Uchiha Fugaku's estate.
As the former clan head, even after relinquishing power, this estate remained one of the symbols of the Uchiha Clan's authority.
Since his defeat at the martial arena, Uchiha Fugaku's heart had never truly been at peace.
Shinsuke's series of forceful actions had indeed been deeply satisfying, but the situation that lay ahead would likely become even more severe.
Yet regardless of what came next, he, Uchiha Fugaku, would honor his word and devote every ounce of his strength to supporting the new clan head, restoring the Uchiha's glory, and seeing the Uchiha stand once more at the pinnacle of the shinobi world.
He poured a cup of tea for Shinsuke.
Fugaku opened his mouth and asked.
"Clan Head, is there something urgent with which you require my assistance?"
"Fugaku."
Shinsuke spoke slowly.
"I have come to inform you of something."
Fugaku lifted his teacup and made a gesture of invitation, his manner kept very humble.
Shinsuke's gaze rested on Uchiha Fugaku.
"Three days from now is the night of the Uchiha Clan's extermination."
Crack.
The ceramic teacup in Fugaku's hand shattered at the sound of those words.
"Clan Head... you... what did you say?"
"Are you certain you are not joking?"
Fugaku's voice was filled with a disbelief verging on horror.
Clan extermination.
Those two words were not something to be spoken lightly; to wipe out the Uchiha Clan, even with the full strength of Konoha, might not be enough.
"The Konoha leadership can no longer tolerate the Uchiha's existence, Danzō has formulated a detailed plan, and the Third Hokage has tacitly approved."
"Three days hence, on that night, they will carry out a thorough purge of the Uchiha Clan."
"Impossible!"
"How could the Third Hokage do something like this? It would shake Konoha's very foundations!"
Shinsuke glanced at Fugaku with an unhurried calm.
"That is precisely why they found the perfect executor."
"Someone who can complete the mission and take all the blame upon himself, allowing Konoha to wash its hands of everything — a perfect executioner."
Fugaku's breathing grew more rapid.
"Who?"
Although Fugaku already had a dim suspicion, he still asked, unable to let go of hope.
"Your eldest son."
"Uchiha... Itachi."
Boom.
Fugaku felt his vision go dark.
He staggered back two steps, his back slamming hard into the wall behind him with a muffled thud.
His entire body seemed drained of every last ounce of strength, and he slid slowly down the wall and sank to the floor.
"No... it cannot be..."
Fugaku's whole body trembled; he still could not bring himself to believe that his own eldest son would betray the Uchiha and become the blade that Konoha's leadership swung at the clan.
"Itachi... he loves the clan deeply, he loves the village deeply... how could he possibly..."
"How could he possibly raise his blade against his own clanspeople!"
Shinsuke did not argue with him.
He understood that for a father, accepting that his own son had betrayed the clan and was the murderer of the entire family was a cruelty beyond words.
Shinsuke simply watched Fugaku in calm silence as the man sat there, hollowed out.
"I did not come here to persuade you."
"I came only to give you a chance."
"A chance to personally stop a tragedy, or rather, to personally call a traitor to account."
Fugaku jerked his head up, and his Mangekyō Sharingan surfaced involuntarily, driven by emotions he could not contain.
"When the time comes, if Itachi truly has betrayed the Uchiha..."
"It will be you, Uchiha Fugaku, who stops him with your own hands."
"As a father, and as the Uchiha's former clan head."
Fugaku's chest heaved violently, and the sound of his labored breathing was especially stark in the silence of the study.
After a long while, the look in Fugaku's eyes was gradually replaced by a grief-stricken resolve.
"Very well."
Uchiha Fugaku forced out that single word with great difficulty.
"If Itachi... truly has betrayed the clan..."
"I will make him atone to the Uchiha with my own hands!"
Shinsuke gave a satisfied nod.
"However, Itachi is not the only executor."
Shinsuke laid out the intelligence he had already gathered.
"To ensure nothing goes wrong, Danzō has also brought in several allies."
"Konoha's S-rank missing-nin, one of the Legendary Sannin — Orochimaru."
"The legendary bounty hunter, the immortal man said to have once crossed blades with the First Hokage — Kakuzu."
The expression on Uchiha Fugaku's face grew even more troubled.
Every name represented the highest tier of combat power in the shinobi world, a terrifying existence capable of giving an entire great nation a headache.
"And there is also..."
"That masked Uchiha who once set the Nine-Tails attack into motion."
Fugaku's body shook violently once more.
That man!
The mastermind behind the Nine-Tails incident was going to appear as well!
"So many powerful enemies..."
Fugaku's voice was heavy with worry.
"We must mobilize the entire clan at once! We have to..."
"There is no need."
Shinsuke cut Fugaku off directly.
"Too many people would only get in the way and interfere with my performance."
Fugaku froze.
He stared at this new clan head and found himself, for a moment, at a complete loss for words.
Interfere with his performance?
That was Orochimaru, Kakuzu, two seasoned Kage-level powerhouses, and an unfathomably mysterious masked man!
This was a terrifying combat force capable of deciding the outcome of a war!
Orochimaru in particular, one of the Sannin, was someone Uchiha Fugaku understood to be extraordinarily powerful.
How could a single person possibly handle all of them?
Seeming to see straight through Fugaku's doubts, Shinsuke posed a question in return.
"After the two of us fought, you should understand my strength better than anyone."
"Rest easy."
In Fugaku's mind, the image of the colossal lightning-fire dragon that had torn through his Susano'o at the martial arena flashed back in an instant.
That force of heaven-shattering destruction stirred a faint thread of reassurance in Fugaku's heart.
But only a faint thread.
After all, the enemies were truly too numerous, and too powerful.
Seeing the worry that still could not leave Fugaku's face, Shinsuke smiled.
"Fugaku, your Susano'o is at the third stage, is it not?"
Fugaku nodded without thinking.
His Susano'o had indeed reached the third stage.
Shinsuke slowly rose, walked to the window, and pushed it open.
Without turning around, Shinsuke spoke words that were enough to make Uchiha Fugaku tremble.
"Your Susano'o is at the third stage."
"Mine, however..."
"Is the Complete Body."
Fugaku's body went utterly rigid.
His mind went completely blank.
Complete Body... Susano'o?
What was that?
It was the ultimate realm recorded only in the Uchiha Stone Tablet, achieved only by the Demon of the Shinobi World, Uchiha Madara — a divine power capable of standing as an equal to the "God of Shinobi," Hashirama Senju!
Fugaku could not fathom what manner of heaven-shattering, earth-destroying force that would be.
After seeing Shinsuke off, Fugaku stood alone at the entrance for a long, long time.
The night wind was cold and clear, brushing against his face and carrying a bone-biting chill.
The surroundings were utterly still, broken only by the occasional footsteps of a patrolling Guard Division member passing by.
On any other day, this tranquility would have brought Fugaku a sense of ease.
But at this moment, the silence felt like the prelude to a storm.
Just then, a familiar figure appeared around the corner of the street and walked slowly toward him.
It was Itachi.
Itachi saw his father standing at the entrance, his steps faltering slightly before he quickened his pace and walked over.
"Father."
Fugaku raised his head and studied Itachi's face intently.
He wanted to find in this face he had looked upon for over a decade even the smallest crack, the faintest trace of betrayal.
But there was none.
Fugaku's body trembled faintly.
He wanted to demand.
'Are you truly going to betray the clan and massacre every one of our clanspeople?'
'Why!'
Countless questions lodged in Fugaku's throat.
Fugaku was afraid to hear the answer he could not bring himself to accept no matter what.
Itachi seemed to sense that something was off with his father.
"Father, what is the matter?"
There was a faint, indistinct trace of concern in Itachi's voice.
In that moment, Fugaku felt breathing had become impossibly difficult, as though he were nearly suffocating.
Fugaku opened his mouth.
In the end, all the surging emotions inside him dissolved into a helpless sigh.
"...Nothing."
"You've worked hard today."
A barely perceptible flicker of puzzlement passed through Itachi's eyes, but he asked nothing further.
Itachi simply gave a slight bow.
"I'll go inside first."
With that, he brushed past Fugaku, slid the door open, and stepped into the warm lamplight within.
Fugaku never turned around.
He simply stood in place in silence, listening to the soft sound of the sliding door closing behind him.
'Itachi, if you truly have betrayed the Uchiha, what am I to do with you.'