Prologue: The Night of the Clan's Annihilation

July, the 56th year of Konohagakure.

As evening fell, the orange afterglow of the setting sun lingered on the horizon before gradually fading away, leaving the entire Konohagakure shrouded in night.

A young child with delicate features, black hair, black eyes, and fair skin—dressed in a black high-collared long-sleeved shirt and black shorts, with the mysterious fan emblem printed on his back—walked slowly through the crowd with a schoolbag on his back. He eventually stopped in front of the Uchiha clan compound.

Tonight, the Uchiha compound was devoid of its usual hustle and bustle, and the lights were not as bright as they once were; instead, it was pitch black and deathly still, with a faint scent of blood lingering in the air.

Dark, empty, and eerie!

The pitch-black Uchiha compound before him looked like a giant beast from the abyss, ready to devour life!

Under the dim streetlights, the child's shadow appeared twisted and struggling. A flash of complexity crossed his eyes as he touched the pouch at his waist, as if finding comfort in something inside. Then, without a word, he stepped into the Uchiha compound as if resigning himself to his fate.

This night was bloody! It was cruel! It was dark!

In the night.

Uchiha Itachi walked through a forest outside Konohagakure. His expression looked extremely calm, but his eyes betrayed a flicker of struggle and pain.

"I have some bad news for you, though you probably don't care much about it now!"

A mysterious figure with a slender build and a spiral mask appeared out of thin air beside him.

Hearing this, Uchiha Itachi only tilted his head slightly with a calm expression, looking at him without saying a word.

The mysterious man chuckled, unbothered, and said indifferently: "Your father and mother's eyes are gone. I suspect it was Danzo's doing!"

Uchiha Itachi remained expressionless, as if he had heard something that had nothing to do with him, though his fists clenched tightly beneath his sleeves!

"Come to think of it, you were really ruthless to your younger brother. You used Tsukuyomi directly; aren't you afraid his mind might collapse?"

The mysterious man looked at Uchiha Itachi with curiosity, wanting to see if this youth could show even a hint of sadness or worry.

Sasuke?

Hearing the mysterious man mention his younger brother, Uchiha Itachi thought of his brother's appearance today.

No screaming, no questioning, not even anger.

Facing his constant verbal provocation, there was only extreme calmness.

Only after he launched his attacks and used Tsukuyomi did the boy let out a muffled groan of pain.

Uchiha Itachi felt his younger brother was incredibly strange today, even feeling a faint sense of unease.

It was as if the person standing before him today was not his brother, but someone else entirely.

Perhaps Sasuke had been too traumatized to accept the reality.

Uchiha Itachi found a reason for his brother's change in his heart and said, "Let's go, take me to your organization!"

Seeing that Uchiha Itachi remained unmoved, the mysterious man laughed and shrugged, feeling somewhat disappointed, but he did not say anything more.

The two disappeared into the night.

Konohagakure Root organization base.

In the darkness, a member of the Root knelt on one knee and reported to the elderly man covered in bandages before him:

"Lord Danzo, the Sharingan of Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Mikoto have vanished!"

"Hmm?"

Danzo frowned.

Could it be that rebellious Uchiha Itachi who took them?

After all, they were his parents; it was understandable that he wouldn't want them to be desecrated.

"I understand. You may go!"

He had already harvested many Sharingan today; losing two pairs was of no consequence.

"Yes!"

One night passed!

One of the two great clans since the founding of Konohagakure, the Uchiha clan, was wiped out, with only one eight-year-old child surviving by sheer luck.

The son of the Uchiha clan head—Uchiha Sasuke!

Except for him, from infants still nursing to the elderly with white hair, no one survived.

The next day, Konohagakure announced that Uchiha Itachi was the perpetrator of the massacre and issued an S-rank missing-nin wanted poster.

For a time, the ninja world was in an uproar!

Two days later, inside the Konohagakure hospital.

On the hospital bed, the unconscious child slowly opened his eyes, revealing a trace of confusion that quickly vanished.

"You're awake?"

Seeing him wake up, the nurse hurried over to check his condition. After confirming he was conscious and giving a few instructions, she rushed out of the room to report the situation to her superiors.

"You are not worth killing... foolish little brother... if you want to kill me... then harbor hatred! Hate me! And then live an ugly life! Run, run... and cling to your pathetic life!"

The older brother who had been in his body had said this to him.

Heh...

It is a pity that the soul in this body is no longer your younger brother, Uchiha Itachi!

A trace of mockery curled Sasuke's lips. After seeing the nurse leave, he began to examine his own body and the environment.

The slim-fit black high-collared long-sleeved shirt and black shorts he had been wearing were replaced by a loose, comfortable striped hospital gown. A substance similar to a glucose injection was being fed steadily into his left vein, replenishing his fluids and providing nutrients.

Sasuke only took a brief look at himself before shifting his gaze to the table beside the hospital bed—or more accurately, to the items placed upon it.

The clothes and pants he had been wearing before he lost consciousness were there, along with the waist pouch and school bag he carried with him, all neatly stacked together.

Seeing this, Sasuke seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. He withdrew his gaze without a sound, assuming an expression that was gloomy and slightly dazed.

If anyone had observed Sasuke closely just now, they would have noticed that his gaze lingered on the waist pouch for significantly longer than the rest.

The door to the ward was pushed open, and an elderly man with white hair, wearing a white Hokage robe over a red ninja outfit and a Hokage hat, walked in.

"Sasuke, how are you feeling? Is there anything uncomfortable?"

The white-haired old man asked in a kind and concerned tone.

Facing the old man's question, Sasuke remained silent. He didn't even look at him, maintaining his gloomy, dazed appearance.

He knew that no matter how he responded, it would be superfluous.

He was able to survive because of his brother, that nominal rogue ninja. As long as that brother of his was still alive, he would survive whether he screamed and shouted or remained silent.

Otherwise, even if he knelt before this person to beg for mercy, he would not live.

Moreover, this kind of behavior was perfectly consistent with his current state and experience!

Seeing this, the white-haired old man sighed. He didn't think too much of it, assuming the child simply couldn't accept the sudden, massive change.

"Sasuke, get some good rest. The village will take care of your life."

Turning his head, the white-haired old man spoke softly to the nurse at his side: "Take good care of him!"

"Yes, Lord Third!" the young nurse replied hurriedly.

The Third Hokage took a deep look at the silent Sasuke on the hospital bed, a flash of guilt crossing his eyes. His elderly, already frail frame seemed even more hunched. He sighed, then walked away slowly.

From beginning to end, the boy lying on the hospital bed never looked at him once.

One day later.

Sasuke changed into his own clothes and walked down the street carrying his school bag. Ignoring the surprised and even pitying looks from passersby, he walked step by step toward the Uchiha clan grounds at the edge of the village. Only after Sasuke had gone far away did the crowd begin to whisper.

"Did you hear? I never expected such a terrifying thing to happen to the Uchiha clan."

The speaker was a middle-aged man with a sharp-featured, monkey-like face, dressed like a peddler; there was a hint of schadenfreude in his words.

The middle-aged woman beside him didn't catch the man's malice; she nodded and sighed.

"For such a large Uchiha clan to be wiped out, it's truly too cruel. Poor little Sasuke... and to think the one who did such a thing was..."

At this point, the middle-aged woman stopped speaking, seemingly wary of taboos. The words on the tip of her tongue ultimately faded into a long sigh.

Walking into the Uchiha clan grounds and passing through the empty, desolate buildings, Sasuke arrived at his home.

After preparing a simple meal, Sasuke sat on the tatami in the living room, not saying a word.

This place had already been cleaned up by others, but the faint scent of blood still lingered; his parents had died right here.

Sasuke sat for half a day, sitting from the afternoon until the early hours of the morning before finally rising to head toward his room.

Entering the room, Sasuke walked to the bedside cabinet and opened the waist pouch on top of it.

Inside the medium-sized pouch, the first thing he saw was a metal heart-shaped bento box. Seeing the box, Sasuke was silent for a moment before taking it out and setting it aside, revealing the various scrolls hidden beneath.

Sasuke took one out and opened it. The moment the scroll was unfurled, a single, nearly invisible strand of fine black hair drifted slowly to the floor.

Seeing this hair, the look in Sasuke's eyes shifted slightly, but his heart settled completely. He continued to open the scroll.

It was filled with rows of mysterious runes. He skipped the sections labeled "Medicine," "Tools," "Thread," and "Kunai," then placed his hand on the third-to-last section labeled "Sword" and injected chakra.

With a bang and a puff of smoke, a standard-issue Uchiha single-edged katana appeared in Sasuke's hand. He stroked the blade as if caressing a lover, then focused his gaze on the pommel. With his left hand, he twisted and unscrewed the cap.

The pommel, which should have been solid, had been hollowed out at some point, and inside sat a test-tube-sized glass vial.

The vial was filled with an unknown transparent liquid, and two blood-red, scarlet eyes floated within.

One pair was in the shape of three black tomoe, while the other pair featured a three-pointed curved pattern with three black dots interspersed; it looked incredibly brilliant, beautiful, and mysterious!

The Three-Tomoe Sharingan and the Mangekyō Sharingan!

A cold, chilling smile curled Sasuke's lips, the arc growing wider and wider until he revealed his bared teeth. He couldn't help but press his hand against his forehead, letting out a low, wildly arrogant laugh.

"Hehehehe... Hahahaha... Hahahahaha!"

Through the gaps in the fingers the boy pressed against his forehead, one could clearly see his originally pitch-black, crystalline eyes suddenly transform into a fierce, savage scarlet, with three black tomoe swirling within.