Chapter 252 – The Weight of Truth
While the ninja world boiled with tension and turmoil, Konohagakure remained calm and composed.
To be precise, aside from a few shinobi maintaining defense and readiness, most of the civilians, academy students, and lower-ranked genin and chūnin were relaxed and at ease.
After all, with war looming, those weaker or unqualified were best suited to cheer from the sidelines—quite literally.
At a training field within Konoha…
"Sasuke, why are you so down?"
Uzumaki Naruto asked casually, wiping sweat from his brow after a full day of training. "C'mon, with the Fifth Hokage—Lord Uchiha—leading us, there's no way we're going to lose."
"Yeah!"
Haruno Sakura, resting nearby, quickly chimed in. Her eyes gleamed with admiration.
"Lord Uchiha, the Fifth Hokage, is practically a god who transcends the ninja world. He definitely has a plan. All we need to do is watch the show."
"You guys don't understand…"
Uchiha Sasuke glanced over at them, his voice quiet and heavy.
"I've always had an older brother. His name is… Uchiha Itachi."
"What? You have a brother?"
"Wait—Uchiha Itachi? That Itachi?"
Both Naruto and Sakura stared in shock.
They had no idea Sasuke even had a brother. The revelation was staggering.
"Do you know about the Uchiha Clan Massacre?"
Sasuke asked flatly. "That night… my brother betrayed the Uchiha clan and Konohagakure."
—Crack... Snap...
As he spoke, Sasuke's clenched fists trembled.
"He believed he could achieve the Will of Fire—the Third Hokage's twisted ideology—by slaughtering our clan, murdering our parents with his own hands."
—Thud!
Enraged, Sasuke seized a kunai and drove it into the trunk of a nearby tree with alarming force.
After the Uchiha Massacre, Uchiha Fugaku—the clan head and Sasuke's father—had erased all record and remembrance of Itachi.
To them, Itachi was nothing but shame. A disgrace to the Uchiha name. His very existence was buried.
Thus, after Uchiha Ryuen—the Fifth Hokage—rose to power, most younger shinobi didn't even know Itachi ever existed. In their eyes, the Uchiha clan's only genius was Fugaku's son: Sasuke.
But Sasuke could never forget.
He remembered Itachi's cold eyes, walking into their parents' room with a blade, intent on betrayal. He remembered the horror.
If it hadn't been for the sudden intervention of Uchiha Ryuen, Itachi would have succeeded in butchering everything.
Since that day, Sasuke had been haunted by a single question:
Why?
Why did his brother do it?
Why betray the clan for the likes of Sarutobi Hiruzen, the shameful Third Hokage?
According to intel, Itachi had been resurrected via Edo Tensei and was currently among the ninja coalition forces formed by Orochimaru, Onoki, and A—representing Otogakure, Iwagakure, and Kumogakure respectively.
Sasuke desperately wanted to go to the battlefield.
He wanted to confront Itachi face-to-face.
But… he was still too weak.
And that powerlessness gnawed at him.
---
"What?! Uchiha Itachi is that scum?!"
"To think he tried to kill his own parents and destroy his own clan… What a disgrace!"
"No wonder he sided with that bastard Sarutobi Hiruzen—the greatest hypocrite in Konoha's history!"
Sakura and Naruto were now seething with righteous fury, their voices filled with disbelief and contempt.
They finally understood why, on the night of the Uchiha massacre, Hokage Ryuen had acted so decisively—to stop the corruption rooted in the Third Hokage's faction, including Shimura Danzō, Koharu Utatane, and Homura Mitokado.
Itachi, it turned out, had been one of them.
---
"Sasuke…"
Naruto clenched his fists, his voice deep and rough.
"Do you… want to kill your brother, Uchiha Itachi?"
There was a long silence.
Then, Naruto added, his voice shaking with barely contained rage:
"I'll tell you this—I want to kill Sarutobi Hiruzen myself. That old bastard deserves worse than death."
As those words left his mouth, the Nine-Tails stirred within.
Kurama grinned darkly, responding to Naruto's seething hatred.
—BOOM!!
A monstrous surge of Tailed Beast chakra exploded from Naruto, cloaking him in a burning aura. The Tailed Beast Cloak began to form.
His eyes lost focus, slipping into rage and madness.
Why?
Because he remembered his childhood—
How he'd been neglected, abandoned, and fed expired food.
How other kids mocked him, how adults scorned and feared him.
How he grew up alone.
And who let it happen?
Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage—the man everyone claimed was wise and strong.
But Naruto knew better now.
That man had lied, manipulated, and failed even his own teacher's son. He left Naruto to rot, all while hiding behind platitudes about "strengthening the mind."
Naruto's anger wasn't just rage.
It was justice.
And it had only just begun.
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