Chapter 90: Freak
An icy unease seized Satsuki's heart without warning. Her body began trembling slightly—not from the night wind's chill, but from that faint yet increasingly distinct scent of blood in the air.
This smell awakened humanity's most primal fear—of death, of loss, of unpredictable disaster.
Her fingers trembled uncontrollably, instinctively grasping the only support beside her—Naruto's sleeve. The fabric clenched tightly in her hand provided a thread of weak security.
Yet reason screamed in her mind.
'If... if it's really as terrible as I'm thinking... if something horrible has happened...'
'Naruto... should leave here immediately!'
Getting the most important person involved in possible danger was absolutely unacceptable. This thought was crystal clear. But another more primitive, more overwhelming emotion—the tsunami called "fear"—instantly swallowed that rational glimmer.
'Stay alone in this darkness filled with deathly silence and bloody scent?' This thought sent bone-deep cold through her, fingers gripping the sleeve turning white from force.
She looked up at Naruto, eyes full of fierce struggle. She opened her mouth but couldn't make any sound, unsure whether to order him to leave or beg him to stay.
Finally, all her conflict, fear and dependence laid bare on her face.
Naruto saw that Satsuki's obsidian eyes—usually proud or indignant—now gazed at him with an expression he'd never seen before, almost mournful.
Those eyes overflowed with helplessness and pleading, like a small animal trembling in a storm, desperately seeking shelter.
Naruto's palm gently covered Satsuki's cold fingers. "It's alright. Something seems off ahead, right? Don't be afraid—I'll stay by your side the whole time."
These comforting words were like a lifeline to Satsuki, whose sense of security had completely vanished. She rarely failed to produce any tsundere retorts, only nodding obediently.
The two moved step by step, slowly approaching the Uchiha compound's corner. Each step closer intensified that sickly sweet rust smell in the air, making Satsuki's breathing more rapid.
Finally, they turned that fate-deciding corner.
The next moment, color drained completely from Satsuki's face, leaving it deathly pale.
Cold moonlight spilled across the street, illuminating a hellish scene. People wearing familiar Uchiha clan symbol clothing lay scattered in various positions in pools of blood.
Their necks were all cleanly slashed, fatal wounds grotesquely gaping, every eye socket transformed into hollow cavities with dark red blood trickling out.
These... included both biological forgeries created by Gold Experience and... real corpses.
Naruto's expression was complex. Truth or falsehood depended on these people's previous positions—dove or hawk faction. However, disguises that even the dead Danzō couldn't distinguish were incomprehensible horror for nine-year-old Satsuki.
"What... what is this...?" Satsuki's voice trembled almost incoherently, the massive shock leaving her mind blank.
Then survival instinct overwhelmed everything. She suddenly grabbed Naruto's hand in a death grip—no longer clutching his sleeve, but fingers tightly interlocked, as if trying to weld herself to his hand.
"Quick... let's go!" Without explanation, she pulled Naruto stumbling frantically toward the family estate deeper in the compound.
She gasped violently, cold air stinging her lungs, but her steps dared not pause for a moment.
Naruto didn't break free, letting her drag him through this corpse-strewn compound. From a rational perspective, Satsuki's most correct action now would indeed be immediately fleeing the compound to seek support at the village center.
But for a nine-year-old child witnessing such carnage, drowning in boundless terror, the first reaction was definitely not calm "rational analysis." Her instinctive response was singular—seek the safest, most reliable harbor in the world.
'Father... Mother... Sister...'
In her understanding, her father Uchiha Fugaku was a powerful shinobi, her sister Uchiha Itachi an ANBU genius. Finding them meant safety—everything would be alright.
This dependence not only drove her toward "home" but made her grip Naruto tightly—she absolutely couldn't leave the most important person alone in this bloody hell outside.
She was desperately clinging to what she believed was the only solid thing, racing toward the sanctuary in her memory.
---
'..What's happening? Father and Mother... are still alive?!'
Uchiha Itachi stood on the roof tiles, night wind stirring her long hair, crimson Mangekyō Sharingan staring fixedly below—among the "corpses" she'd personally created, Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto lay quietly there!
Though breathing weakly with pale complexions, their chests were indeed rising and falling slightly... they were truly alive!
'How is this possible?!'
To force Satsuki to awaken Sharingan, to make her generate sufficient hatred and walk the "correct" path, Itachi had spared no cost.
When that mysterious Ember organization leader suddenly changed terms, demanding she spare her parents, intense crisis and obsession made her unhesitatingly use her newly awakened power—Amaterasu.
Those black flames that wouldn't extinguish until consuming their target—she had ignited them personally. She endured soul-tearing grief watching her parents' bodies consumed by ominous black fire... she was certain she'd completed this "necessary" sacrifice.
'But why... why are they still alive now?!'
"You finally returned, Uchiha Itachi."
A cold voice suddenly rang from behind, breaking the deathly silence.
Itachi spun around, Sharingan instantly locking onto the sound's source—nearby, that fox-masked figure stood quietly in moonlight.
"Must you make everything so absolute?"
Without hesitation, Itachi's Mangekyō spun frantically!
Amaterasu!
Pitch-black flames appeared from nothing, instantly wrapping around Menma's body like maggots to bone, burning violently. However, before pain could register, this "Menma's" figure dissolved like smoke.
'A shadow clone!'
The next moment, space slightly distorted as an identical figure appeared in the original spot via Hiraishin, tone remaining calmly unruffled.
"Don't be foolish—my main body won't appear before you."
The newly appeared Menma spoke flatly, gaze seeming to fall on Itachi's blood-tear-streaked eyes.
"I advise using that eye less. You should already feel it... the price of wielding that power."
Watching the pale-faced yet stubbornly determined Uchiha Itachi, Menma shook his head. "Hard to believe a child would deliberately plot to kill her own parents..."
"While an outsider desperately tries protecting them. This world really is a place that breeds freaks."
Uchiha Itachi's breathing grew heavy, blood tears sliding from her eyes again. She stared fixedly at Menma, voice angry and confused. "Why are you doing this?! This should bring you no benefit, Ember!"
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