Obito's Bitter Smile

On the rooftop of the Hokage Building, Obito looked at the increasingly aged Hokage. Some words lodged in his throat, impossible to ask.

"Obito, you're still as kind as you were when you were little." As though he had seen through Obito's thoughts, Hiruzen Sarutobi revealed a slightly bitter smile. "Ask whatever you want to ask."

"Lord Hokage, Itachi really..." Obito gritted his teeth. "How could he have done it alone?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi turned around and looked up at the white clouds overhead. "Itachi's Sharingan evolved. Like Houka, he awakened an even more powerful ability. Within the Uchiha Clan, no one could resist him."

"Was this Lord Hokage's order?" Obito lowered his head, his fists clenched tightly enough for veins to bulge.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed. "Obito, no one ordered Itachi to do this. If you insist on blaming someone, blame me. If I had taken action as soon as I learned the Uchiha Clan was gathering at Naka Shrine, perhaps this tragedy would not have happened. I was too naive."

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How could Itachi... Clan Head Fugaku was his father!" Obito could not accept it.

Hiruzen Sarutobi did not dare look into Obito's bloodshot eyes, because he had indeed lied.

If he told Obito that Itachi had been threatened by Danzo into slaughtering his clan, then another question would arise.

Since it had been a mission, Itachi was "innocent," so why had he fled Konoha and become an S-rank Missing-nin?

Was Hiruzen Sarutobi supposed to tell him that Itachi had gone undercover in a mysterious and dangerous organization?

That was obviously impossible!

One had to know that, at present, not even elder advisers such as Danzo, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura, nor Hatake Sakumo and Nara Shikaku, knew about Itachi's undercover mission. How could he possibly tell Obito?