Going Head-to-Head with Obito, the Night of Extermination Ends!

Hidden Leaf Year 64.

The autumn wind blew through the old Uchiha clan grounds, sweeping up dead leaves across the earth. Strangely, there were hardly any weeds here.

A lone wooden marker stood atop a mound of dirt, its writing eroded by wind and rain until it could no longer be read. A few rotten rice balls had been placed in front of it.

Suddenly, the soil in front of the wooden marker stirred.

At first, it was only a faint loosening. Then, with a crack, a pale hand punched straight through the layer of dirt and grabbed the wild grass outside.

"Cough, cough—pah!"

Dirt flew everywhere as a figure suddenly sat up from underground, spitting out a mouthful of grit.

Yuan opened his eyes.

The long-missed sunlight stung so badly that tears nearly streamed down his face. He instinctively raised a hand to shield his eyes, only then realizing that his entire body was covered by nothing but a few strips of rotten cloth.

The back of his neck, pierced through six years ago, had not even left a scar. Even his skin was tougher than before.

"Beep—"

A familiar mechanical sound rang out in his mind.

[Revival successful. Current source energy: 12%. Repairing.]

[Basic functions are back online. Sharingan, chakra restored.]

[Rage value: 300.]

Yuan twisted his neck, and his bones gave off a teeth-aching series of cracks.

Six years of dormancy. He had spent a full six years in that pitch-black space! If he had not spent every day listening to more than a thousand clansmen muttering "kill Danzo" and "kill the Third" in his ear, he would have gone insane long ago.

"Finally alive again." Yuan climbed out of the pit and patted the dirt off himself.

He glanced at the wooden marker beside him. It had been wiped very clean. It seemed someone came by to tidy it up from time to time.

Just then, a faint sound of footsteps came from beyond the grass.

Yuan snapped his head around, and his dark pupils instantly turned into scarlet Mangekyo Sharingan.

The grass was pushed aside. A boy in a blue high-collared short-sleeved shirt walked out.

Black hair, a ninja tool pouch at his waist, and a Hidden Leaf forehead protector on his head.

He was carrying a bag in his hand. When he saw Yuan standing beside the grave pit, covered in dirt from head to toe, the bag in the boy's hand fell to the ground with a plop. Rice balls rolled everywhere.

The boy's pupils contracted violently. A pair of red Sharingan instantly activated, with two tomoe spinning rapidly within them.

"Who are you?" The boy pulled out a kunai, his voice trembling. "Why are you here playing ghost?"

Yuan looked at that face, now grown out, and the coldness in his eyes slowly softened. He tugged the corner of his mouth into an ugly smile. "Six years apart, and you're pointing that scrap of metal at your big brother?"

The kunai fell to the ground with a clang.

Sasuke stared fixedly at Yuan's face. That face had not changed at all from six years ago, except there was now a thick, intense killing intent between his brows.

"Yuan... Brother?" Sasuke's eyes turned red in an instant.

He took one step forward, but then stopped again.

Yuan sighed, strode over, and forcefully rubbed Sasuke's hair. Just like back then, when they had watched the sunset under the corridor.

"It's been six years. You've even awakened two tomoe." Yuan looked at Sasuke's reddened eyes. "You've grown taller, and sturdier too."

Sasuke gritted his teeth and stubbornly refused to let his tears fall.

"You didn't cry. Good." Yuan withdrew his hand. "I told you back then that you weren't allowed to cry before you became stronger. You did it. I knew you definitely could."

Sasuke took a deep breath and forced down the storm raging in his heart. "How exactly did you survive? I clearly buried you with my own hands back then! I saw Itachi's kunai pierce through you with my own eyes!"

"Hard to kill, I guess. Lord Yama thought my temper was too awful and refused to take me." Yuan pulled a small cloak from Sasuke's back and casually wrapped it around his own waist. "Don't worry about that for now. Tell me, in these six years, what's happened in the Hidden Leaf Village?"

The two sat down on the dilapidated stone steps.

From Sasuke's halting words, combined with what he himself knew, Yuan pieced together the events of the past six years.

That old bastard, the Third Hokage, had remained in power until three years ago, in Hidden Leaf Year 61, when Tsunade took over as the Fifth Hokage.

As for Danzo?

"On the third day after the night of extermination, Danzo disappeared from the Hidden Leaf with all the Root ninja," Sasuke said coldly. "No one knows where he went."

"And the truth of the extermination?" Yuan raised an eyebrow. "What did the village say?"

"They said the Uchiha intended to rebel, but in the end there was internal conflict within the clan and they killed each other. To stop the rebellion, Itachi personally killed the entire clan and then defected." Sasuke clenched his fists.

"Killed each other?" Yuan let out a cold laugh. What a fine job of turning black into white.

"And Aunt Mihui and the others," Sasuke continued. "Six years ago, the Third sent people to take over the clan grounds. They found them in the basement at the time. Fewer than twenty people, all elderly, weak, sick, or disabled. The Third settled them in an old house on the edge of the clan grounds, saying it was for secret protection, but in truth, he wouldn't let them contact the outside world."

The smile on Yuan's face vanished completely.

Secret protection? More like house arrest, to stop the Uchiha from going out and spouting the truth.

"Lead the way. We're going to see Aunt Mihui." Yuan stood up.

Ten minutes later, at the shabby house on the edge of the clan grounds.

The door was pushed open. A few white-haired old people were sitting in the courtyard, along with a young man who had lost a leg.

When they saw the man walking in bare-chested with rags wrapped around his waist, everyone in the courtyard froze.

"A ghost—" someone cried out in alarm.

The door curtain inside the house was lifted. Aunt Mihui came out carrying a basin of water for washing vegetables.

She had aged a lot, with white hair now, and her back was bent. When she clearly saw the person standing in the courtyard, the basin in her hands crashed to the ground, splashing water all over her.

"Aunt." Yuan walked over, his voice somewhat dry. "I'm back."

Aunt Mihui said nothing. She rushed up and hugged Yuan tightly, her tears soaking Yuan's shoulder.

Half an hour later.

Yuan changed into a set of black clothes his aunt had taken from his home and kept by her side all this time as a keepsake.

He sat by the table. On the table was a bowl of steaming hot porridge. It was exactly the same as the bowl his aunt had brought him that evening six years ago, on the night of the extermination.

Yuan picked up the bowl and drained it in a few mouthfuls. Not a single grain of rice was left.

He stood up and walked to the center of the courtyard. Then he raised his head and glanced at the distant Hokage Rock.

Four huge stone faces hung on the mountain. Especially the third one, the face carved in the likeness of Hiruzen Sarutobi, which still looked so "kind and great."

"Six years."

Yuan rolled his wrists and neck, and his bones once again gave off explosive cracks. He casually grabbed a long black coat and draped it over himself.

"Danzo ran. The truth was covered up. More than a thousand dead people, and all they got in return was one line about killing each other."

Yuan turned around and strode toward the outside of the courtyard.

Sasuke hurriedly followed. "Brother Yuan, where are you going?"

Yuan did not even look back, his voice carrying undisguised, violent killing intent.

"To the Hokage Building. To collect on a rotten debt that should have been settled six years ago!"

"The blood debt that the Hidden Leaf owes us Uchiha—today, I'm taking it back with interest!"