chakra to the Sharingan! Then try to slow down the speed of this chakra delivery!"
"But during this time, you must not stop refining chakra within your body! Because as chakra becomes insufficient, the Sharingan will automatically search for chakra within the body, increasing the number of pathways that can supply chakra!"
"Wait until the Sharingan no longer adds new chakra transmission pathways. Memorize all the pathways that can supply chakra to the Sharingan, then shut off the chakra supply routes to the eyes, and you will be able to deactivate the Sharingan."
What Uchiha Fugaku described was completely different from what the Police Force members had said.
Because for ordinary members of the Police Force, the first thing most did after awakening their eyes was to sever some of the eye transmission pathways. This saved chakra consumption for the Sharingan in the future and extended the duration it could remain active...
But what Fugaku described was recorded in another set of texts... He firmly believed his son's future would definitely not stop at the three-tomoe, and certainly not at his own Mangekyo!
Fugaku had confirmed from the stone tablet at the Naka Shrine that the Mangekyo was not the final stage of the Sharingan's evolution... Clearly, he felt Itachi was the most hopeful candidate to reach a completely new level of the Sharingan!
Only someone like him, who had awakened the Mangekyo, would realize the preciousness of chakra transmission pathways.
Kitahara didn't quite understand... He only saw Uchiha Itachi nodding seriously and starting to sit cross-legged to refine chakra...
...Wait... no... how did you understand that?
Simultaneously, Uchiha Fugaku also activated his Sharingan, observing the flow of chakra within his son's body... Only, this amount of chakra and refinement speed is a bit much...
Fugaku's Sharingan stared fixedly as he muttered softly, "...Following what I said, first try to slow down the energy input of the chakra..."
Technical terms, don't understand, don't understand...
Kitahara, bored, left the father and son... Mikoto extended her hand, beckoning the crow to land on her arm, "Now? Does Kitahara find it too boring inside?"
"Caw..."
Uchiha Mikoto couldn't understand Kitahara's call, but she could discern its meaning from the crow's actions. It was a crow whose expressions were easy to read.
"I have a small favor to ask of little Kitahara." Mikoto smiled, smoothing a strand of long hair, and said softly, "Is that okay?"
"...Caw."
Seeing the crow nod, Mikoto showed concern, "...About Itachi's matter, I really don't know if this is good or bad..."
"...Itachi is part of the Uchiha clan, yet he awakened his eyes during the Hokage Inauguration Ceremony... Many clan members will likely say things behind his back..."
"...I know Itachi well, he didn't have playmates to begin with... Fugaku-kun has many responsibilities to bear and won't notice these things. But, I'm very worried..."
Kitahara pondered... It seemed Uchiha Mikoto's thoughts were more delicate than Fugaku's. She wasn't considering her son's future achievements, but Itachi's life within the clan compound... Truly a mother's heart...
Where's the logic in that? After all, Itachi awakening his eyes under the Hokage Inauguration Ceremony makes it hard to gain the trust of the Uchiha clan members... Besides the Uchiha Shisui lineage, how many other Uchiha families truly lean towards the Hokage?
Moreover, he's the Uchiha clan head's son...
Uchiha Mikoto, as a mother, certainly considered the problem thoroughly. However, she still underestimated her son... Itachi was a strong child...
Kitahara's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Mikoto's voice.
"So I wanted to ask Kitahara, could you go buy a gift with me?" Uchiha Mikoto held up her handbag, "If no one celebrates for Itachi, wouldn't he feel disappointed..."
"...Caw???"
No, it's my thoughts that are too complex; I underestimated you as a mother...
(End of this chapter)