The Fire of a Not-Uchiha

Chapter 2 - Fugaku

It's been almost a month since I updated this... oops.

The door to the Hokage's office swings open and a tall man with a sour looking face enters the room.

"Hokage-sama." The man, Fugaku, bows.

"You may rise." The Hokage says.

Shouto thinks that Fugaku reminds him of his past father and the thought of that makes him slightly uncomfortable. He doubts that they're the same, this man seems a little less power hungry than his past father... as of right now. The glint in Fugaku's eyes is similar to how his past father looked before Shouto turned 4.

"Pardon my asking, but who's this?" He asks. He's politer, for one. Fugaku seems to be able to acknowledge that the Hokage is in a higher position of power than he is.

"An Uchiha." The Hokage replies.

"I've not seen him around, I'd recognize an Uchiha child. Where did you find him?" Fugaku says sternly.

"In Kirigakure." Asuma-san supplies.

Shouto sees Fugaku's lips move to repeat the words and he interrupts, "My father was an Uchiha. Uchiha Koshinuke."

Fugaku's eyes light up in understanding. "Ah, yes I do remember him. A good man."

"No he wasn't." Shouto mutters.

Fugaku raises an eyebrow. "Dead, then?"

"Killed himself." Shouto corrects.

Fugaku nods slowly.

"And your mother? I recall him marrying a woman outside of the clan and running off with her."

Shouto was fairly certain that Fugaku knew that his mother was dead.

"Killed by the civilians." Shouto replies. He doesn't really care about his mother or his father. He still loves his past mother more than this one, he still hates his past father more than this one.

"I see. How can we be sure he's an Uchiha?" He turned to the Hokage.

"Itsuki-kun, can you remove your eyepatch?"

Shouto remembers his father telling him not to remove it no matter what he does. He remembers seeing his father cower in fear at the sight of his eye. He remembers how he threw a glass vase directly at his face, almost taking his eye with it.

Shouto hesitates. "I haven't used it yet." He assures them. "This is the only time I'm taking it off." He doesn't want to go blind because of something they asked him to do. Even if he doesn't use it, it's nice to have 2 working eyes this time around.

"That's okay." The Hokage nods.

Is it? Shouto wonders.

He moves his hands to untie the knot behind his head and the eyepatch falls to the floor.

He thinks it's weird how whenever he takes off the eyepatch, he can see more clearly.

There's a cut right above and just below his eyelid from where the glass from the vase scraped him.

"Who did you take this from?" Fugaku snarls and Shouto represses a flinch.

He knew this would happen.

Even so, he speaks calmly. "My father said I would get my other one later on in my life. I don't know why I only have one, but I was born with it."

"I see...." Fugaku mutters. "Does he have any formal Shinobi training?"

"I taught him how to walk on water, but that's all I know." Asuma-san says.

"I do have training. I know how to use my ice and fire." Shouto supplies. This village seems alright. Better than Kirigakure anyway.