"You..." Mikoto wanted to say more, but her words were choked off by an invisible force, unable to escape her throat. At the same time, a hand suddenly grabbed her arm.
"Mikoto! Don't ask!" Kushina yanked her behind herself, her voice trembling with irrepressible fear.
It's over! Looking at Mikoto's face, drained of all color and filled with terror and rage, Kushina's heart felt as if it were being tightly gripped by an icy hand, painful enough to make it hard to breathe.
She had really heard it too!
[Hmm? This killing intent... is it directed at me?] Gu Lingxiao stood behind Kushina, his brows furrowing slightly beneath his mask, a trace of confusion flashing through his mind.
[Strange, are all women of the Uchiha Clan this emotional? I'm just standing here as a guard, I haven't said a word, and she's already developed such great hostility toward me?]
His gaze fell upon Itachi, who was being shielded by Mikoto and watching him with equal wariness, making him feel even more bewildered.
"Mikoto! What's wrong? Have you been too tired lately?" Kushina forced a stiff smile, loudly making excuses for her best friend, attempting to cover up this bizarre scene.
As she spoke, she forcefully pushed the still-trembling Mikoto toward the house, then turned back, speaking to Gu Lingxiao in an irrefutable, commanding tone: "You, wait in the courtyard, you are not allowed to come in!"
With that, she slammed the paper door shut with a "bang," isolating the inside from the outside.
Gu Lingxiao, left in the courtyard, shrugged.
[So they're excluding me? That's fine, saves me from having to see that woman projecting killing intent at me.]
[But Kushina's reaction was too intense. Could her friend have some hidden ailment? Like... intermittent insanity? The pressure the Uchiha Clan bears is so great, it's not impossible.]
Inside the room, Kushina heard this inner thought and stumbled, nearly losing her footing, her heart crying out in despair.
The moment the door closed, Mikoto could no longer suppress it. She grabbed Kushina's arm, her eyes, usually as gentle as water, now bloodshot, and her voice trembling uncontrollably: "Kushina! Just now... what was that sound just now?! That man... who on earth is he!"
Watching her best friend on the verge of a breakdown, Kushina's face turned deathly pale. She grasped Mikoto's icy hands and struggled to spit out the words.
"Mikoto, calm down first! Listen to me..."
"That voice... I can hear it too!"
The sentence was like a thunderclap, leaving Mikoto completely stunned in place.
I'm not crazy? Kushina also...
Before she could think further, Kushina spoke at the fastest speed possible, pouring out everything: how she heard Gu Lingxiao's inner thoughts, how the contents were verified step by step, from Minato's status as a puppet Hokage, to the Nine-Tailed actually being a "tsundere," and the bizarre rule that the voice could not be directly asked about or mentioned.
Mikoto was completely dumbfounded after hearing it all. She slumped blankly onto the tatami, her mind a chaotic mess.
Unbelievable, absurd... This was even more outrageous than making her believe her husband, Fugaku, would suddenly whisper sweet nothings to her! Yet, all of this came from her most trusted best friend.
If what Kushina said was true, then the [extermination of the clan], [killing father and mother] she had just heard...
A chill, deeper and more piercing than before, shot up from the base of her spine to the top of her head, leaving her body frozen.
"No... I don't believe it..." Mikoto muttered in a daze, tears uncontrollably streaming down in large drops, "My Itachi... he is so kind, he hates war so much... how could he..."
She suddenly grabbed Kushina's hand, her fingernails nearly digging into her flesh: "Kushina, how... how can you expect me to believe this? Unless..."
Mikoto's voice came to an abrupt halt. She looked into Kushina's eyes, which were equally filled with pain yet incredibly firm, and her heart grew cold inch by inch.
Yes, if it weren't true, how could Kushina be so distraught?
An indescribable fear gripped her. She didn't believe it, she couldn't believe it! But what if? What if everything Kushina said was true... then her Itachi, her unborn child...
No! She had to confirm it herself! This thought occupied her mind like rapidly growing weeds. She stood up trembling, walked step by step to the paper door, took a deep breath, and yanked it open!
In the courtyard, Gu Lingxiao was watching Itachi practice shuriken, bored out of his mind.
Mikoto stared at him intensely, shouting with all her might in her heart: "If you can hear me, answer me! Everything you said just now was a lie! Isn't that right!"
Almost the instant her thought landed, that voice, with a hint of mockery, rang clearly in her mind.
[Hmm? Why is this gentle housewife's killing intent back again? Who did I offend? Is it because I just patted her precious son's head? Are people of the Uchiha Clan all this petty?]
Boom! The last shred of hope was completely shattered. Mikoto's body swayed, her face ashen, and she was grabbed by Kushina and pulled back into the room.
"Now... do you believe it?" Kushina's voice was hoarse.
Mikoto leaned weakly into Kushina's embrace, tears breaching the dam once more. This time, they were tears mixed with despair and fear.
She could not accept that her child, who understood the meaning of life at such a young age and would gently tell her he would protect his mother, would become a demon who would slaughter his own kin in the future.
Kushina felt as if her heart were being twisted by a knife as she watched. She pulled Mikoto tightly into her arms and gritted her teeth, saying: "Whether it's true or not, we cannot sit idly by! That is the reason I came to see you today! We must extract more information from his mind and find a way to change the future!"
Her best friend's firm voice gave the despairing Mikoto a piece of driftwood to cling to. She lifted her teary eyes, a glimmer of light reigniting within them.
Change... the future?
In the courtyard. Itachi did not follow his mother into the house. His small figure stood in place, his black eyes calmly watching his mother and her friend close the door, then turned toward the silver-haired man left behind in the courtyard.
His mother had just revealed undisguised killing intent toward him. Yet this man had stood quietly from beginning to end, without even a ripple of Chakra, as if his mother's killing intent were merely a breeze brushing against his face.
This composure did not look like that of an ordinary guard.
Itachi was silent for a moment, then took a step forward, walking up to Gu Lingxiao. He tilted his young face, which looked older than his years, and stared straight at Gu Lingxiao's mask with his deep, black eyes that didn't look like a child's. After some internal struggle, he spoke calmly, his voice still carrying a hint of childishness: "Uncle, what is your view on war?"
Gu Lingxiao was stunned for a moment, looking down at this serious little brat.
[Just a little brat, asking such a profound question?]
[Probably because he's seen a few miserable scenes of war firsthand, he thinks he's seen through the world, only to be fooled by a few old foxes with a few words, becoming the most useful tool, personally wielding the butcher's knife against his own family.]