For so long, he had endured everyone's disgust and rejection. Aside from Yunchuan, this teacher was the second person to stand on his side.
Unlike this Third Hokage, who spoke from the perspective of others and denied him.
A warm surge mixed with bitterness rushed to his eyes, making his nose sting.
Seeing the tears, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt relieved and quietly pleased.
For a child isolated for so long like Naruto Uzumaki, recognition and trust were the most powerful things.
With that, everything would be fine.
For the next few days, Konoha and the Hyuga Clan were both calm. The people of the Branch Family who had been waiting for retaliation did not receive any punishment at all. It was as if Hizashi Hyuga had truly become afraid.
The investigation into the killer continued, but it was limited to routine questioning and nothing more. There was none of the earlier rough or domineering behavior. Even the attitude of the Main Family members softened, and no one beat or cursed the Branch Family like before.
Sometimes someone would still put on the old superior posture. Yet when members of the Branch Family gathered their courage and stared back, that arrogance would slowly be pressed down. These small confrontations changed the daily atmosphere.
After realizing these changes, the Branch Family were overjoyed and credited everything to what Yunchuan Hyuga had said that day. His position among them became completely secure. When they looked at him now, there was respect like they once showed Hizashi Hyuga, and also a fanatic devotion even Hizashi Hyuga never received.
While the Branch Family celebrated their improved treatment, they failed to notice a hidden current forming inside Konoha. It was not limited to the Hyuga Clan. The Uchiha Clan was also stirring.
Moonlight barely pierced the thick clouds, sketching faint outlines of trees and casting twisted shadows on the ground. The forest was quiet, with only the wind moving the leaves. Darkness pressed down on everything.
Chi.
With a short, dull sound, a figure in the woods suddenly stiffened. Warm, sticky liquid sprayed out and splashed across the face of Fugaku Uchiha, carrying a sickly sweet smell. Fugaku Uchiha stood there without expression and pulled back the kunai that had pierced his clansman's heart.
Thud.
Tekka Uchiha collapsed forward, disbelief and fear frozen on his face as life left his wide eyes. At the same moment the body fell, a pale White Zetsu silently walked out of the shadows. Soon, a figure identical to Tekka Uchiha in every detail appeared and headed toward the place called home.
The entire process was smooth and efficient, as if practiced countless times. The speed of it made the scene chillingly calm. Nothing was wasted.
"Hee hee, you're getting more skilled. It won't be long before they're all dead."
Zetsu's strange laughter came from behind, where a tall figure stood quietly in the shadows. Itachi Uchiha watched everything in silence, the pale moonlight outlining a cold and emotionless profile. He ignored the mockery and looked down at the small notebook in his hand.
He raised his pen and drew a line across a name. The red stroke was clean and cruel, crossing out the black ink beneath it. The name was Tekka Uchiha.
Under the faint moonlight, many names could be seen listed in the notebook. Including Tekka Uchiha, all the earlier names had already been crossed out by Itachi Uchiha. Each line meant a living person had been erased in the most literal way.
Itachi Uchiha scanned the remaining names as if reviewing an ordinary task list. Then he looked up, his gaze settling on his father's back. Moonlight lit half of Fugaku Uchiha's face as blood slid down calmly, leaving a dark trail like a tear.
At this moment, inside Fugaku Uchiha's mental space, everything was different. There was no tearing rage and no desperate struggle. There were no painful accusations echoing anymore.
There was only silence. Endless, freezing silence. Beneath the Mangekyo Sharingan hanging in the sky like a sun in Shisui's domain, the sea that should have been green had turned into a vast ocean of blood.
"Tiehuo…"
"Who is next?"
"Xinyan, or Zhongjie?"
Fugaku Uchiha knelt on a black reef, no longer shouting or resisting, staring blankly at the blood sea before him. He felt everything with numb clarity. Though he could not control his body, he experienced every action it performed.
He killed one living person after another with his own hands. He watched them fall and felt their warmth fade away through his fingers. He saw clansmen who once called him Fugaku Uchiha freeze in shock and fear.
Not only did he kill them, but Itachi Uchiha erased their existence. Crude impostors replaced their lives, deceiving families who waited for them to return home and knew nothing. In the blood sea before Fugaku Uchiha, dozens of figures drifted, each a clansman he had personally killed.
Faces rose from beneath the surface, staring at him with twisted pain and hatred. These were the souls filled with resentment after death. Yunchuan Hyuga had used the Box of Ultimate Bliss to place them here so that Fugaku Uchiha would feel their pain and madness.
The twisted guilt and suffering were about to exceed what Fugaku Uchiha could endure. The massive trauma numbed his awareness. Only the repeated faces of death and the memory of warm blood on his skin remained clear.
"I killed them with these hands," Fugaku Uchiha whispered. "Why can't it stop?"
"Itachi Uchiha, Shisui, is this still not enough?" he asked hoarsely. He looked up at the Mangekyo Sharingan in the sky, then down at his trembling hands.
"How much more blood must stain my hands before it ends?" His voice broke. "It was me. I destroyed you all. I'm sorry."
Above him, Yunchuan Hyuga's consciousness looked down at Fugaku Uchiha and the souls of the Uchiha Clan floating in the blood sea. He waited quietly for the right day. Through the linked Scroll carried by Orochimaru, he monitored the progress closely.
From the Scroll, he could see that Orochimaru had crossed the sea by ship and reached another continent. Once Orochimaru found the Greil ruins and the Time Space Cave within them, Yunchuan Hyuga would immediately move to seal and control it. Only when the dark tide of the Uchiha Clan fully erupted would Orochimaru be able to open the Time Space Cave.
At that time, Yunchuan Hyuga would make the existence of the Void Realm fully enter the Living World. He would let Xu appear throughout Konoha and even the entire Ninja World. And Konoha would be the most dazzling stage of the drama he personally arranged.
The Root Base was cold and silent, a human experimentation lab buried deep underground. Pale light poured down from above, making the space resemble a morgue. Danzo Shimura lay alone on a cold operating table, turning his head to look at his exposed arm.
It was an arm fused from wood and flesh, with a human face protruding from the upper arm. The skin was an unhealthy pale color, covered in raised patterns like old tree roots. Complex Sealing Techniques covered its surface, and several restraints tightly sealed its power.
Even so, Danzo Shimura could clearly feel the Hashirama Cells within the arm struggling violently. Each impact shook the weakening seals and restraints. Every surge brought bone-deep pain that made his aged face twitch and sweat bead on his forehead.
"Danzo Shimura-sama," a researcher in a pale coat said softly, wiping sweat away. "The corrosive nature of the Hashirama Cells is too strong. This is already our limit."