The midnight visitor… was Minato Namikaze?
The Fourth Hokage, who died sealing the Nine-Tails?
Fugaku Uchiha's Sharingan flared, his eyes spinning with deadly intensity. His voice was low and threatening:
> "The Fourth Hokage died sealing the Nine-Tails. I personally saw his body buried underground. That was no fake.
Who the hell are you to impersonate him?"
It was clear—if Minato's answer didn't satisfy him, Fugaku was ready to strike.
Minato raised both hands with an awkward smile and a scratch behind his head.
> "Yeah… it's complicated. I did die."
Fugaku: "???"
> "But part of my soul didn't move on. It stayed behind… inside Naruto."
> "This… is what I've become."
Fugaku's eyes narrowed. "Your soul…?"
In the ninja world, souls were an accepted reality, thanks to forbidden jutsu like Edo Tensei and spiritual techniques. But for someone's soul to just linger in the world after death? That was still almost unheard of.
His gaze shifted to the smaller figure beside Minato.
> "Naruto…?"
Naruto lifted his hood and bowed slightly.
> "Apologies for the late visit, Uncle Fugaku," he said smoothly. "Some things just can't be discussed in daylight."
Fugaku and Mikoto both widened their eyes—there was no mistaking him.
That was Uzumaki Naruto.
The child of Minato and Kushina.
The vessel of the Nine-Tails.
The one whom Fugaku and Mikoto had once helped years ago… now standing before them with a calm, grown-up presence far beyond his age.
> "What the hell happened?" Fugaku sat back down slowly, gesturing for Mikoto to secure the doors and windows.
"Start from the beginning."
Minato nodded and began to speak.
> "It all started… on the Night of the Nine-Tails."
He recounted everything—
The masked man, the attack, the sealing, his own death… and the fact that it was that masked man's Sharingan that controlled the Nine-Tails.
Fugaku's brows knitted tightly.
> "A masked man… with Sharingan…?"
> "So it wasn't the Nine-Tails acting alone. It was being controlled."
Minato nodded grimly.
Fugaku began to connect the pieces.
> "I've gone through every record of our clan's history, dating back to our earliest days in Konoha."
> "There is no record of a stray Uchiha, not one."
> "Unless…"
A terrifying possibility struck him.
His voice was hoarse as he spoke the name:
> "Uchiha Madara."
Or worse…
> "A descendant of Uchiha Madara."
Even Minato went silent at that.
Madara Uchiha—the one who clashed with Hashirama Senju at the Valley of the End. The most dangerous Uchiha in history.
If he left any offspring behind…
> "Then it would explain everything," Fugaku muttered.
"A vendetta against Konoha. A hatred for our clan. A desire for revenge."
Minato's face grew grave.
> "So… I fought a descendant of Madara Uchiha?"
But in the corner, Naruto's face twitched slightly.
> He knew the truth.
The masked man wasn't Madara, or even a descendant.
It was Obito Uchiha.
But he wasn't going to say that—not yet.
Let them believe it was Madara's heir. That story fit better.
> "Anyway," Naruto finally spoke, his voice calm, "None of that really matters right now, does it?"
> "What matters… is that time's running out for the Uchiha."
Minato turned back to Fugaku.
> "I came here to help."
> "If I were still alive, I could have changed things. But I'm dead. All I can do is offer this."
> "Fugaku… do you want to get your clan out of Konoha?"
Fugaku didn't answer right away.
For years, his people had been marginalized, pushed to the village's outskirts, slandered, and watched.
To leave would be unthinkable.
To stay would be suicidal.
But this wasn't just anyone talking—it was the Yellow Flash.
> "Could you really do it…?" Fugaku asked softly.
> "With Flying Thunder God Jutsu," Minato said, "we can bypass Konoha's border seals and transport your people instantly."
> "But there's another question."
> "Where would you go?"
Fugaku's mind raced.
They couldn't go to any of the five great nations—Land of Water, Earth, Lightning, or Wind.
Every one of them would see the Sharingan as a treasure to be stolen.
No one would protect them. They'd just be butchered for their eyes.
> "Then where…?"
Naruto raised a single finger and said with certainty:
> "The Land of Whirlpools."
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