"Now, to revive Mikoto."
With a flick of his wrist, the body of Uchiha Mikoto materialized before him. Goku's hands moved through a sequence of seals with fluid precision. "Rinne Tensei no Jutsu!"
A soft, white orb of light emerged from the earth itself, pulsating with life before slowly merging into Mikoto's still form. A miracle unfolded before his eyes. The grievous wound on her chest sealed shut, the flesh knitting together seamlessly. The pallor of death receded from her skin, replaced by a healthy, rosy glow.
Moments later, Uchiha Mikoto's eyelids fluttered. They opened slowly, revealing dark, confused eyes. The brilliant sunlight made her wince; she raised a hand to shield her face, blinking as her vision adjusted.
"Where… is this? Didn't I… die?" Her voice was a hoarse whisper. She pushed herself up, looking down at her own body and then at the unfamiliar surroundings with deep bewilderment. Her gaze finally settled on Son Goku—or more precisely, on his eyes. Astonishment flickered across her features. "Those eyes… no, they're different, yet… Was it you… who brought me back?" As the wife of an Uchiha clan head, she was intimately familiar with the legends of their doujutsu's ultimate evolution.
"Congratulations on your second life," Goku stated, his tone leaving no room for argument. "From this moment forward, everything about you belongs to me."
"So it was you…" Mikoto's voice was eerily calm, devoid of the joy one might expect from a resurrection. "Why awaken me? To live now… feels worse than death." She had come to terms with the clan's fate more than anyone. She harbored no blame for Itachi's actions—from start to finish, she understood the impossible weight he bore. Her struggle was not with his choice, but with the unbearable reality she now had to face.
"Don't you want to see your son?"
"Sasuke! He's alive?! Tell me he's alive!" Mikoto's composure shattered. She seized Goku's arm, her eyes wide with a desperate, pleading hope. When Goku gave a single, firm nod, her breath hitched. "Take me to him! Please, I beg you!"
---
At the Konoha Ninja Academy, Uchiha Sasuke sat alone on a bench in the training ground, a small island of brooding silence. His cool, detached demeanor had already attracted a gaggle of infatuated girls who watched from a distance, their sighs and whispered adoration a constant, buzzing backdrop. Precocious doesn't even begin to cover it, Goku thought with mild amusement.
Behind the broad trunk of an old tree, Mikoto watched her younger son. Silent tears traced paths down her cheeks. As she took an impulsive step forward, Goku's hand closed gently but firmly around her wrist, holding her back.
"In the eyes of the world, you are dead. It's better if you don't meet him." Konoha's official story was that Sasuke was the only survivor. The mystery of Mikoto's missing body had been quietly buried by the village elders.
"Does that even matter? I just want to—"
"It matters a great deal," Goku cut her off, his voice low and serious. "This situation isn't simple. There's a powerful player lurking in the shadows. If you reveal yourself now, it could put both of your sons in greater danger."
Mikoto froze, her maternal instincts warring with his logic. "A mastermind? Behind the massacre?"
A faint smile touched Goku's lips. "Indeed. And it's someone you're quite familiar with."
"Familiar? Who?" Mikoto's brow furrowed in intense concentration.
"Uchiha Madara."
The name landed like a physical blow. Mikoto's face paled. "That's impossible… he died decades ago. How could he still be alive…?"
"You should never underestimate the power of the Rinnegan."
"If it's him… then it might truly be possible…" Mikoto murmured, visibly shaken. As the clan head's wife, she was privy to secrets and histories few others knew. The pieces began to click into a terrifying picture.
A moment later, her eyes snapped back to Goku, a new light of desperate hope within them. "Your eyes earlier… You possess the Rinnegan's power, don't you? Reviving me proves it… Are you also of Uchiha blood? Then… you can stand against Madara, can't you?"
"I am no Uchiha," Goku stated flatly. "And don't lump me in with Madara. In my eyes, he's nothing more than a pathetic relic."
Though doubt lingered, a fierce, protective certainty settled in Mikoto's heart. If anyone in this world could challenge a legend like Madara, it was the incomprehensibly powerful man before her. "Then I implore you… please help Itachi! Don't let him remain a pawn in someone else's game!"
"I can do that," Goku agreed, his gaze unwavering. "But my price remains. From now on, you are mine. Completely."
Mikoto fell into a long, heavy silence, her internal struggle plain on her face. Finally, she met his eyes, her voice steady with grim resolution. "If it ensures the safety of my children… then I accept. Do with me as you will."
Goku smiled, a genuine expression of satisfaction. Keep her close, and in time, her loyalty will be earned, not just bargained for.
---
"Ah! Stop it… that hurts!"
A faint, pained cry, young and feminine, cut through the quiet of the grove.
"Hey, boss, isn't this going too far? She is the Hyūga clan's young mistress…"
"So what? She's just a little reject her own family doesn't even want…"
"Yeah, with the Uchiha gone, the Hyūga have gotten even more full of themselves. It's sickening."
"Serves them right if they're next, haha!"
"Look at those Byakugan eyes… they look so creepy, like a blind person's!"
"Freak… freak… freak!"
Goku didn't need to guess. The target of such childish cruelty, a young girl of the Hyūga clan in this era, could only be one person.
"You're not exactly presentable to the public right now," Goku said, turning to Mikoto. "Why don't you wait inside my World Ring?"
"World… Ring?" Mikoto looked puzzled.
"You'll understand once you're there." With a thought, he stored the confused woman safely away. Then, he strode purposefully toward the source of the commotion.
By the time he pushed through the underbrush, a small, delicate-looking girl with pale eyes and hair had been shoved to the ground by a group of older boys. She clutched the dirt, her small frame trembling, but her face was set in a mask of stubborn defiance. Not a single tear fell.
"Hey now. You little punks have some nerve, picking on a cute kid like this. Looking for a beating?" Goku's voice, though not loud, carried an undeniable edge of authority. If they weren't mere children, the outcome would have been far less polite.
"Crap! A grown-up! Run!" The bullies scattered like startled cockroaches, vanishing into the woods.
"Are you alright? Did they hurt you?" Goku knelt, his voice softening as he offered a hand to help the girl up. She shyly accepted, her cheeks flushing a bright pink, but her hands immediately flew to cradle her right knee.
Gently, he moved her small hands aside. A nasty scrape marred her skin, raw and bleeding. Yet, she hadn't made a sound.
So young, and already this tough, Goku thought with a pang of admiration. Truly worthy of being a Hyūga—fragile in appearance, but with a spine of steel.