Sasuke Uchiha's Doubts

In the Hokage's Office, Hiruzen Sarutobi heard the questions from the other four Kage and slowly raised his head.

Exhaustion was etched into his face, but an unshakable resolve burned in his eyes.

He straightened his slightly stooped back. Beneath the Hokage Hat, his hawklike gaze swept over the four projections.

"I understand what you're saying," he said. His voice was quiet but remarkably steady, carrying clearly to every Kage.

"But," he continued, his tone turning firm, "this 'paper' is Konoha's internal affair. Only the Hokage and his advisors can decide what to do with it!"

"Place it under the joint supervision of the Five Kage?" Hiruzen Sarutobi raised his voice, a trace of mockery in it. "How would you even guarantee that such supervision would be impartial and secure?"

"Which of you can guarantee that someone won't steal it again, copy it, or use it while it's under your watch? The Shinobi World would only sink into greater chaos and suspicion!"

His gaze sharpened. "And as for your threat of war!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi drew a deep breath. His voice rang out like a great bell, filled with the resolve and responsibility of a village's Kage:

"Konoha loves peace, but it has never feared war!"

"If you're willing to tear up our treaties and attack Konoha, which has already lost the Fourth Hokage, over an evil object whose workings no one even understands..."

"Then I, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, and every ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village will fight you to the end!"

He slammed his palm onto the desk and leaned forward. His powerful Chakra and the authority of a longtime leader spread through the room like a physical force. Even the projections seemed to ripple.

"If you want to take anything from Konoha by force, you'll have to ask its ninja whether they'll allow it! Ask whether the Will of Fire, passed down to this day, will allow it!"

"Handing it over is out of the question! That is Konoha's final answer!"

The office fell deathly silent.

Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura stared at Hiruzen Sarutobi's back in shock. They had never seen their old friend take such a hard line.

The four Kage in the projections were clearly shaken by his refusal to yield, even at the risk of war.

They had expected Konoha to bargain. They had not expected him to reject every demand so bluntly—or turn their threat back on them.

The Raikage's face darkened ominously. Ōnoki's brows drew tight, Mei Terumi's smile vanished, and Baki pressed his lips into a thin line.

"However..." Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly sat down. "I can tell you how to break this 'death' rule."

No one truly wanted a war. The Shinobi World was already fraught with danger.

The Akatsuki Organization, Nine Nether, and the mysterious Naraka each had plans of their own.

And the Five Great Nations were weaker than ever. Another Shinobi World War would only drive them from the stage of history.

At last, with everyone's tacit consent, Hiruzen Sarutobi cut off the communication technique himself.

In the office, Hiruzen Sarutobi swayed slightly, as though all his strength had left him.

He knew a great storm was coming.

But he also knew some lines could never be crossed.

Entrusting the village's safety to others' "joint supervision" and mercy would be the height of folly and irresponsibility.

In fact, Nagato, Obito Uchiha, and Black Zetsu of the Akatsuki Organization had no fear of the so-called Death Paper.

Nagato had always appeared as Pain. He had never revealed his real name or face.

And although the Canopy Screen had exposed Obito Uchiha's name, no one knew what he looked like now. The so-called Death Paper posed no threat to him either.

As for Black Zetsu, he possessed some of the properties of a Truth-Seeking Orb. Conventional means simply could not kill him.

Deep in the night, Sasuke Uchiha stood alone in the shadow of a dead tree. His Sharingan glimmered coldly in the darkness as he stared at the now-empty sky.

The Canopy Screen had long since vanished, but the image of Shimura Danzō making a deal with Naraka remained seared into his mind.

While everyone else focused on the Death Paper, Sasuke Uchiha cared far more about the filthy bargain between Shimura Danzō and Naraka.

Shimura Danzō. The one-eyed man who always lurked in the Hokage's shadow.

Sasuke knew he was no good. He knew Danzo had always targeted the Uchiha.

But what the Canopy Screen had revealed seemed to go far beyond that.

Naraka. That inhuman monster who radiated evil and ill omen.

How had two beings with seemingly nothing in common ended up plotting to destroy the Uchiha together?

"Why?"

The word came through clenched teeth into the deathly quiet night.

Sasuke's brows knotted. His handsome face was full of confusion and anguish.

"Why is that monster Naraka targeting the Uchiha too?"

Sasuke searched his memory of his clan's old texts and the fragments his father had told him, but found no mention of such a monster.

"What does the Uchiha have that a monster like that would covet?"

He understood Danzo's motives: power, the Sharingan, eliminating rivals. That fit the hypocrisy of the Konoha Leadership perfectly.

But what did Naraka want?

On the Canopy Screen, Naraka had said he "hated the Uchiha's eyes."

Where had that hatred come from? When had the Uchiha ever made such a bitter enemy of a monster like him?

A sense of absurdity and unreality washed over Sasuke. The blame for his clan's massacre had once pointed squarely at one man—his brother, Itachi Uchiha.

Later, he had come to understand that pressure from the Konoha Leadership had played a part. But Itachi was still the one who had carried out the slaughter.

Now the Canopy Screen was telling him that someone darker, someone inhuman, had been pulling the strings?

If... if that's true, Sasuke thought, his heart clenching, then what part did Itachi Uchiha play in all this?

The thought left him almost breathless with fear and confusion.

Was he the mastermind? But why would he work with Danzo and a monster like that? To test his own limits? That made no sense!

Was he used? Did he know nothing about Naraka? Had Danzo made him the blade that wiped out the Uchiha while keeping him in the dark?

Or did he know and carry it out anyway? For some reason he couldn't speak of?

Every possibility sent a chill through Sasuke. The path of revenge that had been growing clearer in his mind had suddenly been thrown into doubt by an enormous, uncontrollable variable.

"That Death Paper!" Another image flashed through his mind: Danzo casually sacrificing a subordinate to test the strange paper.

"With power like that, and that monster Naraka beside him, did Danzo really need Itachi to wipe out the Uchiha?"

Once the seed of doubt had taken root, it spread wildly.

Fragments of the Night of the Massacre surged through Sasuke's mind again.

But now those memories had taken on an even stranger cast.

Had his clanspeople's terror and despair come not only from Itachi's blade, but also from the influence of some formless evil?

"What is the truth?"

Sasuke clenched his fists so hard his nails dug into his palms. The sting did nothing to ease even a fraction of the turmoil inside him.

The Canopy Screen had given him no answers. It had only left him with more questions.

And those questions gnawed at him like ants.