Itachi had never asked Hatake Satoru about his eyepatch before. He figured Satoru wasn't the type to give a straightforward answer anyway.
But this time, Hatake Satoru suddenly fell into deep thought.
Itachi, unable to hide his anticipation, looked at him closely.
It felt like the next second, the mystery surrounding Hatake Satoru would finally be revealed.
He always acted mature, but this expectant look made him seem just like his younger brother.
Hatake Satoru smirked, tilting his head slightly as he pinched the corner of his eyepatch and leaned toward Itachi.
"The reason—"
"Obviously, it's because I'm too handsome. If I take it off, you guys will never get a girlfriend~"
Yep, another ridiculous answer.
Itachi wasn't sure what he had been expecting.
With a helpless sigh, he shifted backward to put some distance between their faces.
"Do you really not see people clearly, so you always lean in suddenly when you talk?"
"It's just a habit of mine..."
Before Hatake Satoru could finish speaking, Itachi's gaze shifted to the child behind him, holding a tray.
Golden hair, a worn-out orange outfit.
A pair of goggles on his head, with three distinct whisker-like marks on each cheek.
The Nine-Tailed Fox, Uzumaki Naruto.
Naruto still had some sauce on the corner of his mouth as he carried the tray, glancing around while walking toward them.
The wooden floor, worn down over the years, even had a raised edge.
As expected, too focused on looking around, Naruto tripped over the uneven floor.
The steaming dango on his tray flew up, sticky sauce still clinging to them.
They shot straight toward Hatake Satoru's back.
Naruto's face instantly turned pale. Holding the tray, he took two steps back in a panic, staring at Hatake Satoru, not knowing what to do.
"Behind you..."
Seeing the dango about to hit Hatake Satoru, Itachi couldn't help but warn him.
"Oh, I know."
Hatake Satoru calmly reached behind him, fingers slightly curled like claws, and murmured,
"Blue!"
A translucent blue energy instantly formed in his hand!
The two airborne skewers of dango were swallowed up by the faint blue energy in an instant.
With a soft "pop," they collided inside the energy.
In the blink of an eye, the dango reappeared in Hatake Satoru's hand—now stuck together into a single misshapen mass.
Apparently, the glutinous rice couldn't withstand the impact and fused together.
"Be more careful, kid."
"Or maybe just fix the floor."
Hatake Satoru turned to Naruto, who was still staring in shock, and waved the dango at him.
His effortless and fluid movements were so fast that the people around him didn't even see how he caught them.
Even with an eyepatch, his sharp and refined features were impossible to hide.
Combined with his smooth, confident actions, he instantly caught the attention of everyone in the shop.
A few women nearby lit up with admiration.
"That was so cool!"
"How does someone still look so handsome even with an eyepatch?!"
As the air in the shop filled with excitement, Hatake Satoru, enjoying the attention, flashed an even brighter smile at the women.
The shopkeeper, hearing the commotion, peeked out from behind the counter.
The moment she spotted Naruto standing there in a daze, her face twisted into a scowl, and she snapped,
"Hey! What are you doing here again?!"
Without waiting for an explanation, she grabbed a broom and shooed Naruto out as if chasing away a stray animal.
"Nine-Tailed Fox! Get out! Always sneaking in to steal food—disgusting."
She spat twice at the doorway in contempt.
Naruto flinched, dodging awkwardly outside, his head hanging low as he prepared to head home.
But then, he saw the man inside—still holding the dango, still wearing the eyepatch—smiling at him.
Hatake Satoru lifted a finger.
"You owe me one."
That's what his lips said.
Hatake Satoru watched Naruto walk away, the corner of his mouth curling into a sneer.
This was the village everyone adored. The one that always spoke of peace and justice—Konohagakure.
Namikaze Minato was gone, and with him, so was any care for his child.
No matter what Minato had done, Naruto was condemned simply for being the vessel of the Nine-Tails, buried under that identity with no chance to rise again.
The "Nine-Tailed Fox" incident was just a fleeting moment in the shop.
Inside, the women still gazed at Hatake Satoru with sparkling eyes.
Itachi withdrew his gaze from the door and looked at the lively group of women inside the room. His stomach ached a little.
In a way, Hatake Satoru's unpredictable answer did make some sense.
Hatake Satoru was the eldest son of the Hatake family.
But despite that, he wasn't well-known, and very few people recognized him.
His younger brother, Hatake Kakashi, was a child prodigy who had achieved great military success at a young age.
All the attention and glory had been taken by his younger brother.
Most people only knew Hatake Kakashi, the son of the White Fang, and completely overlooked his older brother.
Lacking any talent, Hatake Satoru was currently just an ordinary teacher at a civilian school.
"Ah, the dango is too soft, which makes it harder to hold properly."
"But at least the taste is the same."
Hatake Satoru stepped out of the dango shop, looking down as he separated a slightly squished piece and handed it to Itachi beside him.
Itachi thanked him and silently strolled around the outskirts of the Uchiha district.
It had actually been quite some time since he last came to see Itachi.
Rumors of the Uchiha clan's rebellion kept surfacing in the village. Even though Hatake Satoru was just an ordinary person, he had heard whispers of it more than once.
If even civilians were aware of these tensions, then the conflict between the Uchiha clan and the village was already on the verge of exploding.
Most likely, Itachi had now become a double agent, working for both Konoha and the Uchiha clan.
Whenever Itachi was silent, he always looked like he had a lot on his mind.
But if you didn't ask, he would rather keep everything bottled up than say a single word.
Men with Gemini zodiac are always troublesome.
Hatake Satoru chewed on a bamboo skewer as he scratched his messy silver hair.
"Lately, things between your clan and the village haven't been going well."
"I even heard people on the streets talking about a possible rebellion."
Itachi's hand stiffened slightly as he brought the dango to his mouth. He had been thinking about how to bring this topic up with Hatake Satoru.
After all, Hatake Satoru was just a civilian—an outsider, really.
As long as he didn't reveal his own identity, talking about it wasn't a big deal.
"Yeah, a lot of people are unhappy with the village's decisions to relocate our district and continuously weaken the Uchiha."
"And it's not just conflicts with the village. There are also some… internal issues."
Itachi sighed, as if he wanted to say more but held back.
Hatake Satoru nodded knowingly.
With the village pressuring from the outside and internal factions stirring things up, Itachi was in a tough spot no matter what.
"You're working in Anbu with my brother now, right? If I remember correctly, that unit follows direct orders from the Hokage."
"So if one day, the Hokage commands you to wipe out your entire clan—"
"What will you do?"