Someone quietly wiped away tears.
Others clutched at their chests, choking back sobs.
Uchiha Mikoto, standing in the shadows, had tears in her eyes as well.
She had once said—
Compared to your pain, Itachi, ours was only a fleeting moment.
But seeing it with her own eyes now, she understood even more deeply. Shisui and Itachi… those two children had carried far too much.
…
At Training Ground 44 in Konoha, where the second stage of the Chunin Exams was being held, the genin from various villages were also moved by the image.
Honestly, from their perspective, a major village like Konoha already had it good.
Villages like Takigakure or Kusagakure didn't have the backing of a wealthy great nation. The kinds of missions they took on were things Konoha's kids couldn't even imagine.
[The image shifted to Itachi's memories.]
[He stared at the Uchiha clan crest—the fan symbol—on the back of Shisui's clothes. What surfaced in his mind were the happy times they had shared…]
[Shisui and Itachi stood in the courtyard of the Uchiha compound, teaching young Sasuke how to practice shuriken techniques.]
[After completing missions, the two would bump fists, understanding each other without words.]
[All of it would come to an end…]
["Goodbye, my friend! From here on… I leave everything to you!"]
Shisui, watching from the shadows: "…Itachi."
The crow in Tanzaku Town: "…Shisui."
["Shisui—!!!"]
[In the image, Uchiha Shisui wore a relieved smile, as if finally laying everything down. Trusting Itachi with it all, he leapt.]
[Above the cliff, the river roared below. The night was deep and silent. Only Itachi remained standing there, unmoving.]
[The camera slowly zoomed in on Itachi's profile. His tightly shut eyes snapped open.]
[The three-tomoe Sharingan in his pupils began to blur…]
["Szz—"]
[After the distortion, a new pattern replaced the three tomoe.]
[A three-bladed shuriken pattern appeared in Itachi's eyes.]
"Another Mangekyō Sharingan!!!"
"Brother!" That pair of eyes—
It was the same one from the night of the massacre.
Bitterness filled Sasuke's mouth.
So that was how my brother awakened it?
What was he thinking back then?
Sasuke suddenly understood something.
On a certain dusk in his childhood—
News spread through the clan that Uchiha Shisui had died.
It was said he left behind a note: "If things continue like this, the Uchiha have no future. Nor do I. I cannot continue straying from the path." Then he threw himself into the Naka River.
That was the first time Sasuke remembered seeing his brother lose control.
Itachi had argued fiercely with the clan elders. They said cruel things. Itachi didn't back down—he struck them down without hesitation.
What had his brother said then?
"Clan, clan… that's all you ever talk about! It's nothing but arrogance!" Itachi had shouted in anger. "You don't understand the depth of my capacity, and that's why you've been defeated by me!"
Itachi believed that very arrogance—this self-righteous pride—was why the Uchiha still carried an air of superiority.
They isolated themselves. Distanced themselves from others.
Why not try to change?
Even if it meant swallowing some pride, wouldn't reconciliation with the people of Konoha just be a matter of time?
"Stop it, Itachi!"
Uchiha Fugaku had appeared, angrily rebuking his eldest son.
But at that time, shaken by Shisui's death, Itachi had already grown deeply disappointed in the entire clan.
He drove a shuriken into the Uchiha crest.
If Sasuke hadn't tearfully begged him to stop—
Sasuke still remembered it clearly. In the end, his brother had knelt and apologized to the senior clansmen. Only then did the matter barely settle.
But back then, Sasuke hadn't known what his brother had just endured.
He didn't know—
That after witnessing Shisui's death with his own eyes, Itachi had then been suspected by the elders of murdering him.
The fury he must have felt.
…
"Sasuke-kun!!"
Sakura's urgent cry made Naruto whip his head around.
Sasuke's hands were gripping his shirt tightly. His eyes were shut. Tears streamed down his face.
He wasn't making a sound, but as his teammates in Team Seven, they could both feel it.
Sasuke's pain was suffocating.
Hatred.
When hatred has a clear target, all pain can be poured into that single point.
For years, Sasuke had hated Itachi. It hurt—but at least he wasn't lost.
But now—
The pain was even worse, yet the target had become blurry. Something he couldn't grasp.
The hatred without a direction recoiled back onto him, crushing him from within.
Naruto looked at Sasuke and felt something twist in his own chest.
It hurt.
It hurt so much he forgot the harsh words Sasuke had said earlier.
His chest felt tight, like he couldn't breathe.
But he also knew—
Sometimes, it's better to cry it out.
He had once curled up alone in a dark room, wondering why everyone else had parents while he had nothing.
Unlike the original timeline—where seventeen-year-old Sasuke had already killed Itachi before learning the truth—
When he stood facing the ocean, weeping silently and letting the sound of the waves drown out his sobs, the members of Team Taka only dared to watch from afar.
Here, Sasuke had not defected yet. He was still in the second stage of the Chunin Exams.
Under Sakura's awkward comfort, he finally broke.
He broke down wailing..
Even when he had seen his mother resurrected, he hadn't cried so fiercely.
It was as if he were trying to cry out all seven years of grievance since the night of the massacre.
The sound was so loud he forgot where he was. Forgot who he was. Forgot about the clan. Forgot about revenge.
He just let it all out.
He didn't notice the faint sound of sand shifting around him.
Gaara's automatic defense quietly formed a barrier around Sasuke, shielding him—just like, in the image, when Gaara had cried and his mother's sand had hidden his shame.
Temari and Kankuro were stunned.
Even Naruto stared in disbelief at Gaara's action.
"Thanks!" Naruto grinned broadly at Gaara, silently mouthing the words and giving him a thumbs-up.
Gaara nodded shyly without speaking.
…
Elsewhere, after hearing the Anbu's report about protecting Naruto and Sasuke, Tobirama Senju let out a quiet breath.
"The foundation for awakening the Sharingan is emotional fluctuation. To reach the Mangekyō Sharingan requires immense pain. It's like using poison as a catalyst—great power comes with a shinobi path that becomes even harder to uphold."
So Sasuke having a chance to cry like this was actually a good thing.
The Uchiha tended to overthink, but once you stripped away the extremity of emotion and thought, they weren't people who needed to be rejected like Danzo believed.
In the end, it was Danzo who had strayed from the right path—confusing cause and effect.
During the Fourth Great Ninja War, his elder brother, Hashirama Senju, had once praised Uchiha Itachi as a shinobi even greater than himself—the First Hokage, known as the God of Shinobi.
Given everything, the young Uchiha truly had it hard.
This time, the image ended normally.
After explaining why Shisui's Susanoo had only appeared briefly before fading, the screen gradually darkened and disappeared.
Uchiha Itachi had long been worried about Sasuke's condition.
In Tanzaku Town, overhearing the civilians' discussions, he finally realized what he had missed.
The image wasn't just targeting the Akatsuki.
It was being broadcast across the entire world.
And during the twenty-four hours when he had used genjutsu to control a crow and sent it toward Konoha—while he himself had been trapped inside a barrier—
The image had appeared at least two more times.
"Caw, caw!" Lady Mito!
"…," Itachi immediately cast a genjutsu on Uzumaki Mito, pulling her into the Tsukuyomi. "Lady Mito, I—"
Mito smiled gently. "You want to return to Konoha right away, don't you? So do I. Don't worry. My pace won't fall behind yours."
"Mm!"
Exiting the Tsukuyomi world, a person and a crow sped toward Konoha.
—