Finally, his gaze settled on Liuyu's hand.
At some point, an irregular crystal the size of a fist had appeared there, radiating an eerie blue-violet glow and pulsing slowly as though it were alive.
An imitation of a Hōgyoku Fragment.
It contained a faint trace of the Hōgyoku's aura, weak yet extraordinarily potent in essence, along with... a temptation toward "evolution" that made the soul tremble.
Liuyu drifted down from the torii and landed on the ground, treading through blood and dust that were no longer there as he slowly approached Sasuke, who stood frozen in place.
With every step he took, Sasuke instinctively backed away, his small body shaking like a leaf in the wind.
His black eyes were filled with incomprehensible fear, but more than that, they held... the emptiness left behind when his entire worldview had been shattered and everything he believed in had collapsed.
At last, Liuyu stopped in front of Sasuke, looking down at the boy who had only just turned seven and would have nothing left after tonight.
"Did you see clearly, Sasuke?"
Liuyu's voice was calm, yet it carried a strange power, as though it could pierce the soul and brand itself directly into the depths of Sasuke's consciousness.
"This is the price of weakness."
"Your dear brother, to protect the Konoha he cherishes, and his so-called 'peace' and 'greater good'...
"Planned to slaughter the entire clan with his own hands tonight, including your parents. Including you."
Liuyu raised a hand and pointed at the broken Itachi beside the pit, then at Fugaku imprisoned in the cage of light, and finally toward where Mikoto had disappeared.
"And I..."
He paused, slowly raising the blue-violet crystal before Sasuke's eyes, letting its eerie glow reflect deep within the boy's vacant, bewildered pupils.
"Am helping them,