Night of the Clan Massacre

Time gradually passed, and in the blink of an eye, that day arrived.

"See you, Ino."

Josuke waved goodbye to Ino.

Then he and Sasuke set off on the road home together.

For some reason, the unease in Josuke's heart gradually welled up. He felt it was close...

Seeing that Josuke had not said a word along the way,

Sasuke asked in confusion, "Brother, what's wrong? You seem so down today."

Josuke came back to his senses and replied with a smile, "Nothing. I was just thinking about something." Josuke found an excuse to brush it off. Naturally, he would not mention anything about the night of the clan massacre...

"Oh."

Neither of them knew that a figure was staring intently at them.

Under the setting sun, the entire Hidden Leaf Village was gradually shrouded in darkness.

An eerie atmosphere hung over the entire Uchiha Clan compound.

At that moment, atop the Hokage Building, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, stood with his hands behind his back. Behind him, Itachi Uchiha, dressed in ANBU attire, knelt on one knee.

"Itachi, have you made your decision?..." The Third Hokage spoke in a grave tone, his back facing Itachi Uchiha.

Hearing the Third Hokage's words, Itachi Uchiha kept his head lowered, but his eyes carried a resolve unlike ever before.

"Yes, Lord Hokage..."

"I only hope that Lord Hokage will grant me one final request..."

Itachi Uchiha understood very clearly that after tonight, he would bear the sin of slaughtering his clan. In exchange, the Hidden Leaf Village was to protect his younger brother, Sasuke Uchiha, and Josuke.

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a deep breath and said in a low voice,

"Don't worry! As long as I am here, no one in the Hidden Leaf Village will be able to harm your younger brothers..."

Itachi arrived outside the clan compound.

The furious child, Obito the clan exterminator, had already been waiting there for a long time.

"You're here?" Obito said flatly. To him, this was no different from any ordinary matter.

After all, Rin was already dead. Nothing was more important than Rin.

All that remained in this world was profound despair and darkness.

Itachi nodded.

"Mm. Let's proceed according to the plan."

Obito then headed to the Hidden Leaf Police Force and began a massacre, digging out every last person's Sharingan along the way.

Meanwhile, Itachi entered the clan compound.

Katana in hand, he was like an asura from a blood prison, killing everyone he saw. One clansman after another died beneath Itachi's blade. Itachi seemed numb, doing nothing but continuously reap those lives that had once been so vibrant.

Wherever he went, blood sprayed everywhere. No one survived.

Suddenly,

Itachi saw Fugaku. Fugaku stood motionless ahead, his eyes holding eerie, sinister Mangekyo Sharingan.

Itachi was shocked.

He could not help tightening his grip on his katana.

Fugaku said in a deep voice,

"Itachi, what will be the result of this slaughter?"

With that, Itachi stepped before him without saying a word.

He merely activated his Sharingan and showed Fugaku the village, as well as the future of the Uchiha Clan.

After seeing those visions of the future, Fugaku froze. After a while, his body vanished, and Itachi could not help drawing in a sharp breath. Is this the power of the Mangekyo? Even a mere clone possesses such power.

Itachi did not linger. Instead, he continued killing every remaining clansman. Then, returning to the earlier scene,

he leaped onto a rooftop, activated his three-tomoe Sharingan, and stared intently at the two returning from school.

Then he calculated the timing.

He returned home.

His three-tomoe Sharingan was fully activated as he stared intently around him, trying to find any traps or hidden weapons nearby.

Fugaku, inside the house, heard the sound and said calmly, "There are no traps. Come in."

Itachi put away his Sharingan and entered the house.

"It seems like it has been a long time since we last had a proper conversation, hasn't it?"

Fugaku looked at Itachi. The scarlet glow radiating from his Mangekyo was the most bewitching color in the night.

"Itachi, after I die, keep these eyes. Whether for you or for your younger brothers, we have seen the future within the Sharingan..."

Fugaku smiled faintly again and tightly grasped his beloved wife's hand.

At that moment, Mikoto too was already crying uncontrollably.

"Itachi, Mother wants to ask one thing of you. Take good care of your younger brothers, all right? I'm leaving them to you."

Mikoto's words pierced Itachi's heart once more.

Fugaku then continued,

"I failed to control the clansmen. It is all Father's fault that this tragedy came to be. Our pain is nothing compared to yours. Ours will only last an instant. Though our beliefs were different, you are still our pride. Come."

The head of the Uchiha Clan faced his death with such composure, joining hands with his wife as they awaited eternal sleep.

By then, Itachi was sobbing uncontrollably, and the blade in his hand trembled violently.

But he sensed the two of them arriving...

The slaughtering blade in his hand swung down. His three-tomoe Sharingan temporarily numbed him, blood pouring from his eyes as his three-tomoe Sharingan transformed amid his grief into pinwheel-shaped Mangekyo Sharingan!!!! (It did not awaken when he killed his parents. It awakened when Shisui died, but because he was too grief-stricken, it activated uncontrollably.)

The two who had returned saw corpses strewn across the ground. Josuke already had the answer in his heart, but Sasuke did not know. The two rushed home, only to see the aftermath of Itachi murdering their parents.

!!

They also saw a glass bottle in Itachi's hand, containing a pair of eyes!!!

Sasuke could not believe what he was seeing. Was this really his gentle, kind brother??

No!!

None of this was real!

"You foolish little brother, hate me, despise me!"

Itachi's Mangekyo ability activated!

Tsukuyomi

It showed Josuke and Sasuke the entire process of the clan massacre exactly as it had happened.

Overwhelming grief flooded Josuke's mind. His eyes turned blood-red, and a one-tomoe Sharingan appeared in them.

After awakening his one-tomoe Sharingan, Josuke fell unconscious amid his extreme grief.

Only then did Itachi slowly speak.

"This is the reward I received after killing the entire clan—these eyes!!"

With that, he slowly walked toward Sasuke.

Terrified, Sasuke fled in a panic. Itachi walked over to Josuke, lowered his head to glance at him, then resolutely rose and left.

Sasuke had barely run a few steps before Itachi blocked his path and began that clumsy lie once more.

"Foolish little brother, I have merely been acting all along, playing the role of the so-called gentle older brother. Come, hate me. You foolish little brother, hate me, despise me! Come and kill me. Oh, and I forgot to tell you—the condition for awakening the Mangekyo is to kill someone close to you.

Only then will you become a vessel worthy of testing me in the future!"

The endless pain also caused Sasuke to awaken a one-tomoe Sharingan...

His extreme hatred made him forget his fear. Holding shuriken and kunai, he hurled them toward Itachi.

By accident, he knocked Itachi's forehead protector away.

Itachi hurriedly picked up the forehead protector and put it back on. Looking at his youngest brother, tears began flowing from his eyes uncontrollably. Then his Mangekyo emerged, and a powerful oppressive force made Sasuke collapse unconscious on the spot...

(Poor Itachi. Why is he pitiful? To grieve for his misfortune and resent his failure to fight against it—that is what "pitiful" means.

That was my original intention, but I got flamed for it. Being an author is really hard.

To put it bluntly, I only got flamed because I indulged the haters. If you have not studied Lu Xun's writings, go learn what it means to grieve for someone's misfortune and resent their failure to fight against it.

You people who flame everything you see, acting like rabid dogs, are unbelievable.)