The sun sank toward the horizon, its golden-red glow painting the entire sea.
Gilded light rolled across the wave crests. The tide ebbed and flowed as the evening breeze grew cool.
The long beach lay in the gathering dusk, marked by the retreating tide. Waves murmured along the quiet, sprawling shore.
Sasuke had stood on a large rock beside the beach for a long time.
The sea looked desolate at dusk.
The sea breeze carried a slight chill.
A fire burned on the sand nearby. Snake Team—no, they had renamed themselves Hawk Team.
Sasuke had formed Snake Team to face Itachi. Now Itachi was dead.
Obito had told Sasuke the truth about the Uchiha Massacre, and how Itachi had become its sacrifice.
Sasuke could not understand Itachi's feelings for Leaf Village.
For Leaf Village, had Itachi really been willing to kill the family that raised him?
Even if Sasuke could not understand, Itachi's love for him was etched deep in his heart.
Until the moment he died, Itachi had kept asking Sasuke to forgive him.
Sasuke hated Leaf Village. He hated its leaders for making Itachi the sacrifice in their destruction of the Uchiha Clan.
If the Uchiha Clan had been planning a coup and Leaf Village wanted them gone, it should have come for them directly.
Why use Itachi?
Why make him bear the disgrace of wiping out his clan and killing his parents?
From now on, Sasuke had only one goal: Leaf Village Destruction.
Hawk Team's other members—Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo—tended the fire and grilled fish caught from the sea for dinner.
Sasuke had already told them about Itachi.
The members of Hawk Team were stunned. They had never imagined the Uchiha Massacre had been so complicated.
Suigetsu, though, was not particularly shocked.
"Ever since the Ninja Villages