Sasuke had his face turned to the side, his arms folded beneath his head, his lashes casting shadows on his pale cheeks, with dried tear marks still visible. Even in sleep, his brow was tightly drawn, as if trapped in a nightmare. Unlike the boy twisted entirely by hatred in the original story, the current Sasuke still held fatigue and anger, but had not been swallowed by them.
This was clearly because Itachi Uchiha had not used Tsukuyomi to torment him repeatedly, and because Shisui was still alive. Yunchuan Hyuga watched quietly, his gaze lingering on the sleeping child and on Shisui lying motionless.
At that moment, suppressed but angry voices approached from down the corridor, shattering the silence. Shouts of "Move aside" and "We need answers" rang out, all demanding that Shisui give them an explanation.
Several figures charged into the ward area, all survivors who had lived through Itachi Uchiha's massacre. They were the elderly, the weak, or those with milder temperaments, yet each had lost family or friends that night. Ignoring the doctors and nurses, they headed straight for the room where Shisui Uchiha lay.
Yunchuan Hyuga turned slowly to face them and frowned. "What do you think you are doing? This is a hospital. Keep your voices down."
The group hesitated, and the one at the front was Yakumi Uchiha. If Itachi Uchiha had continued killing after Inabi Uchiha, Yakumi Uchiha would likely have been next. He survived only because his strength and status ranked lower on that list.
Yaowei stopped abruptly, his chest heaving and his face red with pent-up rage. He opened his mouth to speak, but when his anger met Yunchuan Hyuga's calm Byakugan, it was forced back down. Everyone there knew that this was the man who had led the ANBU to save them that night.
Yakumi Uchiha took several deep breaths before speaking. "Yunchuan Hyuga, we are not here to cause trouble. We just want to hear the truth from Shisui Uchiha." His voice trembled as he continued, asking why Itachi Uchiha had slaughtered his own clan and even killed his parents.
Yunchuan Hyuga looked over the grieving group and sighed. "Shisui Uchiha is still unconscious. Sasuke Uchiha is here, but are you really going to crowd in and question a child who also lost his parents in one night?"
The anger on their faces froze, replaced by a suffocating sense of frustration. Sasuke's parents had also died by Itachi Uchiha's hand, making him one of the most severely harmed victims. Yet the rage in Yaowei's heart could not be erased.
He suddenly raised his head and said, "Then I will ask him. Why did only he survive? That madman even killed his own parents, so why did he spare Sasuke?"
Suspicion stirred again among the group. Before it could boil over, the ward door creaked open and Sasuke Uchiha appeared, clearly woken by the noise, his face marked by exhaustion and tears.
Under everyone's gaze, Sasuke stiffened, then pressed his lips together. In full view of them all, he slowly knelt and struck his forehead against the cold floor, the sound dull and heavy.
"I am sorry, everyone," he said, his voice shaking. "Itachi Uchiha said he slaughtered the clan, even our parents, for Root. It was for those eyes, to gain greater power, and he spared me because I might awaken them too."
His body trembled as fear broke through his words. "He said when I have the same eyes as him, he will come back, kill me, and take them. I do not know what eyes he meant, but that is what he told me. Please believe me."
Some of the survivors turned deathly pale. They knew exactly what eyes he meant, the legendary Mangekyo Sharingan. The truth was more cruel than anything they had imagined.
The corridor fell silent as they looked at the kneeling child, shaking with fear and grief. These were the gentler members of the Uchiha Clan, and faced with another victim destined for suffering, they could say nothing. Their anger drained away, leaving only deep sorrow and helplessness.
Yakumi Uchiha's frustration had nowhere to go. His right fist slammed into the wall with a loud crash, blood splattering as his skin split and his bones were dislocated. He did not seem to feel the pain, his eyes filled with fury and confusion.
In the suffocating quiet, a weak voice drifted from inside the room. "Please do not blame Sasuke." The hoarse, faint sound drew all eyes back to the bed.
Shisui Uchiha had opened his eyes at some point, though they were empty and pale, unfocused as they faced the doorway. He tore away the tubes attached to him and struggled to move.
Sasuke tried to help him, but Shisui pushed him aside and forced himself up, ignoring the pain in half his body. Step by step, unsteady and sweating, he reached the doorway and looked at the clan members outside.
With a dull thud, he too dropped to his knees and pressed his forehead to the floor. Yakumi Uchiha looked down at him coldly and asked, "Tell me. That beast slaughtered the clan. Did you take part in it?"
Shisui's body trembled slightly, not only from physical pain, but from the pain buried deep in his heart. He had been involved, of course, and from the very beginning it was his guidance that pushed Itachi Uchiha onto that wrong path. Even so, he stayed silent for a very long time.
"I am sorry…" Shisui said hoarsely and slowly. "It was me, I failed to notice in time that Itachi Uchiha had been blinded by power. It was me, I failed to correct his wrong and extreme thinking, and I failed to stop him from slaughtering our clan."
As he spoke, he slowly raised his head, his hollow eyes turned toward Yaowei and the others. "I am truly sorry."
"…And then?"
Seeing that Shisui Uchiha did not continue, Yaowei suddenly reached out and grabbed Shisui by the collar. Shisui's already frail body was lifted straight up, his feet leaving the ground as he was yanked forward like a sack of rags.
"So what you mean is this," Yaowei said, his face almost pressed against Shisui's, breathing hard. He stared at those hollow pale Byakugan eyes, forcing out each word through clenched teeth. "You are saying you were not involved at all, that you knew nothing about this, that you are completely clean, is that it?"
His voice echoed through the silent corridor, and the clan members behind him all stared at Shisui. Suspended in the air, Shisui swayed slightly, his face empty and numb, as if dead.
Under the gaze of Yakumi Uchiha and the others, he stayed silent for a long time. In the end, he gave an almost imperceptible nod.
"Yes."
In the end, he chose to hide the truth. He did not say that he had taken part in it, and he did not say that Itachi had borne the crime of killing his clan and parents in order to protect Konoha. He could not tell the truth, because it would only make the survivors hate Konoha and turn everything he and Itachi Uchiha had done into nothing.
But that nod and that single word twisted the muscles on Yaowei's face.
"Bastard!"
Yaowei roared as the hand gripping Shisui's collar flung him aside. Shisui was slammed hard onto the cold floor, his body hitting with a dull thud.
Then Yaowei stepped forward and looked down at the miserable Shisui with no pity in his eyes. His injured fist, the one he had smashed into the wall before, crashed into Shisui's cheek without holding back.