A few days after the funeral
Hiroto had a monotone life these past few days eating and training till he can't move his body. Itachi also increased the intensity of his training by seeing his best friend. Hiroto made a clone to work on fūinjutsu or work on his chakra control on consecutive days.
Itachi's sharingan upgraded to three tomoe as he saw Hiroto torture himself in the name of training and his inability to help his friend. Itachi is working on his shuriken jutsu, and both the kids are having regular spars. Fugaku seeing the kids' training took his teachings to another level whenever he was free.
Kakashi took a few days off after the funeral, and the next day he looked for Hiroto. Hiroto and Itachi paused their training seeing Kakashi, both the kids noticed something odd about the jonin.
Hiroto immediately sensed the change in Kakashi's chakra which lost all the previous gloom, he saw Kakashi's eyes reflecting the same burning desire. Itachi also noticed the change in the white-haired kid's eyes along with some new additions Tanto strapped to his back and holding a scroll in his hand but kept silent as it was between the both of them.
"Hiroto till now I am a good shinobi, only a good shinobi. When my father failed his mission to save his comrades, I was among the people who didn't like what he had done. Obito died to protect me which made me realize the importance of comrades and bonds. This helped me become a better shinobi." Kakashi took a breath and continued.
"But as a person, I failed. When others started to badmouth my father if I stood by his side he would be here, after that I distanced myself from others. After that everyone close to me started dying one by one your parents, Obito, Rin, Minato-sensei, Kushina-nee. Every time I could only watch them die and I could do nothing to aid them." Kakashi said with tears in his eyes.
"NOT ANYMORE !! I won't stand by the side anymore to see my loved ones suffer anymore. I will become so strong that everyone has to think twice before harming people close to them. For this, I give my word." Kakashi voiced out his determination.
Kakashi's declaration was met with Hiroto's tight hug and his shirt got wet as a result. A few minutes later Hiroto rubbed his eyes with his shirt's sleeve. Hiroto turned his head to see Itachi and motioned for him to come to join the hug.
"Kakashi-san since when did you learn Tanto ?" Itachi asked.
"Oh! It's my father's. He wanted to teach me and Hiroko-san also tried but at that time I didn't like what my father did so I abandoned it. I picked it up again" Kakashi said with regret and both the kids listening to this nodded their heads in silence.
A few minutes later
Kakashi gave the scroll to Hiroto to help him with the sealing process and moved his head protector. Hiroto took the scroll his parents designed for their student to deal with the strain sharingan causes because of it being active all the time.
A few moments Hiroto applied the seal on Kakashi's left eye. "It's done Kakashi-nii you just have to direct your chakra to the seal and the sharingan will become active but other times that eye will be blind. Give me some time and I will see if I can upgrade this so your eye won't be blind." Hiroto said.
"It's okay Hiroto it's already good that I have this seal." Kakashi comforted Hiroto. "Let's spar" Kakashi sparred with Itachi and Hiroto. Since then they regularly spar and Kakashi is also learning fūinjutsu from Hiroto.
Far away from the training ground a kid with bob cut wearing a green spandex suit is currently doing a monstrous training regime. "I sense someone's YOUTH burning. I can't lose, I will do 200 more laps around the village. YOUTH" Gai declared.
Uchiha clan was moved to the village outskirts. Hiroto also received the keys to his parent's house after the Hokage sealed away most of the jutsu and promised to return them once he reaches age. Hiroto stored away the key and moved back to his old house only cleaning the house once every few weeks.
Hiroto every night observes Naruto in the orphanage and noticed Anbu guarding the baby. Hiroto can only play with his brother disguising himself as the caretaker and keeping the latter in genjutsu. Itachi and others tried to dissuade him to let his body after the rest so he sometimes sends a shadow clone in his stead.
Months flew by and nearly a year passed by since Naruto is born. The time came for Itachi and Hiroto to attend the ninja academy.
Sarutobi Hizuren the Sandaime Hokage had to reassume his role as Hokage after his successor's untimely death. Hizuren gave the task of investigating that dreadful day to Danzo, but later he had to clip Danzo's wings because of his assassination attempt on him. So the investigation took a hit and can only blame the Uchiha clan which was suspected by Danzo and him.
Hizuren managed to hold the village together and thankfully no other nation did show hostile behavior. He had to groom some elites quickly thankfully Kakashi is a few years away and Gai needs a little longer than that.
Hizuren received information about students who enrolled in the academy this year and found a few notable names 'Inuzuka Hana', and 'Uchiha Izumi', as his eyes kept scanning he zeroed in on two names 'Uzumaki Hiroto', 'Uchiha Itachi'.
He heard about them Minato and heard about their potential. Hizuren met them both for a few minutes and he saw both the kids acting mature for their age. Hizuren met a few Uzumakis in his life and every Uzumaki he had met got a fearsome reputation across elemental nations.
Hizuren took Hiroto's form out of the file to check what did the kid fill in for his parents' names. He saw "Uzumaki Hiroko, and Namikaze Mizuko" as father and mother names respectively. Hizuren could only sigh at the last name 'Namikaze' it would be impossible to convince the kid to remove that name, as the kid inherited Kushina's stubbornness. So he let that be for the time being.
The next day Ninja academy
Parents arrived to drop off their children and Mikoto accompanied Itachi and Hiroto. Soon parents took their leave and everyone waited for the Hokage to give the new students a speech. Sarutobi Hizuren made his entry and was received with cheers, he greeted the students and started his speech about comrades, a ninja's duty, etc., at last, he ended it with a poem
"This poem is about a way of thinking, that is sure to be useful to you in your future
It concerns the Leaf's Will of Fire
Where the tree leaves dance,
One shall find Flames
The Fire shadow
Will Illuminate the Village
And once again shall tree leaves bud anew"
The third Hokage's speech was received with deafening cheers and all the students went to check their assigned classes, soon everyone left for class.