"Goodbye!"
When school ended, Sasuke slung his bag over his shoulder, waved to his classmates at the gate, and followed the stream back toward the Uchiha compound, humming happily.
He stopped.
There was no scene of slaughter, no blood-soaked streets like in that other timeline. The Uchiha district was still bustling and alive.
Sasuke didn't notice the cold eyes watching from the forest's shadows, or the unusually solemn expressions on the guards at the gate. The food stall selling tricolour dango still had a line. He squeezed through the crowd and used his pocket money to buy two skewers.
Bang!
The door to his house slid open.
"Big brother, guess what I bought you?"
The boy held the dango high, but the excited announcement didn't get the reaction he expected.
The air inside was heavy.
Sitting in the main hall, as if praying to the gods or awaiting judgment, were his father, Uchiha Fugaku, and his mother, Uchiha Mikoto. They turned to look at him, their gazes steady and calm.
For some reason, Sasuke felt those eyes were strangely unfamiliar.
Dad…
Mom…
Who are you looking at?
"It's just Sasuke," Fugaku's voice broke the silence. His faint smile made Sasuke feel a little warmth again.
"Itachi is still on a mission. He hasn't returned yet."
His tone carried a complicated mix of pride and disappointment.
"Oh."
Sasuke deflated, the excitement from a moment ago drained away.
His brother was on a mission again.
Dinner that night was tasteless.
The only sounds were chopsticks knocking against bowls and Sasuke chewing, swallowing, chewing again. Outside, the streets were too quiet. The usual shouts from the training grounds were silent. There was no wind, no birds, no frogs, no cicadas. Somehow, the world inside the compound and the world outside had reached a strange agreement.
It felt like something was building, and everyone in the compound—even nature itself—was silently waiting.
After dinner:
"Don't go to school tomorrow," Fugaku said.
It was the only sentence he spoke through the entire meal.
He didn't give Sasuke a chance to protest. Words like that were never suggestions. They were orders.
Affected by the atmosphere, Sasuke could only nod, a knot of anxiety tightening in his chest.
That night.
Restless and uneasy, Sasuke held the two dango skewers and squatted at the entrance to the house. He couldn't read. He couldn't play with his toys. He just wanted his brother to see him when he came home.
While he waited, he kept glancing toward his father sitting in the main hall, looking lost in thought.
From his angle, Sasuke could see Fugaku holding a small slip of paper with fewer than ten characters written on it. Fugaku had been staring at that note for at least half an hour.
At some point, as if the entire district had received the same signal, the muted murmur of voices in the compound slowly swelled.
To Sasuke, it was a strange and familiar feeling—like someone who'd been deaf suddenly regaining their hearing, but unable to make sense of the sounds.
Footsteps approached.
The door opened.
It wasn't Itachi.
"Tomorrow we'll give Danzo and the others a surprise. Everyone's morale is high, clan leader!"
Clansmen with torches gathered outside. They barely spared Sasuke a glance at the doorway, or the hidden eyes that were watching the compound from the dark.
Every approach to the district was manned.
Tonight, not even a rat would be allowed to leave the Uchiha compound.
Sasuke had no idea what was happening. He just stared blankly at his father.
By then, Fugaku was already on his feet. The note was gone.
Something about him had changed. He'd taken off the warmth and weight of a father, and put on the decisive mantle of a clan head.
He still spoke gently to the others, but in Sasuke's eyes, he suddenly looked less like a father—and more like the Hokage speaking to the village at a ceremony.
What were they talking about?
Where were they going?
What was going to happen?
Sasuke's anxiety hit its peak. As Fugaku and the others were about to leave, he bit his lip, wriggled out of his mother's arms, ran barefoot into the street, and shouted:
"Father! Where… where is my brother Itachi?!"
Everyone turned to look at him.
Their faces were cold.
But the coldness wasn't aimed at Sasuke.
It was aimed at the name he'd just called out.
The crowd parted. At the very front, Uchiha Fugaku turned around slowly. His eyes rotated with three tomoe like shuriken.
Sasuke's breath caught.
Father… your eyes…
He'd never seen his father like this.
"He's a coward," Fugaku said calmly.
Whether Itachi chose the Uchiha or chose Konoha—if he wasn't standing here tonight, then he was a coward.
A coward who accepted Konoha's will but couldn't raise his hand against his own clan.
A coward who accepted the clan's will but couldn't raise his hand against Konoha.
A coward who chose to hide on the eve of battle.
That son who had once been his pride—whatever choice Itachi made, Fugaku would have respected.
But in the end…
He ran.
So he was a coward.
He didn't know where Itachi was, hiding like a turtle in its shell, refusing to decide.
And so—
He was a coward.
…
Sasuke stood there, the two skewers of dango still in his hands, and watched his clan's backs disappear into the night.
…
Later, several of the Uchiha's high-ranking members gathered.
"The plan has been exposed. Konoha is on guard. They've laid traps and are waiting for us. We have to adjust the plan for tomorrow's coup."
"What?!"
"It's fine. They don't know that we know they're prepared… so we still have a chance," Uchiha Fugaku said.
He thought about the mysterious note and clenched his fist.
He understood the sender's intention very clearly. That person wasn't trying to help the Uchiha seize power. They wanted to use the Uchiha's rebellion to plunge Konoha into chaos.
The consequences of failure would be catastrophic.
With Konoha already aware, simply cancelling the coup wouldn't cool the clan's fervour or restore the old status quo. It would only lead to a slow, inevitable strangling.
The one who sent the note was cruel.
He knew the Uchiha had no way out.
They had to move forward.
Even if that meant becoming Konoha's eternal sinners.
The arrow had already been nocked. It had to be loosed.
Fugaku took a deep breath. His outstretched hand trembled. He had no idea what awaited them after they took this step—but as far as he could see, it was the only path that might let the Uchiha survive and rise to Konoha's peak.
"…This is our only chance," he said quietly, but firmly.
He pulled out a photograph and pressed his finger to it.
"This is Uzumaki Naruto."
"The Fourth Hokage's son. The Nine-Tails' jinchuriki."
Under the stunned stares of the other high-ranking Uchiha, Fugaku paused, then continued:
"Our goal is to capture him and release the Nine-Tails."
"I'll use my Mangekyō Sharingan to control the Nine-Tails. Once the battle is over, we'll select a new jinchuriki."
Countless people would die.
But it was a necessary sacrifice.
The plan was simple in outline and monstrous in cost:
Kill Hiruzen, Danzo, and the other key leaders.
Let Fugaku "stop" the rampaging Nine-Tails and stabilise the village.
As long as no one discovered that it was the Uchiha who had unleashed the Nine-Tails in the first place, Fugaku could ride the tide of "heroic saviour" straight to the position of Fifth Hokage.
The Uchiha would no longer be a marginalised clan, but Konoha's protectors.
Of course, releasing the Nine-Tails would tear Konoha apart, shatter countless families, draw foreign enemies like sharks to blood, and might even trigger a Fourth Great Ninja War.
Fugaku had considered all of that.
He simply didn't care.
They had never been allowed to care about the "big picture." Why should they care about it now?
…
The Uchiha leadership unanimously approved the revised plan.
Only Fugaku remained in the secret meeting room afterward.
He gazed out the window at the distant lights of Konoha's main street, as if he could see the blood already staining his hands.
"Itachi… did you see that?" he murmured.
His face was expressionless.
But this was the choice.
Whether it became a tale of sin or glory—
As clan head, it was his inescapable duty.
He would carry it all.
—In the name of Uchiha.
The answer had been decided.
If you Enjoyed Reading
Visit my p@treon for more chapters
Advance 80+ Chapters Available
patreon.com/Sagamaster789
If you really Enjoyed Reading. Give Power Stones and Reviews !