Back then, Uchiha Shisui had entrusted both the village and the clan to him, and in the end, he had failed to protect anything.
Especially the clan.
They had been wiped out by his own hands.
Those were his people. His blood. Of course he felt it.
But he also could not allow a full-scale rebellion to happen. If it did, the Uchiha Clan would be annihilated anyway, and Konoha would suffer a devastating blow.
In that case, neither the small family called the Uchiha nor the greater family called Konoha could be saved.
That truth had been buried deep in his heart for years. He had never spoken of it to anyone.
And now, was Kaede Kitahara's diary going to tear it open, drag out a past he did not want to face?
"Shisui… if your spirit is watching from above, what would you think?" Uchiha Itachi murmured softly. "Would you blame me? If you would… then I will come to the underworld soon enough. You can judge me then."
Suddenly, a new video appeared in the diary.
Itachi immediately opened it.
At the edge of a shrine at dusk, Shimura Danzo had summoned Uchiha Shisui.
"Is there something you needed, Danzo-sama?" Shisui asked, puzzled. "It's almost time for the meeting."
"If you use your eye technique on Fugaku and persuade the Uchiha," Danzo said, staring at him, "but the village still does not change, what will you do then?"
"The Hokage-sama promised me that things would change," Shisui replied without hesitation.
"Even with the Third Hokage's mediation, the villagers' suspicion toward the Uchiha will not disappear so easily," Danzo said.
"The villagers' suspicion toward the Uchiha Clan… so this was that period."
Outside the video, Hatake Kakashi recalled events from six or seven years ago. Back then, he had still been living within Anbu, tasked with monitoring every move the Uchiha Clan made.
If he traced it back, it all started around twelve years ago, with the Nine-Tails incident.
During that chaos, his teacher and his teacher's wife had both died.
He did not know the full details. He had not witnessed it himself. All he knew was that his teacher had died sealing the Nine-Tails, leaving behind a posthumous child.
That child was Uzumaki Naruto.
Later, rumors spread through the village that the Nine-Tails disaster had something to do with the Uchiha Clan. After all, anyone could see that massive Sharingan reflected in the Nine-Tails' eyes.
Kakashi himself had even been ordered to monitor the Uchiha Clan for a time. At one point, he had taken Uchiha Itachi along to observe them.
Looking back, it was absurd. Having a member of the Uchiha monitor the Uchiha.
On top of that, the Uchiha Clan managed the police force. Their relationship with the villagers had always been tense.
Many villagers believed the Uchiha were abusing their authority, making mountains out of molehills.
The Uchiha, on the other hand, thought the villagers were nothing but troublemakers. Lawbreakers who should submit the moment they were caught.
Ordinary villagers could not afford to provoke the Uchiha. But were there really any truly ordinary villagers living in Konoha?
Almost everyone had ninja relatives somewhere in their family tree.
Many civilian ninja families had seen close relatives punished by the police force. It was not just civilians either. Plenty of smaller ninja clans had clashed with the Uchiha over the years.
Some of those conflicts were justified. Crimes had been committed.
But the Uchiha Clan's arrogance had left a deep impression on Kakashi even now.
Not every Uchiha was a bad person. Kakashi knew that.
But not being evil did not mean they were easy to deal with.
They were proud to the point of disdain. They did not take ordinary people seriously. Even regular ninja, and many clan ninja, were beneath their notice.
The only exception had been the Senju Clan, which had already faded into history.
That was simply how the Uchiha were.
Only those who truly defeated them earned their respect.
The conflict between the Uchiha and the villagers had already been severe. Once someone fanned the flames, it escalated rapidly. The villagers stood behind the village itself, and before long, it became a direct confrontation between Konoha and the Uchiha Clan.
At the time, Kakashi had not thought too deeply about it.
Now, looking back, many of the rumors had spread far too quickly and far too widely.
It did not feel natural.
It was as if someone had been deliberately stirring up hatred between the Uchiha and the village.
This was not something one or two ambitious individuals could fix.
Even if Uchiha Shisui truly used Kotoamatsukami on Uchiha Fugaku, it would never have resolved the fundamental conflict.
"Uchiha Shisui… just like Kaede Kitahara said," Kakashi sighed. "He was still too naive."
Jiraiya, watching as well, was reminded of the past.
He had already been traveling the world for many years back then, but that did not mean he knew nothing. The conflict between the village and the Uchiha Clan had existed for far longer than a day or two. Even when he was young, the two sides had clashed more than once.
He had also heard Shimura Danzo speak more than once about the so-called inherently evil nature of the Uchiha.
Looking at this now, the tension back then had already reached an extreme.
So extreme that Shisui felt compelled to use Kotoamatsukami to change Uchiha Fugaku's thinking.
Yet after Uchiha Itachi slaughtered the clan, all of that tension vanished overnight. These days, almost no one even remembered why the village and the Uchiha had been at odds in the first place.
Back when the Uchiha managed the police force, they handled public security issues of all kinds. After their destruction, the village still established a new police force.
And the conflicts with villagers continued all the same.
That alone proved something.
The Uchiha had merely been a vessel. Anyone tasked with enforcing law and order was bound to clash with ordinary people.
Then a far more terrifying thought struck Jiraiya.
If the conflict between the Uchiha Clan and the village had reached the point of an impending coup, then what about Itachi's sudden betrayal?
Could it be connected to this at all?
In the video from the future where Sasuke killed Shimura Danzo, Danzo's words still treated Itachi like a subordinate. He had even complained that Itachi left Uchiha Sasuke behind as a hidden danger.
Which meant…
Could it be that the higher-ups had interfered in the Uchiha massacre as well?
If that were true, then the entire conclusion surrounding the incident would be completely overturned.
Jiraiya's face drained of color.
He forced himself to calm down. He could not think any further.
If he did, the implications were unbearable.
The truth buried here was far too dark. Even with his status, there was no way for him to overturn the established narrative.
Every official conclusion pointed to one thing.
Uchiha Itachi slaughtered his clan, and Konoha was preserved.
The only ones who paid the price were the Uchiha.
Leaving behind only Uchiha Sasuke.
"Father?"
When Sasuke heard his father's name mentioned, his focus snapped into place.
"I understand. I just need a little more time…"
In the video, Uchiha Shisui tried to persuade Shimura Danzo.
Danzo cut him off.
"But someone as paranoid as me will not change so easily. When that happens, what will you do?"
"But, Danzo-sama…" Shisui tried to explain.
"At that point, would you use your Kotoamatsukami on me?"
Danzo opened his eyes.
His expression twisted into something feral.
Before Shisui could say anything else, Danzo moved.
With a shout, he lunged forward, one hand clawing straight toward Shisui's face.
"I'll be taking your Sharingan."
"Sorry!"
At the last possible instant, Shisui used genjutsu to restrain Danzo, stopping the hand that was about to seize his eye.
Even then, Shisui was not angry.
"It's just a basic illusion," he said calmly. "You'll wake up soon."
The moment he turned away, Danzo had already broken free.
He struck from behind, severely wounding Shisui and tearing out one of his eyes.
Danzo then removed the bandages from his face, revealing a Sharingan beneath. That eye had turned completely white.
At the critical moment, he had used Izanagi to rewrite the unfavorable outcome of being caught in genjutsu.
And used that opening to ambush Shisui.
"This eye will serve as a replacement," Danzo said coldly. "Now give me the other one as well."
He spoke as if he were the one in the right.
Behind him, a group of Root ninja emerged.
Faced with this situation, Shisui endured the searing pain, released a Great Fireball jutsu to block them, and vanished from sight.
"Body Flicker?" one Root ninja gasped, shocked by Shisui's speed.
"Pursue," Danzo ordered without hesitation.
"Damn it… damn it… damn it. How dare he!"
Sasuke finally snapped.
The scene was too much.
His relationship with Shisui had never been as close as the one he shared with his brother, Uchiha Itachi.
But Shisui had still been a once-in-a-generation genius of the Uchiha Clan.
Sasuke took pride in Uchiha blood. That pride manifested in the Sharingan itself.
And Shimura Danzo had dared to scheme in the shadows to steal it.
He had seen Danzo use Izanagi in the future. He had seen the arm full of Sharingan.
Even then, he had been furious. It was a desecration of Uchiha blood.
But no matter how angry he had been back then, it did not compare to this.
At least before, one could argue that Danzo had scavenged those eyes from the clan's corpses.
But now?
How was anyone supposed to explain this?