Demonic Corruption Begins

Sasuke could not accept Black Shadow's claims. He did not think he was worthless.

Yet his Sharingan was completely useless. Unwilling to accept this, Sasuke turned the Uchiha Estate upside down in search of scrolls, but he could not find a single one.

"That's not right. I remember there being lots of scrolls in the hidden compartment in the study. Why are they all gone?" Sasuke asked uneasily.

"You should have already guessed who took the scrolls." Black Shadow wore a mocking expression.

Sasuke gritted his teeth. "Shimura Danzō, right? He thought I was young and didn't know where the clan's resources were hidden, but I knew everything. And when I woke up in the hospital, all the clan members' bodies had already been buried. I didn't even get the chance to see them one last time! That old bastard must have been afraid I'd discover that all the Sharingan had been dug out. I'll never let him go! If he hadn't kept pushing Itachi step by step, how could Itachi have..."

"Heh." Black Shadow laughed disdainfully.

"What are you laughing at?"

"I'm laughing at you for deceiving yourself." Black Shadow stared at Sasuke as though he were garbage. "After learning the truth, you shifted all your hatred onto Shimura Danzō and forgave Itachi with a clear conscience. Isn't that self-deception?"

"I didn't!" Sasuke denied it as fiercely as a cat with its fur standing on end.

"You know whether you did or not." Black Shadow leaned close to Sasuke's ear. "The Uchiha Clan must have had rotten luck for eight generations to end up with a clan leader's line full of idiots."

"Your dead father, Fugaku Uchiha, had clearly sensed the coming disaster that would destroy the clan, yet he neither gave a warning nor left behind a way out. He did nothing, lay down and waited to die, and let a mentally immature thirteen-year-old child make the choice while he watched the entire clan be slaughtered."

"There's even less need to mention Itachi. His skull was full of dog shit! And you? In the future, you'll wag your tail like a dog for Konoha. Your whole family is nothing but purebred ungrateful wretches..."

"I won't allow you to insult my father!" Sasuke pounced at him with bared teeth and claws, only to be stomped to the ground by Black Shadow.

"What, did I expose your true feelings and make you lash out in embarrassment?" Black Shadow viciously kicked Sasuke in the head. "That impotent rage of yours looks quite a lot like Fugaku, that worthless trash. Filthy jars breed filthy weeds; lowlifes breed lowlifes. You really are father and son, cut from the same cloth."

Sasuke glared at Black Shadow with venomous hatred. His rage gradually burned away his reason, but then Black Shadow said, "Look at you. I only insulted Fugaku a few times, and you already hate me this much. But have you ever considered what kind of treatment your parents' and clan members' bodies would receive after falling into Danzo's hands?"

A chill abruptly doused Sasuke's fury. At his side, Black Shadow vividly described it. "They would be stripped naked by a group of people, placed on experiment tables, skinned, dismembered, their bones ground to dust and their ashes scattered. Kabuto Yakushi couldn't even use Impure World Reincarnation on Uchiha clan members during the Fourth Great Ninja War. Don't you understand what that means?"

"You want to forgive Itachi? Forgive Konoha? Do you fucking deserve to say the word 'forgive'? Do you have the right to forgive on behalf of the dead?"

Fugaku, Itachi, and Sasuke, this father and two sons, truly did not care about the clan members. After all, they were the noble clan leader's line. To them, the clan members were merely cold bargaining chips. Fugaku used those chips to gamble on Itachi's choice; Itachi used them to buy his own self-satisfaction and Sasuke's safety; Sasuke had only Itachi and Naruto in his heart. What were clan members to him? Wasn't it only natural for clan members to sacrifice themselves for the clan leader's bloodline?

Black Shadow's biting cruelty barely stirred a trace of shame in Sasuke, but not much. His goal was not to correct Sasuke's values, but to silently erode his will while Sasuke's mind was in turmoil.

Sasuke sobbed soundlessly, tears gathering into a tiny lake on the floor. "What should I do? I can't forgive Itachi, but I can't hate him either!"

"If you can't figure it out, stop agonizing over it. Rather than tormenting yourself here, why not go crazy and torment others?" Black Shadow coaxed him patiently. "Konoha has so many clans. Pick a few at random and recreate the Uchiha Clan's experience for them. See what choices they make."

Sasuke trembled. "They're innocent."

"The prerequisite for not implicating the innocent is that the innocent do not share in the benefits. The children of bandits enjoy the wealth and glory their parents gained through murder, arson, plunder, and rape. Their hands have never been stained with blood, but are they innocent?" Black Shadow spoke at length.

"Some people in Konoha enjoyed the benefits brought by the Uchiha Clan founding the village, then feasted on the blood-soaked spoils of the Uchiha Clan's destruction. They let Danzo bear all the blame, pretended they knew nothing, and truly thought they were innocent white lotuses?"

"Your ancestors were Konoha's founders. Naturally, you have the right to destroy this place. It is only right and proper."

The Demon's whispers echoed through his mind again and again. The light of humanity gradually gathered dust, and the chains called morality teetered on the verge of collapse, no longer able to stop Sasuke from falling into the Abyss of darkness.

Overnight, Sasuke changed. He no longer looked bitter and burdened, no longer kept "revenge" on his lips at every moment. He became normal, as though he were merely a quiet, handsome young man.

Appearing normal did not necessarily mean he truly was normal, but unfortunately, the Shinobi World had no psychology, and no one cared what Sasuke truly thought.

Black Shadow said that villains should be "treacherous while seeming loyal." Shimura Danzō was only such an obvious failure because his villainous aura was too distinct. Everyone knew he was a bad person, so whenever something bad happened in the village, they instinctively assumed he had done it.

That kind of villain was truly a failure. Even if he could not pretend to be a good person, he should at least pretend to be beautiful. When Demons destroyed the world, they would put on a face capable of toppling nations. There would always be some idiots fooled by that superficial disguise.

Then look at Shimura Danzō. Tsk, tsk, it was unbearable to look at him.

Sasuke's personality change was obvious, but during this period, no matter what he became like, he could hide it behind the "clan massacre."

Daily life at the Ninja Academy was as boring as ever. During break, Sasuke sat at his desk pretending to read while actually observing Naruto Uzumaki.

I never knew Naruto's true identity before, so I never noticed. Now I realize this class is truly strange, Sasuke thought to himself. The sons of the heads of all the major clans have actually gathered in one place. That alone says a great deal.

The Ninja Academy primarily existed to train civilian ninjas. Although they could learn the Three Basic Techniques and some theoretical knowledge, even basic common sense like walking on water was only taught after graduation. Ninjas born into clans naturally had elders to teach them, and there were even more exceptional cases, such as Konohamaru Sarutobi, who could hire private tutors for one-on-one instruction.

"This is a monopoly on knowledge. A few geniuses may emerge from among civilians, but the 'civilian' class has a hard time overtaking the clans," Black Shadow said flatly.

The beginning of "Hokage" really resembled an underdog story about a commoner rising from the bottom. But as the plot unfolded, the protagonist accumulated more and more plot armor and more and more hidden identities. Everything became destined, just as the ugly duckling became a white swan because it had been a swan all along.