Kishi Kaisei (Various!Naruto x Reader)

Interlude: A Father's Love

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And he later learned that betrayal at your own home hurts more than defeat at a battlefield.

...

        Urotsuki Enkai was a powerful Mizukage, ruling with an iron fist over the subjects of his village. With water, lightning, wind and the storm under his command, he was rightfully feared by both his enemies and subordinates alike.

        He was elegant, educated, but underneath his refined movements and dignified facade was a barbaric ideology that showed through how his village operated.

        The weak are meat; the strong eat.

        Kirigakure's graduation exam was the very embodiment of the village's dogma, creating the reputation of the Bloody Mist Village. Although, what outsiders don't usually know is that only the lowest caste's-- those defeated in past wars-- children participate in that exam, to keep them from forming a rebellion.

        It was an ingenious method to filter those with potential from without, while simultaneously keeping their population in check. Inhumane, but efficient.

        Despite everything he knew about the Sandaime, Souta focused on Enkai's shallowest feature-- his appearance.

        Straight black hair that seemed like dark blue with the right lighting, mildly tanned skin, sharp nose and face shape, and if his irises were green underneath his closed eyelids...

        Souta thought that he looked unsettlingly almost like the Mizukage.

        Dark hair and light-tanned skin were generic descriptions, but their noses and face shapes were too similar to be considered a coincidence. Souta had a feeling that if he didn't inherit okaa-san's untamable hair texture, he would have had silky straight hair instead. He would've almost been an exact copy of Urotsuki Enkai.

        An immediate assumption came into his young mind.

        "Are you otou-san?" Seven-year-old Souta asked unabashedly, as the Mizukage regarded him with an assessing look, the man's face betraying none of his thoughts.

        How audacious, Enkai thought at the time.

        It would be ridiculously easy to have the child out of his sight by his ANBU with just a wave of his hand. He could just send the boy to attend the academy without any explanation, just so the boy's potential wouldn't be wasted if what his shinobi reported to him earlier were true. He didn't need to answer the orphan's question. He owed him nothing.

        However, Enkai thought against it.

        If the boy's physical similarities weren't enough to convince him of his paternity, the boy inherited more than just his appearance; particularly his chakra. It was a solid proof that Enkai could not ignore, especially with his chakra sensing that could rival the Nidaime Hokage's.

        Fate really was an interesting thing for father and son to meet under such coincidental circumstances.

        Opening his mouth, Urotsuki Enkai gave the answer that sealed the fate of his future successor, and consequently, his own future downfall.

        "That's otou-sama to you."

        (In the far future, when asked on why he killed his own father, mentor and Kage, Souta answered that it was to put Enkai out of his misery.)