Sasuke: Itachi!!

A week had passed since the Night of the Uchiha Massacre, and dark clouds blanketed Konoha's skies, casting a heavy gloom over everything.

The streets were no longer as bustling as they had been.

On the third day after the Night of the Uchiha Massacre, the corpses of Uchiha Clan Head Uchiha Fugaku, along with the Uchiha ninjas and civilians, were buried one after another.

Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi personally brought two Hokage Advisors and the heads of the other clans to attend the mourning ceremony in plain clothes.

At the same time, the Hokage and the Fire Daimyo jointly announced that the Land of Fire had entered a state of war, and the border defenses had been raised to their highest alert level.

Konoha's higher-ups issued a wanted notice throughout the Ninja World for the Uchiha defection squad.

Ten elite three-man ANBU squads were dispatched as pursuit teams to hunt down the missing-nin. They would not stop until the targets were dead!

All kinds of news became mixed together, with truth and falsehood intertwined. For a time, the people of every clan were thrown into a panic.

Uchiha Clan Grounds.

The clan head's residence.

Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke, one big and one small, sat on the wooden steps beneath the eaves. Their faces were expressionless as they stared at the cracked Uchiha Gunbai on the wall outside the gate.

Young Sasuke's eyes were dark and bright, clear and lively, and his features were handsome. At this moment, however, his expression was exhausted.

He remembered that it was the clan emblem Itachi had destroyed in anger after the clan members mistakenly believed that Itachi had killed Shisui and came to question him.

The Uchiha Clan Grounds, once so lively, were now empty and desolate, with bleak, deserted streets.

Itachi lowered his eyes and glanced sideways at his brother, who neither cried nor made a fuss. He lowered his head in guilt.

After the Night of the Uchiha Massacre, Sasuke had awakened his Single-Tomoe Sharingan. Overcome with grief, he hid at home and cried all day.

Only a Single-Tomoe Sharingan...

Itachi was not satisfied with that.

But at least...

It counted as a beginning.

The day before yesterday.

Sasuke had only just accepted the fact that his father had died horribly, his clan had been massacred, and his mother had fled.

Yet he was still dazed and silent. When he ate, however, he did so with boundless hatred, and Itachi was very satisfied with that.

Only extreme hatred could make the Uchiha grow. It was a curse, but also an opportunity.

Whoosh—

Suddenly, two elite members dressed as Root Organization operatives leaped several times before landing steadily in front of Itachi.

The two of them glanced at the dull-eyed Sasuke.

One of them bent down and whispered into Itachi's ear.

Itachi's expression changed slightly. He slowly stood up, looked down at Sasuke, and curved two lines at the corners of his mouth. Narrowing his eyes into a smile, he said:

"Sasuke, you'll have to handle breakfast, lunch, and dinner yourself these next few days. I received some intelligence. I may have to leave for a while to carry out a mission."

Sasuke's expression was cold. He stood up, turned around, then stopped and asked with his back to Itachi:

"Are you going to find Mom?"

Itachi nodded with a smile, doing his best to make his voice sound as gentle as it had before:

"Mm. I'll bring Mom back!"

Sasuke walked straight toward the training ground in the empty space inside the courtyard without giving any further response.

Itachi stared at his brother's back. The expression on his tear-streaked face gradually faded, as though he had never smiled at all. He said coldly to the subordinates beside him:

"Let's go!"

"Yes—"

In the training area of the inner courtyard of the Uchiha clan head's residence, Sasuke's face was twisted with rage. He gritted his teeth and sent his fists flying like the wind, launching a fierce taijutsu assault against the wooden post before him.

Bang, bang, bang—

One punch after another slammed into the surface of the wooden post.

The skin on Sasuke's small fists split open, and his blood stained the wooden post red, but his assault continued without pause.

Until his anger erupted.

Bang!!

Sasuke leaped into the air and kicked sideways. After a muffled impact, he sent the wooden post, which was taller than him, flying with tremendous force.

Caw—

On the courtyard wall, a completely black raven seemed to have been drawn by the commotion. It flapped its wings and landed steadily, craning its head as it watched Sasuke.

"Haah—"

Sweat beaded on Sasuke's forehead. Supporting himself with both hands on his knees, he gasped for breath. He suddenly turned his head toward the raven on the wall, and in the next instant, his pupils became blood-red.

The Single-Tomoe Sharingan activated.

The raven's pupils contracted sharply as it sensed danger and prepared to flap away.

Whoosh!!

A kunai anticipated its movement and struck it precisely in the neck. Blood sprayed as it was decapitated, and its body dropped to the ground.

"Huff—huff—"

Sasuke lowered his right hand after throwing the kunai. Gasping heavily, he deactivated the Sharingan, lay facedown on the grass, and repeatedly slammed his fist into the ground.

"Uchiha Itachi!!!"

Sasuke gritted his teeth and glared with wide-open eyes. Treating the grass before him as Itachi's face, he hammered it viciously.

When he finished, he pulled a kunai from his ninja pouch and stabbed it repeatedly into the grass.

The grass rolled, and mud flew everywhere.

After exhausting himself,

young Sasuke lay on the grass and stared at the gloomy sky. He released the kunai in his hand, his face blank as he sank into his memories.

That night of the clan massacre.

His mother had knocked him unconscious. After that, a familiar figure appeared, woke him, and helped him sit against the wall.

Sasuke had seen that person several times at the Military Police Force.

His name was Uchiha Ingetsu!

A long time ago, when Sasuke met him, Mikoto had taught him to respectfully address Ingetsu, the captain of the Military Police Force, as Uncle Ingetsu.

That night, Ingetsu appeared and used genjutsu to make him personally witness the entire process of Uchiha Itachi turning his butcher's blade on the clan members, and then on his parents.

It was at that moment

that Sasuke awakened his eyes.

He also knew that it was Ingetsu who had acted, controlling his mother's body and saving her.

Otherwise...

Sasuke's face twisted again. He clenched his teeth so hard that his gums bled, and his fists tightened.

Otherwise, his mother would also have died that night at the hands of the demon Itachi!

At the thought of this,

Sasuke slammed his fist into the grass again.

Afterward,

Sasuke begged Ingetsu to leave with him and his mother, but Ingetsu left him with only one sentence:

"Don't worry about your mother. What you need to do now is survive. When the time is right, I'll come back for you."

After saying that, Ingetsu left the Uchiha Clan Grounds and headed toward the outskirts. Before leaving, he used genjutsu to make Sasuke fall unconscious again.

Over the past few days, Sasuke had also figured out how opinions within the ninja village about the "Uchiha Clan Massacre" had shifted.

Sasuke now felt that the so-called Konoha Ninja Village was filthy, foul-smelling, and utterly dark!

As the true culprit who had slaughtered his own clan, Itachi had become part of Konoha's higher-ups. He stood high above everyone else and was hailed by the Third Hokage as a hero who had tried to save the Uchiha!

In contrast, Ingetsu, the victim who had preserved a remnant of the Uchiha, had been accused of murdering his fellow clan's civilians and branded an S-Rank Missing-nin by Konoha!

How absurd, laughable, and tragic.

This was the "capacity" Itachi had always kept on his lips. He had not even possessed the heart to sit down and talk with the clan members before arbitrarily judging them and sentencing the clan's civilians to death!

Sasuke's heart had turned cold. Dragging his exhausted body away from the grass, he put away the kunai.

He had to go back and bandage his wounds.

Before Ingetsu returned to reunite him with his mother, he had to live properly in Konoha, even if it meant temporarily siding with Itachi!

Uchiha Clan Grounds, street.

Itachi sensed that the raven he had been using to monitor Sasuke had been killed. He raised an eyebrow, but merely sighed before leaving with his subordinates.

They arrived at the Hokage Building.

They passed through the corridor.

Itachi walked to the door of the Hokage Office. Before he could knock, he heard cries of alarm and commotion coming from inside.

After thinking for a moment, he reached out and pushed the door open.

Itachi's pupils widened as he saw the most astonishing sight of his life.

"Hiruzen, Hiruzen, open your eyes!"

"Monkey, hang in there!!"

The two Hokage Advisors were frantic and flustered, crouching on the floor.

And the old man who had held Konoha's power for half his life, stood at the peak of this world's power, and was known as the Ninja Hero—Sarutobi Hiruzen!

He lay flat on the cold floor, his eyes vacant and his face aged, while Utatane Koharu administered emergency treatment to him.

Itachi's gaze trembled slightly. He walked to the front of the Hokage's desk and looked at the intelligence scroll spread open across it.

Two Fire-character waist sashes lay beside it.

The intelligence scroll recorded the news that Asuma had died in battle and the Fire Temple had been destroyed.

P.S. Let me explain.

There was foreshadowing behind Sasuke being awakened by the protagonist's Shadow Clone. After Mikoto knocked him unconscious, he was lying facedown on the ground. When Itachi found Sasuke, Sasuke was sitting with his back against the wall; he had been helped up by Ingetsu's Shadow Clone.

When I wrote that the Shadow Clone saved Mikoto, I deliberately didn't state that it had also done this along the way.

As for those who deserve to die, they will all die later. Not one of them will escape.

Rest assured and keep reading!