Night.
Naka Shrine.
The wind was cold.
Uchiha Itachi walked alone up the stone steps.
His expression was calm, but his heart was not.
Danzo was wanted.
Root had been sealed.
Shisui had kept his eyes.
His father had begun to take a hard line.
The Uchiha's morale had soared.
Everything had changed.
It had changed too fast.
So fast that the "village" and the "Uchiha" Itachi had known had been torn open by Shingetsu in just a few days, revealing another side to them.
Especially that Night Owl Plan.
The Uchiha Priority Elimination Plan.
Controllable juveniles.
Special bloodline samples.
Those words pierced Itachi's heart like blades.
He had always believed the village was where everyone belonged.
As long as both sides gave a little, war could be avoided.
But the truth told him that some people had never wanted the Uchiha to live.
Danzo was only one of them.
What about the others?
Did Lord Hokage really know nothing?
Had the Councilors really not turned a blind eye?
Itachi didn't know.
What unsettled him even more was that he had received an Anonymous Letter that evening.
It contained only one sentence:
If you want to know the Uchiha's true fate, come to Naka Shrine.
Itachi shouldn't have come.
Shingetsu had warned him, too.
But Itachi had come anyway.
Not because he didn't trust Shingetsu.
He wanted to see for himself who was hiding in the shadows.
When he reached the depths of the Shrine, Itachi stopped.
"Come out."
The air fell silent for a moment.
The next second.
A figure slowly emerged from behind a pillar in the Shrine.
Black robes.
A Spiral Mask.
A scarlet Sharingan slowly turned behind an eyehole in the mask.
Itachi's pupils suddenly contracted.
"A Sharingan?"
The Masked Man's voice was low.
"Uchiha Itachi."