---
Shimura Danzō and Hiruzen Sarutobi acted at just the right moment, finally setting off with ANBU and Root operatives toward the Uchiha compound.
Even among the hardened ANBU and Root operatives—shinobi who had long grown numb to bloodshed—an eerie chill spread through their ranks.
The once-vibrant Uchiha district had been transformed into a scene of hell on earth.
From the elderly whose lives were nearing their end, to newborn infants still wrapped in blankets—none were spared. All were slaughtered. The blood of the Uchiha stained the very ground of their clan's land.
It was a massacre. A brutal extermination.
"What the hell happened here?"
"Did the Uchiha provoke someone? Who could've done something this merciless?"
"An entire clan of 865 people—men, women, and children—gone!"
As the ANBU and Root searched house by house, they discovered that not a single member of the formidable Uchiha clan had survived.
Every door opened revealed a blood-soaked corpse. Every window looked out upon death.
Even Shimura Danzō—cold and calculated—felt a rare shiver.
Could Uchiha Itachi truly be so merciless? To raise his blade against his own kin, those who shared his blood?
But Danzō, ever pragmatic, quickly regained his composure and barked orders to the remaining operatives.
"Don't stand around—keep searching. Look for any survivors…"
But before he could finish speaking, a strange sense of wrongness overcame him.
"I saw everything."
A warm breeze swept through the late-summer night, but Danzō felt no warmth—only an icy chill creeping up his spine.
He realized, with horror, that he had fallen into a genjutsu.
He turned slowly toward the voice.
One of his own men—at least, someone wearing the mask of his subordinate—was now staring him down with blood-red Sharingan eyes, speaking in a voice devoid of warmth.
"From this moment on, I'll be watching. If you dare lay a finger on Sasuke, I'll leak every dark secret of this village to its enemies."
Danzō didn't speak. Not a single word.
The illusionary figure of "Uchiha Itachi" dissolved into a murder of crows and vanished into the night.
Danzō's face twisted in fury.
"That bastard…"
The mighty leader of Root, Konoha's shadowy second-in-command, had been threatened—by a child not even ten years old.
But he didn't dare make a move. Not against him. Not against Uchiha Itachi.
---
Elsewhere...
Not far from the Uchiha district, at Might Guy's residence, Ye Dou had returned to his training.
Clad in a sleeveless gi, he continued his relentless physical regimen.
"1032… 1033… 1034…"
"1123… 1124… 1125…"
"1214… huh?"
Just as he completed his 1,214th sword swing, something small and wrapped struck him in the chest.
He caught it effortlessly. It was a scroll—dense with fire-style ninjutsu.
"Hōsenka no Jutsu… Gōkakyū no Jutsu… all Uchiha techniques," he muttered, unrolling the parchment.
Ye Dou narrowed his eyes and turned to the masked figure now standing behind him.
"I don't remember giving you a second rice ball," he said flatly. "What do you want?"
Uchiha Itachi's voice was cold beneath the ANBU mask.
"Tomorrow, everything will change. You're strong, but not yet strong enough. Until Sasuke comes for me, you'll be the measure of his will."
Ye Dou stared at him. "What did you do?"
Itachi didn't answer directly. "A tool must have the awareness of a tool. You don't need to know anything more."
---
[Quiet places like this… I like them.]
"Tch. Just say you're worried about your brother," Ye Dou muttered under his breath. "What's with all this cryptic drama?"
Itachi left just as suddenly as he had arrived—without another word.
"He really is textbook Uchiha—second-grade syndrome in full bloom," the mongoose beside Ye Dou grumbled.
"He just doesn't want me to get too curious," Ye Dou replied, clutching the scroll.
He understood. He could feel it.
Itachi didn't want innocents caught in the crossfire. But he also didn't want Sasuke left alone in this world, devoid of guidance. He needed someone who could truly understand his younger brother.
Not someone like Sakura Haruno, with her warm family and peaceful life.
Sasuke would only see pity. He'd reject it outright.
Ye Dou was different. The child of a criminal. Born in darkness. Marked by misfortune. He had walked the same path. He could resonate with Sasuke.
More importantly, Sasuke had lost to Ye Dou once—and acknowledged him. That respect mattered.
"In the end… even facing innocent lives, Itachi still chose Sasuke."
Ye Dou couldn't help but wonder.
Was it worth it?
"You mean Uchiha Itachi played you? You wanna help him now?" the mongoose asked, confused.
Who would've thought that someone who slaughtered his own clan was doing it all for his little brother?
"Help," Ye Dou said firmly.
"You're serious? You're not scared of being exposed?" the mongoose asked, dumbfounded.
Ye Dou wasn't known for compassion. He was the type to rob graves and vanish into the night.
"This is something I owe him."
---