Tearing Apart the Fig Leaf of the "Filial Son" Who Killed His Own Kin

Fragments shot in every direction, and shattered roof tiles were blasted into the air by chakra.

Ye did not spare Hiruzen Sarutobi or Shimura Danzō, whose faces had turned livid, a single glance. When he withdrew his gaze, the top floor of the Hokage Building was already a complete wreck.

He raised a hand and gripped Kabuto's shoulder. The faint blue radiance flowed into his sleeve, formed from the afterimage scroll behind him.

The two vanished directly from the Hokage's office as the laws of space began to operate, leaving behind only a charred carpet and chakra fluctuations that had yet to dissipate.

Before them lay an open stretch of land. Konoha's higher-ups had not yet closed their encirclement.

This was the southern part of the Uchiha Compound, a civilian district near Naka Shrine.

Yet the stench of blood in the air was overwhelmingly pungent, though the fires here were somewhat weaker.

Ye's figure appeared as space gently warped, and he crushed a broken half-log beneath his foot.

Izumi Uchiha, who had only just awakened, fell onto the bloodstained bluestone pavement as he waved a hand to undo the sealing scroll.

Izumi shuddered as a cold wind swept through the streets. She looked up blankly, her gaze passing Ye's profile and landing on the courtyard ahead.

The courtyard's wooden gate had fallen into a pool of blood. A man in an Anbu uniform stood with his back to them, blood still dripping from the ninja blade in his hand.

Kneeling at his feet was an elderly Uchiha woman in her sixties, usually responsible for sweeping the outskirts of Naka Shrine.

She had not activated her Sharingan and could not even refine chakra. Her aged face was filled with terror and pleading as she could only kneel there, desperately clutching the Anbu ninja's trouser leg.

The Anbu ninja did not stop. His blade drove straight through the old woman's chest from above.

The sound of steel scraping against ribs pierced the night, making scalps tingle.

Blood spurted from the blade's groove, splashing all over the Anbu ninja's animal mask.

The old woman twitched twice before her body crashed heavily to the ground. Her withered hands finally loosened, and dark red blood rapidly soaked into the earth beneath her.

Uchiha Itachi flicked the droplets of blood from his blade, then sheathed his ninja sword.

Tears streamed endlessly from Izumi's eyes. Her entire body shook as both hands clamped tightly over her mouth.

The Itachi before her could no longer overlap with the gentle, reserved boy in her memories.

The man wielding a blood-dripping blade to slaughter defenseless elderly people, women, and children was the same person who had always smiled at her beneath the sunset while eating dango.

Izumi dropped to her knees and began dry-heaving. Her stomach spasmed, and every beautiful memory she had of Itachi completely crumbled before this sea of blood.

Itachi turned at the sound, having heard the disturbance behind him.

Only cold indifference remained in the Three-Tomoe Sharingan behind his mask. Reflected in the moonlight, most of that Anbu mask was already soaked in blood.

His gaze lingered on Ye for a moment before shifting to Izumi, sprawled on the ground.

There was no pain in those Sharingan, nor was there any guilt.

"Izumi... You could have died in the Security Department without feeling a thing. Why did you come here... Why insist on seeing something this hopeless?"

That condescending, charitable tone drew a cold laugh from Ye's throat.

At that moment, the system's electronic voice rang out.

"Ding. Detected that the host has confronted Uchiha Itachi. Hidden achievement completed. Fusion rewards are now being issued. The Eight Gates and White Rage Technique have fused into the body."

The Sage Body immediately began operating at full force as boundless vitality surged into Ye's body.

His muscles and meridians expanded to their limits in the span of a breath before being reshaped. A dense series of cracking sounds came from within his bones.

The eight chakra points that had originally required years of arduous training to open could no longer restrain him. Massive amounts of chakra surged through the meridians of his entire body.

Wisps of green chakra vapor rose from his body, while the surrounding rubble was drawn by the airflow and bounced repeatedly across the ground.

Ye looked at the horrific scene before him and sighed. He shielded the still-trembling Izumi behind him, then stepped forward.

His gaze, fixed on Itachi standing in the pool of blood, was filled with mockery.

"Hopeless? What the hell are you talking to me about hopelessness for?"

Ye swept his gaze over the corpses at Itachi's feet. Every word he spoke rang clearly through the entire courtyard.

"Kill a few old ladies who can't even fight back, and you really think you're some god now, huh? That you can decide who lives and dies whenever you want?"

He raised his eyes again and looked at that bloodstained animal mask.

"Uchiha Itachi, what are you pretending to be so noble for? It's fucking disgusting."

Itachi's eyes remained cold as his fingers tightened around the hilt of his blade.

"Capacity... Someone like you could never understand what capacity is."

Blood dripped from the blade's tip into the dirt, its body hanging diagonally at his side.

"Konoha needs peace... and that means someone has to make sacrifices. All of this is necessary."

Itachi did not loosen his grip on the blade, his gaze fixed on Ye.

"If the Uchiha rebelled, there would definitely be war. I... I was only stopping them. I just didn't want more people to die."

"Peace? Stopping bloodshed? Hahahaha..."

Ye burst into loud laughter, filled with scorn, casually clapping twice as he did.

"You wagged your tail like a dog for those old bastards in the higher-ups. Danzo wanted to dig out our clansmen's eyes, and you didn't even dare let out a peep!"

As his laughter faded, the Mangekyo Sharingan in Ye's eyes began to spin.

"And then? You turned around and dared to raise your blade against your own parents, against these old, weak, sick, and disabled people?"

He met Itachi's gaze, the mockery on his face growing sharper.

"You're worse than the mutts Danzo keeps!"

Ye raised a hand and pointed at the corpses at Itachi's feet, which had not yet gone cold.

"Even dogs know to bite outsiders. They'd never turn around and bite the mother that gave birth to them to death!"

The chakra around Itachi instantly faltered. Veins bulged across the back of his hand gripping the blade, and his breathing grew heavier.

All that so-called greater good he had struggled to uphold was thoroughly exposed by Ye in front of Izumi, leaving it with no ground to stand on.

When Itachi spoke, his voice had completely cracked. Veins throbbed at his temples, and even the hand holding his blade began to tremble.

"What do you know? You don't know anything!"

The rapidly spinning Three-Tomoe connected in an instant, forming the shape of a triple-bladed shuriken.

"To achieve peace, someone has to be the sinner! Someone has to bear this burden!"

Itachi pressed half a step forward, the ocular power in his left eye rising sharply.

"Fine... Since you insist on being stubborn, then go to that world and take a good look at what reality really is!"

Blood flowed from the corner of his eye, trailing down his cheek and dripping onto his Anbu mask as Itachi forced his left eye open to its limit.

Enormous ocular power crossed space and locked directly onto Ye's eyes. The strongest genjutsu, Tsukuyomi, activated.

The colors in the courtyard faded in an instant, and a blood-red space spreading in from every direction completely enveloped Ye.

The moon hanging high above was black and without light, while the sky had turned a vivid crimson.

Black iron spikes pierced Ye's limbs, pinning him firmly to a wooden frame. His entire body was bound to a massive cross.

With a terrifyingly grim expression, Itachi held a long blade as he stepped out from the void ahead, one step at a time.

For a full seventy-two hours, he would torment this loudmouthed clansman here until he learned fear.

Without even the slightest movement in his brow, Ye watched Itachi approach without struggling at all.

He suddenly burst into laughter, lifting his head to examine this bizarre space. His laughter echoed repeatedly through the blood-red world.

"In front of these eyes of mine... you're trying to use genjutsu on me?"

His previously dim pupils erupted with intense light. Ye raised his head as the Mangekyo Sharingan in his eyes began spinning at high speed.

"Itachi, you really think far too highly of yourself."