News Spreads

"...Go... take this, you last remaining member of the Uchiha clan..."

Ignoring Uchiha Itachi's departure, Uchiha Naro turned away from the Hokage Rock with Uchiha Shisui and two others, heading toward the capital of the Land of Fire.

The young man took one last look at Konoha with eyes full of hatred, then glanced at the lone figure walking away from the village before turning to follow Uchiha Naro's pace. He paid no mind to his cloak, which was completely soaked through by the heavy rain, and under the worried gaze of the woman behind Uchiha Naro, he walked toward an unknown future.

The 54th year of Konoha, the first day after the night of the Uchiha clan's annihilation, heavy rain.

The second day, heavy rain.

The third day, heavy rain.

The fourth day, still heavy rain.

This was something that had never happened in Konoha before; previously, even at its worst, the rain would stop after a single day.

At this moment, Konoha seemed to be submerged in water, with puddles and mud everywhere.

The villagers stayed behind closed doors, the streets were desolate, and the occasional ninja passing by did so with their heads down, silent.

Those who had experienced the Second and Third Great Ninja Wars could not help but recall their time in the Land of Rain. It rained every day there too, but the rain there had never been as torrential as it had been in Konoha these past few days.

By the morning of the fifth day, the rain finally eased, turning into a light drizzle that offered the first sign of an end.

By noon, the rain finally stopped.

The sun emerged from behind the clouds, shining down on the wet village of Konoha, illuminating a village that had been washed clean.

The Uchiha compound.

No, it should be called "Uchiha Lake" now.

The two massive craters had completely transformed into a pair of lakes, with the trench between them filled with water like a small river, connecting the two bodies of water.

The lake water was clear.

The heavy rain and groundwater of the past few days had repeatedly washed over the site, causing the pulverized soil and flesh to settle at the bottom of the lakes.

The surface of the water shimmered, and one could even see fish swimming about. Whether they had emerged from the underground water system or swum in from the outside via the drainage ditches, these fish swam happily in the lake, occasionally leaping out of the water and splashing.

In just a few short days, water plants had even begun to grow along the banks, lush and vibrant green.

If one didn't know the truth, this place would look like a scenic spot for leisure.

But the people of Konoha knew the truth.

Because everyone knew that buried at the bottom of these two lakes were the remains of their former neighbors, comrades, and fellow villagers.

It was the flesh and blood of the Uchiha clan, once hailed as the premier noble clan of Konoha—hundreds of people who had perished at the hands of their own kin in a single night—shattered by countless explosive tags, mixed with soil and building debris, now settled at the bottom of the lake.

Everyone knew that every drop of water in these lakes was infused with the blood and flesh of the Uchiha clan.

The villagers walked around the area; even the nearby farmers, when needing water, would travel far out of their way to fetch it from elsewhere.

No one dared to go near the two lakes; no one dared to drink the water; no one dared to use the water to irrigate their fields; no one even dared to look at the lakes...

Every time they passed by, they kept their heads down and quickened their pace, as if one extra glance would cause something to fix its gaze upon them.

They felt a guilty conscience.

They had failed the Uchiha clan.

That night, the voice of Uchiha Setsuna had echoed throughout all of Konoha.

"My Uchiha clan has given everything for Konoha! Now, my clan has been schemed against by villains and is about to be wiped out, yet the people of Konoha look on with indifference!"

These words pierced every heart like a needle.

They had heard, but they did not move; they did not go to save anyone; they chose to stay in their homes and pretend that nothing was happening—

Even though they knew the Uchiha clan had been framed; even though they knew the Konoha leadership was lying; even though they knew they had become accomplices.

But they simply did not move—

Because they were afraid.

Because they feared death.

Because it was none of their business.

Now, the Uchiha clan was dead, turned into a lake.

And they were still alive, standing on the shore, not even daring to take a look.

It was a testament to their fear;

It was a testament to their cowardice;

It was a testament to their betrayal;

On the afternoon following the Jonin meeting, Sarutobi Hiruzen had ordered the Anbu Earth Style users to fill in the lakes.

"Fill in these two pits!" He pointed at the two craters on the map, his face ashen, "No one can see these pits! This is Konoha land! This will be the future residence for Konoha villagers!"

The Anbu received the order and departed.

A dozen Earth Style users stood by the lakes, forming hand seals in unison.

"Earth Style: Earth Wall!"

"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Gun!"

"Earth Style: Earth Mountain Jutsu!"

Various Earth Style ninjutsu slammed into the lake, sending soil and boulders cascading into the water like a waterfall.

But the lake merely rippled a few times before quickly returning to calm. The soil and stones poured in seemed to be swallowed by something, leaving not a single trace behind.

"Keep going!" the Anbu captain gritted his teeth.

Another few rounds of Earth Style followed.

Still useless.

The lake remained clear, and the bottom remained unfathomably deep.

"Try again!"

For the entire afternoon, until the early hours of the morning, over a dozen Jonin-level Earth Style users cast countless rounds of ninjutsu, but the two deep craters were like bottomless pits—no matter how much they filled, they could never be satisfied.

The soil poured in vanished; the stones poured in vanished...

They didn't even stir up much of a splash.

Late at night, an Anbu member said with a hint of terror, "Captain, this lake... is it haunted?"

Ninjas generally did not believe in ghosts or gods, but the scene before them was something they had never heard of—so much earth and stone could not fill these two pits, these two pits that bore witness to Konoha's betrayal...

"Shut up!" the captain barked, though he felt a chill in his own heart.

When the news reached the ears of Sarutobi Hiruzen, he remained silent for a long time.

"Continue tomorrow."

The next day, they filled it for another full day.

It still wouldn't fill up.

The rumors circulating in the village became increasingly outrageous.

Some said the two lakes were connected to the underworld, and the soil poured in had flowed into the Pure Land; others said the resentment of the Uchiha clan had turned into ghosts, wreaking havoc at the bottom of the lake; still others claimed the two lakes were an Uchiha curse—whoever tried to fill them would die.

By the early hours of the third day, an Anbu member who had participated in filling the lake suddenly developed a high fever and began to babble, muttering things like "I'm sorry" and "Don't kill me."

Medical ninjas examined him but could not find the cause of the illness.

By morning, two more had collapsed.

Sarutobi Hiruzen finally gave up.

"Stop filling it," he said, sitting wearily in his chair. "Leave it be. Let it serve as a lesson."

Utatane Koharu frowned. "But that rumor..."

"Let them talk," Sarutobi Hiruzen said with a bitter smile. "Rather than forcibly filling the lake and causing a greater stir, it is better to just leave it. The more outrageous the rumors, the less people will believe them. Send word to Shimura Danzō and have his Root obscure the rumors for me."

Utatane Koharu understood Sarutobi Hiruzen's intent, turned, and left the Hokage's office, heading toward Danzō's Root.

From then on, the two lakes remained there. Seen from above, they looked like a blade that had sliced Konoha in two.

Some said it was the resentment of the Uchiha clan; others said it was heaven's punishment; and still others said it was a blood debt that Konoha could never wash away...

Regardless, these two lakes became the most eerie places in Konoha.

No one dared to approach them, no one dared to mention them, but everyone knew they were there.

Right there, day and night, reminding every person in Konoha of what they had done.

Meanwhile, the ninja world was in an uproar.

The news of the Uchiha massacre was recorded on intelligence scrolls the very day after the night of the slaughter and delivered to the desks of the secret intelligence departments of every major ninja village.

Although Sarutobi Hiruzen had issued a gag order, Konoha's spies were no slouches. Not to mention, the scale of the commotion that night was so great that there was no need to expend effort investigating; it was clear to everyone what had happened.

Fourth Raikage A slammed his hand on the table and stood up in shock.

"What did you say?! Sarutobi Hiruzen wiped out the entire Uchiha clan?!"

"Yes," the Anbu kneeling on the ground replied. "According to intelligence from our spies embedded in Konoha, Uchiha Itachi conspired with Konoha's upper echelons. Last night, both the Anbu and Root were deployed simultaneously to slaughter the entire Uchiha clan."

"The report also notes that the Uchiha clan sent out multiple distress signals that night, but no one in Konoha responded. Before dying, an Uchiha elder exposed Sarutobi Hiruzen's plot to eliminate both the Senju and Uchiha clans, and also revealed the identity of the Nine-Tails jinchuriki. Afterward, Sarutobi Hiruzen convened a Jonin meeting, claiming the Uchiha were conspiring with foreign villages to stage a coup, named Uchiha Itachi as the sole perpetrator, and declared him an S-rank missing-nin."

"What a load of crap!" the Raikage roared. "An Uchiha coup? A coup against themselves? One man wiped out the whole clan? He expects people to believe such ghost stories?"

"The people of Konoha don't believe it either, but no one dares to object."

The Raikage paced back and forth in his office like an angry bull.

"That old man is ruthless! He wipes out a clan within his own village just like that! Isn't he afraid the other clans will revolt?"

"Intelligence indicates..." the Anbu hesitated, "...that before the Uchiha clan died, someone shouted from the sky over Konoha that Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō had conspired to assassinate the Second Hokage and the Fourth Hokage."

The Raikage stopped in his tracks. "Is that true?"

"I don't know, but based on our spies' reports, when Sarutobi Hiruzen passed the title to the Fourth, he didn't fully retreat behind the scenes. Instead, he continued to control the Anbu and various other departments. The Fourth was essentially a puppet with no real power in his hands. Furthermore, it has been five or six years since the Fourth passed away, and Sarutobi Hiruzen has held onto Konoha as the acting Hokage, unwilling to hold an election for the Fifth..."

"Interesting..." the Raikage stroked his chin. "Compile this intelligence and make it public."

"Publish it?"

"Yes! Let everyone know exactly what kind of person the Hokage of Konoha is!" The Raikage sneered. "Compared to us in Kumogakure, Sarutobi Hiruzen is the truly insane one. At most, we only snatch Kekkei Genkai from other villages, but he wiped out an entire clan within his own!"

In the Iwagakure administrative building, Ōnoki sat wearing his Tsuchikage hat, remaining silent for a long time after finishing the report.

"This Sarutobi Hiruzen..." He took off his hat and rubbed his temples. "He is even more ruthless than I imagined."

"Lord Tsuchikage, should we..." his guard began to ask.

"No," Ōnoki shook his head. "Konoha is like a powder keg right now, ready to explode at the slightest touch. What we must ensure is that this powder keg explodes within Konoha, not toward us..."

He thought for a moment and said, "Make this intelligence public. Let the people of Iwagakure see what the Kage of other villages are like. There are always those who complain that I am a senile old man and too restrictive. Now, let them see the consequences of not being restrictive."

On the other side, in the Village of the Bloody Mist within the Land of Water.

Terumi Mei sat in the Mizukage office, sneering after reading the report.

"Sarutobi Hiruzen, you have truly set an example for all the Kage."

"Publish it." Terumi Mei stood up and walked to the window. "Let the villagers of the Village of the Bloody Mist see that there are people outside who are even more ruthless than us. At the very least, our internal strife in Kirigakure is only a matter between ninja. Konoha wiped out an entire clan."

At the same time, the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, looked grim after reading the report.

"Konoha... is even more chaotic than we imagined."

"Lord Kazekage, should we take this opportunity to..."

"No rush," Rasa shook his head. "Let's see how the other villages react first. However, this intelligence can be utilized. Publish it and let the people of Sunagakure know that Konoha is rotting from the inside. When we go to war in the future, their morale will not be high."

Thus, by the second day after the Uchiha massacre, before the sun had even fully set, every major ninja village—from ninja to civilians—had learned of the events in Konoha, gathering in small groups to discuss the news they had received.

The headlines varied, but the content was largely the same:

<Konoha Shock: The Inside Story of the Uchiha Clan Massacre>

<The Truth About the Third Hokage: Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Shadow of Extermination>

<The Dark History of Konoha's Leadership: From the Annihilation of the Senju to the Uchiha Massacre>

<The Death of the Fourth Hokage—A Conspiracy of Konoha's High Command>

<Nine-Tails Jinchuriki Uzumaki Naruto: The Abused Orphan of the Fourth>

By the third day after the Uchiha massacre, the topic had been carried further by spies from smaller villages, spreading thoroughly throughout the entire ninja world.

The civilians were too shocked to speak when they saw these reports.

"The Hokage killed the entire Uchiha clan?"

"Is that why they say the Third Hokage is the strongest in the ninja world? How could someone capable of such a thing be weak?"

"Wiping out an entire clan alone? How is that even possible?"

"So the Fourth Hokage was killed by his own people..."

"The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is the Fourth's son? And he was abused?"

"Isn't Konoha too dark?"

The ninja had even more intense reactions.

"I've always heard people from Konoha say that Sarutobi Hiruzen is the best Hokage. I thought he was a kind old man, but I never expected..."

"The Shadow of Extermination—that's a fitting title."

"He even kills his own people. Who would dare stay in such a village?"

"I think Konoha could change its name. Both of the founding clans have been wiped out. I think it could be renamed Sarutobi Village..."

Amidst all this discussion, what of Konoha?

Konoha acted like an ostrich, burying its head in the sand.

No rebuttals, no explanations.

Doing nothing at all.

In Sarutobi Hiruzen's office, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura sat with grim expressions.

"Hiruzen, it has spread everywhere," Utatane Koharu said. "The title 'Shadow of Extermination' is known throughout the entire ninja world now."

"I know," Sarutobi Hiruzen said, puffing on his pipe, his expression terrifyingly calm.

"We have to do something!" Mitokado Homura insisted. "Otherwise, Konoha's reputation will be completely ruined!"

"Do what?" Sarutobi Hiruzen countered. "Explain? We have already explained. No one believes us. Rebut? The more we rebut, the worse it looks. Silence them? Can we kill them all?"

Both of them fell silent.

"Let them talk," Sarutobi Hiruzen stood up and walked to the window. "It will die down after a while. In this world, there is something new every day. In a few days, they will forget about the Uchiha and focus on something else."

"What they say doesn't matter," he said, his back to them, his voice somewhat hoarse. "What matters is that Konoha still exists. As long as the village remains, what we did was not wrong."

Outside the window, the two lakes shimmered under the sunlight, sparkling and looking beautiful.

Yet no one dared to approach, nor even dared to cast a single glance.

Konoha had changed, though no one could say exactly when it began.

The streets were emptier, voices were hushed, and everyone walked with their heads bowed, as if searching for something, or perhaps hiding from something. Children no longer chased each other in play but were kept locked indoors; adults no longer visited to chat, instead bolting their doors and windows to whisper in the dark.

The entire village was shrouded in an eerie silence.

It was like the stillness before a storm.

It was like the deathly quiet of a grave.

"Teacher, what is it that you truly intend to do?" Having just returned to the village and observing the state of the passersby, a white-haired ninja gazed toward the Hokage Building, his eyes filled with bewilderment...