"Hagoromo… are we really just going to watch?"
Mirai looked up at him, but under the cover of night she could barely make out his expression.
"Do you remember what side I once told you we stood on?" Hagoromo asked calmly.
Mirai answered without hesitation, "Lawful Neutral."
"Hah…" He coughed lightly.
"Lawful Neutral is our baseline. But… every now and then, a little chaos isn't a problem."
To simply witness events without intervening did not, in his view, violate neutrality. He was merely standing aside in matters that did not concern him directly.
"Chaotic Evil?" Mirai tilted her head.
"..." Hagoromo fell silent for a moment, then corrected her firmly.
"Chaotic Neutral."
This verbal quibble felt utterly insignificant compared to what was about to happen, yet Mirai still voiced the question she could not understand.
"Why would the Third Hokage allow something like this to happen?"
In her mind, the Third Hokage was a kind, gentle old man. The annihilation of an entire clan—could such a thing really occur without the Hokage's consent? Why would he permit it?
"Mirai…"
Hagoromo placed a hand gently on her head, his tone unusually subdued.
"You need to understand something. The darkness that exists beneath the light—that is what makes a shadow."
"The image you have of the Third Hokage isn't wrong, and he hasn't been twisted. But often, the choices a person must make have nothing to do with personal will. Everyone reaches moments where they have no alternative."
"So… the Third Hokage had no choice but to destroy the Uchiha clan?"
"Yes."
Hagoromo answered without hesitation.
The actions the Uchiha were about to take left the Hokage with no other option but to accept Danzō's solution. To minimize the damage the Uchiha rebellion could inflict on Konoha, the village had to strike first.
From the village's perspective, this was a just purge.
The place where Hagoromo and Mirai stood was some distance from the Uchiha district, yet it offered an excellent vantage point.
Lights glimmered below, but shadows were far more numerous. Even so, faint screams and dying cries drifted upward, making the scene below feel like a vision of hell.
Mirai pressed tightly against Hagoromo's side, seeking reassurance. Her face had gone pale, and he could feel her trembling.
Yet since he had brought her here, she did not look away.
No matter how afraid she was.
Her instinctive resistance manifested as constant questions—forcing herself to think, to distract her mind.
"Why would that ninja accept such an order?" she asked.
"He's an Uchiha too, isn't he?"
"That…" Hagoromo replied slowly,
"…comes down to choice. Only he understands his own reasoning. No one else can truly judge it—not even me. But for Itachi, this decision is absolutely rational."
Uchiha Itachi had ultimately walked the same path as in the original history.
And he had not acted alone.
The entire Root division supported him. Without them, exterminating the Uchiha clan single-handedly would have been nearly impossible.
"Are we really just going to watch?" Mirai asked again.
If only ninja were dying, it would be cruel—but not extraordinary. Shinobi lived and died by the blade.
But below them were not only ninja.
There were civilians. Elders. Women. Children.
Even Hagoromo fell silent.
Finally, he spoke.
"All things follow cause and effect. The Uchiha planted the seeds of their own destruction long ago. This isn't a matter of right or wrong—only victory and defeat."
"This time, the village won. That's why you feel sympathy for the Uchiha—it's human nature to empathize with the defeated. But if the Uchiha had won instead, countless people in Konoha would have met the same fate."
"In the end… this is simply what shinobi are."
"As for me…"
Hagoromo's voice was calm, detached.
"I have no reason to intervene. I follow my own purpose. Even if I abandon others, even if I take lives, even if I cause suffering—I will not betray my own will."
"At the end of the day, Ueshira Hagoromo is also a shinobi."
"I don't act to atone for regret. I act to obtain what I seek. Everything else lies outside my considerations."
If he committed his full strength, perhaps the outcome could be altered.
But why should he?
Konoha and the Uchiha could never truly coexist. If forced to choose, Hagoromo stood with Konoha. That was his fundamental position.
Protect the Uchiha?
He would.
After everything below was finished.
Whether Mirai fully understood his words, Hagoromo did not know. He only hoped she would.
By the time he finished speaking, her trembling had stopped.
For Mirai, understanding or not did not truly matter.
She would follow Hagoromo regardless—not because she had no one else, but because following him was enough.
The sounds below had faded, but the air was thick with the stench of blood.
Mirai frowned, forcing herself to endure it.
She understood now:
All shinobi must grow accustomed to this smell.
All shinobi must endure this smell.
And all shinobi… must be capable of creating it.
"It's almost over down there," Hagoromo said quietly.
"Now it's my turn to act. Mirai, wait here for me."
Yet despite his words, Mirai did not let go of him.
She looked small. Vulnerable.
…Yes, leaving a child alone here was unreasonable.
"I understand."
"Then… a shadow clone will be enough."
As he spoke, he began forming hand seals. Only then did Mirai release one of his hands.
Hagoromo created a shadow clone, placed a scroll into its hands, and the clone nodded before racing toward the Uchiha district.
Hagoromo's real body remained behind, staying with the frightened child.
Some things were more important.
The shadow clone entered the Uchiha district effortlessly. Root's barrier might as well not have existed.
The blood-soaked air was suffocating.
No living presence remained.
Only Root operatives were still present—collecting Sharingan—but even they soon withdrew.
The clone unfurled the scroll.
With steady hands, he tossed it into the air and rapidly formed seals.
He was not sealing something—
He was releasing it.
As the seal broke, black flames erupted into the night sky.
This was the Fire Sealing Method scroll, containing—
Amaterasu.
Uchiha Itachi's black flames.
The Uchiha clan's ultimate Fire Release.
The inextinguishable fire that burned all things.
Tonight, it truly would.
Then Hagoromo used a second technique.
Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.
Though Amaterasu was a Fire Release technique, wind only intensified it. The massive wind pressure fed the black flames, driving them to their absolute limit.
Amaterasu burned even the wind itself.
In this form, it was an inescapable technique.
Black flames rained down, covering every corner of the Uchiha district.
The Uchiha's techniques were used to erase the Uchiha.
And also—one last time—to protect them.
After all, Hagoromo had preserved every Sharingan.
Hadn't he?
Konoha, Year 54 — Summer
Ueshira Hagoromo, age 21.
Uzumaki Mirai, nearing her sixth birthday.
The strongest clan of Konoha—the Uchiha—
Was annihilated by the prodigy Uchiha Itachi,
And reduced to ash by the eternal flames of Amaterasu.
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