Chapter 145: The Defection of Itachi Uchiha
The colors of the night.
Puff!
A lithe figure moved with clinical precision, devoid of any flashy maneuvers. He evaded the incoming shuriken and swung his long blade toward his own kinsmen. Blood surged continuously from necks and chests, making a distinct sizzling sound as it sprayed.
"Itachi, what are you doing?"
Someone recognized him and screamed in fury. Looking at the field of corpses, his eyes burned with rage, his body trembling as if something were about to awaken. But the only response he received was a pair of cold, heartless eyes—and the slowly rotating three-tomoe Sharingan.
Swoosh!
A kunai buried itself in his chest.
There were Uchiha Jonin who attempted to stop Itachi, but at every critical moment, a figure would suddenly appear behind them. This forced them to miscalculate, thinking Itachi was alone, only to be cut down by the combined effort of the two.
"My, my... we can't let you make too much noise."
The masked man finished his strike and spoke mockingly. With a blade in hand, he carved a path from the south of the district to the north.
Uchiha Do and his grandmother heard the commotion and rushed out of their house. They saw the cold eyes and the bodies on the ground. A surge of immense fury flooded Do's heart, and his eyes snapped open, revealing the Sharingan.
Grandma was even more incensed. Leaning on her cane, she limped forward and raised it to strike Itachi. "You bastard! What do you think you're doing?"
Puff!
"I'm sorry, Grandma." Itachi's blade pierced through her body as he whispered into her ear.
Sizzle!
Thud!
The blade was withdrawn, blood sprayed, and the old woman collapsed to the ground.
"Grandma!"
Uchiha Do threw his head back and roared, his single-tomoe Sharingan evolving into two-tomoe out of pure rage. "You bastard!"
Clang! Clang!
Do scooped up a shuriken from the ground and unleashed a frantic assault on Itachi. The shuriken sank into Itachi's body, and a blade slit his throat. Seeing Itachi fall, Do stopped his attack and ran to his grandmother's side, wailing in grief.
Then, he lost consciousness.
The scene shifted. In reality, Uchiha Do had stood frozen on the spot since the moment he awakened his two-tomoe Sharingan. He had been trapped in a genjutsu. Itachi walked up to him calmly and ended his life with a single stroke of his blade.
The obsessed Do—the boy who hadn't yet fulfilled his dream of beating that "certain person"—passed away in the depths of sorrow.
"Truly a heartless man. What a terrifying fellow," the masked man muttered, watching the scene.
Perimeter of the Uchiha District.
Countless figures had completely sealed off the area, firmly surrounding everything within. Danzo waited silently.
He could not obtain the power of the Rinnegan. But the Sharingan... that would become his primary strength in the future.
Clatter, clatter, clatter!
Sasuke ran down the road, the bad omen in his heart growing stronger with every step. He didn't dare stop. When he reached the district, his eyes were met with nothing but corpses. His pupils shrunk, his face a mask of panic and confusion.
"How could this happen?"
Filled with dread and horror, Sasuke sprinted toward his home. The path was a battlefield of shuriken and kunai, littered with the dead. Shinobi and civilians alike lay in pools of blood.
Thud, thud, thud!
His footsteps grew heavy. The joy of the progress he had made during training was completely buried by terror.
"Brother, no! Don't kill me!"
"Grip onto that grudge... and hate me."
On the road outside Konoha.
Itachi Uchiha cast one final look back at the village before leaving quickly with the masked man. He had no intention of engaging Konoha's pursuit squads.
"No! Brother, don't kill me!"
Sasuke woke from the nightmare. His vision was met with a white room; he was lying on a hospital bed. In front of him, a white-clad figure was organizing medical supplies. Hearing his voice, she turned to look at him.
"You're awake. Your body is still very weak; don't move around too much," the hospital nurse said to Sasuke.
"I... what happened..." Images flashed through Sasuke's mind. The bodies on the ground, the battlefield of ninja tools, and his brother walking out from over the corpses of their parents. The brother who wanted to kill him.
He refused to believe it was real.
"You? You just suffered from extreme chakra exhaustion, which weakened your body. You just need a bit of rest. Don't overuse your chakra in the future; it's bad for your health," the nurse said gently with a smile.
"I... I'm asking what happened to the Uchiha?" Sasuke realized his memories of the previous night were real, but he held onto a sliver of hope.
"The Uchiha?" The nurse's smile faded. "Itachi Uchiha massacred the clan and defected from Konoha. You are the last survivor."
Before dawn today, every ninja in Konoha had been notified: the Uchiha prodigy had, for unknown reasons, slaughtered his clan and fled. She knew Sasuke was in a terrible state and didn't dare provoke him further.
"Why... why... why..."
Sasuke sat up, pulling his knees to his chest and hugging them, mumbling incessantly. A single-tomoe Sharingan flickered in his eyes. Emotions he had never experienced surged through his heart.
He couldn't understand why. The brilliant brother who taught him ninjutsu, the brother who carried him home when he was tired, the brother who picked him up from school every day—why did he do it? Why kill their uncles, aunts, grandmothers, and even their parents?
Why?
Why?!
He clenched his fists tightly. Beyond his confusion was an unspeakable horror. Why hadn't he been killed? Was it so he could live in hatred?
Regardless of the reason, Sasuke knew one thing was certain: his brother had murdered the entire clan. He had killed their parents.
"I'm going to kill him."
His peripheral vision caught his school bag sitting on the cabinet next to the bed. With a look of profound grief, he grabbed the bag and pulled out an action figure. It was a custom figure of his brother that he had spent a lot of money to order from that "bad uncle."
His gaze turned resolute. He gripped the figure in his right hand, squeezing with all his might, wanting to crush it to vent the chaos in his heart.
Nothing happened. The figure didn't deform at all; it was incredibly solid. He used both hands, reinforcing his grip with chakra.
Still nothing. The figure remained completely intact.
"Hmm? What are you doing? Take your medicine first," the nurse said, bringing over a bowl of herbal decoction.
Sasuke didn't answer. He pulled a kunai from his bag and stabbed it directly into the figure.
Clink!
This time there was a sound, but the kunai just slid off. The figure didn't have a single scratch on it.
"Damn it!"
Sasuke's resolute gaze was replaced by frustration. The smirk on the Itachi figure's face seemed to be mocking him: You are still too weak; you can't even destroy a toy.
Thud!
In his anger, Sasuke hurled the figure against the wall. It bounced off and landed on the floor. The figure's eyes were still staring right at him.
"I can't even destroy a doll... but I won't give up. Sooner or later, I will kill you," Sasuke muttered, frustrated by his own weakness. He then took the medicine from the nurse and downed it in one go.
Only by getting healthy could he resume training. Only by getting stronger could he kill him.
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