Slaughter

Sasuke Uchiha was somewhat irritable this night, inevitably carrying a bit of ruthlessness during his hunt.

Another Chunin turned to dust amidst the surrounding thick fog, and before dying, he did not forget to utter harsh words cursing Itachi to die a horrible death. Sasuke was quite satisfied with this; his Transformation Technique was truly exquisite.

Recalling the plan of drawing the firewood from under the cauldron that the black shadow had mentioned, Sasuke could not help revealing a hint of gloom. Theoretically, this move was indeed ruthless, striking directly at the vital points of Konoha's higher-ups. While killing the spirit and destroying the heart, it could also cut off the hope of Konoha's future from the source.

Konoha's development process was very strange. The beginning of the village's establishment was the period with the strongest comprehensive strength, and after that, it went from bad to worse. Renowned powerhouses always inexplicably fell in battle, defected, or left the village and were unwilling to return. Nowadays, Konoha had already shown a trend where the older generation was withering before the younger could take over.

Of course, it was not just Konoha like this; the other major shinobi villages were also the same. It went against the theory that history should spiral upward, becoming more powerful the more ancient it was, much like certain xuanhuan cultivation worlds.

Only the future Naruto Uzumaki would lead Konoha toward a new peak. Without Naruto, Konoha might decline into who knows what state, or rather, the entire shinobi world was continuously going downhill.

When the black shadow was saying these things, it guessed that there might be a force in the shinobi world suppressing the ninja class in the form of boiling a frog in warm water, but this was not important; what was important was Naruto.

The black shadow suggested finishing off Naruto, and Konoha would never have any hope of rising again. Given Sasuke's understanding of the black shadow, since it said such things, it proved that it really had killing intent toward Naruto, only being hindered by some kind of restriction from personally taking action to kill.

Although free from Indra's influence, Sasuke still could not make up his mind to kill Naruto, vacillating in his head as if two consciousnesses were fighting.

"I said, rather than torturing yourself internally, it's better to torture others. If you feel conflicted, you might as well let it go first and find something else to make yourself happy." A voice full of bewilderment rang in his ear.

Sasuke nodded subconsciously, yet did not know what to do. The Night of the Massacre seemed to have blocked his channel for feeling happiness.

Thus, the black shadow led Sasuke to find an eccentric named Torune Aburame. Sasuke recalled carefully before remembering that Torune Aburame was a subordinate of Shimura Danzō, with nano venomous insects parasitizing his body.

In an instant, Sasuke's gaze changed.

Seemingly perceiving a strange aura, Torune Aburame alertly released venomous insects to check the surroundings. "Who?"

A familiar figure wearing a black-cloaked robe with red clouds slowly emerged.

"Itachi!" Torune Aburame was greatly shocked. "What on earth is your purpose in returning to Konoha?"

While speaking, Torune Aburame had already launched an attack and fired a distress signal. Fighting fiercely and desperately against Itachi all by himself was an extremely irrational act.

"If nothing unexpected happens, a lot of the fellows you hate will come in a moment. How do you plan to handle them?"

"Directly slaughter them."

"Tsk tsk tsk, and here I thought you would torture them to vent your anger. The procedures for the top ten tortures are all prepared for you~"

Sasuke and the black shadow chatted leisurely and comfortably, yet Torune Aburame was extremely terrified. In his field of vision, he could only see Itachi talking to himself amidst the encirclement of venomous insects, looking very much like a mental patient.

Torune Aburame could not help dropping a cold sweat, thinking to himself, "Perhaps Itachi has really gone crazy? The Uchiha Clan is already mentally abnormal to begin with, and personally destroying his own clan stimulated him to become even crazier. Is he regretting it and coming back to cause trouble for Lord Danzo?"

Until several Root members arrived at the scene, Torune Aburame was still deep in his own delusions.

Sasuke: "It seems Danzo is still quite cautious, not dispatching important Root members to go toe-to-toe."

Black Shadow: "This is also quite easy to understand. After all, inside Konoha, when something happens, just let Hiruzen Sarutobi get a headache; why bother wasting his own men?"

Sasuke: "By now the higher-ups should already know the news of Itachi's return, right?"

The black shadow nodded, and Sasuke smiled. "That's good."

As his voice fell, the mist that originally covered his body to prevent the venomous insects from approaching suddenly turned into thick smoke and swept over everyone. After the smoke dispersed, everyone lost their trace.

Today was cloudy turning to sunny.

Sasuke went to the Ninja Academy for class as usual, without a trace of abnormality, yet the Hokage's Office had already blown up.

Last night, S-class missing-nin Itachi returned to Konoha. Torune Aburame sent a message to Root, and Danzo dispatched a few cannon fodder to provide support, then immediately informed Hiruzen Sarutobi of the situation.

Hiruzen Sarutobi originally thought Itachi had some important intelligence to report in person. After waiting bitterly for a long time, what he waited for instead was that Itachi and the Root ninjas pursuing him had all mysteriously disappeared.

Shimura Danzō's heart ached terribly. Torune Aburame was one of Root's trump cards and also a genius ninja of the Aburame; he certainly did not want to endure this kind of loss!

Root and the ANBU dispatched many people to search. They found the scene of the incident, and experienced ninjas, based on the remaining traces, discovered several corpses deep inside the Forest of Death.

Although Root was long since accustomed to blood and slaughter, they were still startled for a moment by the tragic sight before them—

The skinned corpses knelt and sat in a circle around a pit. They had all been disemboweled, and their crowns of heads had also been pried open. The whitish brains and internal organs were piled up in the pit like an alternative bowl of noodles. What was even more creepy was that they had personally hollowed out their own viscera while alive and cooked them into a pot of "noodles."

Worth mentioning was that Torune Aburame was not among them.

Root and the ANBU forcibly endured the feeling of their sanity plummeting wildly, carefully cleaned up the scene, and after reporting the intelligence, Shimura Danzō raged ineffectively in the Hokage's Office.

The reason it was "ineffective rage" was because they could do nothing whatsoever against Itachi. Konoha's current situation was not too good, and it was impossible to mobilize troops specifically to hunt down Itachi. The only person capable of checking and balancing Itachi was Sasuke Uchiha, but facing a ruthless person who could personally wipe out his entire clan, no one could ensure what kind of standing Sasuke actually held in Itachi's heart.

According to Danzo's idea, he should have directly thrown Sasuke into Root, engraved with the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal, and used this to threaten Itachi.

Hiruzen Sarutobi decisively rejected Danzo's unreasonable demand. According to his judgment, Itachi was very likely already crazy and could not withstand stimulation.

Danzo wanted to make Hiruzen Sarutobi and Itachi come into conflict; Hiruzen Sarutobi simply couldn't be bothered to pierce through such petty thoughts.

"As for this matter, for now it can only be like this." When Hiruzen Sarutobi said these words, a bitter feeling couldn't help welling up in the bottom of his heart. A mere missing-nin made the village look so disgraced; how did Konoha end up like this?

Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura were also sighing repeatedly. In fact, the numbers of Konoha's Genin, Chunin, and Jonin were not small at all, and their military strength was very abundant. But Konoha lacked those super powerhouses who could reverse the situation with a single move. Due to its special geographical location, Konoha needed top-tier powerhouses to guard the borders, or at the very least have second-tier powerhouses like Shisui Uchiha or Hatake Sakumo.

It was a pity that Konoha seemed to have been cursed these past few years; outstanding people never lived long.