Night of the Clan Extermination

"Shisui, listen to those miserable screams. That is the sound of the successor you chose, under the command of the Third Hokage you respect most, wantonly slaughtering his own kin. Are you happy?"

"The peace between the clan and the village you have always yearned for is about to be realized. Are you excited?"

The night wind blew through the empty streets of Konoha, stirring only a few fallen leaves and making a rustling sound.

Earlier that morning, the Third Hokage had issued a prohibition: due to recent activity by spies from other villages, no one was to go out at night unless absolutely necessary.

Yet, beneath this stillness, the air in the Uchiha compound was permeated with a faint scent of blood, quietly spreading through the night.

Uchiha Naro sat on the veranda of his small house, holding a cup of steaming tea, his gaze calmly fixed on the night sky, which was stained red by the glow of fires.

Screams, wails, and the sounds of ninjutsu explosions drifted over from the clan grounds.

But he did not move.

He did not even lift his eyes.

"Master... I... I never imagined it would come to this..."

A phantom figure composed of red resentment knelt beside him, respectfully holding a teapot with both hands. It was the soul of a young man with a heroic face, his brow etched with an indelible sense of guilt and agony.

Uchiha Shisui.

Once the strongest genjutsu ninja in Konoha, the Body Flicker Shisui.

Now, he was nothing more than a vengeful spirit, the main soul of the Ghost Bone Banner, serving at the side of Uchiha Naro.

At this moment, he lowered his head, his spiritual body trembling violently as black mist continuously erupted from within, transforming the red aura inside him into black.

"Never imagined?" A mocking smile curled the corners of Uchiha Naro's mouth. "You handed your eyes to Uchiha Itachi and pinned your hopes on him, naively believing he could use Kotoamatsukami to stop the Uchiha coup. Well, he certainly stopped it!"

He set down his teacup and looked down at the vengeful spirit kneeling on the ground.

"The moment you told Hiruzen about the power of your eyes, Danzo came to seize them. After you committed suicide, the successor you chose, Uchiha Itachi, turned around and planned to wipe out the entire clan. Shisui, is this the way you protect Konoha and your clan? It is truly unique!"

The black mist erupting from Uchiha Shisui's body grew thicker, his spiritual form began to distort, and a look of agony appeared on his face.

"Master... I beg you... save the Uchiha clan..." Uchiha Shisui kowtowed, his forehead striking the ground with a dull thud. "I know I am not worthy to ask this of you, but I beg you, for the sake of our kin..."

"Save them?" Uchiha Naro interrupted him. "How?"

"Isn't all of this what you chose?"

He turned to look toward the clan grounds, where the firelight was brighter and the screams were becoming more frequent.

"Take them away? To where? The outskirts of Konoha are crawling with Danzo's Root members, and those former teammates of yours in the Anbu are also waiting on the perimeter. Can you guarantee that even if those people escaped Uchiha Itachi's kunai, they could dodge the two layers of killing circles outside?"

Uchiha Shisui was speechless.

"Or should they stay in Konoha?" Uchiha Naro continued, his voice as cold as ice. "The coup plan was leaked to the Konoha high command by Uchiha Itachi. Danzo and the Third have already decided to exterminate the clan; they will not leave anyone alive. Do you think anything can be changed now?"

He picked up his teacup again.

"Nothing can be changed."

Uchiha Shisui's vengeful spirit slumped to the ground, the light in his eyes dimming as the black mist nearly swallowed him whole.

"However..." Uchiha Naro changed his tone, "I can do one thing for you."

Uchiha Shisui looked up abruptly.

"I can make their deaths worth something."

As soon as he finished speaking, gray and red phantoms began to emerge from the ground of the courtyard, drifting toward a long banner emitting red smoke in the center of the yard.

These were souls that had died only moments ago.

The spiritual bodies still retained their appearance from before death; some held spatulas, some cradled children, and others wore the uniforms of the Military Police, their bodies covered in wounds with blood still dripping down.

"This is the aunt who ran the ramen shop in the clan," Uchiha Naro said calmly. "Her husband died in the Third Shinobi World War, and she raised two children on her own. The older one had just graduated and joined the Military Police, the other..."

The first to drift over was a middle-aged woman, her spirit still wearing an apron and holding a spilled ladle. Her face was full of terror, her chest pierced by a kunai, blood still streaming from the wound.

He looked at Uchiha Shisui: "Do you know how she died?"

Uchiha Shisui shook his head, his soul trembling even more violently.

"When Itachi broke into her house, she was cooking a late-night snack for her daughter. She went out to see what the noise was and was pierced through the heart by a kunai from behind. Her daughter was hiding in the cabinet behind her, watching her mother fall into a pool of blood."

Blood tears began to stream from Uchiha Shisui's eye sockets.

"Uchiha Nakajima, he participated in the Second Shinobi World War and had a leg blown off on the battlefield in the Land of Rain." Uchiha Naro continued to introduce them to Uchiha Shisui, who had spent his life maneuvering between the Hokage and the Uchiha high command and had paid little attention to these ordinary people. "After retiring, he returned to the clan and lived on a pension. He never participated in clan politics and didn't even join the Military Police; he just spent his days planting flowers and raising birds."

The vengeful spirit was an old man, limping as he walked, holding a severed head with graying hair in his hands. His left pant leg was empty, and the face of the head he held bore a scar extending from the forehead to the chin.

Uchiha Naro paused: "When Itachi killed him, he was watering his garden. He didn't even know what was happening before his head flew off."

"Uchiha Aya, her parents sacrificed themselves on a mission. She had no other relatives in the village, so the elders of the clan took turns looking after her. Today, it happened to be Uchiha Nakajima's turn. After Itachi killed Uchiha Nakajima, he went into the bedroom and finished her off."

The third vengeful spirit, a child with a pale, bruised face, drifted into the Ghost Bone Banner, her movements dancing with the innocence typical of her age.

Uchiha Shisui's soul collapsed to the ground, his hands supporting his weight as black mist poured out frantically, accompanied by a low, guttural roar.

"Master... kill me... it's all my fault... it's all my fault..."

"Kill you?" Uchiha Naro shook his head. "If I kill you, can these dead people be resurrected? Can what has happened be undone? You cannot die. You must carry these sins, carry this resentment..."

He continued to introduce the later vengeful spirits.

"Uchiha Huahua, a veteran of the Third Shinobi World War. His wife died at the hands of Iwagakure ninja during the war, leaving him to raise their daughter alone. He advocated for a coup but opposed the slaughter of civilians. His final words before death were directed toward the direction of his home; he did not know that his Minako had long since been found by Itachi in the bedroom, dying curled up in her blankets, clutching a photograph of her mother tightly."

"Uchiha Ken, a member of the Police Force. He was lucky enough to have never seen the battlefield and was always your staunchest supporter among the doves. He believed that they should negotiate with the Konoha high command, convinced that an armed coup would only destroy the Uchiha and destroy Konoha. Thus, he had been secretly corresponding with Hiruzen, firmly believing that the Third Hokage also agreed with him and would protect the Uchiha."

"When he fell, his eyes were still fixed on that unfinished letter. The end of the letter read: 'I believe the Will of Fire is correct, and I believe Lord Third will lead our Uchiha clan to find a new path, just as he protects Konoha.' As he wished, the Third he trusted truly helped him find a way out. His wife had her throat slit by Itachi in the kitchen, and now, following behind her vengeful spirit is their child."

"Uchiha Miyuki was a cousin of Uchiha Mikoto. She was nine months pregnant and waiting at home to give birth. She had already decided on the child's name—the same as the genius of the Uchiha clan who followed you, a single character: 'Hikari' for a boy, 'Sakura' for a girl. Her husband happened to be on the night shift for the Police Force tonight and had passed away long before her."

"'Itachi... kun?'"

"'Aunt Miyuki.'"

"'What happened? What is going on outside?'"

"'No... don't... I beg you... my child is about to be born...'"

"'You can kill me, but I beg you to save my child... send him to the hospital...'"

"'Hikari... my Hikari...'"

You see that her ghost and her child have not been separated; they are still connected by the umbilical cord. Even if she were to lose her own head, she would not bear to let go of her child's ghost.

"Uchiha Cang, in terms of bloodline, he could be considered your cousin. Today was his third day with his ninja headband; he hadn't even been assigned a sensei yet. But I suppose the Third never intended to assign him one anyway—after all, when someone is about to die, why bother others with the trouble?"

"His mother was an ordinary person, and the two of them relied on each other to survive. She fell ill today, so he helped watch the vegetable stall, only returning home late in the evening. But the moment he arrived, he saw the person he idolized plunging a kunai into his mother's chest. He rushed over to save her, and in that instant, he awakened his eyes—the two-tomoe Sharingan."

"But what use was that? He still had his throat slit. Before he died, he spat blood and murmured, 'Dad... I'm sorry... I didn't protect... Mom... Am I... very useless...?'"

"Uchiha Yosuke had been called the 'Disgrace of the Uchiha' since he was a child because he could not refine chakra and could not become a ninja. He and his wife ran a cake shop that was quite popular among the civilians of Konoha. Before they died, they were still making a cake for an old customer from the Mito family. The couple's blood slowly flowed onto the cake that had fallen to the ground, staining the white cream red."

"Uchiha Daiki had happily taken five days off to care for his wife, who was recovering from childbirth at home. His parents had both died in the war, and this small family was his entire world."

"His throat was pierced by a kunai, and his wife was burned alive in a Fire Style jutsu... He wasn't dead yet, struggling to crawl toward the small wooden crib he had built with his own hands. A 'gurgling' sound came from his throat as blood bubbles emerged. He reached out, wanting to touch the face in the small crib... his hand stopped in mid-air, then fell limply. His eyes remained open, unable to close in death."

There were so many... so many that Uchiha Naro could not introduce them one by one...

There were youths who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy, killed with a single strike before they could even put on their genin flak jackets;

There were jonin who had just returned from the front lines, still carrying the exhaustion of their missions, falling into pools of blood before they could even take a sip of water at home;

There were women three months pregnant, Itachi's blade piercing through their backs, killing two lives with one strike;

There were radical hawks who had always advocated for a coup to overthrow the Konoha high command, dying with weapons in their hands as they tried to resist;

There were moderate doves who had always tried to negotiate with the Third Hokage, hoping to resolve issues through peaceful means, dying empty-handed with shock and resentment on their faces;

There were disabled people who had lost their legs in the war, sitting in wheelchairs as their throats were cut;

There were newlyweds, married for only a month, dying together in their bridal chamber before their honeymoon had even ended;

Listening to Uchiha Naro's narration, the soul of Uchiha Shisui was completely swallowed by black mist, leaving only a human silhouette. However, under Uchiha Naro's gaze, a faint trace of cyan could be seen flickering within the black mist.

What flowed from his eye sockets was not tears, but blood-black light—the anger and despair of a vengeful spirit evolving into a malevolent ghost.

"Do you still want me to save them now?" Uchiha Naro asked.

Uchiha Shisui's voice was so hoarse it was almost unintelligible: "I... I don't know..."

"You already know the answer." Uchiha Naro stood up and walked in front of Uchiha Shisui. "These people are already dead; they cannot be saved. But you can make their deaths worth something."

Uchiha Shisui looked up at him, his blood-black eyes filled with confusion.

"How?"

"Carry the anger of the Uchiha clan, carry the hatred of the Uchiha clan, and take revenge on those who stand high above, on those who fancy themselves as saviors." Uchiha Naro stared into Uchiha Shisui's eyes, his primordial spirit invading Shisui's soul, continuously projecting the arrogant images of Hiruzen, Shimura Danzō, and Uchiha Itachi.

In the sky, the moon was obscured by dark clouds, with only a few stars flickering.

"I cannot bring them back to life, but I can make their deaths meaningful."

"The Uchiha clan will not die in vain. It was Konoha that abandoned the Uchiha clan first, so as the founders, let the Uchiha clan be the ones to toll the funeral bell for Konoha's destruction."

"The Uchiha clan will become the fuse that ignites the conflicts of the shinobi world. Konoha, Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, Kumogakure—all the hidden villages will be drawn into this storm, accompanying the Uchiha clan as they return to the Pure Land..."

Uchiha Shisui stared at him blankly.

"What you must do now is to voluntarily shoulder the sins, grievances, and hatred of the Uchiha clan within the Ghost Soul Banner... let their souls find peace and tranquility..."

"From now on, your soul will have to endure the gnawing of the vengeful spirits of the slaughtered Uchiha clan every moment, experiencing the pain they felt before death, feeling the hatred they held before they passed... until they completely let go of the resentment in their souls..."

"Can you do it?"

"BOOM—"

Just then, a distress signal flare exploded above the Uchiha compound, its vivid red light illuminating the entire sky of Konoha.