"Elder."
"Elder!"
On the way back, Uchiha Fugaku had never felt his steps so light.
The unexpected windfall left him light-headed, as if he were floating through a dream.
"Clan Head, are you all right?"
He hadn't even noticed he'd already stepped onto Uchiha clan grounds. His expression was so strange that even the typically stone-faced Uchiha clansmen could tell at a glance something was seriously off with their leader.
"Hachi… Hachidai?"
Spotting his most trusted aide at his side, Fugaku waved a hand and excitedly launched into a recounting of everything that had just happened in the Hokage Tower.
"…Is that really what they said?"
Hachidai hesitated, then carefully reminded him, "There's a clan meeting tonight, Clan Head. About that—"
The words hit Fugaku like a bucket of ice water, instantly snuffing out his euphoria.
For a while now, every single Uchiha clan meeting had revolved around one topic only: their growing dissatisfaction with Konoha, and the voices calling for a coup getting louder by the day.
The root cause of this atmosphere was the existence of Uchiha Hikari. Because of her, Fugaku—despite being the clan head—had been forced to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the treasonous whispers spreading among his subordinates.
But now…
The scene from earlier replayed in his mind, and Fugaku wavered.
He still couldn't guess the acting Hokage's true intentions, but a member of the Konoha Council of Elders had indeed handed him something tangible.
Should he… rein in the clan a little?
Yet that ultimate weapon who despised the Uchiha was currently sharing Kakashi's bed. Who was to say this wasn't an elaborate trap set by Hatake Kakashi himself to crush the clan once and for all?
Just because Hachidai mentioned the meeting, Fugaku fell into an excruciating dilemma.
Compared to Fugaku's torment, Kakashi's mood was downright relaxed.
He was currently seated in the Hokage's office, idly flipping through a ninjutsu scroll.
Now that he was Hokage—even if only acting—every vault and forbidden archive in the village was wide open to him. A single scroll was nothing.
Yet the technique recorded on this scroll wasn't Flying Thunder God or any other profound forbidden art. It was an extremely common sealing jutsu.
The Five Elements Seal.
Three years had passed since Hikari's birth, and Kakashi still clearly remembered the Five Elements Seal that had been placed on her abdomen.
This was the perfect chance to remove it.
Hikari's strength went without saying—the sooner that seal came off, the better.
The requirements to perform the Five Elements Seal were terrifyingly high: one had to master shape transformation and nature transformation for all five chakra natures—wind, lightning, water, fire, and earth. But once that hurdle was cleared, the rest was simple.
Although thoroughly understanding the sealing formulas themselves required deep study, Kakashi didn't need to invent anything new; he only had to follow the chakra flow diagram drawn on the scroll. He wasn't planning to use it in live combat, after all.
As for the Five Elements Unseal, you simply reversed the circulation path of the original seal.
That supposedly "most difficult" prerequisite was, for Kakashi, not a problem at all.
Two days ago, with Tenzo's assistance, he had finished the water-nature and shape transformation he'd been missing.
Now Kakashi possessed complete mastery over all five elemental chakras.
Removing a Five Elements Seal was child's play.
As the sun dipped toward the horizon, Kakashi glanced at the crimson light spilling through the window, snapped the scroll shut, and stood up.
Time to clock out.
He didn't linger a single second longer than necessary.
Hatake household—
"I'm home."
"You're home, you're home—do you have to announce it like the whole village needs to know?!"
The front door slid open. Kakashi sat on the genkan step changing into house slippers and couldn't help rolling his eyes at the tsundere outburst from deeper inside the house.
Ever since that incident the other day, Hikari had been in a foul mood with him.
On the surface everything was normal, but the moment he got close she'd bristle like an angry cat with its fur standing on end.
"What's for dinner?" Kakashi asked, sniffing the delicious smells drifting through the house as he padded toward the kitchen.
He found Uchiha Hikari—still wearing the honorary title of "Great-Grandmother" from the clan—standing at the stove wielding a ladle.
"Nothing you'd like!" she shot back.
Kakashi ignored the grumbling, walked right up to the pot, and peered inside.
His sudden closeness made Hikari's shoulders stiffen. She scowled. "Why are you standing so close?"
Kakashi withdrew his gaze from the food and let it settle lazily on the girl beside him. "Am I not allowed to stand close to my wife?"
Hikari's lips pressed into a thin line.
Ever since that day, this shameless dog had been getting bolder and bolder.
Unfortunately, she had only herself to blame—she'd dug her own grave.
"Get out, dinner's almost ready," she muttered, reaching out to shove him.
"Yes, yes, yes, Madam." Kakashi retreated obediently, but not before adding with a perfectly straight face, "You look very pretty today."
"Really charming."
Hikari froze mid-shove.
She looked down at her own outfit: a pale green sweater paired with a long, delicately embroidered cream skirt.
…Come to think of it, the last time this pervert had praised her appearance, she'd been wearing almost exactly the same thing.
Back then she'd actually twirled happily in front of him like an idiot.
Now that she thought about it, she'd basically skipped straight into the big bad wolf's jaws shouting "please eat me!"
Charming?
Charming your ass!
Hikari gnashed her teeth, then immediately deflated.
In the end it was her own fault. Who told her to flirt and tease him all day long before everything went sideways…?
In the living room, Kakashi flopped onto the sofa, opened the newest volume of Icha Icha Paradise, and pretended to read while his eyes kept drifting toward the kitchen.
What was that little cat doing in there?
The system notification occasionally pinged in his mind with updates on Uchiha "Great-Grandmother's" emotional state.
Three years had passed, and Kakashi had long since mastered the art of tuning those notifications out.
Otherwise he'd never get any sleep—especially after the battle in the Land of Frost thrust him fully into the public eye.
(He had the Fourth Raikage and Uchiha Obito to thank for their enthusiastic "support" on that front.)
The pings had never stopped since.
Especially from sponsor #1, Uchiha Obito.
Between Obito's original "800-man solo charge into the Cloud camp" donation and the massive influx after Kakashi accepted the Acting Hokage seat, Kakashi's current chakra reserves had reached an absurd 5000% of his original capacity.
He had literally completed an entire extra Hashirama's worth of chakra.
Honestly, at this point raw quantity no longer mattered. What Kakashi needed now was to raise the quality of his chakra.
Because ninjutsu had its limits. Only higher-quality chakra could push him to the next level.
And the only method he currently knew to achieve that was Sage Mode.
The problem was…
Sage Mode required training in one of the three great sage regions. Which meant he'd have to find an excuse to visit Mount Myōboku or Shikkotsu Forest sometime soon.
————
Supporting me on Pa-treon to gain early access to advanced chapters and enjoy expedited updates. Your support is greatly appreciated.
pat-reon .c-om/Dragonhair
(Just remove the hyphen - and space, to access Pa-treon normally.)