"I've been looking for you!" Sasuke's young voice rang loud and clear in the stillness of the night. He clenched his teeth and glared at Itachi, his tone a mix of anger and pain.
"Why did you do that to the Uchiha Clan? Why did you kill Father and Mother? Why do you turn into that kind of person in the future? You've never given me a real explanation!"
Uchiha Itachi remained silent for a long moment. Sasuke's sudden appearance had clearly caught him off guard.
Ever since that night—when the shock caused Sasuke to faint—Itachi had deliberately kept his distance.
He had intentionally avoided facing Sasuke.
And yet…
Tonight, it happened anyway.
"Because of capacity," Itachi said quietly.
"All of you see only the Uchiha Clan. You think only within the confines of a single family. Every one of you—your minds are too narrow. Even Father—he was no different. His only concern was balancing the relationship between Konoha and the Uchiha. But that kind of balance… is meaningless."
"The moment the Uchiha Clan showed its discontent with Konoha, everything was already doomed. Father couldn't handle the situation. He's just a decorator now—patching up holes one after another, without ever solving anything."
"The day the situation spirals out of control, even Father will be swept up by clansmen with even narrower minds than his own. It's inevitable. This is the fate that awaits the Uchiha."
Seeing the tears welling up in Sasuke's wide eyes, a mocking smirk tugged at the corner of Itachi's lips.
"Sasuke… are you hoping I'll kill you now, so you don't have to suffer through the pain of staying alive?"
"Heh… Such a weak and naive otōto."
He stepped forward, closing the distance, clearly intending to provoke Sasuke further—
—but the sharp sound of a blade being drawn suddenly halted his advance.
Itachi turned his gaze.
Standing in his path was Uchiha Izumi, holding her blade with one hand, blocking the only route to Sasuke.
The night wind stirred her long black hair, and her crimson Three-Tomoe Sharingan glinted with fury and hostility.
"Uchiha Itachi. Don't you dare fill Sasuke-kun's young mind with that hopeless, illiterate garbage you call a worldview."
"You're not my match," Itachi replied coolly.
Izumi's expression remained firm, her voice unwavering.
"[Absolute Justice] never takes a step back—even in the face of overwhelming power. If justice won't stand before the innocent… then in this twisted and diseased shinobi world, who else will protect them?"
Itachi's brow furrowed. Just as he was about to speak again, his peripheral vision caught movement under the streetlamp behind Sasuke.
Someone was approaching.
His eyes locked with the figure's for several seconds.
At last, he cast Izumi a final, lingering look—
—then vanished in an instant without another word.
Izumi blinked in surprise.
Turning her head, she saw who had been standing behind Sasuke all along:
Uchiha Mikoto.
"Thank you, Izumi…"
Mikoto gave her a faint, grateful smile. But even within that smile, Izumi could sense a sorrow far too deep for words.
What effect Itachi's erratic, paranoid behavior had on Clan Head Fugaku, Izumi couldn't yet say.
But as for Mikoto-san—
She was clearly heartbroken.
Izumi took a deep breath.
She slid her blade back into its sheath and calmed her nerves before speaking.
"This is what I had to do. That man is already unhinged. He could commit evil at any moment. Sasuke-kun is innocent. In a situation like this, standing in his way… was both my responsibility and my duty."
Mikoto pressed her lips together. She crouched slightly and gently wiped the tears from Sasuke's eyes with the back of her hand.
Then, standing up, she took Sasuke's small hand in hers and turned to Izumi.
"Izumi… may I ask you for a favor?"
"Of course," Izumi replied.
Mikoto bowed slightly, her voice soft.
"Would you take me and Sasuke… to see Keizumi?"
Izumi froze on the spot.
Even Sasuke—who had been caught sneaking out late at night to "find his brother"—sniffled once and lifted his head in surprise.
...
Meanwhile, within the Utatane Clan compound…
Every member of the clan had gathered in solemn silence.
All eyes were fixed on the corpse lying at the center of the hall.
A long, dark stitch ran across the neck—a grotesque sign of a severed head that had been reattached with thread and needle.
"Koharu-sama! Uchiha Keizumi murdered one of our clansmen! And not just any clansman—he was a gifted young shinobi! Someone with potential to become a tokubetsu jōnin, at the very least!"
"Ryūji… he was just a kid! He hadn't even graduated from the Ninja Academy!"
Ryūji's father stared at Utatane Koharu with bloodshot eyes, his voice cracking with grief.
"So what if he made a mistake? He was a child! Does that mean he deserved to die for it? What gave that Uchiha killer the right to take his life?!"
Ryūji's mother knelt beside her son's corpse, her head bowed as she sobbed uncontrollably.
A father's pain.
A mother's weeping.
Together, they twisted like thorns in Koharu's mind.
She drew in a slow breath, her tone dark and heavy: "What exactly do you want me to do?"
"Kill Uchiha Keizumi?"
"How naive. Do you really think that's possible?!"
"I—"
"Advisor Koharu!"
A voice rang out sharply, cutting her off mid-sentence and snapping the attention of everyone in the room toward the doorway.
An ANBU shinobi had appeared—no one had noticed when he entered—and now stood at the entrance of the hall.
Before Koharu could even question him, he delivered his report in a clipped, urgent tone: "Shimura Danzō has been killed—by Uchiha Keizumi!"
Koharu: "…???"
Utatane Clan: "!!!"
"Wasn't Danzō at the ANBU base?" someone blurted.
"Even if most ANBU return home after hours, aren't there usually at least seven or eight elite shinobi guarding the base at all times?"
Koharu's face darkened dramatically.
"Seven or eight ANBU elites were guarding him, and he still got killed by Uchiha Keizumi?! What the hell were you ANBU doing?!"
The ANBU could clearly hear the accusation in her voice.
Originally, he'd only come to deliver the message—but now, with Koharu's direct criticism, he couldn't help but respond bluntly: "Advisor Mitokado Homura was present at the time. He ordered us not to act rashly. If you have complaints, perhaps direct them to that esteemed advisor."
After all, ANBU were a secret force directly under the Hokage.
Why should they take orders from a glorified fill-in like the temporary leader of Root?
With that, the ANBU turned and left without another word.
The faces of the Utatane gathered in the hall shifted dramatically.
"That killer… he dared to murder someone as high-ranking as Danzō?"
One of the shinobi muttered as if possessed: "Compared to that… maybe Ryūji's death was quick and painless."
Silence settled again over the group. Then came a soft cough.
"Right now, shouldn't we be preparing a proper funeral for Ryūji?" someone said quietly.
An elder of the Utatane Clan spoke next, trying to sound sympathetic: "You're still young—you could always have another child."
The message couldn't have been clearer.
Let it go.
This was not a battle they could afford to fight.
The iron plate was far too solid. No one dared to kick it now.
Better to start over quietly—raise a new child—than risk dragging the whole clan down with them.
Ryūji's parents: "…"
...
Meanwhile, in the Shimura Clan compound—
The atmosphere was even more stifling than that of the Utatane Clan.
Tonight, no one dared to speak.
Not a single member had even been allowed to see Shimura Danzō's body.
Because that corpse… held far too many secrets.
And the ANBU had no intention of ever returning it.
The silence stretched on.
No one knew how long it would last.
Finally, someone spoke up.
"Over the years, Danzō-sama gave everything for the prosperity of Konoha—tirelessly and selflessly. He even diverted all the earnings of the Shimura Clan to fund Root's growth. In essence, Root only developed into what it is today because Danzō-sama and the Shimura Clan poured their own resources into it."
A younger member of the Shimura Clan clenched his fists tightly, jaw trembling with hatred.
"And yet, the Uchiha—born with evil in their blood—were constantly plotting to kill Danzō-sama. That extremist, Uchiha Keizumi, actually succeeded!"
"Are we really just going to sit here and act like nothing happened?! Are we going to let Danzō-sama die in vain?! Are we just going to hand over all of Root—his life's work—to the Utatane Clan?! Are we going to let Uchiha Keizumi strut around unchecked?!"
His angry, teeth-gritted questions stirred unrest in the room. The other Shimura shinobi clenched their jaws in silent fury.
They were, after all, shinobi of the Shimura Clan.
They had long since been indoctrinated by Danzō.
Like him, they believed the Uchiha were a fundamentally evil bloodline—one that had to be eradicated.
They believed the current Hokage was far too weak.
And to them, the only one ever truly fit to be Hokage had always been Danzō of the Shimura Clan.
They had once seen being inducted into Root as the highest honor imaginable.
People often said the Uchiha were extreme.
But under Danzō's long-standing influence, the Shimura Clan had grown no less radical.
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