Hiruzen Sarutobi's Reflection

In Konoha, Sasuke Uchiha watched in confusion. He had been very young back then.

At the time, Naka Shrine had seemed enormous, imposing, and a little frightening to him.

He remembered how strange the atmosphere in the clan had been throughout the year before the Night of the Massacre.

The adults had hurried about with grim faces. None of them had time to pay attention to the clan leader's son.

All he remembered was how tired his father had looked.

His older brother had rarely played with him anymore, either. He had always been discussing something with Brother Shisui.

What he saw on the Canopy Screen made Sasuke Uchiha understand one thing: the tragedy that destroyed the Uchiha had not happened overnight.

In the Hokage's Office, the pipe in Hiruzen Sarutobi's mouth had gone out long ago, but he hadn't noticed.

On the Canopy Screen, he did not see a band of traitors bent on rebellion.

He saw a proud clan, wounded and driven to the edge of a cliff, crying out for the last time.

The composure Fugaku Uchiha had struggled to maintain, and the helplessness buried deep in his eyes, pierced Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart like a needle.

Then there was Shisui Uchiha, that bright young man who had inherited the Will of Fire. His earnest sincerity looked so precious on the screen, yet so... fragile.

And the one responsible for all of it bore a name Hiruzen Sarutobi did not want to face but could no longer avoid: Shimura Danzō.

"Danzo."

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed silently and sank back into his chair.

Had things really gone that far back then? he asked himself. Was there truly no chance for a peaceful resolution? Did it have to end in bloodshed?

He knew the answer.

That was precisely why it hurt so much.

He had known what Danzo was doing back then.

Root members had made ever more frequent, provocative "patrols" outside the Uchiha Compound.

Several disappearances and clashes had been cleverly pinned on the Uchiha.

Among villagers and non-Uchiha shinobi, whispers and fear had quietly spread over claims that the "Sharingan controlled the Nine-Tails."

It had all been Danzo's work: precise, ruthless, efficient, and utterly unscrupulous.

But now, as Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at those living faces on the Canopy Screen and heard their desperate cries, he could not look away.

For the first time, he clearly realized that the price of his tacit consent might have far exceeded anything he had imagined.

He had thought he was striking a balance, using a gentler approach to counter Danzo's extremism.

Now he saw how feeble that approach had been against Danzo's relentless schemes.

Worse, he had become part of Danzo's strategy: a symbol of "weakness and futility" that only strengthened the Uchiha's conviction that negotiation was useless and resistance their only option.

Was I really wrong? The question weighed heavily on Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart.

At last, he slowly set down his Pipe. It made a soft sound, yet in the deathly still office, it struck like thunder.

Shimura Danzō, watching from Root, felt little at the sight. He was more curious about when he had ever come into contact with Nine Nether and Naraka.

After everything that had happened, Shimura Danzō had begun to wonder whether he was going senile.

The other Great Shinobi Villages and the Akatsuki Organization were largely unmoved. After all, wiping out a clan was hardly something unique to Konoha.

Since the First Shinobi World War had erupted after the death of Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi, countless Kekkei Genkai clans had vanished from history forever.

The Uzumaki Clan, the Hozuki Clan...

The next day, the Canopy Screen resumed its broadcast as usual.

[The scene shifted to a secret underground meeting room in Root.]

[A massive stone table stood at the center of the room. Shimura Danzō sat alone at one end, staring coldly at the figure opposite him.]

[The air across from him rippled faintly. A dense black shadow, formed of concentrated malice, hovered there: a fragment of the demon Naraka.]

[It had no fixed shape. One moment it took the form of a sneering face; the next, it dispersed into an ominous haze.]

["Tsk, tsk, tsk..."]

[Naraka let out a string of contemptuous chuckles.]

["Danzo, is that all you're capable of? Scurrying around like a sewer rat, spreading rumors that barely sting?"]

["And sending your shady underlings to pace outside someone's home? It's laughably childish."]

[The shadow writhed, forming a vague hand that waved dismissively toward Danzo, as though shooing away a fly.]

["Just look. Look at them."]

["Those Uchiha at Naka Shrine made plenty of noise, but what happened? Fugaku Uchiha and that Shisui brat calmed them down with a few words."]

["The little spark you lit didn't even singe their clothes. It's already about to go out."]

[Naraka's voice brimmed with sheer mockery and inhuman malice.]

["You think these childish games will drive a powerful clan with a Kekkei Genkai into rebellion?"]

["Danzo, are you insulting me or yourself? How utterly boring!"]

[The fingers of Shimura Danzō's hand tightened slightly against his knee. His exposed eye bored into the shadow as he spoke in a low, hoarse voice edged with unyielding steel.]

["Watch your words, Naraka."]

[He paused, seeming to hold back his anger.]

["Konoha is not a place where I can do as I please."]

["Hiruzen Sarutobi is still the Hokage. He may turn a blind eye to what I do."]

["But any move too drastic would bring unwanted scrutiny and resistance."]

[A deep, bitter darkness flashed through his lone eye.]

["Stirring the villagers' fear, using the Nine-Tails incident to drive a wedge between them and the Uchiha, sending Root members on intimidating patrols, and arranging a few 'accidents' that can't be traced back to us..."]

["That is the limit of what I can do within the current constraints."]

["I'm not the Hokage yet. I can't openly use Konoha's power to condemn them, much less start a civil war without cause!"]

His voice carried pent-up resentment, aimed as much at Naraka's mockery as at the limits on his own power.

["Fugaku Uchiha is no fool, and several of the Uchiha elders are formidable as well."]

["Push them too hard, and they'll grow wary ahead of time. They might even take desperate action and ruin all our plans."]

["What I want is a perfect 'Uprising' that lets us wipe them out completely, not a chaotic mess riddled with holes that leaves Konoha gravely weakened too!"]