At first, Fugaku had been hesitant about letting Naruto get close. The Uchiha clan's standing in Konoha was... precarious, to say the least. They held power, but not enough to truly matter-not enough to get them into the village's inner circles, yet just enough to grant them small privileges that bred resentment.
Thanks to their control over the Konoha Military Police Force, the Uchiha had already alienated multiple Clans within the village, big and small. Then came the Nine-Tails Incident. The suspicion cast upon them-the sight of the Sharingan reflected in the Kyuubi's eyes-led to their relocation, pushed to the very edge of the village borders. A few more steps, and they'd be outside Konoha entirely.
Tensions kept mounting. It felt like the whole village was practically shouting for their heads. Fugaku could see it clearly enough-someone was deliberately fanning the flames, provoking conflict-but he was powerless to stop it. Whoever it was knew exactly how to exploit the Uchiha pride, turning their inherent arrogance against them until they were the target of everyone's scorn.
To make matters worse, Shisui Uchiha, one of their strongest assets, had vanished without a trace a year ago. All signs pointed to murder, quite possibly with Konoha's own hands involved. The whispers grew louder within the clan, the voices demanding action-demanding they fight back-becoming harder and harder to ignore.
Even the most patient man could be driven to violence under such pressure, let alone the notoriously proud Uchiha. Fugaku, the clan head, found himself struggling to contain the growing calls for secession.
Internal strife and external threats had kept Fugaku wound tight for two long years. Finally, something in him just... broke. He let go. What more could they possibly lose? Their situation was already desperate. How much worse could it get?
'Fine. Let it happen.' He'd just take things one day at a time.
His son, Itachi Uchiha, had joined the ANBU, acting as a fragile link between the Uchiha and the village leadership.
Buy time, delay. That was the strategy. When the clan's war hawks grew restless, suppress them. Stall. Delay as long as humanly possible. And if the dam finally broke? If suppression failed? Then let it all fall apart. Let everyone end together.
'Just let it all burn down quickly,' Fugaku thought, weariness settling deep in his bones. 'I'm tired.' Whoever thought they could lead these stubborn Uchiha was welcome to try. Fugaku, had done all he could.
With that weight lifted, or perhaps simply accepted, Fugaku stopped trying to keep Naruto away.
The boy's situation wasn't so different from their own, was it? Konoha wouldn't be what it was today without the Uchiha's strength at its founding. And without Naruto, without the Minato and his wife, Konoha would have been wiped out by the Nine-Tails. Heroes, all of them. Yet none were treated as such. Only suspicion greeted them.
They were dealing with people who had forgotten, or perhaps never cared, about gratitude. Both Naruto and the Uchiha were ostracized, feared by the leadership, treated as dangerous elements needing control.
Once Fugaku gave his tacit approval, Mikoto needed no further encouragement. Her heart ached for her late best friend's child, seeing the state he'd been left in. But her reserved nature meant she'd never push the matter with her husband or add to his burdens. Now, given the chance to care for Naruto, she embraced it wholeheartedly.
"You want to help Fugaku and the others?" the Minato's voice resonated in Naruto's mind. Their time together had given Minato a sense of Naruto's character. The boy rarely acted without reason. Coming to the Uchiha compound like this? He had a purpose.
"Of course," Naruto admitted freely. He did want to save the Uchiha, or, more accurately, he wanted to save Fugaku and Mikoto. Saving the entire clan? That was a long shot, especially given their internal divisions. They might even see his interference as an obstacle to their planned coup. You couldn't trust the Uchiha not to twist things that way.
"Why?" Minato asked.
"Call it paying back a debt," Naruto replied. "Or maybe I just can't stand watching how some people operate." Konoha driving its own people to destruction, Kirigakure's Bloody Mist policy... Naruto considered them the two greatest acts of self-sabotage in the ninja world. It was sheer luck that Kumogakure hadn't swept in after the Uchiha massacre in canon timeline.
Could the village, in that state, have truly repelled an invasion from Kumogakure? Who would have stopped them? The aging Third Hokage? Danzo Shimura, who could barely fight couple Jonins without using Izanagi? The advisors, who only knew how to nod agreement? Or the crop of Jonin who hadn't yet hit their prime?
No. They couldn't have stopped them.
The Hyuga Affair, just two years after the Nine-Tails attack, had already exposed Konoha's fragile state-strong in appearance, weak beneath the surface. Politics aside, they almost handed over the head of one of their own major clans. What did that tell you?
'Too bad the Raikage is mostly muscle,' Naruto mused internally. 'Looks imposing, thinks he's clever, but mostly just charges ahead.' If he'd been smarter, he could have allied with Suna after the Uchiha were gone, crushed a weakened Konoha, and taken everything.
"Fourth Hokage," Naruto continued aloud, "if you were still alive, things probably wouldn't have gotten this bad for the Uchiha."
"No," Minato agreed softly. "A month before... before I died, Fugaku and I had already discussed breaking up the Military Police Force's singular power, bringing the Uchiha clan head formally into the village council meetings."
"But before we could make it official, I..." Minato trailed off. He hadn't been the Second Hokage's student, hadn't inherited that deep-seated paranoia about the Uchiha. He believed in unity. Keeping his people together-that was the path to strength.
"So, can you help them, Naruto?" Minato asked, a hopeful note in his mental voice. He wished his old friend didn't have to face this. The Uchiha were Konoha citizens, they didn't deserve this treatment.
"They're beyond help," Naruto stated flatly, without a second thought. "Incurable. Might as well just wait for them to die."
Minato was momentarily stunned into silence. "...What?" He expected Naruto to offer some kind of plan, some possibility. Not... that. "How can you say that?"
"Look, the Uchiha have two paths right now," Naruto explained calmly. "'Compromise' with Konoha, or launch a coup. And when I say 'Compromise' I am becoming invariably crippled in a manner that would make them no better than Hyuga Branch House, and even that might not stop their demise-"
"They definitely can't win a fight against Konoha..." Minato started.
"Exactly. Launching a coup is suicide," Naruto confirmed. "Sure, they have the Sharingan. Awaken three tomoe, and you can maybe match a Konoha Jonin. Sounds impressive, right? But how many Uchiha actually have three tomoe? And how many can even awaken the Sharingan at all?"
Taking a pause Naruto continued, "It's way harder than activating the Byakugan. Plenty of Uchiha have no ninja talent whatsoever. Even with three tomoe, how many Jonin can one person fight off? Ten? They'd get swarmed. A single clan trying to take on an entire village? The last ones who tried that were the Kaguya clan, and all that's left of them is one Kaguya clansman. Unless you have someone like Madara Uchiha leading the charge, it's just a fantasy."
"So, the second path," Naruto continued, his tone grim. "Compromising with Konoha? That's also a dead end."
"The village leadership wants the Uchiha gone. They're actively pushing them towards destruction, no matter how much they compromise, no matter how much they give, in the end it wouldn't matter. You want to compromise with people who are trying to kill you? Maybe it buys you a little time, but the end result... it's still death." Breaking out of this cycle? For the Uchiha, it was almost impossible.
Minato sighed mentally. "So we just... watch?"
"Fourth Hokage," Naruto said suddenly, a knowing look crossing his face. "Don't tell me you didn't already figure this out. You don't need to keep asking simple questions to gauge me." Minato didn't become Hokage by being naive. He'd seen the problem brewing even before his death and had a plan with Fugaku that might have actually worked. He couldn't possibly be playing the naive listener this whole time.
Caught, Minato gave a sheepish mental chuckle. "I just wanted you to feel a sense of accomplishment?" He paused, then asked, unable to help himself, "Naruto, are you really only eight?"
"Nine, actually. Turned nine this year."
(E/N: Massacre was pushed further by couple years due to Hiruzen and Danzo being suspicious of Naruto's behavior, as he wasn't behaving like they expected him to, while Naruto acted in accordance to their estimation to an extent, they still focused more on their most powerful asset they have i.e. their Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and once they felt their suspicions were unwarranted, they focused back on Uchiha)
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