Year 56 of Konoha, July.
At dusk, the setting sun left behind an orange glow on the horizon before gradually vanishing. Night enveloped the entirety of Konoha.
A delicate-looking child with black hair, black eyes, and fair skin walked slowly through the crowds on the street, step by step, carrying a schoolbag. He wore a black high-collared long-sleeved shirt and black shorts, with the emblem of a mysterious fan printed on his back. He stopped before the Uchiha Clan Compound.
Tonight, the Uchiha Clan Compound lacked its usual bustling crowds. Its lights no longer shone brightly either. There was only darkness, an air of deathly stillness, and the faint scent of blood.
Dark, empty, and eerie!
The pitch-black Uchiha Clan Compound before him was like an abyssal beast that devoured life!
Under the dim streetlights, the child's shadow looked incomparably twisted and strained. A trace of complexity flashed through his eyes. He touched the pouch at his waist, as if something inside reassured him. Then, without a word, as though resigned to his fate, he slowly stepped into the Uchiha Clan Compound.
That night was bloody! Cruel! Dark! In the night, Uchiha Itachi walked through a forest outside Konoha. His expression appeared exceptionally calm, but struggle and pain flickered in his eyes.
"I have some bad news for you. Though perhaps you no longer care much about it now!"
A tall Mysterious Person wearing a spiral mask appeared beside him without a sound.
Hearing this, Uchiha Itachi merely tilted his head slightly and glanced at him calmly without speaking.
The Mysterious Person smiled, unconcerned, and said lightly, "Your father's and mother's eyes are gone. I'd guess that was Danzo's handiwork!"
Uchiha Itachi remained expressionless, as if he had heard something completely unrelated to himself. Only the fist beneath his sleeve clenched tightly!
"Speaking of which, you were really ruthless with your little brother. You used Tsukuyomi on him directly. Weren't you afraid his mind would collapse?"
The Mysterious Person looked at Uchiha Itachi curiously, wanting to see whether the young man would reveal even a trace of grief or worry.
Sasuke?
Hearing the Mysterious Person mention his younger brother, Uchiha Itachi thought of how Sasuke had looked today.
There had been no screaming, no questions, not even anger.
Faced with his repeated verbal provocation, Sasuke had only remained incomparably calm.
Only after Itachi attacked him and used Tsukuyomi did Sasuke let out a pained groan.
Today's Sasuke felt utterly unfamiliar to Uchiha Itachi, even making him faintly uneasy.
It was as if the one standing before him today had not been his younger brother, but someone else entirely.
Perhaps Sasuke had suffered too great a shock and could not accept it.
Uchiha Itachi found a reason in his heart for his younger brother's change, then said, "Let's go. Take me to your organization."
Seeing that Uchiha Itachi remained unmoved, the Mysterious Person chuckled, shrugged, and looked somewhat disappointed. Still, he said nothing more.
The two vanished into the night.
At the Konoha Root Organization base, in the darkness, a Root member knelt on one knee before an old man covered in bandages and reported:
"Lord Danzo, Uchiha Fugaku's and Uchiha Mikoto's Sharingan have vanished without a trace!"
"Hm?"
Danzo frowned.
Could that rebellious Uchiha Itachi have taken them?
After all, they were his parents. It was understandable that he would not want others to desecrate them.
"I understand. Leave."
He had already obtained many Sharingan today. Being short two pairs meant nothing.
"Yes!"
A night passed!
One of the two great clans that had existed since Konoha's founding, the Uchiha Clan, had suffered total annihilation. Only one eight-year-old child had survived by chance.
The Uchiha clan head's son—Second Pillar!
Aside from him, no one survived, from wailing infants waiting to be fed to frail, white-haired old men.
The following day, Konoha declared Uchiha Itachi the culprit behind the massacre and issued an S-rank wanted order for the rogue ninja.
For a time, the Shinobi World was thrown into an uproar!
Two days later, inside Konoha Hospital.
The unconscious child on the hospital bed slowly opened his eyes. A trace of confusion appeared in them before quickly vanishing.
"You're awake?"
The nurse who saw him wake up hurried over to check on him. After confirming that he was conscious, she gave him a few instructions before rushing out to report his condition to her superiors.
"You are not worth killing... foolish little brother... if you want to kill me... hate me! Resent me! Then live on in ugliness! Run, run... and continue to cling miserably to life!"
The older brother of this body had said that to him.
Heh...
Unfortunately, the soul in this body was no longer your little brother, Uchiha Itachi!
A trace of mockery appeared at the corner of Sasuke's lips. Once the nurse had left, he began examining himself and his surroundings.
His fitted black high-collared long-sleeved shirt and black shorts had been replaced with loose, comfortable striped hospital clothes. Something resembling a glucose IV continuously and steadily flowed through the vein in his left hand, replenishing fluids and providing nutrients.
After briefly examining himself, Sasuke shifted his gaze to the table beside the bed—or rather, the items on the table.
On the tabletop lay the clothes and shorts he had worn before falling unconscious, along with the pouch and schoolbag he had carried with him, all neatly arranged together.
Seeing this, Sasuke seemed to let out a breath of relief inwardly. Without showing it, he withdrew his gaze and adopted a gloomy, slightly dazed expression.
If anyone had carefully observed Sasuke just then, they would have noticed that his gaze had lingered noticeably longer on the pouch.
The door to the hospital room opened, and a white-haired old man walked in. He wore a white Hokage robe over a red ninja uniform and a Hokage hat on his head.
"Sasuke, how are you feeling? Is there anywhere you feel uncomfortable?"
The white-haired old man asked with a kind and concerned tone.
Faced with the old man's question, Sasuke remained silent. He did not even glance at him, continuing to wear that gloomy, dazed expression.
He knew that no matter how he responded, it would be unnecessary.
He was able to survive because of his rogue ninja brother in name. As long as that brother had not died, whether Sasuke screamed and shouted or remained silent, he would live.
Otherwise, even if he knelt before the man in front of him and begged for mercy, he would still die.
And this behavior was perfectly in line with his current condition and experience!
Seeing this, the white-haired old man sighed. He did not think much of it, assuming only that the child could not accept the sudden upheaval.
"Sasuke, get some good rest. The village will take responsibility for your life."
Turning around, the white-haired old man softly instructed the nurse beside him, "Take good care of him!"
"Yes, Lord Third!" the young nurse answered hurriedly.
The Third Hokage gave Sasuke, who still lay silently on the hospital bed, a deep look. A trace of guilt flashed through his eyes. His already not particularly tall aged body seemed even more stooped. After sighing, he slowly left.
From beginning to end, the boy lying on the hospital bed never looked at him even once.
One day later.
Sasuke changed into his own clothes and walked down the street with his schoolbag. He paid no attention to the passersby's surprised, even pitying gazes, and slowly made his way toward the Uchiha Clan Compound on the edge of the village. Only after Sasuke had gone far into the distance did the people begin discussing it among themselves.
"Did you hear? Who would have thought something so terrible would happen to the Uchiha Clan?"
The speaker was a middle-aged man with a sharp face and monkey-like features, dressed like a peddler. There was a trace of gloating in his words.
The middle-aged woman beside him failed to notice his gloating. She nodded and sighed.
"Such a large clan like the Uchiha Clan was actually exterminated. It's so cruel. Poor little Sasuke... And the one who did such a thing was..."
At that point, the middle-aged woman fell silent, as though wary of some taboo. The words on the tip of her tongue ultimately became only a long sigh.
Entering the Uchiha Clan Compound and passing through the empty houses and buildings, Sasuke arrived home.
After casually preparing something to eat, Sasuke sat on the tatami in the living room without saying a word.
This place had already been cleaned by someone, but the faint smell of blood still lingered. His parents had died here.
Sasuke sat there for half the day, from the afternoon until the early hours of the morning, before finally rising and heading toward his room.
Entering the room, Sasuke walked over to the bedside cabinet and opened the pouch on top of it.
Inside the modestly sized pouch was first an iron heart-shaped lunch box. Seeing the lunch box, Sasuke fell silent for a moment before taking it out and setting it aside, revealing scrolls of various sizes beneath it.
Sasuke took one out and opened it. The moment he did, a nearly invisible strand of fine black hair slowly fell to the floor.
Seeing that strand of hair, Sasuke's eyes shifted slightly, but he finally relaxed completely inside and continued opening the scroll.
Rows upon rows of mysterious runes filled the scroll. He skipped over several near the front marked "Medicine," "Vessel," "Wire," and "Kunai," then placed his hand on the third-to-last marking, the one bearing the character for "Sword," and infused it with chakra.
With a bang, a cloud of smoke erupted, and after it dispersed, an Uchiha-standard single-edged katana appeared in Sasuke's hand. He caressed it like a lover, then focused his gaze on the end of its hilt. With a twist of his left hand, he opened the cap at the end of the handle.
The hilt, which should have been solid, had somehow become hollow. Inside was a small glass bottle the size of a test tube.
The glass bottle was filled with an unknown transparent liquid, within which floated two pairs of blood-red eyes.
One pair had the pattern of three black Tomoe, while the other bore a curved three-sided pattern adorned with three black dots. It looked incomparably dazzling, beautiful, and mysterious!
The Three Tomoe Sharingan and the Mangekyō Sharingan!
A cold smile curled across Sasuke's lips, the arc growing wider and wider until his white teeth showed. Unable to restrain himself, he raised a hand to his forehead and let out low, wildly arrogant laughter.
"Hehehe... Hahahaha... Hahahahaha!"
Through the gaps between the fingers covering his forehead, one could clearly see the boy's originally dark, crystalline eyes suddenly turn a bleak, savage crimson, three black Tomoe set within them.
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