More and more people shifted their focus toward the true source of all this tragedy—
Itachi Uchiha.
Everyone wanted to know:
What would the inevitable, fated confrontation between the two brothers look like?
And what kind of man was Itachi Uchiha really—the one who had personally set all of this into motion?
Outside an Akatsuki Hideout
Itachi Uchiha stood quietly, gazing up at the Sky Screen.
He watched as Sasuke formed Team Taka, gathered intelligence with cold precision, and grew rapidly—both in strength and in mind—tempered relentlessly by hatred.
His face, perpetually frozen in calm indifference, showed no visible change.
Yet deep within his Mangekyō Sharingan, a trace of something flickered—
Satisfaction.
Good… Sasuke.
This is exactly how it should be. Keep growing stronger. Keep moving toward the end I've prepared for you.
Use Orochimaru. Build your own power. Everything is proceeding according to my script.
In Itachi's plan, the next step was clear.
Sasuke would find him.
And in their fated battle, Itachi would give everything he had—his life, his eyes, his sins—and die by Sasuke's hand.
In doing so, Sasuke would achieve his revenge, awaken even greater power within his Sharingan, and then—using Itachi's eyes—obtain the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, gaining the strength to protect Konoha.
At the same time, he would return to the village as a hero—
The shinobi who had slain the S-rank rogue ninja Itachi Uchiha.
This, to Itachi, was the most perfect path he could lay for his younger brother.
Trading his own life and infamy for Sasuke's future—and for Konoha's stability.
Then… I can finally rest.
A sense close to relief passed silently through his heart.
The Hokage's Office
In stark contrast to Itachi's quiet "satisfaction," Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression grew worse by the second as the Sky Screen showed Sasuke drawing closer and closer to Itachi.
Until finally—
His face went deathly pale.
He suddenly realized something.
Something that could tear away the very last fig leaf shielding Konoha.
The Sky Screen had already laid bare Sasuke's growth and his obsession with revenge.
Which meant that next… it would inevitably reveal the target of that revenge.
Itachi Uchiha.
And once Itachi was scrutinized—
Could the truth of the Uchiha clan massacre still remain hidden?
If the entire shinobi world learned how Konoha's higher-ups—how he, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and Danzō Shimura—had forced a thirteen-year-old child to slaughter his own clan…
How they had piled every sin onto his shoulders.
How they had threatened him with his younger brother's life—
Then everything Konoha had ever preached—
The so-called Will of Fire.
The promise to protect every child in the village—
Would become the greatest joke in the shinobi world.
Konoha would be utterly disgraced.
A symbol not of righteousness, but of hypocrisy and conspiracy.
By then, it wouldn't just be the Raikage's mockery—
Even the Fire Daimyō might completely lose faith in Konoha.
Just imagining it made Hiruzen dizzy. Cold sweat soaked his back.
"It's over…" he murmured weakly, collapsing into his chair.
The pipe in his hand had long since gone out.
He looked out at the village—seemingly prosperous and peaceful.
All his life, he had worked tirelessly to maintain Konoha's stability, even accepting certain shadows and compromises.
And yet—
How had things come to this?
The Uchiha clan.
The Hyūga clan.
The White Fang.
The Fourth Hokage…
And now Naruto and Sasuke.
He had only ever wanted peace.
Only wanted Konoha to endure.
So why did it feel as though the more he struggled, the deeper the village sank into a suffocating quagmire—one that threatened to drag it into irreversible ruin?
For the first time in his life, overwhelming helplessness and confusion swallowed the old man whole.
"…Sigh."
He exhaled deeply, seeming to age ten years in an instant. His face was etched with exhaustion and despair.
"Just let it all burn… I'm tired…"
Faced with the unstoppable flood of truth pouring from the Sky Screen, he realized—
All his schemes, all his political maneuvering—
Were utterly powerless.
All he could do now was wait.
Wait for the inevitable moment of judgment.
Ninja Academy – Classroom
The air felt frozen.
Only the sounds from the Sky Screen—echoes from the future—remained.
Everyone's gaze unconsciously shifted back and forth between Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha.
Naruto turned his head, looking once more at Sasuke sitting nearby.
His expression was complicated beyond words.
Confusion.
Frustration.
A trace of lingering anger.
And something else—something strange, stirred by the bonds shown on the Sky Screen, that even Naruto himself didn't fully understand.
He had seen his future self.
Seen himself risk his life again and again to bring Sasuke back.
Never giving up—even when left far behind.
That heavy, blazing emotion crossed time itself, faintly scorching the heart of the young Naruto in the present.
But reality was cruelly real.
Without warning—
Sasuke moved.
He shot to his feet, lightning-fast. Before Naruto could react at all, a sharp, clean punch smashed straight into his cheek!
Bang!
"Ugh!"
Naruto cried out as the blow sent him sprawling to the floor, stars dancing in his vision.
"Dead last," Sasuke said coldly, looking down at him without a trace of emotion.
"Don't look at me with that disgusting expression."
"Damn it, Sasuke!"
Naruto clutched his rapidly swelling cheek and scrambled to his feet, baring his teeth in fury.
His chest heaved. A flood of curses, questions, and arguments surged up—
But when he opened his mouth and met Sasuke's dark eyes…
Every word caught in his throat.
Not a single sound came out.
The Sasuke before him—consumed by revenge—
And the Sasuke from the Sky Screen—pulled back from darkness by bonds—
Clashed violently in his mind.
He didn't understand it.
He only knew that his chest felt unbearably tight.
In stark contrast to Naruto's turmoil, Sasuke was calm.
He ignored Naruto entirely and turned his full attention back to the Sky Screen.
His black eyes burned now—with something close to fanaticism.
They were fixed on the image of himself relentlessly pursuing Itachi Uchiha.
Almost there…
Almost there…
Revenge.
That single thought burned away everything else.
To Sasuke, the Sky Screen was not a display of bonds—
It was a map of revenge.
And proof of power.
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