"What did you bring them here for?" Itachi drew his blade half an inch, his voice finally cracking.
Sasuke stepped aside.
At the front stood a gray-haired woman, clutching a child's coat. Black clots of blood still stained the fabric.
She walked slowly, every step heavy.
An Uchiha guard tried to support her, but she shook him off.
"I can walk on my own."
Itachi looked at the coat, then averted his eyes for an instant.
Sasuke caught it.
"Recognize it?"
Itachi did not answer.
The woman raised a hand and pointed at him, her fingers trembling violently.
"My grandson was only six. Tonight, he asked me if his big brother had come back. I told him yes, the genius was back, and the village would be safer."
She reached the cordon and stared at Itachi across the rope.
"Who did you make it safer for?"
Itachi's lips moved. "I..."
Splat.
A glob of spit landed on Itachi's clothes.
Everything fell silent except for the crackle of torches.
Itachi looked down at the stain, his whole body seemingly nailed to the spot.
"You beast!" the woman cursed.
Sasuke did not hurry them.
The second person to step forward was a middle-aged ninja with his left arm bandaged.
"My younger brother was on night watch at the Naka River. You drove your blade straight through his heart. He told me that when you practiced with shuriken as a child, he used to pick up your targets for you."
He spat too.
"Here's your repayment."
Itachi tightened his grip on his blade.
Shikaku watched, his throat shifting slightly, but offered no words of restraint.
The Yamanaka ninja's pen paused over the scroll, then continued recording.
A third person, a fourth, a fifth.
No one drew a blade.
No one crossed the cordon.
They simply stepped forward, spat, named someone, and cursed him.
"Uchiha Naoki."
"Uchiha Rina."
"Uchiha Keita."
With every name, more color drained from Itachi's face.
He finally looked at Sasuke.
"You're letting them humiliate me like this?"
"Humiliate?" Sasuke countered.
He walked to the woman's side and picked up the child's coat.
"When you cut them down, did you ever ask whether that counted as humiliation?"
"I didn't kill children," Itachi said through gritted teeth.
Someone in the crowd immediately roared, "Then how did my daughter die? She was only seven!"
"If you didn't kill them, did Root? Didn't you see when you brought them in?"
"Didn't you hear them screaming for help while you stood at the door?"
Their curses drowned out the crackle of the torches.
Itachi's expression darkened, and his mangekyo began spinning again.
Shikaku's shadow pressed forward.
"Uchiha Itachi, if you dare use genjutsu on the bereaved, this record will go straight to the Hokage Building."
Sasuke glanced at Shikaku.
"Nara Clan Head, make sure you write that down clearly. Rogue ninja Uchiha Itachi attempted to use an ocular technique in front of his victims' families."
Itachi's anger surged. "Sasuke, what exactly do you want?"
"I want you to stay alive and hear them out."
Sasuke reached out and took a stack of white cloths from a guard.
They were densely covered with names.
He dropped them on the ground one by one.
"These people were supposed to die in your plan."
Itachi stared at the names, his breathing growing increasingly erratic.
"You don't understand. Danzo had already decided to act. I was only minimizing casualties."
"Whose casualties?"
Sasuke crouched, picked up a white cloth, and shook it open for him to see.
"This child was an Uchiha. Did you count this one?"
Another cloth.
"This old person couldn't use ninjutsu. Did you count this one?"
And another.
"This woman had just found out she was pregnant. Did you count her too?"
Itachi's face twitched.
"Enough."
"Enough?" Sasuke stood up. "You haven't heard them all yet."
He raised a hand in a signal.
Several more rescued clan members emerged from the back of the crowd. They still bore injuries, but their gazes were sharper than blades.
One boy rushed to the cordon, his voice breaking.
"Itachi, I used to admire you more than anyone."
Itachi looked at him, his expression shifting.
The boy threw his forehead protector to the ground and stepped on it.
"Now I'm afraid I must have been blind."
He spat at Itachi.
"You don't deserve the Uchiha name."
Itachi swayed.
Those words struck harder than being called a beast.
Sasuke did not let him off.
"Did you hear that? You wanted to be the village's hero, but the village has already branded you a rogue ninja. You wanted to protect me, but you disgust me. You wanted to bear everything as the Uchiha's sinner, but unfortunately, the Uchiha refuse to acknowledge you as their monument."
Itachi raised his head, the mangekyo in his eyes spinning erratically.
"Sasuke, hate me or kill me if you want, but don't put our clan in even greater danger."
"Who does that danger come from?"
Sasuke pointed toward the Hokage Building.
"Danzo runs laboratories underground, while the higher-ups above pretend to be blind. You should have brought out the evidence. You should have returned to the clan and explained everything. You should have stood beside Father. Instead, you chose the path that required the least thought: slaughter your own clan, then call your filth a noble cause."
The taste of blood rose in Itachi's throat, and he forced it back down.
Shikaku watched Sasuke, chilled to the core.
This child had not used a blade, yet he had stripped away every layer of Itachi's self-justification and thrown it beneath everyone's feet to be trampled.
Itachi suddenly raised his hands to form hand seals.
Two Uchiha guards drew their blades and charged forward.
"Don't move!" Sasuke shouted.
The guards forced themselves to stop.
Itachi never finished his seals, his fingertips frozen in midair.
He stared at Sasuke, his eyes filled with pain and fury.
"You won't even give me the chance to kill myself?"
Sasuke walked up to the cordon, only three steps away from him.
"Dying now would be too easy for you."
Itachi's breathing grew heavy.
Sasuke raised a hand and pointed at the people behind him.
"You will stay alive and remember every face. Every night, you will dream of the spit they left on you. You will wander out there with that noble cause of yours, so everyone who hears the name Uchiha Itachi will know you're an idiot who murdered his own family and betrayed his clan."
Itachi finally broke, bending over and coughing up a mouthful of blood.
The blood landed on scraps of the wanted notice, staining the name Uchiha Itachi red.
The crowd did not cheer.
No one pitied him.
The woman retreated with the child's coat in her arms and sat on the ground, her shoulders trembling without an audible sob.
Sasuke looked at Itachi.
"Are you still going to kill the people behind the door?"
Itachi braced himself on his blade and looked up at him.
"I wasn't controlling the people behind the door."
"Then tell us what you know."
Itachi clenched his teeth.
"Last chance," Sasuke said coldly. "What's behind the Snake-Patterned Door?"
Itachi stayed silent.
Sasuke nodded.
"Fine. Nara Clan Head, record this: the rogue ninja refuses to disclose information."
Shikaku had just put pen to paper when the black crow in the treetops suddenly dissolved into a cloud of black feathers.
Space warped behind Itachi, and a masked man reached out and grabbed his shoulder.
Shikaku's expression changed drastically. "Space-Time Ninjutsu!"
Both guards hurled kunai at once, but they passed straight through the distorted air.
Itachi turned, saw the Masked Man, and looked at him with resistance in his eyes.
"I don't need you to save me."
The Masked Man's voice carried a mocking edge.
"Stay any longer, and you won't even be able to hold your blade."
Sasuke stared at the mask.
"A skulking coward like you thinks he can take an S-rank rogue ninja out of Konoha?"
The Masked Man looked at him, interest in his single visible eye.
"Sasuke Uchiha, you're more troublesome than the rumors said."
"Rumors?" Sasuke sneered. "Word certainly travels fast in the village."
The Masked Man did not answer, pulling Itachi backward into the vortex.
Itachi stared fixedly at Sasuke.
"Sasuke, one day you'll understand."
Sasuke cut him off.
"I understand that tonight, you didn't have the guts to talk about the Snake-Patterned Door."
Those words tore away the last trace of resolve on Itachi's face, and blood flowed from the corner of his mouth again.
The Masked Man chuckled.
"How ruthless."
Sasuke raised his hands to form hand seals. Just as his Fire Release chakra gathered, Shikaku pressed a hand onto his shoulder.
"You can't hit him."
Sasuke did not shake him off.
He simply watched half of Itachi's body disappear into the warped space, his voice carrying after him.
"Uchiha Itachi, the next time we meet, I'll register what remains of your dignity as evidence too."
Itachi's gaze descended into utter turmoil.
Just before the vortex closed, the Masked Man suddenly tossed something out.
It was a black sealing spike.
The spike landed inside the cordon and drove straight into the ground, a short strip of paper dangling from its end.
Shikaku extended an arm to stop everyone.
"Don't touch it!"
Sasuke looked down.
The note contained only a brief message.
"Open the Old Well Gate, and one dies first."
Before you continue