The Hokage's chamber was a mausoleum of broken faith. The morning light, once a gentle promise, now felt like a harsh, interrogating glare, illuminating the wreckage of a lifetime of belief. Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage, was on her knees, a queen brought low not by an enemy's blade, but by the devastating weight of a truth she could no longer deny. The memory of Shisui Uchiha's final, hopeful smile followed by his heartbreaking, noble sacrifice was a fresh, bleeding wound in her soul. The image of her sensei, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the kindly old man she had loved and revered, was now superimposed with the shadow of a cold, calculating betrayer.
Jiraiya, the indomitable Toad Sage, was a crumpled figure of grief. The foundations of his world, built on loyalty to his master and his village, had been pulverized. He had just witnessed the murder of hope, a deliberate, political assassination of the one chance for a peaceful resolution. The sins of the past were no longer abstract historical footnotes; they were living, breathing monsters that had shaped the very world he inhabited.
Rohan stood before them, a being of celestial beauty bearing the ugliest of truths. He felt their pain as if it were his own, a dissonant chord in the symphony of his new existence. He had shown them the betrayal that had made the massacre inevitable. Now, he had to show them the massacre itself.
"I know," he began, his voice a soft, sorrowful whisper that barely disturbed the heavy silence. "I know it hurts. To see a hero fall, to see a leader fail so profoundly… it is a pain that hollows out the soul. But the story of Shisui's death is only the prelude. It was the act that loaded the gun. Now, you must understand who was forced to pull the trigger, and why."
He looked at Tsunade, then at Jiraiya, his gaze filled with a profound, sorrowful compassion. "With Shisui gone, the last hope for a peaceful resolution died with him. The Uchiha's plan for the coup d'état moved forward, now fueled by grief and a righteous fury. And the burden of that impossible situation, the entire weight of the village's future and the clan's fate, fell upon the shoulders of a boy who was barely a man. It fell upon Itachi Uchiha."
Tsunade looked up, her face pale and tear-streaked, but her eyes now held a grim, desperate need to understand. "Itachi… he was a prodigy. A captain in the ANBU. He was loyal to the village. Why would he… why would he do that?"
"Because he was given an impossible choice," Rohan said, his voice turning cold and hard, reflecting the brutal pragmatism of the men who had made the decision. "He was summoned to a secret meeting with the highest echelons of Konoha's leadership: Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the two village elders who served on his council, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane. And, of course, the shadow in the room, the man who had orchestrated this entire crisis: Danzo Shimura."
Rohan painted the scene for them, not with a memory this time, but with a narrative so vivid it felt like one. He described the young Itachi, standing alone before the four powerful figures who held his life, and the life of his entire clan, in their hands.
"They presented him with an ultimatum," Rohan narrated, his voice a low, somber dirge. "A choice born from the very fear and paranoia that had guided Konoha's policy for fifty years. They told him that the Uchiha coup was now unstoppable and that the village would have to act. A civil war would erupt within Konoha's walls. It would be a bloodbath that would weaken the village immeasurably, leaving it vulnerable to attack from its enemies, from Iwagakure, from Kumogakure. The Fourth Great Ninja War would begin not on the borders, but in their own streets."
He paused, letting the horror of that scenario sink in. "They gave him two options. Option one: he could side with his clan. He could fight for their cause, and he would be branded a traitor and die alongside every man, woman, and child who bore the Uchiha name when the full might of Konoha's forces inevitably crushed the rebellion."
"Or," Rohan's voice dropped to a near-inaudible, venomous whisper, "there was option two. He could act as Konoha's agent. He could act before the coup began. He could use his position, his power, his trust within the clan, to eliminate the threat from the inside. He could become a kinslayer, a monster who would slaughter his entire family in a single night… and in exchange for this monstrous act of loyalty, the village would grant him one single mercy. They would spare the life of his innocent, beloved younger brother, Sasuke."
The sheer, inhuman cruelty of the choice stole the breath from Tsunade's lungs. Jiraiya let out a choked, strangled sound, a mixture of a gasp and a sob. They were forcing a boy to choose between his family and his little brother. They were asking him to become a demon to save an angel.
"He had to choose between a future where Sasuke died beside him in a failed, bloody rebellion," Rohan said, his voice trembling with a shared, righteous fury, "or a future where Sasuke lived, but would hate him for all eternity. He had to choose between his honor and his brother's life. He chose his brother. He always would."
"And so," Rohan's voice became a mournful eulogy, "on a quiet, moonlit night, Itachi Uchiha, with the secret aid of the masked man who had attacked the village years before—a man he sought out as a necessary evil to help him accomplish the impossible task—carried out his mission. He became a monster. He slaughtered his cousins, his aunts, his uncles. He killed his own mother and father. He extinguished the flame of the mighty Uchiha clan, leaving only embers and ashes, all to protect the village from a civil war, and to protect his precious younger brother from the consequences of their clan's desperation."
But Rohan knew that was not the end of the story. The massacre was not the end of Itachi's plan. It was the brutal, horrifying beginning of a new one, a plan so complex, so tragic, and so filled with a twisted, heartbreaking love that it defied all reason.
"But you must understand," Rohan continued, his voice softening once more, "Itachi's betrayal of his clan was not the end of his loyalty. It was the beginning of a new, far more intricate mission. From the moment he made that choice, his entire life was re-dedicated to a single, grand, and ultimately tragic purpose: the protection and empowerment of Sasuke Uchiha, and the eventual cleansing of his own sins through a carefully orchestrated death."
He explained the first part of the plan: the role of the villain. "He had to ensure Sasuke would survive and grow strong. So he played the part of the monstrous, power-hungry villain perfectly. He used his Tsukuyomi to force Sasuke to witness the murder of their parents thousands of times over, not out of cruelty, but to ignite a fire of pure, unadulterated hatred in his brother's heart. He knew that love could make you weak, but hatred… hatred was a fuel that would drive Sasuke to train, to fight, to survive at all costs. His goal was to make Sasuke strong enough to one day be able to kill him."
The second part was the endgame: the hero's ascension. "Itachi's plan was to die at Sasuke's hands. He would allow his brother, after years of struggle, to finally achieve his revenge. In the eyes of the world, and especially in the eyes of Konoha, Sasuke would be seen as a hero. The boy who had avenged the legendary Uchiha clan by killing its monstrous betrayer. It would restore the Uchiha name to a place of honor. It would be Itachi's final, bloody gift to the village he had secretly saved."
The third part was the inheritance of power. "But death was not enough. He wanted to give Sasuke the ultimate power. He knew that by killing his closest kin—Itachi himself—Sasuke would awaken his own Mangekyou Sharingan. And Itachi planned for Sasuke, in that moment of victory and grief, to take his eyes and transplant them. The result would be the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, a power free from the curse of blindness, a power that would allow Sasuke to protect himself and the village for the rest of his life."
The sheer, intricate, monstrous love of the plan was staggering. Itachi was not just planning to die; he was planning to turn his own body, his own power, into the final stepping stone for his brother's greatness.
But there was one final, secret layer. A failsafe. A testament to Itachi's genius, and a heartbreaking admission of his lack of faith in his brother's ultimate path.
"He knew the risks," Rohan said softly. "He knew that the truth of the massacre might one day come out. He knew that Sasuke, upon learning the truth, might be consumed by a new hatred, a hatred for the village that had forced his beloved brother to become a monster. And so, Itachi prepared one final, secret jutsu."
He looked at them, his eyes filled with a profound sadness. "He took the remaining eye of his best friend, Shisui Uchiha, the eye containing the Kotoamatsukami, and he sealed it within one of his messenger crows. He programmed the eye with a single, absolute command: 'Protect Konoha.' And he set a unique activation key. The jutsu would only trigger when it came into contact with his own Mangekyou Sharingan."
The full, tragic weight of the final piece of the puzzle settled upon them.
"The plan was this," Rohan explained. "If Sasuke killed him, awakened his Mangekyou, and then transplanted Itachi's eyes to gain eternal power… and if he then learned the truth and decided to turn his newfound power against Konoha… the moment he activated his new eyes—Itachi's eyes—the Kotoamatsukami would trigger. It would rewrite his very will, forcing him to become a loyal protector of the Hidden Leaf Village against his own desires. It was Itachi's final, ultimate betrayal of his brother's free will, committed out of his final, ultimate act of love for his village and his desperate need to ensure Sasuke's safety."
The chamber was silent once more. Tsunade and Jiraiya were no longer just grieving. They were in awe. It was a plan of such horrifying, selfless, intricate love that it transcended the simple concepts of good and evil. Itachi Uchiha was not a villain. He was not even just a hero. He was a martyr of a scale they had never conceived of. He had sacrificed his family, his name, his honor, his life, and even his brother's free will, all in a desperate, multi-layered gambit to protect the two things he loved most. The weight of his sacrifice was a mountain that would forever cast a shadow over Konoha's history.
"So what happens?" Jiraiya finally asked, his voice a hoarse whisper. "In the future you saw… does his plan work?"
Rohan's expression turned infinitely sad. He shook his head slowly. "No. Not as he intended. Itachi's plan, for all its brilliance, was built on the flawed assumption that he could perfectly control every variable. He could not account for the influence of the masked man, nor for the depths of Sasuke's own darkness."
He looked at them, delivering the final, somber prophecy. "Sasuke will defect, just as I told you. He will eventually seek out and kill Itachi, but he will be too weak, and Itachi, dying from a terminal illness, will be forced to orchestrate the final battle to look like a victory for his brother. Sasuke will awaken his Mangekyou. He will learn the truth from the masked man. And he will, just as Itachi feared, turn his rage upon Konoha. He will return, not as a hero, but as an international criminal, seeking to burn the village to the ground for what it did to his brother."
He paused, letting the failure of Itachi's grand, tragic plan sink in. "He will, eventually, have a change of heart during the Fourth Great Ninja War and fight to protect the world. But he will never truly come home. He will become a shadow protector, a wanderer who aids the village from afar, but he will never again wear a Konoha headband. He will never again be a formal shinobi of the Leaf. And with him, the legacy of the Uchiha clan within the village they helped to found… will end forever."
The finality of it was a death knell. The Uchiha, a pillar of their world, gone. Not just by massacre, but by a slow, inexorable tragedy that would see its last son become a permanent exile.
Tsunade closed her eyes, the tears finally ceasing, replaced by a cold, hard resolve. She had seen the full, ugly picture. She understood the sins of her predecessors. She understood the impossible burden placed on a single child. She understood the tragic failure of a martyr's love.
"This… all of this," she said, her voice low and dangerous, "was because of the fear of my great-uncle, and the weakness of my sensei."
"Primarily," Rohan agreed. "Their actions and inactions created the stage and wrote the script for this entire tragedy." He stood up, his graceful form seeming to radiate a weary light. "And that is only the story of the darkness of Hiruzen Sarutobi, a man who, at his core, likely believed he was doing what was best, however misguided he was."
He looked at them, his sky-blue eyes holding a new, chilling warning.
"We have not even begun to speak of the deeds of Danzo Shimura. We have not spoken of the man who did not act out of fear or weakness, but out of a pure, unadulterated lust for power. If I were to start detailing the full extent of his crimes, his experiments, his assassinations, his manipulations… I fear, my love, that I would not be able to stop speaking for a very, very long time."