Chapter 583: The Eye of Insight
However, even with Konoha's defenses thin, infiltrating the village was no easy task for the Sound Four, who needed cursed seals just to reach Jonin-level strength.
After all this time, Orochimaru's remaining spies in Konoha were few and far between.
When Orochimaru defected, Danzō had absorbed most of his overt contacts into Root. The remaining sleeper agents were either useless or dead, casualties of the many conflicts and purges Konoha had endured.
But Orochimaru was Orochimaru. He found a way in through Danzō's secret network.
Danzō was dead, but some of his deepest moles remained. Kakashi and Hiruzen didn't know about them, but Orochimaru, having worked with Danzō before, did.
Upon reaching the outskirts of Konoha, the Sound Four contacted one of these moles while dodging patrols.
The mole initially refused to betray the village. He had joined Danzō out of loyalty to Konoha, believing Danzō's hardline approach was better than Hiruzen's softness. His love for the village was real.
But when Sakon threatened to expose his identity, he caved.
Everyone knew how much Kakashi hated Danzō. The mole couldn't imagine the fate awaiting him if he was exposed.
Still, he stalled, making excuses and delaying, hoping the Sound Four would give up.
Unfortunately, the Sound Four were desperate to prove themselves to Orochimaru and refused to leave.
After a standoff, the mole finally relented and used his position to smuggle them in.
He only succeeded because Konoha's defenses were so stretched. Under normal circumstances, it would have been impossible.
Once inside, the Sound Four quickly located Sasuke.
They were competent enough to spot the ANBU surveillance on him, so they didn't act rashly.
Instead, they sent Tayuya to make risky contact right under the ANBU's noses.
If Sasuke had reacted at all, the Sound Four would have been doomed.
Luckily, their gamble paid off. Sasuke read the note Tayuya passed him and kept quiet.
In truth, they had Ishiro to thank. Because of Ishiro's hints, Sasuke already suspected there was more to the Uchiha massacre and knew he was being watched.
Sasuke helped cover for them because he assumed Tayuya had been sent by his clansmen, Izumi and Sōkai.
He was disappointed to learn, after reading the note in private, that she was actually sent by Orochimaru.
However, his disappointment was mixed with intrigue.
The note said: If you want to know the truth about the Uchiha clan's destruction, come with us.
"Orochimaru..." Sasuke muttered.
Because they wanted to keep Sasuke in the dark, the Konoha high command had forbidden any discussion of the fight between Orochimaru and Itachi.
So Sasuke only knew that Orochimaru had been stopped by a mysterious Konoha ninja and then nearly killed by Might Guy.
In the original story, Orochimaru's reputation was legendary—he had killed two Kage and left a deep impression on Sasuke during the exams.
But in this timeline, Orochimaru was just... one of the Sannin. One was dead, the other exiled. How strong could he be?
Without his own intelligence network, Sasuke, like most regular ninja, had no idea of Orochimaru's true power.
Still, after murmuring the name, Sasuke made his decision.
He began to cooperate with the Sound Four.
With Sasuke's help, they successfully smuggled him out of Konoha.
But unbeknownst to them, two pairs of eyes were watching from the shadows.
One belonged to Itachi Uchiha.
Itachi wasn't in Konoha to do missions; he was there to watch over his little brother.
He had spotted the Sound Four the moment they approached Sasuke.
He hadn't acted immediately because he didn't want to reveal himself to Sasuke, and he wanted to know who was targeting him.
"Lord Hokage," Itachi said to the person beside him, "aren't you going to act?"
Unable to act himself, Itachi had summoned Kakashi.
"Let's wait," Kakashi said. "See if anyone meets them."
"These four are Orochimaru's subordinates. I want to see if Orochimaru himself is nearby."
Itachi frowned. "Lord Hokage, if Orochimaru intervenes, will we be able to save Sasuke in time?"
Kakashi glanced at him. "Relax, Itachi. I placed a Hiraishin marker on Sasuke."
Itachi relaxed slightly, but his worry remained.
They continued to tail the group.
Soon, they both stopped, exchanging surprised looks.
Not because they lost them—the Sound Four weren't that good.
But because Sasuke had ditched the Sound Four and left on his own, leaving them following a Shadow Clone.
Kakashi chuckled. "Sasuke really is talented."
Itachi smiled. Of course. He's my brother.
"What now?"
"You take care of those four," Kakashi said. "I'll follow Sasuke. I want to see what he's planning."
Itachi nodded and moved to intercept the Sound Four.
Kakashi leisurely followed Sasuke to a large town near Konoha.
Watching Sasuke enter the town, Kakashi was about to follow when he paused.
Swoosh. Itachi appeared beside him.
"I handed the four over to the ANBU," Itachi reported.
Kakashi didn't care about four genin. "Sasuke entered the town. I'm worried he's investigating the massacre."
Itachi lowered his head in silence. Their stances on the massacre were opposites. Kakashi, the outsider, had opposed it. Itachi, the heir, had carried it out.
They silently agreed not to debate the morality of it.
"Itachi," Kakashi said, "tell him the truth."
"Let Sasuke judge the rights and wrongs of the past for himself."
Itachi was silent for a few seconds. "Awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan requires extreme emotional stimulation. I hope Sasuke can use his hatred of me to awaken it."
"Once he has the Mangekyō, I will tell him everything."
Kakashi sighed, stopping his persuasion. He flickered into the town. Itachi followed.
They quickly found Sasuke... reading a newspaper.
Kakashi recognized the style immediately: the Iwagakure Bi-Weekly.
And in Sasuke's left hand was a bag stuffed full of back issues.
Kakashi and Itachi exchanged a look. They both knew what was written in those papers.
If Sasuke read them all, he would know everything.
Kakashi looked at Itachi. Are you sure you don't want to tell him yourself?
Itachi had no choice. After a long internal struggle, he slowly stepped out from his hiding spot.
Kakashi sighed behind him. "I'm going back to the village."
He didn't want to witness this awkward reunion. And he had confidence in Itachi. If Itachi acted personally, he could bring Sasuke back. An Mangekyō-wielding Kage-level ninja versus a genin? It shouldn't be a contest.
Sasuke moved fast. With his Sharingan active, he was reading ten lines at a glance, finishing a paper every few seconds.
By the time Itachi walked up behind him, Sasuke had already discarded over a dozen papers.
He was clearly agitated; he didn't even notice Itachi standing behind him for several seconds.
"Sasuke," Itachi said softly.
Sasuke's body jerked. He spun around.
Seeing his brother actually standing there, his eyes filled with disbelief.
He was trying to find the truth, and suddenly, Itachi was right there.
A few minutes ago, Sasuke would have screamed and attacked.
But after reading a dozen papers, his belief in the "truth" of the massacre was shaken.
He stared at Itachi, unable to speak.
"Sasuke..." Itachi began.
"Itachi Uchiha," Sasuke cut him off quickly. "Whatever you have to say, save it until I finish reading these papers, okay?"
The paper Sasuke had just finished detailed the fight between Itachi and Orochimaru during the Konoha Crush.
He knew Itachi was on Konoha's side, not a rogue ninja as the village claimed.
That was why he dared to speak to his "good brother" like this.
Itachi didn't want Sasuke reading those papers. They were brainwashing material from Iwa. If Sasuke believed them, his worldview would be warped.
But Sasuke clearly trusted the Iwagakure Bi-Weekly more than him right now.
He leaped backward, putting distance between them.
Itachi was helpless. Sasuke knew some of the truth; Itachi could no longer play the cold-hearted villain.
In Sasuke's eyes, Itachi was back to being the brother who wouldn't hurt him.
So Sasuke knew Itachi wouldn't attack.
Itachi could only watch as Sasuke left his line of sight.
A moment later, in a deserted alley, Sasuke finished the last paper.
He closed his eyes, organizing the truth he had learned, combining it with what he had seen and heard in the clan before the massacre.
Sasuke realized the Iwagakure Bi-Weekly was likely telling the truth.
His clan had been destroyed by Konoha's high command. His brother and Shisui were the executioners who sided with the village.
The conflict went back to the founding of the village.
The Police Force, the pride of the Uchiha, was a trap set by the village elders.
Konoha had never accepted the Uchiha.
Everyone knew the truth. Except me.
Sasuke felt his entire life was a lie.
He hated himself for being so useless, for not seeing through such a simple deception.
And he hated the people listed in the papers, the ones who had pushed the Uchiha to the brink, step by step.
A long time later.
"Come out," Sasuke said flatly.
Itachi walked slowly out from the end of the alley.
Sasuke turned to face him and opened his eyes.
Itachi was stunned.
A six-pointed star pattern!
Sasuke had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan?!
How?
I used Tsukuyomi to show him the massacre on loop, and he only got one tomoe.
He reads a stack of Iwa newspapers and jumps from two tomoe straight to Mangekyō?
And here I was, wracking my brain trying to help him awaken it!
Sasuke's blood-red eyes stared coldly at Itachi. "Itachi. Now you can tell me. What was your purpose in destroying the clan?"
Itachi was silent for a few seconds. "To stop a civil war in the village."
Sasuke had read this reason in the paper. Ishiro had written that this was the excuse Hiruzen and Danzō had fed Itachi and Shisui.
"So," Sasuke asked, "did you stop it?"
Itachi was silent. They had betrayed the clan to stop a rebellion.
But the Uchiha's destruction hadn't brought peace.
The Nara clan had rebelled.
Then Danzō had launched the Konoha Crush Plan.
In other words, both sides Itachi had supported had rebelled anyway.
Only Itachi and Shisui had been foolish enough to believe the excuse.
"Nothing to say? So the papers were right?" Sasuke sneered.
"Itachi, you were brainwashed by the village elders into betraying your family."
"And you still think you were right. It's laughable."
"The so-called peace they used to brainwash you... they didn't even care about it themselves!"
"Do you think you can convince me to serve that ridiculous village?"
With that, Sasuke turned and walked away.
Itachi stood in silence for a moment, then followed.
When he caught up, Sasuke had already left the town.
"Sasuke, come back with me," Itachi said.
"We are Konoha Uchiha. When you grow up, you'll understand the village's actions."
Sasuke ignored him. "Itachi, you are not worthy of the name Uchiha. You are not worthy of being our parents' son."
"And you are not worthy of being my brother!"
"Stop following me. I'm not going back. Konoha is the enemy of the Uchiha."
"I remember the clansmen telling you not to trust the village elders, that when you grew up, you'd see their true faces."
"I want to ask... you're grown up now. Have you seen it?"
Itachi couldn't answer, but he tried again. "Sasuke, Konoha is our home too. Shisui and I did what we did to protect this family."
Sasuke laughed, a wild, mocking sound. "Family? We treated Konoha like family, but did Konoha treat us like family?"
"From the founding of the village, we were never family in their eyes."
"From the First Hokage to the Seventh, how many have ever extended a hand to the Uchiha?"
"The First Hokage had a good relationship with the Uchiha," Itachi said. "The Fourth and Fifth also showed goodwill."
Sasuke laughed louder.
"I don't know about the First. But the Fourth was in power for a few days? And the Fifth showed goodwill?"
"Itachi! The Fifth Hokage destroyed our clan!"
Sasuke screamed the last sentence with all his might.
Itachi was silent. He wanted to say Tsunade had no choice, but Sasuke wouldn't believe it.
The rights and wrongs were clear. No matter how eloquent Itachi was, as long as Sasuke was thinking clearly, he couldn't be persuaded.
And Itachi had never been good with words. He was a man of action.
They walked and talked, moving quickly.
Time flew when he was with his brother. Before Itachi knew it, they were about to leave the Land of Fire.
Sighing, Itachi flickered in front of Sasuke, blocking his path.
"Sasuke, come back with me." His eyes spun into the Mangekyō pattern.
The next moment, Sasuke found himself in the nightmare world of Tsukuyomi.
"Sasuke," Itachi said in the illusion, "sleep. When you wake up, we'll be back in Konoha."
Sasuke wasn't panicked. He said expressionlessly, "Will sleeping bring back the past? Will it resurrect the clan?"
"Will it bring Mom and Dad back?"
He paused, then took a breath. "I heard you saw Dad during the exams. Did he say anything?"
"He asked about you," Itachi said. "I told him you awakened the two-tomoe Sharingan."
"He was happy for you."
Sasuke was silent for a few seconds. "Alright, Itachi. I'm leaving."
And then, to Itachi's shock, the Tsukuyomi world shattered.
Sasuke had broken Tsukuyomi by force. And this time, it was real. Itachi hadn't held back an ocean of water like in the original story.
Sasuke broke it easily because his left eye's dōjutsu was the ability to shatter all false illusions.
It could break genjutsu, and it could see through lies.
It was a dōjutsu born from Sasuke's deep regret at being a fool, at being unable to see through the lies woven by the village and his brother.
He named it: Breaking Delusion (Hàwàng / Ha-Mō)!
Itachi, already low on pupil power, had forced himself to use Tsukuyomi. Having it shattered caused a backlash. Blood streamed from his eye.
Sasuke didn't attack the injured Itachi. He walked past him, crossing into the Land of Earth.
Itachi knelt on the ground, clutching his eye, taking a long time to recover from the pain.
He no longer had the strength to maintain the Mangekyō.
His vision was blurred with multiple, overlapping images. He could see nothing clearly.
He took a deep breath and forced his eyes into the three-tomoe state, barely regaining his sight.
He looked in the direction Sasuke had gone. He was long gone.
Itachi didn't chase. He couldn't stop Sasuke in his current state.
He had been careless. He hadn't expected Sasuke to have a dōjutsu that countered genjutsu.
He should have used taijutsu.
Sasuke's base skills were Chunin, maybe Special Jonin at best. Itachi could have taken him down easily without a scratch.
But it was too late. Itachi's eyes were damaged. If Sasuke forced his Susanoo, Itachi might actually lose.
And across the border was Iwa territory. If Ishiro came out, both brothers would die.
Itachi stood up and raced back to Konoha. He had to find Kakashi. Kakashi had a Hiraishin marker on Sasuke.
Only Kakashi could bring Sasuke back before he reached Iwagakure.
But what Itachi didn't know was that Sasuke didn't go to Iwagakure. He went to the Iwa branch in the northwestern Land of Fire.
He knew the location from the newspaper.
Upon arriving, Sasuke identified himself and asked to see Uchiha Sōkai and Uchiha Izumi.
Sōkai was an Honorary Advisor, and Izumi was the Head of the Tsuchikage Assistant Team. Both were high-ranking officials and war heroes; every Iwa ninja knew they were Uchiha.
Seeing another Uchiha with a Mangekyō Sharingan asking for them, the branch leader didn't dare delay.
He immediately sent someone through the teleportation array to inform Ishiro.
(End of Chapter)
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