"First of all, lower your finger, Tobirama, you're scaring the children," Hashirama said evenly. "Now, go on, Uchiha child," he added, turning to Sasuke. "The wisdom of the Hokage is yours for the hearing. I'm all ears."
Tobirama resentfully retracted his killing intent.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," Sasuke said. "I was actually hoping to hear from the Third Hokage. I have two questions."
Sarutobi Hiruzen's heart sank. As expected, the secret had come out.
"Firstly, the girl in the picture," Sasuke said, pulling out the photograph Orochimaru had given him. He stepped up to Hiruzen and thrust it in his face. "Who is she? What happened to her?"
The Third Hokage goggled at the sight of the massively busty girl standing between Fugaku and Mikoto, cradling what looked like a baby Itachi in her arms. Were he still alive, the jet of blood from his nosebleed would have launched him clean through the roof and off to the moon.
"Isn't this girl your teammate, Haruno Sakura?" Hiruzen said quizzically, his eyes glued to her chest. "My, she's… er… grown. But how is this possible…? She's standing right next to your parents…"
"I believe her name was Uchiha Konan," Orochimaru offered. He slipped his human skin mask back on, restoring his normal guise. "We were all rather curious to learn what had become of her, since we could find no trace of her in the village records… only the Uchiha's."
It was then that the Fourth Hokage coughed, and everyone looked at him.
"I've heard that name before," Namikaze Minato offered. "Would you kindly bring that photo over here? I can't move, you see."
Sasuke walked over to him and raised the photograph to eye level, but Minato frowned.
"I've definitely seen that exact photograph before, and I've definitely heard the name too," he said thoughtfully. "Over the years, Fugaku— my wife's best friend's husband, head of the Uchiha clan— kept hounding me about some Uchiha Konan, a genius kunoichi he'd been raising who'd supposedly vanished under my command during the war, though he'd never believe me when I swore that I'd never even met the girl…"
Minato stared at the photo wistfully.
"So, you're Fugaku's and Mikoto's kid, then?" he sighed. "Things were never the same between my wife and her friend after that… too much bad blood between their husbands…" he suddenly brightened up. "Say, would you happen to know my son, Naruto?" he babbled excitedly. "You should be about the same age, right? Is he doing well?"
"I believe I know what's happening," Orochimaru ventured. "Sarutobi-sensei's and Minato-kun's memories have been sealed, most likely by themselves."
His eyes narrowed.
"Either to guard some unfathomably important secret… or, more likely, upon uncovering Uchiha Konan's secret, you were forced to commit a terrible act, the memory of which you could not live on with."
Minato looked thoughtful.
"Is there any way of unsealing their memories?" Sasuke asked coldly.
Orochimaru shook his head. "The soul takes a snapshot of its memories at the moment of death, to carry with them to the Pure Land… which means all sealed memories are permanently lost; to retrieve them, one would have to already have unsealed them of their living. If they had only just perished, I might have managed something with their fresh corpses, but the Third's and Fourth's bodies were incinerated to prevent desecration and the extraction of their secrets."
"That certainly didn't stop you from desecrating our souls!" Minato said, laughing sheepishly in a very Naruto-like way. His expression grew serious as he looked into Sasuke's eyes. "But I promise you, even in war, I would never have betrayed my ninja way."
"You really are like Naruto," Sasuke muttered under his breath.
"So, you do know him!" Minato said, beaming. "Tell me everything you know!"
Sasuke ignored him and walked back to the Third Hokage, who was beginning to sweat bullets.
"Itachi," Sasuke said simply. "Is it true?"
Hiruzen sighed in relief. Luckily, Sasuke had chosen to ignore the Lord Fourth's question; otherwise, Minato would have learned of the terrible suffering he had willingly inflicted on his son Naruto to better control him as a human weapon for the village.
"Itachi massacring the Uchiha clan to prevent civil war?" Hiruzen coughed, trying his best not to sound too happy. "Yes, I'm afraid it's all true," he added with a touch of gravitas. "You see, Itachi was born in very troubled times. He was forced to grow up too quickly; even at the young age of seven, he already had the mindset of an experienced Hokage. He was a sensitive boy, and he recognised that if war was hell on earth, then civil war, the turning of brother against brother, sister against sister, would be even worse, so he willingly made the sacrifice and tarnished his own name…"
"I've heard enough," Sasuke said coldly, cutting off the Third Hokage as he sang Itachi's praises.
"—on the condition that I protect you within the village," Hiruzen quickly slipped in. "Itachi was quite adamant about that, and I was glad to do it."
Sasuke's head hung low.
"So… it's all true…"
"Hashirama…" Tobirama said urgently. "You know as well as I that those Uchiha who have fallen so far into darkness as to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan are beyond saving… these people must be stopped before the flames of their hatred reduces the village to ashes! Remember Uchiha Madara!"
Sasuke no longer knew what to think. He still wanted vengeance against Homura and Danzō, but beyond that…
"Despite all the suffering, misery, and tragedy it brought him, my brother Itachi supported the village to the very end," he said quietly. "My… friend, Uchiha Sakura— yes, that Haruno Sakura— even though the village elders plotted against her, subjected her to all sorts of injustices, and packed her off to Hōzuki Castle as a scapegoat… she still believes in the village wholeheartedly. She's no lost cause as the Second Hokage claims, even though she awakened her Mangekyō Sharingan before I did, nor is she a brain-dead idiot like our teammate Naruto, so—"
"That's my son!" Minato exclaimed. "So, you and this Sakura are his teammates? That's great!"
"Even though the Uchiha clan is an evil clan possessed by the curse of hatred, that doesn't mean they're all necessarily bad," Tobirama said dismissively. "Your female friend must be one of the good ones."
Sasuke opened his mouth to speak, but Tobirama was not yet done.
"I'll have you know that when I was alive, I had an Uchiha friend," he pressed on. "Well, he was actually my disciple, but I was proud to call him my Uchigga— his name was Kagami—"
Sasuke cut in sharply before Tobirama could trot out any more of those stereotypical 'I'm not racist, but…' lines.
"—so, I want to understand," Sasuke concluded. "What makes a village so great that my brother and my friend would give up everything for it? Even Orochimaru seems to have changed his opinion about the destroying the Hidden Leaf, so… I want to know. No, I have to know."
"It sounds like you have great friends and a great brother," Hashirama said empathetically. "Very well, I'll tell you…"