Uchiha Massacre

When he stepped into the classroom, there was none of the usual noise and clamor.

It seemed that many people already knew the news, while the foolish, carefree Naruto appeared not to have paid any attention to it.

Ning Xue sat in the corner. He looked indifferent, but inwardly, he deeply sympathized with Sasuke.

People said Sasuke was putting on airs, acting cool, and all that, but put yourself in his shoes. If your entire clan was wiped out one day, everything around you vanished, and worst of all, your own relative had done it, it would be a blessing if you did not go insane.

And it seemed the higher-ups had tacitly approved all of it.

What? Such a large-scale massacre. Could the higher-ups really have known nothing?

In the end, the higher-ups had simply feared the Uchiha.

Having Itachi and the Masked Man wipe out the clan together had merely been going with the flow.

Those Uchiha clansmen had done nothing wrong. They had only been sacrificed because the village feared civil war.

There had clearly been better ways to handle it. Yet they had been discarded as tools for the so-called interests of the village.

The fingers holding his pen tightened slightly as he thought of the terror behind the Will of Fire's brainwashing.

He realized that Root within Konoha's upper ranks might already have rotted away.

Then he thought of his father.

"Heh. So they're all the same. To these higher-ups, anyone can be a tool. For the greater good? What a joke. They're nothing but a pack of turtles. Hiding behind the excuse of the village's interests is truly laughable."

Ning Xue said this inwardly, with what seemed like both mockery and self-mockery.

Just then, Sasuke entered the classroom.

He had become even colder and more withdrawn than Ning Xue. A nearly pure flame of hatred burned in his eyes, warning strangers to stay away, while his usual coolness and pride had vanished without a trace.

"Hey, did you hear? The Uchiha clan... they're all dead!"

"Only Sasuke is left..."

"It was Itachi... his brother did it! That's terrifying!"

"Overnight... how could this happen..."

The whispers were like the buzzing of mosquitoes, yet they reached Ning Xue's ears with perfect clarity. He remained seated and did not secretly study Sasuke like the others did.

For some reason, this feeling made him think... he had a bit of an old veteran's air about him.

Those words landed on Sasuke, making his already frigid aura almost tangible.

Every sentence deepened his hatred for that man.

Iruka entered the classroom, his expression heavier and more grief-stricken than ever before.

He opened his mouth, wanting to offer some comforting words, but when he saw Sasuke's profile, as though he had sealed himself away in another world, every word felt pale and powerless. In the end, he merely began the lesson in a hoarse voice, though clearly, few people could take it in.

During the break, the atmosphere grew even stranger.

Sakura and Ino shoved each other back and forth, their faces full of worry and helplessness. They wanted to go comfort Sasuke, but the icy aura that warned strangers away forced them back. They could only watch him from afar.

Naruto, however, looked at things from a rather unusual angle. At first, he sympathized with Sasuke too.

But then he thought that Sasuke seemed just like him now: no parents, no friends, all alone.

So, driven by a feeling that they were of the same kind, he wanted to be Sasuke's friend.

At last, as though he had made up his mind, he awkwardly shuffled over to Sasuke's desk one step at a time.

"Hey... Sasuke..." Naruto's voice was much lower than usual and carried a trace of caution. "Are... are you okay?"

Sasuke did not react at all. He did not even lift his head, as though Naruto did not exist.

Naruto grew a little anxious and stepped closer. "Um... I... I know you're sad... because, because I also..."

He had wanted to say that he was alone too, and perhaps they could... could understand each other?

However, before he could finish—

"Get lost."

Sasuke suddenly raised his head. Those black eyes no longer held their usual indifference.

There was only hatred clouding his gaze and boundless rage as he vented the pain in his heart upon Naruto.

"Dead last... what do you understand?!" Sasuke's voice was hoarse and sharp, filled with hostility.

"Stay away from me! I don't need anyone's sympathy! Especially not yours!"

Sasuke did not want Naruto's sympathy. It was a matter of pride for him.

He believed Naruto was not as strong as he was, and he did not need pity from someone weaker.

More importantly, he believed Naruto could not understand him.

Naruto had no parents, no family, no friends. What right did he have to understand his pain? He could never understand his pain!

Naruto staggered back a step, frightened by the sudden violent reaction. He opened his mouth but could not say anything. He had thought he had found a companion, but reality gave him a painful slap across the face. In the end, he said nothing, lowered his head, and left in silence.

Everyone in the class saw it all, yet no one said anything.

They merely looked at the two of them with all kinds of strange expressions.

Ning Xue took it all in as well and inwardly lamented Naruto's naivety.

How could an orphan who had never known love possibly understand an orphan who had grown up in a loving family, only to lose everything overnight?

He sympathized with Sasuke because he understood the feeling of losing one's family overnight.

But for those who could not see reality clearly, reality would give them a painful slap.

After witnessing the Uchiha tragedy, he felt an even more urgent need for strength. He needed that strength to protect those he cared about.

"Uchiha..." he silently repeated in his heart, as though sighing.

At the same time.

In an unnamed little village near the border of the Land of Fire, a butterfly flew by before landing on a strange man.

His face was unnaturally pale, as though he had not seen sunlight in a long time. He had long, smooth black hair draped over his shoulders and wore an unusual white kimono tied with a purple rope around his waist. His eyes were especially peculiar, sharp like a snake's.

At that moment, he stood within the village, gazing from afar in Konoha's direction.

"Shimura Danzō... what an old man who loves stirring things up. It's been a year, heh heh..."

"We were colleagues back then, yet you got rid of me for your own shady dealings. That was rather unkind of you..."

"But this is nothing more than a small variable."

He had originally planned to establish the Hidden Sound Village in the Land of Fields as a base and recruit several promising youngsters, such as Kidomaru, Toku, and others with special abilities.

However, a raid launched by Konoha's Root against a secret base near Kusagakure completely disrupted his plans.

The youths who should have become Sound ninja, along with gifted children like Kin Tsuchi, were either captured or killed amid the chaos. The rest completely lost any possibility of becoming ninja and were placed under Konoha's strict surveillance.

For Orochimaru, this was undoubtedly no small setback.

But he had no intention of giving up.

"The Konoha Crush Plan..." he murmured. A cruel smile flickered through his golden snake-like eyes. "It seems I'll need to enter under another identity. The Fourth Kazekage... heh heh, that is quite a good choice."