The Uchiha Compound.
Blood had pooled across the ground, drying in layers until only dark brown stains remained. After most of the residents had bled out completely, the district finally fell quiet again.
A silence like the coming dawn settled over the area.
The night had passed, and the first light was beginning to break.
Kakashi Hatake walked through a narrow alley. The pervasive stench of blood prickled at his senses, keeping him far more alert than necessary after a night of frantic activity.
A few steps further, rounding a corner, Kakashi saw a figure sprawled on the ground. Motionless. The stains beneath clearly indicated massive blood loss.
Kakashi paused instinctively before hurrying forward. A quick check confirmed the person was undeniably dead… another Uchiha ninja.
Kakashi had lost count of how many times he'd encountered such scenes tonight. On the bright side, at least these bodies were intact, unlike the gruesome ends met by the two Konoha elders involved in the plot.
Thinking back on Habara's methods, Kakashi found them truly extreme. When facing pressure from the higher-ups, the standard recourse for a shinobi was typically to flee and become a missing-nin. Habara's approach? You want to frame me? Fine, you can die first.
Kakashi knew he could never do such a thing. If he'd been the one accused, he likely would have simply surrendered… Truly his father's son, the legacy of Konoha's White Fang weighing on him.
Kakashi now worried about Habara's future. In the shinobi world, insubordination—gekokujo—was never taken lightly, no matter the circumstances. Even if Habara had done the right thing, even if others believed he'd done the right thing, it didn't mean most people would accept his methods.
His actions straddled a difficult line. Not punishing him felt wrong, yet punishing him felt unjust.
As Kakashi crouched before the corpse of the Uchiha ninja he hadn't noticed before, feeling a sense of finality, something strange happened.
The body beside him suddenly twitched, struggled, and then slowly began to rise.
The scene, straight out of the Uchiha massacre, abruptly felt like something from a horror story. Even after witnessing multiple resurrections the previous night, Kakashi was utterly stunned.
Immediately, Kakashi's left eye flared red. Three tomoe swirled before coalescing with his pupil into the distinct pattern of his Mangekyo Sharingan.
"Genjutsu?" Kakashi focused. The corpse vanished. In its place stood a slender ninja.
"Uchiha Itachi…"
"Last night, the Uchiha clan attempted a rebellion," Itachi stated flatly. "Upon learning this, another faction, represented by Uchiha Shisui, attempted to intervene. While his efforts achieved some success, Uchiha Itachi—weary of the supposed glory of a clan that had become nothing more than a restrictive cage—turned on both factions, slaughtering them indiscriminately. Ultimately, Uchiha Shisui died, the vast majority of the Uchiha were annihilated, and Uchiha Itachi defected from Konoha... Do you understand?"
Kakashi had already heard about Shisui's death from Habara—after all, Habara was merely 'confined,' not forbidden from 'making calls'; in reality, he wasn't confined at all—but hearing Itachi claim responsibility for everything stirred a complex, unnameable emotion within him.
After a moment's thought, Kakashi replied, "The village has determined that forces within Konoha's leadership were secretly targeting the Uchiha. The primary individual responsible was Danzo Shimura. He must bear responsibility for the Uchiha clan's fate... In fact, he has already paid the price. During the chaos last night, Danzo Shimura was killed."
With the Uchiha grievously wounded and Konoha offering its own form of 'atonement,' perhaps the injured parties could now begin to mend, finding solace and warmth in shared grief.
A flicker of surprise crossed Itachi's face—an unexpected development, and clearly a positive one. He nodded, and his body dissolved into a vortex of crows that instantly scattered into the sky and vanished.
Kakashi blinked. The corpse remained, just as it was. Itachi was gone.
No wonder the dead ninja's eyes were wide with shock, terror, and disbelief. Kakashi remained crouching for a long moment before finally looking up at the sky, his thoughts slowly emptying…
"Isn't this burden... a little too heavy?"
Some time later, reports detailing the overall situation finally reached Uzumaki Kushina.
Firstly, despite dispatching every available shinobi, they still hadn't located the Third Hokage. The outcome felt almost inevitable... not because anyone wished ill upon the Hokage, but because a figure like him didn't simply vanish. And once vanished, finding him would be incredibly difficult.
Though no one voiced it aloud, many understood in their hearts that the disappearance of such a prominent figure often equated to 'permanent disappearance.'
Secondly, Kakashi reported directly to Kushina on the state of the Uchiha clan.
"Only fifty to sixty people left? You mean fifty to sixty ninja?" Kushina looked stunned. She hadn't imagined the outcome would be this brutal.
If the entire Uchiha clan was reduced to just fifty or sixty active shinobi, it meant they had lost over ninety percent of their strength. Barring the emergence of another extraordinarily gifted ninja, the once-proud clan would likely never recover... Without sufficient numbers, could they even be called a clan anymore?
But Kushina hadn't grasped the true extent of the devastation. Kakashi shook his head. "No. It's fifty to sixty clan members total."
Not fifty surviving ninja, but fifty-odd people encompassing everyone—the elderly, the sick, children, civilians, and the remaining shinobi combined.
At this, Uzumaki Kushina fell silent, the weight of the revelation settling upon her.
Once she processed the staggering impact, she asked, "What about the clan head, Fugaku Uchiha?"
"Dead," Kakashi confirmed. "The Uchiha leadership, along with the radicals previously flagged by the village, were likely eliminated first. As for other key figures… Shisui Uchiha is dead, and Itachi Uchiha has fled."
Sasuke Uchiha, of course, survived, though his survival was largely inconsequential in the grand scheme of things at that moment.
"Shisui's eyes…" Kushina prompted quietly.
"Destroyed, according to Habara's intelligence."
Uzumaki Kushina breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to Shibi Aburame, who stood nearby. "Ensure the Uchiha dead are given proper burials. They are gone; do not allow their remains to be desecrated."
"Yes, Kushina-sama," Shibi Aburame acknowledged with a nod.
He understood Kushina's underlying meaning perfectly. It was a tactful way of saying, 'Deal with the Uchiha corpses properly, and make sure no one gets any ideas about harvesting those Sharingan.'
Deceased Uchiha were, unfortunately, a source of 'top-tier materials.' Many would undoubtedly be tempted to indulge their 'collection habits.' Therefore, Kushina decided the Sharingan should be promptly destroyed, likely by cremation along with the bodies.
Regardless, Kushina felt the best she could do for the Uchiha now was manage the aftermath diligently. However, she didn't intend to assign this sensitive task to Kakashi; she would oversee it personally.
"Kakashi," Kushina ordered, "I have another mission for you. Take six ANBU squads directly under your command and secure Danzo Shimura's subordinates. Don't let them cause any more trouble."
Logically, this should have been dealt with immediately, but due to the severe manpower shortage, the order was only now being put into effect.
However, with Danzo dead, most of his subordinates were unlikely to cause further problems. While Root operatives followed Danzo's orders absolutely, even to the point of death, this wasn't born from personal loyalty or charisma. It stemmed from the fact that Danzo held absolute control over their lives, often through curse seals. For shinobi conditioned to follow orders mechanically, the death of their commander wouldn't incite rebellion, but rather confusion and paralysis. They would become relatively 'harmless.' While extreme reactions from a few individuals couldn't be ruled out, the majority of Root members would likely fall quiet.
"And Habara?" As Kakashi turned to leave, Kushina finally remembered the other major player in the night's events.
"He's in confinement..." Kakashi paused, then, rather uncharitably, amended, "He's resting over at the Archives."
Kushina: "..."
One couldn't entirely blame Kakashi for the jab. Everyone else was running ragged, exhausted like stray dogs, yet Habara got to 'rest.' Never mind that many of the night's events stemmed from his drastic actions; the instigator himself seemed remarkably unoccupied.
Kakashi's jab was perhaps unfair. Habara had rested briefly, but he was awake now.
Not only was Habara awake, but he had also reached a conclusion about his next steps and how to handle his relationship with the village.
Simply put, this Konoha was not, and perhaps never could be, a place for him.
While he wouldn't abandon the path he had set upon or the changes he had initiated, he felt no lingering attachment to Konoha as it currently stood. It was a great tree, seemingly lush and verdant, but how much of it was truly thriving, and how much was merely rot hidden beneath the leaves?
As the saying goes, 'you must break to build.' Sometimes, the only way forward was radical change. Don't hesitate. Sometimes the only solution was excision—a clean, decisive cut.
Konoha would never truly become his Konoha.
Therefore, he needed a New Konoha.