First hints

"I'm home:" Itachi kicked off his shoes at the entrance and walked slowly to the kitchen.

"Welcome home, Ita-chan" Mikoto was dressed in her jonin uniform under a white apron with blue and purple cat paws, in the center of it it said `Neko-nya!`. It was Itachi's birthday present to his mother, the heir diligently saving for months to be able to buy that apron!

It is a limited edition item from a manga series, `The Adventures of the Great Neko-nin!`. That series is the favorite of the mother-son duo, it is about the adventures of a kitten who grows up to become the most powerful ninja in the world. It is intended for children but is quite famous among adults for its adorable characters and great comedy that never seems forced or out of place.

"How was your day, did you have a good time playing in the park?"

"I wasn't playing kaa-san! I was training." Itachi crosses his arms and looks at his mother very seriously.

"Of course, of course. Silly me." Mikoto smirks and ruffles his hair, causing the boy to jump back and brush it back with a pout.

"Kaa-san!"

`What a cute son I have, I just want to pinch his mochi cheeks!`

Itachi senses a sense of impending danger and quickly backs up to the kitchen door.

"I'm all sweaty so I'm going to take a bath!" He yells as he runs down the hall.

"Tsk! He escaped…" Mikoto sighs before picking up a knife and proceeding to chop up the vegetables for the curry.

The mansion of the Head family of the Uchiha clan is located in the center of Konoha, it is a traditional two-story mansion and has many more rooms than the family of three needs. Itachi walks through the exterior corridor of the house that has a splendid view of the large garden.

The garden has vivid green grass that is neatly trimmed, several trees (including several sakura trees), some stone paths, and several interconnected ponds. Itachi's favorite place is the red bridge that goes over the largest pond. He loves to sit on the railing and feed the koi fish while he loses himself in the peace of the moment. Something for which his mother teased him on several occasions, saying that he looks like an eighty-year-old man.

`I better take the long route to the onsen, Kaa-san's look gave me some really worrying chills.`

The mansion, apart from having several bathrooms, has a private onsen. The waters of this onsen are special because thanks to the different seals engraved on the stone and pipes, the water acquires many medicinal properties. A bath in this onsen relieves in a matter of minutes all the muscle tension accumulated after a day of hard training. Not only that but it also speeds up the healing of wounds, Itachi once entered the water with bruises and scratches after tripping during his training and when he came out of the water he was almost completely healed. By the next morning his wounds were completely healed.

As he approaches his father's office, Itachi hears some screaming and freezes. By sharpening his ears, he manages to distinguish part of what they are saying in the room.

"Why did the Yondaime have to be Namikaze?!" A fierce voice screams with anger and spite.

"You don't know who might be listening, keep your voice down Yashiro." Fugaku's tone is even, as calm and stoic as ever. "Not even the house of a Clan Leader is completely immune to rats and vermin."

In Itachi's head Yashiro's face appeared, a man with very narrow eyes who always seemed to be smelling something very unpleasant. Uchiha Yashiro is a few decades older than his father and yet he serves him without question, obeying Fugaku's every order to the letter.

"But the entire mansion is constantly being patrolled by our forces! And there's a barrier around the property." Yashiro protests without calming his tone. "And I really can't accept it! The only name other than Namikaze proposed for the Yondaime's selection was Orochimaru! Why didn't a single person propose your name Fugaku-sama? Or Mikoto-sama's? Or even Arai-dono's?"

"It's like Yashiro says, Fugaku-sama. I can't accept it either! I'm not going to deny the great role that Namikaze Minato had in the victory of Konoha, but he was the hero of the northern front, the front with Iwa. You were the great hero of the eastern front, thanks to your bravery and great strategic mind we even managed to push back the trio formed by the Sandaime Raikage and his sons, the current Raikage and the Hachibi jinchuuriki!

That was the most important battle of the war, if we had lost Kumo would have conquered eastern Hi no Kuni (Fire Country) and reached the village before our forces could return from the northern, western, and southern fronts. If Konoha had fallen..." He takes a deep breath before continuing. "The name Kyōgan Fugaku (Evil Eye Fugaku) ​​makes ninjas from other nations tremble even more than Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō (The Flash of Konoha), because while that Namikaze will give them a quick death, you...

Mikoto-sama also had a very important role in the war. She, along with Uzumaki-san, managed to destroy Kiri's armies. Hakuren Mikoto is a rank S kunoichi and one of the two heroines of the southern front of the war.

Even Arai-dono, who only fought for the first five years of the war before losing his sight completely in one eye, and 90% in the other, should have been mentioned. Arai is a great hero of three wars! Thanks to him, the alliance between Kumo and Kiri did not destroy us during the Second Shinobi War, and he also had important roles in the first and third. Of course at 67 he is no longer the shinobi he was, and he is retired, but they should have at least mentioned the name of the great Azuma no ōkami (Wolf of the East)!"

"Inabi..." Fugaku spoke the name of the owner of the voice.

Uchiha Inabi was a high ranking shinobi within the Konoha Military Police, he is one of the 8 captains who serve the Commander (Fugaku).

"Kyōgan Fugaku, Hakuren Mikoto and Azuma no ōkami. Three S-rank ninjas who contributed much to Konoha's victory, three legends, and not one of those names was mentioned when selecting the Yondaime Hokage..." The bitterness in Inabi's tone makes no one say anything for a few moments.

"Fugaku-sama, you should have been the Yondaime!" Yashiro`s voice is full of anger and resentment.

"I am the Chief of the Military Police, that is my position in the village." Fugaku's stoic tone has an undertone that Itachi can't quite place.

"There are rumors of a conspiracy in the administration." Yashiro yelled, unwilling to drop the subject. "The village officials don't want the Uchiha clan to have the most powerful position within the village, fuck they don't even want us to retain our position as the defenders of the village! During the speeches honoring the heroes of the war no one Uchiha had more than two lines, our S rank ninjas were barely mentioned in passing while the hundreds of Uchihas who died defending our village were almost completely forgotten! All the glory went to Namikaze and the Sannin.

And those three hardly did anything! Jiraiya was absent during half of the war, Orochimaru hardly did anything because the front with Suna was the weakest and Tsunade disappeared in the middle of a battle and if it wasn't for Sandaime's report we would have believed she died. We find out later that she basically threw in the towel and walked out in the middle of a battle, with her power and medical skills she could have saved hundreds! But she left without further ado and was not even reprimanded, Sandaime let leave the village. If any other ninja had left the battlefield like this he would have been considered a traitor and hunted down!

For fucksake even that Hatake kid had more prominence than our rank S ninjas! If people can praise so much the son of the man whose name was cursed by everyone and their mother a few years ago at least-"

"Enough!" Fugaku's voice leaves no room for protest. "My son is listening."

Itachi grimaced.

"What's going on Itachi?" Fugaku opened the door to the outer hallway and looked at his son, who hadn't moved an inch since he started eavesdropping.

`Not on the sly, Tou-san knew I was there from the start.` Itachi realized.

"I was going to the onsen when-"

"When you decided to stick your nose into something that doesn't concern you." Fugaku's voice is hard as steel. "If you want to spy on someone, learn to control your breathing, now go take a bath son." Fugaku turns around and closes the door.

"Yes, Tou-san!" Itachi began to run towards the onsen.

***

NOTE: I didn't make this up, at least not completely. The Narutoverse has grown a lot in the last few years and we learned the stories of many secondary characters. Their CANON stories. In those stories we learned that the plot against the Uchiha Clan is as old as the village. Basically there was always a plot to keep the Uchihas under control, preventing any Uchiha from getting too much power (aka becoming Hokage).

Just think about this: Shisui was as good a genius as Itachi. He was a famous S-rank ninja, fought in the 3 war, had a great personality, and was an adult (Approx 18 when he died). Why didn't Sarutobi pass the hat to him? If he had become Hokage the Uchiha would have abandoned their plans of rebellion.

Itachi was still 13 at the time so he was toooo young for the position, but Shisui was perfect for it.

So why?