Ingetsu's Everlasting Tenderness

Uchiha Compound.

Smoke and dust filled the air.

The air was thick with a sickly-sweet stench. In the distance, dense smoke from Explosive Tag detonations spread through the streets, where corpses lay everywhere, severed arms, limbs, and entrails scattered all around.

Uchiha Police Force dungeon.

Inabi leaned against the wall, barely clinging to life. The shrill screams coming from the compound seemed to be calling out to him. Among them were the voices of his parents, brothers, and clansmen.

"They... seem to be calling for me to join them..."

Inabi's pale, cracked lips moved faintly. The blood on his face had long since dried.

His consciousness was beginning to blur.

But he could not die yet.

He would not willingly go to hell until he heard news of Uchiha Ingetsu's death.

His sole remaining Three Tomoe stared tremblingly at the distortion forming in the space before him, his eyes filled with stunned confusion.

Space twisted clockwise.

The Masked Man stepped out slowly, his Kamui Mangekyo visible through the hole in his mask.

"Another... Mangekyo!!!"

Inabi's eyelids twitched.

His mind was on the verge of collapse, yet the shock of this moment forced him to focus again.

The Masked Man surveyed the rooftop, which was a complete mess. He took a step forward, stepped over Inabi, crouched down, and inspected the nearby Uchiha corpses.

The Masked Man lifted a corpse, set it down, lifted another, and set it down again, shaking his head with a sigh.

He circled the entire dungeon before returning to where he had started.

His brow furrowed tightly.

All of the nearly fifty corpses of core Uchiha Police Force members had lost their Sharingan.

Tap—

At that moment, sticky footsteps sounded. Itachi climbed up the stairs onto the rooftop, stepping over countless corpses of his clansmen.

He was bathed in blood, leaving a bloody footprint with every step, like someone who had just crawled out from a mountain of corpses. His Killing Intent had yet to fade.

Inabi turned his head with difficulty. When he saw Itachi, fury surfaced on his face. He clenched his fists and forced himself to hold on as he rasped, "Were the screams from the clan caused by Ingetsu massacring the civilians? Uchiha Ingetsu is a traitor to the clan! Itachi... did you kill him?"

However, Itachi ignored Inabi and offered no answer.

The Masked Man broke the silence. His lone Mangekyo glowed red as he looked at Inabi and calmly asked, "Were these Police Force members all killed by that Uchiha Ingetsu? Did he take all their Sharingan as well? Did he wipe out the entire Police Force by himself?"

Inabi's face turned pale as memories surged forth. Despair filled his expression as he nodded faintly. "That's right. He first killed all my men, then left me alive to draw in more Police Force reinforcements before ruthlessly slaughtering them."

"You're lying." Suspicion appeared on Itachi's face as he said coldly, "That Ingetsu is only an ordinary Jonin, one of the Police Force captains. He does not have that kind of strength. He could not have done this alone."

Why had Itachi been assigned to kill the civilians while the Masked Man was tasked with dealing with the Police Force, the core of Uchiha's strength, when they were working together?

It was not that Itachi could not do it, but that it would take time.

Judging from the scene.

That Ingetsu had likely killed these people even faster than the Masked Man had crushed the Police Force.

Inabi said helplessly, "But that is the truth. You can find him yourself. I... have no reason to lie to you."

Itachi's pupils contracted slightly. From Inabi's tone, he could tell that he was not lying.

The Masked Man was also so shocked that he let out a scoff. "No wonder the Police Force only has a few old fossils left who cannot even scrape together a pair of Three Tomoe between them. What a disappointment!

"Still, this is quite interesting.

"Since this Ingetsu has already gathered all the Sharingan for me, I will not stand on ceremony.

"Itachi.

"Deal with this guy. Take his Three Tomoe for me. I'll go after those rats that escaped first!"

After saying that, the Masked Man impatiently activated Kamui. His body twisted in sync with the surrounding space and vanished from where he stood.

"Take away my Three Tomoe..."

Inabi spoke blankly. He sensed a trace of Killing Intent, and his remaining Three Tomoe glared furiously at Itachi.

Itachi remained expressionless. With a sigh, he gripped his ninja sword and walked toward Inabi.

"Itachi, what are you trying to do??"

Inabi's eyes widened. After questioning him, he pieced together Ingetsu's and Itachi's actions and instantly understood many things.

"Inabi, open your remaining Three Tomoe wide and see clearly what happens next in the Uchiha Compound!!" —Ingetsu's final words echoed in Inabi's mind.

→

Inabi gradually understood everything!

But in the next second—

Blood splattered.

"Sorry. I killed all our clansmen."

Itachi's ninja sword pierced Inabi's heart. The bloodstained blade emerged from Inabi's back.

Inabi's face twisted as the flame of his life rapidly guttered out. His remaining Three Tomoe stared fixedly at the ungrateful traitor before him, filled with resentment, rage, and regret.

The one who wanted to wipe out the Uchiha tonight—

Was Uchiha Itachi!!

Inabi finally understood. Ingetsu had killed his fellow Uchiha from the Police Force under the identity of an imprisoned traitor, and what he brought them was liberation.

If these people all died at the hands of Itachi, in whom they had placed their hopes, they would likely die with their eyes open, just like Inabi.

The Uchiha Police Force was not far from the police prison, only a few hundred meters away.

Before deliberately getting himself imprisoned, Ingetsu had already arranged the patrol shifts for tonight.

With the patrol team far from the compound, he slaughtered the Uchiha ninja in the prison, lured over the Police Force's ninja, then killed them as well and took their Sharingan.

Once he drew in the patrol team, Ingetsu deliberately led them into pursuing him, then took them out of Konoha, away from this massacre.

No wonder... he had said that as long as he lived, the Uchiha could continue on in the ninja world with dignity.

So he had long since prepared the Uchiha's seeds of survival.

Ingetsu had arranged the plan like a precision machine. Time, place, people—there had not been the slightest deviation.

He truly was stronger than him by an unfathomable margin.

Stronger than that useless clan head.

Stronger than those useless elders.

One day, he would surely return with a brand-new Uchiha...

At that thought, Inabi's expression turned complicated. Thinking back to how he had failed to understand Ingetsu's intentions before, he felt that he truly deserved to die.

He sighed inwardly.

Ingetsu truly was as gentle as ever.

Not only had he not slaughtered the clan's civilians—

His blade was fast and precise, granting people a swift death. How could that compare to the ungrateful traitor before him...

As his chaotic thoughts came to an end—

Inabi breathed his last.

His eyes could not close. The Three Tomoe Ingetsu had left him were swiftly and precisely removed by Itachi.

Itachi rose and left.

As for these clansmen's corpses, they were unimportant. The most urgent matter was dealing with that Uchiha squad that had defected.

Otherwise, Konoha's higher-ups might not honor their promise to protect Sasuke.

At the edge of the Uchiha Compound.

Screams rang out without end.

The small-scale war between Root Organization and ANBU came to an end. ANBU won, but lost half their ninja, while Root Organization lost eighty percent.

The remaining twenty percent of Root members clutched their wounds on the ground, rolling about in agony and wailing, having lost the ability to fight.

Though terrified, the ANBU captains were also deeply shaken by the close call. They led their people in a temporary withdrawal from the area.

These captains had never expected the enemy to possess such methods and catch them completely off guard.

And the second group to arrive in the area was not the Third Hokage, but several Jonin greedy for merit and eager to advance.

Woof woof woof!

The Ninja Hound's frantic barking echoed through the night, its voice laced with fear of some residual energy.

Five figures appeared.

"Whew—what a massacre!"

Asuma exhaled a cloud of smoke and looked around. He casually tossed the half-smoked cigarette in his hand to the ground. Seeing the forest strewn with corpses, a chill ran down his spine.

Yet for some reason, his heart stirred with excitement.

The Root Organization and ANBU had suffered devastating losses.

If he caught the person responsible for all this, it would be an enormous merit. By then, Asuma's reputation would soar!

In Konoha, Asuma felt that if he wanted to challenge some of that old guy Sarutobi Hiruzen's decisions, he first needed to build up enough prestige.

These were some of the political lessons he had learned while guarding the Daimyo.

With that thought in mind, young Asuma suddenly did not feel quite so afraid.

The bigger the turmoil, the greater the credit!