Chapter five
The Shinigami sees the little monkey, he thinks it of no consequence, if his Master had wanted complete privacy he would have said so. Probably. Well, if need be he can fix it latter, nothing of great importance has been revealed yet, when the actually important talks begin he will ward the place.
Tsuyoshi continues being draped over the Shinigami.
Minato is getting healed by a medic as best as possible and if the child does not want Minato to die yet, and the man does not die from the deadly wounds, well that's just a coincidence.
-/-
A few meters away from the tower all the clan heads are having a little briefing.
When they hear about the child and the Shinigami they are all confused, even if most do not show it.
When they hear the child is Uchiha Tsuyoshi, or at least someone henged as the child, they start getting even more wary of Fugaku, they had all come to the conclusion that the kyuubi was being controlled by a member of said clan.
Fugaku is very shocked and immediately concludes its a henge, even if anbu tells them it probably isn't.
He is a man that likes to think a situation trough and get to the best conclusion, he is not the quickest of thinkers but he normally obtains a good result, honestly, if not by the veracity of the anbu agents and the overall fucked over situation Fugaku would have concluded it was all a prank. His middle son wasknow as a trouble maker, maybe it was someone teasing him about it, he wouldn't put it past some people.
In reality Tsuyoshi just seemed to have very bad luck. But even Tsuyoshi is not that prone to trouble.
His four year old has always been a rather agreeable child, him being involved in anything to do with death was a bit ridiculous. So much so that he and Mikoto have worried about his future as a shinobi.
Where Itachi had been slowly waned off of his excessive gentleness the lessons seemed to slide off of Tsuyoshi by the next day. Even when training, he tried to make it happy and playful, when he was pushed and pushed to the point his bruises had bruises he smiled shyly and pressed on. He had, at some point, named his tools, taking care of each one as if they were valuable individually. The more they tried to make him let go of his weird personality traits the more he seemed to stick to it.
Fugaku could not deny he was a little amused that his son would not be conform to the Uchiha clan. And if he had proof that he tried his best when being confronted by the elders, well that was just great.
The Uchiha clan head ignored the looks and the general wary feels and heard the rest of the information.
-/-
After every clan head was debriefed they were checked by a medic, interestingly enough none of them had injuries that could not be healed, just broken bones, lacerations and medium burns, they headed to the tower.
-/-
All of them entered by the discreet entrance and made their way up to the heavily guarded room, all of the anbu that had been with them already back at their posts, some visible, most not.
The door to the room opened and they all entered quickly and smoothly. Promptly focusing their attention at the white haired, semi translucent Shinigami. And the child, obviously, because what the fuck?
They had been told but it was still so very bizarre that they had to use a good part of their acting skills to not deadpan, snort, panic or just turn around and leave.
As it was, the former Hokage welcomed them from one of the chairs with a nod. "If you would sit down, honorable clan heads." His tone was formal, the tone they only heard when things got serious in council meetings and such.
They all sat around the table, some more outwardly tense than others.
The Shinigami was still on his feet by the wall opposite the door, the child seemed very tired and like it was nursing a good headache, it did not lift its head until all the shinobi were seated and the Shinigami moved to sit in one of the empty chairs, as distant as possible, with some spare chairs in each side of the Shinigami.
The Shinigami seated himself and slipped the child to his lap, causing Tsuyoshi to be more aware and open his eyes, his red, one tome eyes, looking around the room from Hiruzen, close to the door on the far left, to Fugaku, far in the right.
As soon as Tsuyoshi noticed Fugaku he started bawling his eyes out. The little one stretched his arms out to his tou-san. He liked Shini-san but maybe Tou-san would make the hurt go away now.
Fugaku refused to give in and get up, he narrowed his eyes, activated his sharingan and looked at the child. He looked exactly like Tsyoshi, every detail. Fugaku was very confused, was it possible Tsuyoshi was this much of a problem magnet? Surely not.
"Touuuuuu-sannnnn! Itaiiiiiii." His head was hurting and Tsuyoshi wanted it to stop right now.
Fugaku looked the child in the eyes, sharingan eyes, and spoke. "If you are truly Uchiha Tsuyoshi tell me a secret." It was a simple code he taught all his children at some point, trough out their lives Fugaku would pick little moments and tell them it was a secret. Though Sasuke didn't really understand yet.
Little things that only they would know and so could be used to confirm identity and such. Tsuyoshi was still too young for more complicated codes, that would indicate injury, stackers, abilities etc. but he had made sure Tsuyoshi knew this one.
It took a second for the child to process it but when he did he hiccuped and nodded slowly. His daddy was serious about secrets he knew that.
He chose the first one to come to mind. "When Itachi-nii went to eat dango he took me too and I ate lots and we came back home and were late. So, uh, so tou-san said we had to make it up in training but nii-chan was called out and, and I" he blushed and made a face at his dad. "I. I wanted to nap so I said I was gonna trow up but tou-san said no napping, but I wasn't lying and so I, ugh, so I threw up," the kid squirmed embarrassed but continued on as to prove he knew it all. " and it was ALL pink all over me and tou-san and the cat and shuriken and everything." The child was blushing a lot but he continued looking at Fugaku like he had been taught to. Cheeks puffing out. "And then tou-san said " let's not tell anyone, especially kaa-chan, it's 'nother secret""
The occupants in the room were tense but the image on their head was hilarious. Tsume could not resist the child's red, earnest, face and snorted at Fugaku's blank one, just imagining that stiff guy covered in pink vomit, holding a puked over little kid and convincing it to not tell Mikoto made her want to laugh out loud.
They can say what they want but she did have manners, seriously my she totally did, she was, after all, kind of managing to hold back the laughter.
Hiruzen gave Fugaku an amused look, he had been there, little Azuma had been a little disgusting but still cute and lovable child.
Minato gave the pair a gentle smile, thinking about Naruto and if that would happen to him too. His smile faded when he thought about Kushina not being there. Regardless, he would not think about that right now. Shikaku, Inoichi and Chouza were all sympathetic, going trough the diaper phase.
Though none other than Minato showed it on their faces.
This all happened simultaneously and Fugaku was up and across the room, sharingan still on, in a fraction of a second he tookhis defenseless little brattling away from thefucking Godamnit Shonigami. Between a blink and the next he was back beside his chair with Tsuyoshi at his hip.
Doing his best to not glare at the supposedly all powerful Shinigami, Fugaku looks at Tsuyoshi's face sternelly.
Seriously, only Tsuyoshi could possibly get into such an unexpected situation.
Looking back at the Shinigmi it did not seem an explanation was forthcoming, looking around the room the Hokages seemed to want him to take action how he saw fit. He did not look at the other clan heads.
Fugaku did not like demonstrating emotions with an audience, or in general, but this was his four year old with a sharingan, not to mention the fuckingShinigami, and so he would have too. There was no way he could take Tsuyoshi aside when he was, apparently, involved in this mess, so he forged on.
" Explain yourself Tsuyoshi. " He wanted Tsuyoshi to be okay but he also wanted some mother f ng answers!
Fugaku ,awkwardly, rubbed his child's back until he stopped hiccuping so much and felt comforted he was acting the same as always, a little clingy, very trusting (so cute ).
"Sooorry tou-sannn" Tsuyoshi was not crying anymore, just getting his breathing under order and so Fugaku sat back down, putting Tsuyoshi on the table in front of him, making it so the child had to turn to focus on anybody else.
Quietly, but not as soothingly as he thought he was being, he talked to Tsuyoshi. "What happened?"
Tsuyoshi whimpered and rubbed his aching eyes and head. "Not my fauuult..."
Ok, so it did not seem they would make much progress until Tsuyoshi deactivated his sharingan. He wanted to be mad at the child for being so difficult but he too remembered his first sharingan headache, as well as not knowing how to turn the eyes off.
Tsuyoshi's limbs wobbled when his daddy didn't make it better right away. "Does it hurt Tsuyoshi?"
As if saying 'of course it hurts!' Tsuyoshi nods emphatically and glares, like a proper Uchiha, at his parent.
Fugaku slowly reaches his big hands to the little temple. "Here?" He says putting the little hands in his temples. "Yes?"
Tsuyoshi nods more sedately. "Uhn"
"I see, and here?" The father puts his umbs over the child's closed lids.
Tsuyoshi shakes his head, and mumbles, sniffing. " My eyes are just really itchy, like when you cry lots, but more." He tries explaining to his tou-san.
"Hmmm. And what about here?" He takes his right hand to the steadily beating heart.
Tsuyoshi hiccups and nods yes. "Tight, feels bad." Fugaku hums and puts a hand on the child's hair, petting softly. "We can fix the eyes and smooth the headache right now but the rest will have to wait."
He knows he is ignoring everyone else. He knows he is acting unbecomingly of a clan head, and the elders would be having a fit, but this is his child and if there are three people he loves the most than those are his children. After all, no one can quite love like an Uchiha.
"Tsuyoshi, look at me." Fugaku waits for the tow red eyes to focus on his. " At some point tonight you felt really stressed or sad or threatened, correct?" Tsuyoshi wavers a little but nods, staring fixedly at his father's eyes. "I've told you about the sharingan before, I'm sure kaa-chan and Itachi have at least mentioned it before, yes?"
Tsuyoshi nods again, quite tired of this lesson, tou-san always takes soooooo long to say stuff. "Yeah, the sharingan is the pride of the Uchiha clan and it's really important to have it and Itachi got his really quick," he almost adds a bla bla bla, but catches it on time. "I knoow tou-san!" He pouts. "What does that have to with anything!?"
Fugaku gives his best warning look and Tsuyoshi just knows on the bottom of his heart that it means 'Tsuyoshi, if you roll your eyes at me I will make sure you regret it.'
Tsuyoshi makes sure to look very repentant and pay double attention when his boring tou-san starts speaking again.