Deep in the forest outside Konoha.
Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the branches, casting mottled shadows.
The blood moon hanging in the sky tonight looked especially eerie. Its crimson light stained the entire heavens, like a curtain washed in blood.
In a forgotten corner of the forest, a carefully disguised entrance lay hidden behind an ancient tree with gnarled roots.
A flight of stairs descended into the hideout, leading to a cramped space less than ten square meters in size.
Kyoshin Uchiha stared at the monitor and sighed. "So I still couldn't stop it?"
The screen's cold light fell across his young yet unusually calm face.
On-screen, the Uchiha Clan's compound had become a living hell, its blood and silence set against the blood moon.
Uchiha clan members lay sprawled across the streets, their blood winding into streams over the stone paving.
Now and then, someone fell after being struck by a kunai or jutsu fired from the shadows.
The crimson glow of the Sharingan flared and faded again and again in the night.
The worst were the children. Uchiha kids Kyoshin's age or younger hadn't even had time to understand what was happening before their killers dragged them out from the corners and silenced them forever.
In one corner of the screen, Kyoshin spotted his familiar neighbor, Tekka Uchiha. The jonin had always smiled and offered him dumplings. Now, three kunai protruded from his chest, and the Sharingan in his wide-open eyes had lost its luster.
Several years ago, Kyoshin had transmigrated from Blue Star and become a member of the Uchiha Clan, the same age as Sasuke.
From then on, Kyoshin had worked to prevent the night of the Uchiha Massacre.
To convince Konoha's leadership that the First Hokage's plan could work, Kyoshin had played the good guy.
The other Uchiha were aloof and proud, even looking down on their own clanmates.
Kyoshin, on the other hand, treated everyone kindly. He made friends with the Konoha 12 at the Ninja Academy and was famous as a social butterfly. He even regularly helped old ladies cross the street.
He had tried to change attitudes within the Uchiha Clan, but his words carried little weight.
He had tried anonymously informing Hiruzen Sarutobi of everything, but the man had remained as silent as a useless husband.
He had tried using psychology to influence Itachi Uchiha, but Itachi had been brainwashed too thoroughly and still turned into a weasel.
Kyoshin had even tried to make Danzo truly understand the Second Hokage's political aims, but Danzo was only a half-baked student who had learned nothing from the Second Hokage except how to suppress the Uchiha.
The fact that a transmigrator had even tried to influence Danzo showed just how desperate he was.
Aside from the elusive Obito, Kyoshin had tried every way he could think of to warn the "main characters" of the night of the Uchiha Massacre or change their minds.
But nothing had worked. It had still come to pass.
If he had arrived a few years earlier, with enough time to prepare, perhaps... maybe... things could have turned out differently?
Kyoshin had a system, too, but its benefits accumulated over time.
It had only one function: Linear Potential. Hard work always paid off, and his potential had no limits or bottlenecks.
If Kyoshin had been a few years older—even the same age as Itachi—he would have had the strength to change everything.
Kyoshin frowned at the screen as one camera after another was discovered and destroyed, leaving only static in front of him.
The shadows in the hideout began to shift.
Several pitch-black feathers appeared out of thin air. They gathered together, gradually forming the outline of a person.
The feathers disappeared, revealing the uniform of a Konoha Anbu.
In a pair of crimson eyes, three tomoe linked together in a strange pattern and slowly revolved.
Itachi Uchiha appeared in the cramped space without warning. His Crow Clone had let him pass through every physical safeguard like a phantom.
He stood in the one spot that blocked the only exit. The indicator lights cast his long shadow over the room, shrouding Kyoshin completely.
"You really didn't die."
The words suddenly reached Kyoshin's ears, spoken in a voice that was perfectly rational and unmistakable.
Tears still marked Itachi's eyes, but his voice was utterly calm. "You completed the Ninja Academy's curriculum in a single year, graduated early, and tried to take on missions. Your goal was to fake your death during one of them so you could get away from the Uchiha and Konoha."
"Sigh..." Kyoshin turned his chair to face Itachi. Not a trace of nervousness showed in his expression. "You went through with it after all. You really are hopeless."
A trace of madness surfaced in Itachi's gaze, but reason quickly submerged it. "You're this calm. Is this a Shadow Clone?"
Kyoshin rested his interlaced fingers beneath his chin. Neither his expression nor his tone seemed like those of an eight-year-old. "Time will prove how foolish your choice was."
"I'm sorry." Itachi's heart and mind were both on the verge of collapse. "You're talented, you think things through, and you have good ideas... but the village can't afford to make mistakes anymore."
Itachi felt an unbearable sorrow.
If only Kyoshin had come along a few years earlier...
In any case, the story had reached its conclusion.
Either the village would purge the Uchiha tonight, or the Uchiha would rebel tomorrow night and deal the village a devastating blow.
No matter what, the Uchiha's fate was sealed.
Kyoshin made no effort to hide his disgust for Itachi. "One part of a jonin's reconnaissance training teaches you to judge the original's approximate location by observing subtle reactions in a clone."
"Now, the remaining Uchiha can't threaten the village at all. Is it really necessary to go this far?"
The Mangekyō Sharingan in Itachi's eyes watched Kyoshin the whole time, but the method he had learned in reconnaissance training yielded no useful information.
Itachi disagreed with Kyoshin's point. "They can't threaten the village physically. The order I received was to kill everyone and avoid public backlash."
Kyoshin's lips curled slightly. "Everyone?"
Itachi fell silent.
Kyoshin raised one finger and circulated a little chakra, preparing to dispel his Shadow Clone as he left Itachi with one final remark. "I'll help you finish the mission."
At that moment, Sasuke's smiling face flashed through Itachi's mind, and his Mangekyō spun rapidly.
As Kyoshin's clone vanished, Itachi sensed the chakra inside it drifting north.
At the same time, he heard the sound of Explosive Tags burning.
His body became a flock of black crows that flew out of the hideout, trying to deliver the information.
But it was already too late.
The explosion tore apart the entire underground hideout, and the crows dissolved into white smoke.
Outside the hideout, Obito used his intangibility to avoid the blast from the Explosive Tags.
He received no information from Itachi's Shadow Clone.
The dust settled.
On a large tree not far from Obito, the blast had torn away the branches and leaves, exposing a hidden surveillance camera.
Its faint red light stood out in the night. Obito glanced at it and muttered in annoyance, "Useless..."
A moment later, a kunai destroyed the camera.
In the northern forest outside Konoha, a black-haired boy stood silently on a branch, watching the light from the Explosive Tags flare amid the trees.
After receiving the memories sent back by his Shadow Clone, he turned and disappeared into the deeper darkness.
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