The younger generation is what brings people together, don´t you agree?
The compound was like a bonfire at night.
Naruto felt his skin buzzing at the many signatures all around him, swarming around him like fireflies, bright in the otherwise calm area. Most Uchiha either had fire or lighting primary elements, making his skin prickle comfortably. The electric component of the sharingan buzzed all around him, leaving an almost metallic taste in the hair and letting the hair on his neck almost stand up.
These many varying stages of the sharingan were such a huge difference from the few incredibly strong dojutsu Naruto had seen in his time, it was almost uncanny. Instead of the heat and hatred filled mangekyou eyes that Naruto had only felt a few of, these were vast in numbers. Some were weaker than others, while some were leaving more of an impression in his senses. Probably because not everyone had unlocked the sharingan, or even more than one tomoe.
Kurama was less fond of the electric feeling all around. There was a constant buzz of dissatisfaction in the back of Naruto´s mind, a constant feeling of Kurama baring his teeth in seemingly all directions. The flutter of nervousness that comes with the feeling of being surrounded.
Naruto frowned inwardly and reached out to Kurama, chakra gently trying to ease him. It took a few nudges before Kurama retaliated, nudging his own chakra against Naruto´s, but no words were exchanged. Kurama wasn´t much in a mood for talking and Naruto wouldn´t press the issue. Not now, when most of his focus went to the Uchiha brothers walking with him.
Madara was still walking at the front, and though Naruto would have fallen into step with him like he´d done it with Sasuke, Lady Arisu had advised him not to. He was a guest, not an equal, at least not in Madara´s eyes, so letting the man keep his distance was simply considered normal. Besides, after that weird interlacing of their chakra´s, Naruto could understand the urge of putting distance between one another. Knowing Madara´s backlash was worse than his own made the blonde sympathize.
On the other hand, Izuna was walking at his side, a bit behind Madara but closer than Naruto was. His chakra was still swirling uncomfortably, probably from the confusion his elder brother´s reaction had caused, but there wasn´t much Naruto could do to address the issue without risking oversharing information. Even leaking chakra to calm the heir down seemed risky with Kurama on edge.
So, Naruto simply did what he could do best.
Talk.
“The compound is incredible, Lord Uchiha, Lord Izuna. It´s been quite some time since I´ve seen a place this full of live. I´m almost overwhelmed.” That wasn´t really a lie either. The only place after the war that could even match the amount of people in the compound was the market place, but most people there were civilians, their chakra signatures much less vibrant.
He had an easy smile on his face and tilted his head to the side, working to keep his body language as open as possible. Madara didn´t quite twitch, but Naruto could feel intelligent black eyes follow his movement. Izuna on the other hand engaged in conversation, smiling politely at the compliment.
“It is, isn´t it? This compound has been standing strong for multiple decades and it continues to keep growing.” Izuna almost preened, clearly proud of his clan´s history, while Madara only hummed deeply.
“Overwhelmed?”
The clan head raised a questioning eyebrow, although the undertone in his voice told Naruto that he knew what he meant. He wasn´t naïve enough to think Izuna and Madara hadn´t at least talked about him once. If what Tobirama said was to be believed, there were hardly any brother´s closer than these two, who shared everything with one another, from secrets to their very own eyes.
Naruto chuckled sheepishly, running a hand through his hair. “I´m a fine tuned sensor. It might seem intrusive, but it´s not an ability I can simply turn off.” Not without going insane that is, Naruto thought, but didn´t say out loud. He had become so used to his sensing that without it, memories would take him back to the time where there had been nothing to sense. The gaping emptiness wherever Naruto´s chakra reached. Even if he could turn it off without getting jittery, Naruto wouldn´t for his own sanity.
“I understand,” Madara simply stated, eyes crinkling slightly. “If that is the case, then using your abilities passively is hardly intrusive.”
“I´m pretty sure that was an underlying threat, wasn´t it? The way he worded it makes me think so,” Naruto thought wryly, dry amusement coloring his thoughts. Kurama huffed, but didn´t comment anything aside from a small grumble in confirmation.
Judging by the way Izuna tried and failed to suppress a sigh disguised as a slow, barely noticeable exhale, he too caught the message that basically said “Do not try to use your sensing to read us like an open book.” Or, well, something along those lines.
They walked further across the street and were slowly headed towards one of the bigger buildings that were a little further closed off from the main part of the compound. Most of the heads turned when the group passed, some bowed when their leader walked along the street and a lot of eyes, some red and some dark, lingered on his mask. No one approached them directly, not with both clan head and clan heir in tow, but that didn´t stop anyone from looking.
Not that it bothered him. Naruto had been stared at his entire life. Most of those malicious, especially in his early years in life. This was hardly bothersome.
“Of course, I won´t pry or anything of the sort.” The blonde hurried to answer after letting his gaze wander of the crow of people at the sides. Wariness swirled in Madara´s signature, but outwardly there was no tell other than the narrowed eyes that seemed to be a constant expression.
There was no answer, not that Naruto had expected one, and soon they entered the building they had been walking towards the entire time. There were some guards shadowing them, well hidden but not well enough, and some servants – judging by the very low chakra levels and the lack of training of their chakra coils – other than that, the building was mostly empty.
Madara led them through the place silently and Naruto used that time to let his eyes wander.
The walls were decorated with beautiful engravings, skillfully manufactured into the wood of the walls. They showed elegantly swung letters, some that Naruto could read and others that he couldn´t. If he had to guess, he was pretty sure that those were only readable by shinobi with sharingan, like the Uchiha tablet that Hashirama had told him about, the one that Zetsu had rewritten.
The thought quickly sent a shimmer of anger through his veins, but Naruto worked to suppress it just as swiftly as it came, not wanting to think about it now.
Eventually, the three of them arrived in an open space. Two servants held the doors open as they stepped outside into what seemed like a backyard.
It was a relatively big space, protected by wards and seals that Naruto could feel faintly buzzing at the edge of the garden. Some guards were hidden from sight, but positioned around them, either to keep Naruto in or any other potential threat out. There was a pond in the far right corner, few fish swimming inside of it without a care in the world. The garden was flourishing with beautifully arranged plants and flowers and right in the middle there was an open space, one that wasn´t obscured by plants.
The open space was covered with wooden mats and a small wooden table. A large wisteria tree reached its branches over the spot, throwing a cool shadow over it. Food and tea were already sitting prepared on the wooden table, filling the air with a rich scent that Naruto could have easily picked out even without his heightened sense of smell.
Madara, Izuna and Naruto walked towards the space and Naruto followed their lead as the two brother sat down. Izuna and Madara were on one side of the table and Naruto slowly lowered himself down onto the mat on the opposing side, so that he could directly face both the Uchiha.
The air between them wasn´t quite tense – maybe hesitant was more of a word for the situation – so Naruto took the situation into his own hands, straightening and looking Madara directly into the eye. Madara didn´t startle, nor did he show any indication that the eye contact surprised him like Izuna did, but the spike of chakra was there.
“Lord Uchiha,” he began slowly, careful not to overstep with what he was about to say. Lady Arisu had warned him to choose his words carefully and to think thrice about saying things before he did.
“While I appreciate the invitation, I do have to ask. Why exactly was I invited here?”
Izuna´s eyebrows furrowed in response, slight annoyance and confusion visible in his face, while Madara simply arched an eyebrow, expression cool and calculating.
“I stated the reason in the letter delivered to you, have I not, Kitsune? Are you asking me to repeat myself?”
Naruto instinctively suppressed a sigh. “Not at all. I understand that you wished to thank me, and I appreciate it, but why go to such lengths? Why allow me to enter your home?”
This time it was Izuna who answered, a wry smile on his face, “Inviting you was my suggestion, Kitsune, not my brother´s. I found it to be the only appropriate response to your actions and elder brother agreed. I also wished for you to meet Madara, but that was more of a selfish wish rather than an official sign of gratitude.”
He couldn´t help the small quirk of his lips at the last part and quickly shook his head with an amused huff, reassuring Izuna. “There is nothing selfish about that, Lord Izuna. I looked forward to this meeting, I assure you.” Naruto turned his eyes towards Madara and let them crinkle at the corners so his smile would be obvious even under the mask.
“I do have to say that I find you to be very much different than the rumors and stories surrounding you paint you out to be. Then again,” Naruto sighed, thinking back to the rumors about himself during this time and the rumors about himself during his childhood, “If there´s one thing I have learned over time, it was that rumors could not be trusted. One should look underneath the underneath, as my teacher used to say.”
Kakashi was a weird man, but he was wise and more often his general paranoia was a great factor in giving advice. Kakashi had been the first person to teach Naruto that sometimes there is more hidden behind the mask a person wears than a simple face – both literally and figuratively.
The thought sent a sharp tinge of grief through Naruto and he did his best suppressing it, though judging by the small furrow of Izuna´s eyebrows and the tilt of Madara´s head, neither had missed the use of the past tense, nor the way Naruto´s voice dipped when he spoke of Kakashi.
Madara seemed to scrutinize him before humming in confirmation. “Wise words indeed. Especially if certain people seem to make good use of the anonymity that comes with a certain reputation to hide behind.” He levelled Naruto with a look, “I´m sure you´re aware that many have described you as bloodthirsty and cruel.” There was a slight up-tilt in the tone of Madara´s voice as he said those words, one that clearly indicated that it wasn´t even a question in the first place. Instead, there seemed to be something teasing or challenging in the way the man spoke – less condescending and more curious than the Madara Naruto had met.
Izuna seemed to quietly suffer if the way his chakra wilted was any indication, probably because Madara was being insensible by their standards. Naruto on the other hand didn´t really mind. It was a huge win already that they weren´t trying to take eachother´s head off, and frankly, Naruto had dealt with a lot of worse mannered people in his time, including – but not limited to – Sasuke. The bastard was rude on his best of days and Naruto could deal with that perfectly fine, so Madara would hardly be an issue. Especially if he remained this civilized.
A chuckle escaped the blonde. “Well, that wasn´t really my fault. I have made a great effort to not be hostile. If other´s still interpret me as bloodthirsty there´s not much I can do. Personally, I think the mask has a lot to do with that particular ru-“
Suddenly, a loud crash, the rustle of leaves and a yelp echoed through the garden and all heads immediately snapped towards the source of the noise. Naruto had hardly registered the chakra signature, too focused in the talk, but now with his attention sharp, Naruto could make out a buzz of electric chakra coming from somewhere behind where Izuna and Madara were seated.
Madara´s eyes narrowed, as did Izuna´s, but when a guard stepped out of hiding with a bundle of something hanging from his arm and wildly trashing in his grip, both seemed to relax at least a little. Madara seemed to just barely stop himself from pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance and Izuna let out a long suffering sigh, closing his eyes and muttering something lowly under his breath. His head was tilted towards the sky as if he were praying for a god to give him the strength he needed for this situation.
The thing continued to trash in the guards arms, almost screeching.
“Let me go! I was just gonna visit uncle Izuna! I didn´t know he had guests over here right now, let me go –“
That –
That was a child.
That was a child trashing in the guards grip, trying to wriggle himself out of the hold and storm towards Izuna apparently, whose face expression was pinched in a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment. Apparently the kid had been hiding in the bushes or sneaking around trying to get to the garden before being caught by one of the guards.
The kid – and sage was the kid small – looked to be about eight or nine, barely any older. He had unruly black hair and his locks flew around wildly, almost covering his entire face. There was a small branch entangled in his locks from where he´d been hiding. The guard was holding him up by the scruff of his dark blue clothes, causing his legs to dangle uselessly in the air. His expression was furious, but that seemed to be more from the fact that he had been caught rather than from being held up by his scruff. His neck and ears were completely flushed in embarrassment and the kid did not stop rambling at all.
Naruto didn´t manage to cover his laugh up in time, so when it escaped him the kid´s eyes almost immediately snapped to him, so fast that Naruto was actually concerned for a minute whether or not the kid would get a whiplash. The kid seemed to want to say something at that, but when his eyes landed on Izuna his attention immediately shifted to the clan heir.
“Uncle Izuna, Uncle Madara I swear, I wasn´t doing anything bad, I swear! But the others at class kept being mean because I still can´t do the fireball jutsu properly so I ditched training because they wouldn´t stop teasing, and grandpa´s sick so I didn´t want to bother him, so I tried to go to Hikaku to see if I could find him, but I couldn´t, and I didn´t want to go to my sister because I know she´s busy with her duties, so I tried to find you and uncle Madara, but no one would tell me where you two where and then I thought that you might be in the garden because I know both of you were at the compound, otherwise someone would have said, so I tried to sneak in here to try and find you but I didn´t know you had any guests and when I saw I hid in the bushes because I knew you would be mad about me hiding and then he found me and please don´t be mad, I swear I didn´t know!”
“Wow, that kid has one hell of a lung capacity,” Naruto marveled, blinking slowly while trying to process the word vomit falling out of the kid´s mouth. The kid had rambled so quickly and without taking a single breath that Naruto would have worried he might pass out from lack of air. Judging by the very much not panicked, but rather exasperated sigh from Izuna, this kid´s ramblings seemed to be a common occurrence.
Kurama snorted in the back of his mind, saying something for the first time since they arrived here. “That brat´s a little spitfire, I can tell. He´s just as loud as you too.”
Before Naruto could make any sort of retort to that particular statement, his conversation with Kurama was interrupted by Izuna´s voice ringing out.
“Kagami, how about talking in sentences rather than in paragraphs.” The heir looked every bit as exhausted as he sounded and Naruto tried to suppress his laugh once again.
Kagami blinked, confused at the idea of that, but quickly nodded anyway, proceeding to stay quiet.
Madara levelled the guard with a look and motioned for him to let the kid – Kagami. Naruto was pretty sure that this kid was one of Tobirama´s future students, and the fact that the stories of the chaotic Uchiha pyromaniac with a heart of gold and too much energy for a single person, who wormed his way into the Senju´s heart, perfectly matched with the impression the kid gave Naruto now was very amusing. Naruto let himself grin, glad the mask concealed it – go.
The guard did, dropping Kagami to the floor who went down with a yelp and a nasty glare towards the guard. The man simply stepped back into the shadows though, leaving Kagami´s attention to swing back to his uncles – if the title “Uncle Izuna” and “Uncle Madara” were any indication?
“Kagami,” Madara spoke up, immediately catching the kid´s attention. Wide black eyes focused on sharp dark ones and Kagami began to squirm.
Apparently the name was all that was needed, because Kagami immediately jumped into another explanation.
“I know, Uncle Madara, but what was I supposed to do! They kept teasing so I left, eventhough you told me not to, but honestly it´s not my fault that Sensei didn´t notice. I was –“
“Kagami, that´s enough.” This time Madara´s voice booked no room for argument and Kagami immediately stilled.
Naruto sympathized with the kid, definitely. He too had ditched training one too many times to not have heard that tone of voice from either Iruka or the Sandaime. The memories made him wince slightly. Yeah, those lectures weren´t fun.
Madara frowned and his chakra swirled in slight annoyance, but also fond exasperation. Izuna seemed to share that sentiment, because he leveled Kagami with a deadpan look.
“The moment you saw we had a guest, you should have left, but you didn´t. Why?”
At the mention of himself Naruto shifted, as did Kagami. Their eyes met and Naruto tilted his head, allowing those curious wide eyes to take him and analyze him.
He loved kids. Adored them. Konohamaru had been like a little brother to him, albeit an annoying one that always tried to one-up him, but still. He and his group had been an adorable bunch, but because of the war, Naruto had rarely ever made time for them. Kagami was no different, with his curious gaze and his unruly locks. The kid looked like a ruffled baby crow with too much energy, how could he not find that endearing?
Kagami huffed up his cheeks in a way that made his nose scrunch. “Well, when I saw the mask I wanted to know who that is and then you called him Kitsune, so I wanted to know what Kitsune was like because no one knows anything about him! And when I tried to get closer I got caught.” Pouting, Kagami shifted from one leg to another, refusing to meet anyone´s eyes.
Before any of the Uchiha brothers could say anything to that, Naruto laughed warmly, gaining everyone´s attention.
Subconsciously, his chakra leaked towards the kid, enveloping him in it and calming the small buzz of energy down, like Tobirama and Hashirama had done it with him. Like he and Kurama would always do for one another. His eyes softened and Naruto smiled kindly at the kid, body language open and easy so that the kid wouldn´t get nervous.
Naruto missed the way Madara´s eyes widened slightly at the gesture.
“Curiosity’s a good trait to have, kid, but your spying skills need a bit more work. The leaves rustling will give away your location if you don´t know how to conceal the sound, so try hiding behind something solid first until you get the hang of it. A tree trunk, or some sort of stone.” Naruto let his eyes wander briefly, checking out the garden while the kid stayed silent. When he spotted what he was looking for, Naruto quirked a smile, pointing at it.
“See over there, the wisteria tree?”
Naruto raised an eyebrow, waiting for a reaction, and the kid quickly caught up, nodding his head so hard that his curls bobbed up and down, attention firmly focused on Naruto.
“You could have easily fit behind the trunk and if you had angled yourself right, no one would have seen you had they not paid any attention. And there would be no leaves to give you away. You would have probably heard us talking, although seeing us might have been difficult.”
The air filled with a heavy sort of silence. It wasn´t tense per se, but not one seemed to know what to say to that.
It wasn´t until Kagami wrinkled his nose, looking to the tree and then back to Naruto, before huffing. There was a small, barely noticeable smile on his face.
“You´re weird.”
“Kagami!” Izuna scolded over the sound of Naruto´s bright laughter, expression almost scandalized.
Kagami was still looking at him as if he were an enigma and Naruto couldn´t help but be amused.
“You think so?”
Madara and Izuna both looked back at him when they noticed that there was no offense in his tone. Only amusement, as Naruto leaned back and looked at Kagami, humoring him. The older of the two seemed slightly tense, while Izuna seemed unsure.
Kagami, completely disregarding the previous scolding tone of Izuna and pretending not to have heard, crossed his arms in front of his chest and nodded with all the confidence an eight year old could muster. Which was, surprisingly, a lot.
“Yeah. Really weird.”
Quietly, Izuna groaned and let his head fall into his hands, muttering something under his breath that suspiciously sounded like a prayer to Amaterasu, while Madara grimaced and opened his mouth, probably to tell Kagami to leave this instant, but Naruto simply shrugged and answered before he had the chance.
“That´s not the first time I´ve been called that, kid. I take it as a compliment.” Naruto grinned a fox-like grin and his own chakra seemingly lit up in sync, causing Kagami, who was still halfway wrapped inside of it, to shudder slightly. His eyes widened at the feeling and he let out a quiet gasp of surprise, his chakra responding in awe.
“I apologize for his behavior, Kitsune,” Izuna was quick to assure him, sending a scolding glare towards Kagami whose ears turned red at the admonishment, “We hadn´t anticipated that Kagami would behave this disrespectfully towards out guest.”
Kagami shifted on his legs, very obviously unhappy about being scolded, but Naruto simply waved the heir off with another laugh.
“No harm done, Lord Izuna. Kagami-kun here is simply a child. I was much more chaotic as a kid than he is, I assure you. Even one of my students was much the same. He too would always try and spy on whatever I was doing.”
That admission seemed to surprise most of them, especially Kagami who let out a little gasp of awe. His eyes sparkled with curiosity, but before the little Uchiha could blabber out whatever was on his mind, Madara spoke.
“You teach students?” His tone was skeptical, face expression blank but chakra buzzing with something akin to disbelieve. Maybe even something distinctly unimpressed, Naruto couldn´t tell.
Izuna hummed, “I didn´t know that. But it does make sense. The way you´ve spoken to Hikaku about the seals showed me you have experience in teaching.”
Naruto winced ever so slightly, careful not to show his reaction too outwardly at that. The atmosphere was light right now and the conversation was easy. Naruto didn´t want to ruin this by showing just how much the loss of his kids, the kids of the village that had hung at his every word, hurt him.
“Taught, actually. I don´t now. Not anymore.” The implications were clear and the unspoken grief obvious. Once again, Madara´s eyes widened by a fraction and if Naruto didn´t have years of experience reading the face expressions of people like Kakashi, Sasuke and Gaara, he wouldn´t have noticed. He continued to speak before anyone could interrupt him.
“I didn´t have a lot of time and I was never their actual teacher, but I did occasionally supervised their training. Taught them techniques and gave them hints to improve – all those things that include teaching.”
“Hikaku told me you´re really good at explaining.” Kagami piped up, having inched closer to the table but still keeping a reasonable distance. He was likely testing his boundaries and how far he was allowed to push before either Madara and Izuna or Naruto snapped and told him off once and for all.
Judging by the resignation in Izuna´s chakra, he had likely given up on trying to get Kagami to leave. Madara himself seemed content, or at least curious enough, to let this play out and Naruto hadn´t even minded the small Uchiha´s presence in the first place.
“He said you make it easy.”
“Well, Kagami-kun,” Naruto smiled, noting how the kid stood taller at the direct address. His chakra swirled in surprise, probably because he hadn´t expected Naruto to actually indulge him, “In order to teach, I have to understand what I teach first, right?”
Kagami´s brows furrowed in confusion, but he nodded.
“That´s why I tried to make it easy for myself. Want me to tell you a secret?”
He let his voice slide into a playfully hushed tone and leaned down, loudly whispering as if that made any sort of difference as to who heard. Somewhere in the back of his mind he registered multiple reactions – some of the guards who seemed disdained at his display of lack of grace and his unprofessionalism in front of their clan head. Amusement came flickering off of Madara though and Izuna seemed more curious, even a little relieved, at the fact that Naruto was so easygoing with the kid. The blonde can´t imagine that any of the usual adults would indulge in something like this while sitting in a very important meeting.
Not that Naruto cared about any of that. His attention was on the kid now and Madara didn´t seem to mind, so everyone else can mind their own business.
So when Kagami grinned, nodding eagerly and almost vibrating in place, Naruto didn´t stop the fond smile from painting his lips.
“I was actually a really, really horrible student. I hated reading and writing – especially calligraphy – and anything that had to do with learning. I found it all so terribly boring and hard. So whenever the teachers gave me a scroll with too many complicated instructions, I simply ignored them and made my own. Many people called me stupid because I couldn´t do things as well as other people, but no one ever thought about the fact that a different learning method would have been better for me, you know? So I taught myself in a different way.”
“You can do that?” Genuinely baffled, Kagami looked at him with wide eyes.
Naruto chuckled, quickly moving to confirm. “Sure you can. You yourself know what´s best for you, so you have to find your own way to do things, even if everyone else things it´s unconventional or stupid. That´s also why many kids back where I came from liked my teaching methods. They were different, easier to understand than the boring lessons we got from our teachers. “
“That´s so awesome! My teacher never lets me do that!”
“Yeah, I figured,” Naruto chuckled.
Kagami continued talking though, almost vibrating right where he stood. “Everyone always says that I´m no good at being a shinobi just because I don´t understand the instructions they give me and it´s so frustrating because no one ever gets that these instructions just don´t make sense! And whenever –“
“Alright, that´s enough Kagami.” Izuna chimed in, putting a hand on the small boys shoulder and squeezing slightly. Not enough to hurt him of course, but enough to snap the boy back to attention. As soon as Kagami clamped his mouth shut his face immediately reddened in embarrassment, prior confidence gone, and he turned into himself with hunched shoulders, muttering a small apology.
Naruto couldn´t see the expression on Izuna´s face, since the man had turned around to face Kagami, but the way his chakra rippled with feelings of affection and gentleness told much more than his face expression would.
“It´s about time that you go back to your classes. Don´t think you´re off the hook for ditching.” Kagami didn´t seem particularly apologetic for that, but he did look sort of sheepish. Enough not to argue any further at least.
Kagami grimaced slightly but then turned to Naruto, expression lighting up immediately. “It was nice to meet you, Kitsune-san! You´re really cool!”
His head tilted to the side as Naruto smiled, bright and cheeky, and leaked his chakra to mirror his expression. Once again, a seemingly pleasant shiver wrecked through Kagami and he seemed to subconsciously lean into the feeling.
“Just Kitsune is fine, Kagami-kun. And it was very nice to meet you too.”
Once again Kagami grinned before turning to Madara and Izuna, giving them a cheeky grin and waving at them. “By Uncle Madara, by Uncle Izuna!” With those words he sprinted off, but not before sticking his tongue out at the guard that had blown his cover, causing a spike of irritation in his chakra.
Naruto watched in amusement as the kid sprinted off, most likely not planning on going back to his classes any time soon if the kid was anything like he himself had been. Izuna and Madara seem to be aware of that as well, since the former only sighed in defeat and the latter frowned at Kagami´s retreating back.
The silence that falls over them is comfortable in the sense that it didn´t seem forced in the slightest. Before Kagami had arrived, the tension in the air seemed so thick that it was almost possible to grasp it. Especially the incident at the gate had thrown the trio off and made them start off on the wrong foot.
Now however the air was light. There was only amusement, fond exasperation and the normal mild annoyance that came with dealing with kids like Kagami in the air.
So when Naruto turned to the two Uchiha in front of him, he too couldn´t help the fond smile that was clearly audible in his voice as he spoke, “Kagami-kun sure is energetic. Bold too, but that´s certainly a good thing.”
And the two might not show it, but Naruto could clearly feel Izuna preen at the praise his younger family member was getting. Even Madara seemed content with what he was hearing.
“It seems you have experience dealing with children like Kagami then. Not many indulge in banter with children. Especially not in situations like these.” For once there was no reproach or any other sort of negative reaction in Madara´s voice. There was only a mild teasing tone, as if the statement was meant to ridicule or embarrass Naruto. Too bad Naruto was unbothered by teasing like that.
There was no shame in being childish from time to time.
“Believe me I do, Lord Uchiha. It´s easy dealing with children when you simply treat them like any other human being instead of a nuisance,” he shrugged, voice light, before it took on a bit of a different tone. Something somber, and maybe even a bit sad colored his voice as he continued.
“Children are our future. They´re precious. The way I see it, at some point the older generation will be too stuck in their ways to truly inspire change. Those who will be able to bring the world together some day will be the next generation, don´t you agree?”
Because that’s the way it had been with him. He´d seen the adults in his life try and fail at making things better, and somehow it always ended with him and his comrades having to fix the situation. Sarutobi had tried. He had tried to keep the village alive and safe, but under his guidance, Danzo had been allowed to rule the village from the shadows however he wished, causing so many people to suffer.
Or the other Kage. As far as Naruto knew, all of the Kage had been so incredibly stubborn. They have been in war for too long to truly know how to achieve things such as peace.
Suna wasn´t safe until Gaara became Kazekage. Kiri had been a bloodbath until Mei decided to stage a coup and become the new Mizukage. A had always been so brash and ready for conflict – it had only been Killer Bee who managed to talk him down from attacking Naruto that day, who managed to get through the stubborn Raikages head and convince him.
And Konoha? For as long as Naruto could remember, the Konoha twelve somehow seemed to always be in the middle of every single disaster. And it was always them that managed to make things right somehow. Shikamaru for example, with his brilliant mind that had long surpassed that of his father, leading side by side with Naruto in the war. Hinata, the heiress that the Hyuuga clan had deemed useless, only to prove herself as the more than capable to lead. Lee, who despite everyone telling him that he would never make it without ninjutsu, defied all expectations and became one of the best shinobi with taijutsu alone. Sasuke, who eventually overcame everything he had been put through to fight side by side with Naruto.
Naruto was too deep in his thoughts to truly notice the way Madara´s chakra hitched. The way that the clan head´s attention was only on him. He was too deep in his thoughts to feel the way Madara´s heart clenched and how he was reminded of somehow else, who had once spoken very similar words to him.
Naruto didn´t see it, didn´t notice it, but when Madara looked at him, he didn´t see bright yellow hair and a fox mask. No, when Madara looked, the image was replaced by another one. A memory clear as day to him, one that never quiet left his mind.
The memory of two children, ignorant as to who the other was just yet and not really caring either way, sitting side by side at a Cliffside, staring down at the vast forest with a faraway dreamy look and their heads in the clouds.
The memory of one of the children, a bright child with brown hair and warm chocolate eyes, looking at Madara with a pout on his face and his arms crossed in front of the chest.
“All these old people will never want peace. They don´t know to want it, you know? It has to be us! We have to make peace when we´re older, because right now no one is listening to us. And when we do, children won´t have to fight again. We can protect your younger brothers, because they´re too precious for this.”
Naruto didn´t see it, but in that moment, something about Madara´s opinion of him fundamentally changed.
“Yes,” he answered, gaining Naruto´s attention back. Izuhna´s head turned to Madara, brow lifted in question and Naruto´s head was tilted, intently listening to the clan head.
Madara let himself smile ever so slightly.
“I do agree.”