"Don't you think," the masked man continued lightly,
"that this revenge you staked everything on… was a little too smooth? Almost… childish?"
He couldn't help letting out a quiet chuckle.
Itachi Uchiha hadn't just held back.
He had practically flooded the battlefield.
"Don't you dare say that name in front of me!!"
Sasuke exploded like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
Killing intent surged outward, chakra flaring wildly out of control.
He tried to lunge forward—but the searing pain tearing through his body and the crushing weakness sent him staggering, nearly collapsing again.
In the end, he could only brace himself against the wall, gasping for breath, glaring at the masked man with eyes burning with hatred.
The masked man was completely unfazed.
In fact, he continued in a tone that was almost pitying—so condescending it made one want to tear him apart.
"How pitiful… Sasuke Uchiha."
"It seems you truly… know nothing at all."
Sasuke clenched his teeth, suppressing both the urge to attack and the pain wracking his body. His crimson Sharingan locked onto the masked man, as if he wanted to rip him apart with his gaze alone.
The masked man clearly enjoyed this sense of control—of slowly peeling away his target's mental defenses.
He abruptly changed the subject.
"Tell me," he asked casually,
"the Uchiha clan… was it strong?"
Sasuke answered almost without thinking. The words came laced with deep-rooted clan pride and raw, provoked emotion.
"The Uchiha were the strongest clan in the shinobi world!"
The moment those words left his mouth, the real shinobi world erupted.
"Bullshit! The strongest is Konoha's Sarutobi clan!"
"That's right—Lord Sarutobi alone commands thousands of ninja!"
"Hahaha! What are the Uchiha compared to the Sarutobi?"
Within Konoha itself, voices of long-suppressed resentment seized the opportunity to shout even louder.
"Strongest? Don't make me laugh! Konoha's strongest clan is the Sarutobi!"
"Five thousand ninja! Do the Uchiha have that?!"
"Sarutobi clan—absolute domination!"
The clamor was so loud it nearly reached the Hokage's office.
The Hokage's Fear
Hiruzen Sarutobi listened to the shouts outside his window—claims of "Sarutobi clan supremacy"—and felt no pride at all.
Only dread.
At a time like this, pushing the Sarutobi clan into the spotlight was like roasting them over an open flame.
It would only deepen other clans' suspicions and draw even more hostile attention to the Sarutobi's overwhelming influence.
But worse than that—
Far worse—
Was the direction the masked man was clearly steering the conversation.
He was guiding Sasuke straight toward the truth of the Uchiha Clan Massacre.
Toward the secret Hiruzen, Danzō, and the two advisors had desperately buried—
Even at the cost of letting Itachi Uchiha shoulder all the blame.
Konoha's darkest, filthiest chapter.
If that truth came out…
Konoha's already fragile moral image would collapse completely.
Everything it preached—the Will of Fire, the promise to protect every child in the village—would become a sick joke.
His own life's reputation would be utterly destroyed.
How would Konoha face the hatred and condemnation of the entire shinobi world?
"…It's over… all of it…"
Hiruzen slumped helplessly in his chair. His pipe slipped from his fingers and hit the floor with a dull clatter, unnoticed.
Cold sweat beaded across his forehead. Despair filled his eyes.
All his schemes.
All his compromises.
All his "for the sake of the village."
In this moment, they felt like a colossal irony—about to be torn apart and exposed by the Sky Screen.
The Question That Shattered Everything
On the Sky Screen, the masked man followed Sasuke's words with the question that cut deepest.
"The strongest clan?" he scoffed softly.
"Then let me ask you, Sasuke Uchiha—"
"If the Uchiha were truly the strongest… why was the entire clan wiped out in a single night—"
"—by just one person?"
"By Itachi Uchiha."
The tide of truth was now unstoppable.
That seemingly casual question slammed into Sasuke's chest like a warhammer.
His face went deathly pale.
He had never truly thought about this.
Hatred had blinded him. All he had ever known was that Itachi was the murderer—the demon—someone overwhelmingly strong.
But he had never once considered it from the perspective of the entire clan.
A great shinobi family, with generations of history.
A clan that possessed the Sharingan.
Filled with elite fighters and veteran leaders.
How could such a clan be erased—silently, completely—by a single person in one night?
The masked man saw it clearly.
The seed had taken root.
And without mercy, he pressed on—throwing out a second question, more concrete, more brutal, driving Sasuke step by step toward the edge of cognitive collapse.
"Let me put it another way…"
His voice carried a cruel amusement.
"Sasuke Uchiha—if you, with your current strength, were sent back to that night…"
"Could you do it?"
"Could you—alone—wipe out the Uchiha clan as it was back then?"
Thirteen Years Old
Boom.
The question detonated in Sasuke's mind.
He was confident in his strength.
But to face the entire clan?
To face elders who had awakened the Sharingan?
To face the elite police force?
To face… his father?
The answer surfaced instantly.
He couldn't.
Absolutely not.
He wouldn't even survive the initial encirclement.
Seeing Sasuke's stunned, thunderstruck expression, the masked man knew the answer was already clear.
He let out a low, mocking laugh.
"Heh… seems we both know the truth."
"Something even you can't do now…"
His voice suddenly sharpened, filled with the satisfaction of tearing away a lie.
"So tell me—how did the Itachi Uchiha you 'killed' manage it?"
"And don't forget…"
"At the time, he was only thirteen years old."
"Younger than you are now."
Thirteen.
Younger than himself.
Those two facts stabbed into Sasuke like twin ice picks.
His body began to tremble uncontrollably.
A freezing chill raced up his spine.
The hatred.
The rage.
Even the hollow illusion of victorious revenge—
All of it began to collapse under the weight of these airtight, inescapable questions.
What… had he actually avenged?
What kind of monster had he really killed?
Or rather—
The masked man didn't give him time to breathe.
The final blow followed immediately—deadly and precise—aimed straight at the greatest contradiction of all.
"And there's more."
"It all happened inside Konoha."
"Under ANBU surveillance. Under layers of internal security."
"And yet—no one noticed."
"No one stopped it."
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