'My future self will definitely bloom in his palms and on his body, just like last night…'
'It must be like that!'
"INO!"
Seeing her daughter snap out of it for less than a second before standing there again, dumbfounded and blushing with a silly smile, Mrs. Yamanaka couldn't take it anymore.
She immediately took out a feather duster and drove her completely absent-minded daughter out of the flower shop.
"Look at you, acting like a lovesick fool. I should've married you off earlier."
"Didn't you also act like a lovesick fool back in the day, Mom? I think it was for the Fourth Hokage… Too bad he never planned to get married before his untimely death."
Realizing she didn't have to help in the flower shop today, Ino skipped out of her family's flower shop and even made a face at her mother as she turned back.
"Who told you that?"
"Of course it was Dad."
Still reading the newspaper at home, Yamanaka Inoichi couldn't help but shiver.
"You, you…"
'That bastard Inoichi!'
'That is such an old story, and he still went and told it to our daughter?'
"I'm not like Mom, I'm not a lovesick fool!"
'Two people being mutually in love. How can that be called being lovesick? This should be called… affection.'
'That's right!'
'Kage and I are a lovey-dovey couple.'
"Hmph, you haven't even established a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship with that Uchiha boy and you're already talking big," Mrs. Yamanaka was so infuriated by her daughter's words that she looked like a demon.
But she also picked up on something from Ino's words.
"That's only because you and Dad are getting in the way."
"I never stopped you. Clearly it's your own incompetence."
"Then I'll confess right now and bring Kage home tonight," Faced with her mom's ridicule and teasing, Ino finally couldn't help but boast loudly.
"Please!"
Mrs. Yamanaka shooed her daughter out the door like swatting a mosquito.
"You'll regret this!"
BANG!
Ino slammed the door shut hard as she ran out.
"I'm the head of the household!"
Clatter!
The flower shop door was opened again by Mrs. Yamanaka.
Then she looked on with a smiling face as her youthfully radiant daughter walked farther and farther away.
Immediately afterward, she put on a cold expression and walked back into the house.
'That old bastard Inoichi really doesn't want to live anymore. How dare he say anything to our daughter?'
'But… is it really okay to let our daughter get involved with the Uchiha orphan…?'
"It's fine. Konoha is about to get turbulent. That Uchiha boy has enough talent to protect our daughter in the future…", Kneeling on a washboard, Yamanaka Inoichi answered his wife's doubts very seriously.
And he told her about a jōnin in the village who had unknowingly been controlled by genjutsu.
If it were peaceful times, it would be best to stay far away from the Uchiha.
But if war looms in the future, their daughter will only be safe next to a powerful ninja.
Inoichi originally thought Uchiha Kage was just an ordinary boy, but unexpectedly...
Thinking back to what he saw yesterday in the Chūnin Exam arena, Inoichi even felt a flash of seeing Namikaze Minato in Kage.
———
"What are you doing?"
[Early Morning]
Freshly awake and clear-headed, Uchiha Kage saw Uchiha Sasuke standing in the yard, carefully examining that Uchiha stone tablet.
"I told you, you wouldn't understand."
'Hmph, only the Sharingan can clearly see the characters on the tablet.'
'This guy Kage hasn't even awakened his Sharingan, better not tell him too much.'
'Don't want to hurt his feelings.'
Sasuke kept a straight face and continued studying the stone tablet, which had no legible writing, while responding without looking at the boy who had come up beside him.
"But… did you soak this ancestral tablet in sauerkraut water for too long or something?"
Sasuke stared for a long time and still couldn't make anything out of the tablet.
He could only suspect that maybe the characters had worn off due to being corroded by sauerkraut water.
Of course, his own Sharingan couldn't possibly be the problem, so the only problem must be with the stone tablet.
"It's true it's been soaked for many years."
'Even if I explained it, you wouldn't understand…'
Uchiha Kage let out a faint sigh.
As a father, hearing his son say that kind of thing… it still hurt.
'Sasuke really is in his rebellious phase, huh!'
"That's bad!"
The only ones who know how to evolve the Sharingan into the Mangekyō Sharingan are this stone tablet, that foolish Uchiha Itachi, and the masked man who appeared in the Forest of Death before.
Ever since that "masked man" who beat Orochimaru into snake skin called Uchiha Itachi an idiot, Sasuke also liked using that title to refer to his dear brother.
"What's bad? Is this stone tablet special or something?"
"I told you, you wouldn't—"
'Wait a second, Kage always reads those old books. Maybe those books have some record of how the Uchiha awaken their eyes?'
Thinking of that, Sasuke decided to take a wild guess and asked the boy next to him.
"Do you know about the Mangekyō Sharingan?"
"Of course I know," Uchiha Kage looked at Sasuke's inconsistent behavior and couldn't help but curl his lips into a smile.
'My foolish son…'
'Wouldn't it have been better to just ask your father earlier?'
'Staring at that stone tablet all night until your eyes got dark circles… pitiful.'
"Then you—"
'Kage really does know?'
'But how does he know so much without even awakening the Sharingan?'
'Maybe… he's just truly talentless.'
Shaking his head, Sasuke quickly followed up once he confirmed that Uchiha Kage did indeed know of the Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Then do you know how to awaken it?"
"Of course. According to ancient records, to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan, the Uchiha must experience the strongest mental trauma. Actually, it's similar to how the regular Sharingan is awakened, but the Mangekyō requires a much more intense trigger. For example…"
"For example, what?"
"Personally killing the person you care about most, the one closest to you. Preferably your parents, siblings, or a best friend."
"That's it?"
"Th-That's… it?"
'My foolish son, aren't you being a little too cheerfully filial?'
"It's hard for others, but for us, isn't it easy? As long as we go back into a dungeon world, I'll just kill you myself again…", Sasuke burst into laughter.
"…"
"What's with that look? In that dungeon world, it's not like you actually die."
"I won't die, but fath—my heart will be hurt."
'So you really plan to filially kill your dad, Sasuke?'
Uchiha Kage was stunned by Sasuke's genius idea.
"But, maybe it could help you awaken your Sharingan too."
Sasuke still hoped that this fellow clansman who grew up with him like a brother could awaken his Sharingan too.
"What's all this noise so early in the morning?"
Wearing pajamas and hugging a pillow, Naruto, who once again spent the night at the Uchiha residence, rubbed his eyes and walked over to the two boys.
"Sasuke said he wants to kill us himself."
"What? Sasuke, are you crazy?"
"Not in real life, in the dungeon world… whatever, why am I even explaining to a dead-last like you!"
Sasuke threw a tsundere glance at Naruto, then suddenly thought of something.
"That guy Itachi killed his best friend and his whole clan… to get that power, right? If that's the case, I don't want to be like him!"
As long as he gets stronger through completing missions in the dungeon, he doesn't need to do such unnecessary things.
Just like last time when his Sharingan evolved to three tomoe in the dungeon.
Maybe the next time he comes out, it'll just evolve straight into Mangekyō Sharingan.
"True, you really are different."
His son really didn't need to use such a stupid method like killing loved ones to awaken his eyes.
Uchiha Kage felt gratified that Sasuke had figured it out.
"I'm going to make breakfast!"
After getting praised by Uchiha Kage for being different, Sasuke still looked indifferent on the outside, but he was so happy inside he almost hummed.
"What the heck, making breakfast and acting like it's a big deal…"
Still freeloading off the Uchiha family, Naruto flopped down and went back to sleep in the corridor.
"Naruto, why is your hair turning black?"
"Oh… recently with the Chūnin Exams… I forgot to dye it…"
"Didn't you know? This dead-last wanted to get people's attention so badly that he not only vandalized the Hokage Rock but also dyed his hair blonde."
From the kitchen came Sasuke's indifferent voice at just the right time.
"That so?"
Uchiha Kage looked at Naruto's increasingly dark hair, and the unease he had been suppressing lately grew heavier and heavier.
'If it's the Nine-Tails, it should know everything, right?'
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