Sasuke: Itachi!!

A week had passed since the Night of the Clan Annihilation. Dark clouds blanketed Konoha's skies, and the atmosphere was oppressive.

The streets no longer retained their former bustle.

On the third day after the Night of the Clan Annihilation, Uchiha Fugaku, the Uchiha clan head, along with the bodies of Uchiha ninja and civilians, were laid to rest one after another.

The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, personally attended in plain clothes with the two Hokage Advisors and the heads of the other clans to offer condolences.

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

Konoha's upper ranks issued a shinobi-world-wide wanted order for the Uchiha Rogue Squad.

They dispatched ten elite three-man ANBU squads as pursuit ninja to hunt down the rogue ninja without rest until they were dead!

All kinds of information mixed together, truth and falsehood intertwined. For a time, every major clan was gripped by panic.

Uchiha Compound.

Clan head's residence.

Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke, one large and one small, sat on the wooden steps beneath the eaves with expressionless faces, staring directly at the shattered Uchiha Gunbai on the wall outside the gate.

Young Sasuke's eyes were dark and bright, clear and lively. His features were handsome, but his expression was exhausted at that moment.

He remembered that the clan members had mistakenly believed Itachi had killed Shisui and come to question him. Enraged, Itachi had destroyed the clan emblem.

The once-lively Uchiha Compound was now empty and desolate, its streets wide and bleak.

Itachi lowered his eyes and glanced sideways at his little brother, who neither cried nor made a fuss. Guilt weighed on him as he lowered his head.

Ever since the Night of the Clan Annihilation, Sasuke had awakened his Single Tomoe Sharingan. Overwhelmed by grief, he had hidden at home and wept all day.

Only a Single Tomoe Sharingan...

Itachi was not satisfied with that.

But at least...

It was a beginning.

The day before yesterday.

Sasuke had finally accepted the fact that his father had died miserably, his clan had been annihilated, and his mother had fled.

Yet he was still dazed and silent. Even when he ate, he did so with boundless hatred, and that pleased Itachi.

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

Whoosh—

Suddenly, two elite members dressed like Root Organization operatives landed steadily before Itachi after several leaps.

The two swept their eyes over the dull-eyed Sasuke.

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

Itachi's expression shifted slightly. He slowly rose to his feet, looked down at Sasuke, and curved his lips into a smile as he narrowed his eyes.

"Sasuke, take care of your own breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next few days. I received intelligence that I may need to leave for a while to carry out a mission."

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

"Are you going to find Mom?"

Itachi nodded with a smile, trying to make his voice sound as kind as it had been before.

"Yeah. I'll bring Mom back!"

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

Itachi watched his younger brother's retreating back. The expression faded from his tear-trough-lined face until it seemed as though he had never smiled at all. He coldly told the subordinates beside him,

"Let's go!"

"Yes—"

In the inner courtyard training area of the Uchiha clan head's residence, Sasuke's face twisted fiercely. Gritting his teeth, he threw punches like the wind, unleashing a storm of taijutsu attacks against the wooden post before him.

Bang bang bang—

Punch after punch smashed into the surface of the post.

The skin on Sasuke's small fists split open, and blood stained the post red, but his assault did not stop.

His rage finally erupted.

Bang!!

Sasuke leaped into the air and delivered a flying side kick. After a dull thud, the wooden post, taller than he was, was sent flying heavily.

Caw—

A pitch-black crow on the courtyard wall seemed drawn by the commotion. It flapped its wings, landed steadily, and craned its head as it watched Sasuke.

"Hah—"

Sweat beaded on Sasuke's forehead. He braced his hands on his knees and panted heavily. Then he suddenly turned to stare at the crow on the wall, and in the next instant, his pupils turned blood-red.

One tomoe awakened.

The crow's pupils contracted sharply. Sensing danger, it was about to flap its wings and flee.

Whoosh!!

A kunai anticipated its movement and struck its neck with perfect accuracy. Blood splattered as it was decapitated, and its body fell to the ground.

"Huff... huff..."

Sasuke withdrew the right hand that had thrown the kunai. Panting heavily, he deactivated his Sharingan, collapsed onto the grass, and slammed his fist into the ground again and again.

"Uchiha Itachi!!!"

Sasuke clenched his teeth and glared furiously, imagining the grass before him as Itachi's face and pounding it mercilessly.

After striking it, he pulled another kunai from his Ninja Tool Bag and viciously stabbed it into the grass.

The grass churned, and dirt flew everywhere.

When he had exhausted himself.

The young Sasuke lay on the grass, panting heavily. He stared at the gray sky, loosened his grip on the kunai, and fell into a daze as memories surfaced.

On the night of the clan annihilation.

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

Sasuke had seen that person a few times at the Police Force.

His name was Uchiha Ingetsu!

Long ago, when Sasuke had met him, under his mother Mikoto's guidance, he had respectfully called Ingetsu, the captain of the Police Force, Uncle Ingetsu.

That night, Ingetsu appeared and used genjutsu to make him witness with his own eyes how Uchiha Itachi had turned his blade upon their clansmen and then upon their parents.

That was when.

Sasuke awakened his eyes.

He also knew that Ingetsu had acted to control his mother's body and save her.

Otherwise...

Sasuke's face twisted again. He clenched his jaw so tightly that his gums bled, and his fists balled up.

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

Thinking of that.

Sasuke slammed his fist into the grass again.

Afterward.

Sasuke begged Ingetsu to take him and his mother away, but Ingetsu only left him with 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 compound and headed toward its outskirts. Before leaving, he used genjutsu to make Sasuke lose consciousness again.

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

Now, Sasuke only felt that the so-called Konoha Ninja Village was filthy, foul-smelling, and incomparably dark!

Itachi, the true culprit who had slaughtered his own clan, had become someone elevated by Konoha's upper ranks, revered by the Third Hokage as a hero who had tried to save the Uchiha!

Ingetsu, the victim who had preserved the Uchiha's last spark, had instead been charged with slaughtering civilian clansmen and branded an S-Rank Rogue Ninja by Konoha!

How absurd, laughable, and tragic.

This was the tolerance Itachi had always talked about. He had not even had the heart to sit down and speak with the clan members. Instead, he had arbitrarily judged them and sentenced the clan's civilians to death!

Sasuke was utterly disheartened. Dragging his exhausted body away from the grass, he put away the kunai.

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

The streets of the Uchiha Compound.

Itachi sensed that his surveillance crow had been killed by Sasuke. He raised a brow, merely sighed, and left with his subordinates.

He arrived at the Hokage Building.

Passing through the corridor.

Itachi reached the entrance to the Hokage Office. Before he could knock, he heard cries of alarm and commotion from within.

After considering it, he reached out and pushed open the door.

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

"Hiruzen, Hiruzen, open your eyes!"

"Monkey, hold on!!"

The two Hokage Advisors were flustered and panicked as they crouched on the floor.

And that old man who had controlled Konoha's power for half his life, who stood at the pinnacle of power in this world and was known as the Professor, Sarutobi Hiruzen!

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

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

Two waistcloths bearing the character for fire lay beside it.

The intelligence scroll recorded the news of Asuma's death in battle and the destruction of the Temple of Fire.

PS: Let me explain.

There was foreshadowing for Sasuke being awakened by the protagonist's Shadow Clone. After Mikoto knocked him unconscious, he had been lying on the ground. When Itachi found Sasuke, Sasuke was leaning against the wall. It was Ingetsu's Shadow Clone that had helped him up.

After writing about the Shadow Clone saving Mikoto, I deliberately did not make it clear that the Shadow Clone 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.

Keep reading with confidence!