Keep the Lies Coming

The courtyard fell silent.

Kakashi sat on a stone stool, head bowed, his hands clenched into fists. His nails dug deep into his palms.

His shoulders trembled faintly. A long time passed.

Only then did he speak, his voice hoarse.

"My father..."

"He was always..."

He could not finish.

Uchiha En said nothing, giving him time to take it in.

Another long while passed.

Kakashi drew a deep breath and raised his head.

His eyes were red, but he had not shed a tear.

"Go on."

His voice was steadier, but his fists remained clenched.

Uchiha En looked at him and nodded.

"All right."

"Then let's talk about... the Senju Clan."

Kakashi frowned slightly.

"The Senju Clan?"

"You hardly hear the name Senju anymore, do you?"

Uchiha En looked at him and spoke evenly.

Kakashi paused, then nodded without thinking.

It was true.

In Konoha, no one had mentioned the name Senju in a long time.

The clan that had once rivaled the Uchiha Clan as Konoha's greatest seemed to have... vanished without a sound.

Uchiha En gave a cold laugh.

"You think the Senju Clan died out naturally?"

"They were deliberately wiped out."

"What?!"

Kakashi jolted, his eyes widening.

Uchiha En ignored his shock and continued.

"Senju Nawaki. Tsunade's younger brother."

"You know the name, don't you?"

Kakashi nodded.

Senju Nawaki had been one of the Third Hokage's students, a young prodigy hailed as the most likely to carry on the Senju Clan's legacy.

"If he hadn't died, he would have been one of the strongest contenders for Hokage."

"And yet he died on an utterly ordinary battlefield."

Uchiha En's voice was cold.

"Do you know the real reason?"

Kakashi shook his head.

"Because Danzo deliberately leaked information about him."

"The enemy planted a great number of Explosive Tags along his route and blew him to pieces."

"Senju Nawaki was the Senju Clan's finest heir. With his death, the clan had no successor."

Kakashi's breathing quickened.

Uchiha En went on.

"At the same time, Danzo and the Third Hokage secretly supported Orochimaru's experiments with Hashirama Cells."

"And the test subjects... were members of the Senju Clan."

"Many of them didn't die natural deaths."

"They were used as experimental material, their lives drained away."

Kakashi's pupils trembled.

Uchiha En watched him and continued.

"And why did Tsunade leave Konoha?"

"Do you really think she left because she couldn't bear losing, because the Sannin's reputation had been damaged?"

"No."

"She had begun to sense the vast darkness hanging over Konoha."

"Her beloved younger brother, Senju Nawaki, was dead."

"So was the man she loved, Dan Katō."

"Both were killed by the Konoha High Command."

Kakashi's fingers shook.

His breathing grew faster and faster.

"And then... there was the Uzumaki Clan."

Uchiha En kept speaking.

"When the Uzumaki Clan's nation was destroyed, Konoha claimed it hadn't been able to send help in time."

"But the truth is, the Konoha High Command knew well in advance that Kirigakure and Kumogakure planned to attack the Land of Whirlpools together."

"They chose to do nothing."

"Why?"

"Because the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu was too powerful. Leaving them alive posed a threat to Konoha."

"In the end, the Uzumaki Clan was wiped out, and a great deal of its Sealing Jutsu knowledge was lost."

"And Konoha happened to send people in after the battle. They brought back your teacher's wife, Kushina Uzumaki, along with some sealing scrolls."

Kakashi shuddered.

"Why didn't they go sooner?"

"Because they had to wait until nearly everyone was dead... then come in to clean up."

There was no emotion in Uchiha En's voice.

"Go too late, and there'd be no one left to save. Go too early, and they wouldn't get the Sealing Jutsu."

"They timed it perfectly."

Moonlight fell softly across the stone table.

Kakashi kept his head down and said nothing, but his breathing was ragged, his chest rising and falling sharply.

In the moonlight, his pupils could be seen contracting slightly. Doubt crept into his gaze.

Silence stretched on.

When he spoke, the words sounded forced from his throat.

"Then... what about Minato-sensei?"

Uchiha En looked at him and was silent for a few seconds.

Then he spoke.

"On the Night of the Nine-Tails, every member of Root was absent."

"Do you know why?"

Kakashi raised his head and stared at him.

Uchiha En's voice was calm.

"The Nine-Tails appeared that night because of the Masked Man."

"The same Masked Man who appeared on the night of the Uchiha Clan Massacre."

"He and Danzo... had been in contact all along."

"Danzo could never accept that Minato Namikaze had become the Fourth Hokage. He wanted to use the Nine-Tails' rampage to get rid of him."

"Because Minato Namikaze was too perfect, too upright."

"He wasn't a Hokage the Konoha High Command could control."

Kakashi was shaking.

Uchiha En continued.

"What did the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi do during the Nine-Tails' rampage?"

"He used the Golden Cudgel to drive the Nine-Tails out of Konoha."

"And then?"

"Then the Third Hokage stopped fighting."

"Why?"

"He wanted the Fourth Hokage to face the Nine-Tails."

"He wanted to preserve his own strength."

"In the end, the Fourth Hokage sealed the Nine-Tails at the cost of his life."

"And what did Danzo do?"

"He took control of the scene immediately and destroyed every piece of evidence."

Kakashi's pupils contracted sharply, and he shook even harder.

Uchiha En did not stop.

"Before Minato Namikaze sealed the Nine-Tails, he had already realized something was wrong."

"He knew someone in the High Command had betrayed him."

"But to protect the village and the newborn Naruto, he had no other choice."

"Why do you think he sealed the Nine-Tails inside Naruto?"

"Because he knew that without the Nine-Tails inside him, Naruto would never live to adulthood."

"The High Command would never allow the Fourth Hokage's child to grow up."

"But if Naruto became a Jinchūriki, they wouldn't dare touch him so easily."

"Because the Nine-Tails was Konoha's weapon of war. Whoever harmed Naruto would have to answer for the Nine-Tails breaking loose."

Kakashi shook violently.

He kept his head down, gripping his knees so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

But he said nothing.

Uchiha En looked at him and continued.

"Finally... there's the truth behind the Uchiha Clan Massacre."