Chapter 13: Resolving the Knot in Your Heart

"What is 'unreasonable thinking'?"

As soon as he walked out of the flower shop, Yiyong asked abruptly.

He was so confused that the snowflakes flying around his body formed tiny question marks.

Uchiha Mikoto stopped and looked at Giyu curiously, "Why do you ask about this?"

"That kid named Ino told me. She told me not to have any bad thoughts about her. She only likes Sasuke. Even if I look like her, there is no chance."

Yiyong's eyes were innocent, "But I don't understand why she said this."

Uchiha Mikoto let out a long sigh and said helplessly: "Giyu, you must have said something that will be misunderstood again."

It seems like leaving Giyuu alone with a stranger——

Even if they are strangers together, they are still a little reckless.

[So, how did he get involved with the children in the clan? 】

Uchiha Mikoto was puzzled.

"I want to ask her for a hair."

Yiyong thought for a while and added: "But she looks very reluctant."

【really. 】

Uchiha Mikoto didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

This is something only volunteers can do.

"Can Yiyong tell mom why you did this?"

"Because I want to collect red or yellow hair."

Jiyong clapped his fingers and recalled the pillars that several other people were in urgent need of resurrecting, but only Kanroji's hair color was special, "There are also pink or green ones, I should also need some."

[You still haven’t said why you need it! 】

Mikoto complained feebly in her heart, but educated her earnestly: "Giyu, only friends with extremely close relationships can ask for something as important as hair.

“Asking for hair from someone you meet for the first time, especially a girl you meet for the first time, is very rude and can easily be misunderstood.

"If you were an adult, you might be arrested by the tribe and put into the police force."

[In the past, hair was generally used as a material for making love tokens. 】

[I heard that the miko in the land of ghosts has the magic to make the owner of the hair fall in love with anyone...]

Unconsciously, Uchiha Mikoto's thoughts returned to the distant past.

When she first got married, she heard from her old friend Uzumaki Kushina that Jiraiya, one of the three ninjas, also asked for Tsunade-sama's hair, saying that he wanted it to be cursed by a miko from the Kingdom of Demons. After the attack, he was beaten until he was unconscious and four of his ribs were broken.

Speaking of which...

The fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato and Kushina, also happen to have the same hair color, one red and one yellow.

"But she bought me a drink."

Giyuu's words brought Mikoto's thoughts back to reality.

"We should be friends already, right?"

Judging from Jiyong's simple social experience, if a stranger invites him to eat or drink, it should be with the same intention as he did - to close the relationship between them.

"Just being ordinary friends is not enough."

[Besides, they are just being polite...]

Mikoto stretched out a finger and emphasized: "If the other party is a girl, asking for hair should only be done when the boyfriend and girlfriend are friends or even engaged.

"But if it's a boy, it should be much easier. They usually don't care about the deeper meaning of such things..."

"Is it easier for boys?"

Yiyong nodded, immediately absorbed his mother's advice, and further refined his goal——

Find men with red or yellow hair and get their hair to use as material for channeling Anjuro in Purgatory.

Suddenly, he remembered the yellow-haired child he saw in the woods last time, who was beaten by three older children in order to protect the white-eyed girl.

Although the child's hair is a bit dull, it is closer to the original color of Purgatory than Yamanaka Ino. It is probably due to malnutrition that it lacks luster.

In addition, the child's physical recovery ability is very strong. Perhaps his gene carrier is more suitable as the material for the psychic purgatory Xingjulang. After all, Yanzhu's body has always been the best among the pillars except Mr. Mingmingyu. Purgatory would also be happy if he became stronger after his resurrection.

The most important thing is that he is willing to protect the "weak" in this ninja world where people are colder than ghosts. The child's character is also very similar to that of Purgatory.

Unfortunately, since that day, Yiyong has never seen him in the village again.

[Is it possible that he is no longer in Konoha? 】

Yiyong shook his head with some regret.

At this time, Uchiha Mikoto noticed that Giyuu was holding a paper bag in his left hand that he didn't have when he entered the flower shop.

"what is that?"

"The kid named Ino gave it to me and asked me to give it to Sasuke."

Jiyong shook the paper bag in his left hand.

"New Year's gift?"

Some pure and romantic conjectures suddenly came to Uchiha Mikoto's mind.

"Can mom take a look?"

Yiyong thought for a while and nodded.

Anyway, the contents inside were originally given to my mother.

Mikoto took the paper bag and opened it gently with curiosity, and found that there were six daisies of different colors lying on the top layer of the paper bag. There was also a small envelope hidden in the middle, with "Sasuke received" written on it in childish fonts.

"I won't read it if you believe it. I don't know if Sasuke will be shy."

A smile appeared on her face and she focused on the six daisies.

These daisies are small and delicate, each one is carefully cultivated and trimmed. The colors and shapes are beautiful even in the snow, and they also emit a faint and elegant fragrance. It can be seen that a lot of thought has been put into them.

"Children nowadays are really precocious."

She muttered softly.

"I remember that the words of the daisy were 'pure secret love'."

[It's a pity that Sasuke is probably not interested in flowers and plants, so the child is probably busy in vain. ]

Mikoto continued to flip down and noticed that at the bottom of the paper bag, there was a bunch of longevity flowers wrapped separately.

"Yiyuu, is this also given to Sasuke by Ino?"

Uchiha Mikoto took out the longevity flower, and her face was a little strange.

Longevity flowers, as the name suggests, mean health and longevity, and are generally given to middle-aged and elderly people or patients.

"No."

Giyuu answered solemnly: "Didn't you ask me to choose a flower for you?"

When he was choosing flowers, he asked Yamanaka Ino: "If you want the person who receives the flowers to live a long and happy life, which one should you choose?"

"Of course it's the longevity flower, but this kind of flower is sold more in Konoha Hospital than in my house. If you are willing to help me bring this package to Sasuke, I will pick the best longevity flower in the store and give it to you."

This is the answer given by Yamanaka Ino.

Her confidence in her knowledge of flowers also affected Giyuu's judgment, so he decided it.

If he had mentioned that this was for his mother, Ino would not have chosen such a flower that obviously hinted at age.

Looking at Uchiha Mikoto's appearance as if petrified in the wind and snow, Giyuu asked uncertainly: "What's wrong, mother, don't you like it?"

"..."

Uchiha Mikoto smiled with relief and tied the paper bag and returned it to Giyuu.

This was the first time she received a gift that Yiyong had chosen for her (not just as a gift), and she could feel the love and blessing that her youngest son had never expressed from the meaning of the flower, which made her feel very satisfied.

[But if Yiyong continues to lack common sense, what should she do in the future? ]

"I like it very much. But Dad is older, and this flower is more suitable for him than for me. Can I give Yiyong's gift to Dad? If he knows it's from you, he will be very happy."

"You decide for yourself."

Yiyong nodded, not quite understanding, and had no idea what he would hear the next second.

"But since the flower is given to Dad, Mom will have nothing?"

Mikoto leaned over, revealing a sly smile, her hair fluttering in front of Yiyong with the wind and snow, gradually overlapping with the figure of her sister in the previous life.

"Then can I ask Yiyong for a special gift directly? The kind that you can't regret once you agree."

"..."

This time it was Yiyong's turn to be silent.

A shadow rose on his forehead and he took two steps back, worried that his mother would rub his face again like before, which was too embarrassing.

"Hey, does this mean you don't agree? I haven't said anything yet."

Uchiha Mikoto once again showed the sadness of being hurt. If Itachi or Sasuke saw it, they might be surprised.

However, repeating the old tune is very useful.

Uchiha Giyuu froze in place, like a frozen porcelain doll.

He is the most taciturn of the nine pillars, but also the softest. If any other pillar encounters Nezuko who has turned into a demon, the latter will not survive.

Even strangers are like this, it is conceivable that the closer the relationship is, the more Giyuu does not want to make the other person feel pain.

So when he saw that his mother seemed very disappointed, he immediately said: "Then you say it."

"Then you agree."

Uchiha Mikoto's expression changed in an instant.

She stared into Giyuu's eyes, and her facial features suddenly became gentle and kind, even with a little pleading meaning in it.

"Then Giyuu, I hope you can call me mom (Kasan) directly like Sasuke and Itachi, is that okay?"

The word mom is a knot in Uchiha Mikoto's heart.

Giyuu suddenly learned to speak one day not long after he was born. At that time, the couple was very surprised, thinking that they would have another naturally intelligent child in the family.

But unlike Mikoto's "Mom" and "Dad" that he and Sasuke had always been taught to call, the first time Giyuu opened his mouth to call them, he called them "Mother" and "Father" with a very distant and ritual sense.

In the Hyuga clan, which is governed by a large clan model and has a strict hierarchy, this name may be very normal; but in the Uchiha family, which is a family unit and has a strong cohesion, this name is too cold.

Both Fugaku and Mikoto can feel that this child seems to be deliberately distanced from them.

When they grow up a little bit, the difference between Giyuu and Sasuke's treatment of them will be more obvious.

He seemed to put his position in this family very low. He would suddenly do housework without saying a word, but he never asked for anything from his parents and brothers, including praise.

If there were new clothes bought for him that were different from Sasuke's, he would give them directly to Sasuke, and the same was true for the New Year's money.

Maybe Giyuu himself didn't think there was anything wrong with doing this, and he wishfully thought that this was a way to repay the kindness of the Fugaku couple for giving birth to him.

But Miqin only felt frustrated, why did this child always treat them like an outsider?

Every time Giyong respectfully calls her "Mother", not only does she not feel respected, but she becomes very worried, wondering if she did something wrong when Giyong was younger, making him mistakenly think that she is one of those In the romance story, he is an illegitimate son who is treated as a domestic servant.

It wasn't until one day that Itachi saw her troubles and found Giyuu, forcing him to drop the word "sir" from his title and change it to "father", who was still stiff but had improved a lot. "Mother".

However, the nature of Yiyong's behavior has not changed much. He is still trying to find ways to distinguish himself from the other two brothers.

Maybe other people would regard Giyuu's words "Sasuke and I are different" as Giyuu's boast that he is more mature than Sasuke, but as a mother, Uchiha Mikoto knows very well that Giyuu's meaning is far from simple.

Sometimes when he lowered his head and said that sentence, Uchiha Mikoto would hallucinate another sentence.

"I'm not your real family."

Unbelievable, Uchiha Mikoto felt that her heart was about to break. And this was the reason why she chose to leave home and return to lead the Jonin team.

She didn't dare to face Yiyong alone.

It wasn't until Giyuu and Sasuke's fifth birthday that things finally turned around.

The most obvious thing is——

Yiyong became willing to be close to his family.

As long as Itachi has no mission, the three of them will stick together like Siamese twins, even sleeping in the same room at night. Although Fugaku complained that this was not conducive to the growth of the child, he seemed to be happy to see it happen.

When the three of them get along, although Giyuu will still sit farther away to give Itachi and Sasuke more space, this is at least a real improvement.

Closeness in spatial location often also means closeness in psychological distance.

Now that several months have passed, Sasuke will no longer fall into negative emotions because of Giyu's casual words, because he knows that his understanding must be very different from what Giyu himself wants to express.

What really surprised her was that a few days ago, Itachi went on a mission and Sasuke went to his grandpa's house to deliver things. Giyu actually made a lunch and delivered it to Fugaku who was in the police force for the first time.

According to Fugaku, who was also surprised, Giyuu stayed in his office all afternoon and asked him to release genjutsu from time to time (actually Giyuu was brushing the resolution of Breath of the Moon). Although he didn't say anything, compared to the father-worried man in the past, , I don’t know how many times stronger it is.

This incident made Uchiha Mikoto's heart knot loosen slightly. Giyong's relationship with the other members of the family has improved significantly, and there's no reason why she can't.

She had been waiting for Yiyong to call her "Mom" for too long.

So on this day, taking advantage of the holiday and the opportunity of volunteers to send her flowers, she planned to make an attempt.

Staring at her with hopeful eyes, Yiyong felt as if he was being burned on a fire. A third emotion that could not be hidden finally appeared on his face - panic.

Yiyong's face was deathly pale, and the corners of his mouth were trembling slightly. He wanted to say something but couldn't speak at all, as if he had lost the ability to speak.

Of course he didn't want to disappoint Uchiha Mikoto, but he couldn't calmly call him that tone.

In the past few years, the most he could do was regard himself as an adopted son, and mother was already the title he felt was most intimate to his adopted son.

Because in his heart, he is still Tomioka Yoshiyuki, a thief who took away the other person's real son's chance of survival, so who has the right to call him such an affectionate name.

His confused look was caught by Mikoto, who had never seen Giyuu like this before. Worried about irritating his eyes to further evolve, she quickly took a step back and said with a forced smile: "I'm kidding, Giyuu can be called whatever he likes." La.

"It's getting late, let's go home quickly after shopping, Yiyong."

As she said that, she turned around quickly.

Yiyong saw from behind that his mother raised her right arm and crossed it in front of her. At this moment, it felt like my heart was sinking into extremely cold water, and every cell felt stinging.

Until the voice in his head suddenly reminded him——

[If it were not for the reincarnation of your dead soul, Uchiha Giyu would not exist at all. This is your body. 】

These words were like a bright light that pierced through the dark clouds that shrouded Yiyong's mind.

【……is this real? 】

he asked in his mind.

[Your essence is the same as the pillar that is about to be resurrected. The only difference is that you were born. [Otherwise, why would your name still be Yiyong? 】

The responding voice was still as cold and heartless as a god, but it only strengthened the authenticity of this statement in Yiyong's heart.

After all, he followed the instructions of this voice and successfully analyzed the Breath of Fire, and indeed obtained the method of practicing the Breath of Fire. This means that so far, this voice has never made any mistakes.

"Yoyong?"

Uchiha Mikoto, who walked out in a daze, found that no one was following her. She quickly turned around to look for Giyuu, only to find that the sky in Konoha, which was slightly gloomy a second ago, was torn apart by the sun, casting several bright beams of light, and snowflakes appeared. Lurking in the light like angel feathers.

Yiyong stood in front of her with his head lowered, with the thin snow under his feet.

"Mother……"

He said this in a shy and jerky tone.

At this moment, he was finally able to accept his identity with peace of mind and shout out this simple word that he had never had the chance to say in his previous life, because since he could remember, his sister was his only relative.

He raised his head, and warm tears bloomed on his quiet and gentle smile. The crystal water droplets reflected the light beam across the sky, making the pair of purple-red Sharingan look so gentle.

"Can I always call you that?"

"Of course."

Uchiha Mikoto leaned Giyu's head against her arms, lowered her head and responded gently, with an irrepressible smile on her lips.

"I couldn't ask for more."