Konoha Village.
The afternoon sun at two o'clock shone bright. In just one morning, the Iwa shinobi had already repaired a good portion of the village's ruins.
Atop the Hokage Building rooftop—
Uchiha Yu stood behind the railing, gazing at the rebirth of Konoha below. Orochimaru and a group of Uchiha stood beside him.
Until the reconstruction was complete, there wasn't much else for them to do.
"They should be calm enough by now," Yu said lightly, his body flaring with orange-red flames as he activated Susanoo.
After all, he'd given them the whole morning to calm down—keeping them waiting any longer would be rude.
He summoned the Totsuka Blade. Before he could release the Uchiha souls sealed within, he sensed that someone had already broken the seal he'd crafted earlier.
"Hm?"
Yu didn't even need to think—it wasn't hard to guess who. That Itachi had managed to undo the hastily made seal was no surprise.
He didn't comment on it, though. Instead, he simply hoped Itachi would appreciate the "surprise."
Until the Uzumaki Clan could develop a seal others couldn't break, he'd have to use the Totsuka Blade more sparingly.
Fortunately, Konoha was short on manpower lately—he'd already released the shinobi trapped inside the blade. If not, Itachi surely would've destroyed them.
Sensing the illusionary sealing world within the Totsuka Blade, Yu found the Uchiha clan members and the sealed Konoha shinobi—White Fang among them—still intact.
He had designed the seal so that once broken, the Totsuka would temporarily reject sealing anything again.
Apparently, after Itachi lifted the seal, he'd been forced to re-seal the Uchiha inside once more.
With that thought, Yu waved his hand and released all the reanimated shinobi at once.
Before the reanimated Uchiha could start shouting insults, Yu restrained them instantly with his Yasaka Magatama.
The living Uchiha beside him looked at their reanimated kin with mixed feelings—helplessness, worry, and urgency. They desperately wanted to explain what was going on and what Yu had done.
"Ask whatever you want," Yu said evenly.
He released their consciousness—but sealed off their ability to speak or move.
Then, Uchiha Yu released control over the three Uchiha elders.
At once, their thoughts returned, and the Great Elder erupted in fury, his voice cutting through the tense air.
"Uchiha Yu, I'll ask you one more time—are you working with Itachi and that masked man?"
The elder's tone was cold and accusing. The other two elders glanced around, realizing in shock that they had somehow returned to Konoha—they'd been fighting Konoha's shinobi in the forest just moments ago.
Orochimaru gave a dry laugh to himself. It seems Lord Yu's 'cooling-down period' didn't work quite as intended.
"Shut the hell up, old man!"
Tamao snapped, striding right up to the Great Elder and shouting in his face.
"Don't you dare compare my brother to Itachi! If any of you useless relics think killing me and taking my Sharingan will somehow save the Uchiha, then do it! Otherwise, stop pretending like your empty words ever meant anything! You're all a bunch of weaklings who do nothing but chant slogans and hide behind your pride!"
"You… you—step back!" The Great Elder's wrinkled face flushed with rage, his bulging eyes trembling as he jabbed a finger at Tamao.
Tamao's three-tomoe Sharingan spun fiercely as he glared back, utterly refusing to back down.
At that moment, the Second Elder spoke with a cold sneer.
"We're cowards, are we? And you call this saving the Uchiha? Wiping out the entire clan just to leave a handful of survivors? Either you've fallen under Uchiha Yu's genjutsu, or he's already brainwashed you all!"
The accusation hit hard. The other Uchiha present turned their heads toward Yu, their eyes flickering with unease and uncertainty.
Yu, however, still said nothing.
Uchiha elders were always like this.
Inside the spiritual prison, Tobirama Senju wore a mocking grin.
"Serves you right. You unsealed those reanimations, and now you're just asking for trouble."
He knew the Uchiha too well—better than any of their past clan heads.
A clan of emotional extremists—one spark, and they'd explode into madness.
Right now, those reanimated Uchiha were teetering on the edge of eruption.
The living Uchiha clenched their fists, burning with anger on behalf of their captain, ready to defend him—
But before any of them could speak, Sasuke stepped forward.
Leaving his mother Mikoto's side, he walked straight toward the reanimated elders, chin lifted, defiance blazing in his eyes.
He couldn't stand by and let them insult Yu. He knew the truth now—Itachi had been the one who destroyed the Uchiha clan, and it was Yu who had preserved what little remained of it.
Just last night, Yu and his mother had told him everything—the escape, the sacrifices, and how Yu had personally ended the lives of his kin to gain strength and protect the last embers of their bloodline.
After hearing that, Sasuke understood the weight Yu carried. Without him, even his mother would have died that night.
And now, these decrepit relics dared to question him?
Sasuke's voice rang out like a whip:
"What right do you have to question my father?!"
"Itachi and Shisui were close to Konoha—you all knew that from the start!
"After Shisui's death, Itachi was manipulated by the village elders and joined forces with that masked man to massacre the Uchiha! Both of them had Mangekyō Sharingan!
"My father—Lord Yu—took on the burden of sin, slaughtering our kin to gain the same power, so he could fight them!
"And after that, he still preserved the last of our bloodline, leading us away from Konoha!
"If not for him, you fossils from the old age wouldn't even exist to embarrass yourselves now!"
Sasuke's righteous anger shook the air as he pointed directly at the elders' faces, trembling with fury.
The moment he finished speaking, a soft chime echoed in Yu's mind—
[Side Quest Completed: A Father's Love Is a Mountain.]
[Option Unlocked]: Become Sasuke's Father.
[Reward]: Green Potion ×1.
Yu glanced at Sasuke, letting out a faint sigh.
So that's what it took to finish that task.
The entire area had gone silent. Mikoto's heart swelled with emotion, overcome by her son's words.
The other Uchiha inhaled sharply—each of them realizing what Sasuke's words meant.
That "father" he'd been shouting at the top of his lungs…
wasn't Fugaku—
it was Uchiha Yu.
"The boy's father?" The Uchiha Great Elder turned to Mikoto in shock, then looked back at Sasuke. "You… aren't you the wife and son of Fugaku?"
Uchiha Yu replied calmly, "Sasuke is my adopted son now."
At that, the Uchihas finally breathed a little easier. For a moment, they had thought Sasuke was truly the child of their captain and the clan leader's wife.
If that were the case, then… Fugaku…
Fortunately, it was merely that after returning to the village, their captain had taken Sasuke in as his adopted son.
If so, perhaps even if Fugaku could not be resurrected, he could at least rest in peace.
"The clan leader's wife and Sasuke have been left as orphans—my big brother has a kind heart. Of course he couldn't bear to see Lady Mikoto live alone or let Sasuke grow up fatherless!" Tamao said emotionally.
The other Uchihas all rolled their eyes at him.
Now wasn't the time to be praising the captain's kindness.
If Tamao's earlier outburst had been driven by anger—something that might have provoked the reanimated Uchihas—then Sasuke's clear explanation, and the fact that he stood firmly on Uchiha Yu's side, gave them all reason to think twice.
After being scolded by Sasuke, the Great Elder instead calmed down.
He glanced around and asked in surprise, "And your father, Fugaku? Where is he?"
"Fugaku! Come out and see me!" the Second Elder shouted, raising his voice as he searched the crowd of Uchihas.
In their view, regardless of who had destroyed the clan, as its leader, Fugaku had to bear the main responsibility.
Sasuke clenched his fists and replied, "My father's body was burned by that bastard Itachi. That monster even tried to kill my mother—it was Father Uchiha Yu who saved her!"
The reanimated Uchihas froze as they heard that Fugaku's corpse had been burned by Itachi and that the man had nearly killed Mikoto.
One by one, their anger subsided into silence.
"..." The Great Elder trembled, looking at the tearful Sasuke. After a long pause, he sighed. "I'm sorry."
Whatever conflicts had existed between the Uchiha and Konoha, the child was innocent.
Seeing that the others had regained their composure, Uchiha Yu temporarily lifted the control over their bodies.
Just then, Uchiha Inabi, who had been silent all this time, stepped forward from the crowd.
His expression was complicated. After a brief glance at Uchiha Yu, he finally chose to stand beside him.
That surprised Uchiha Yu slightly—after all, he had treated Inabi harshly before.
But in the end, he had shown him mercy, letting him die with the truth of the clan's massacre clear in his mind.
Facing the reanimated Uchihas, Inabi declared, "I can confirm everything Sasuke said is true.
That night, Uchiha Itachi joined forces with the one-eyed masked man—both possessing the Mangekyō Sharingan—to destroy our clan.
Uchiha Yu gained power by collecting Sharingan eyes, but he used it to preserve the clan's last embers—Tamao, Izumi, and Minami and the others.
He took most of the three-tomoe eyes, preventing the masked man from collecting them.
That night, even if we hadn't died by Uchiha Yu's hand, we would have perished under the blades of Itachi and the masked man. From the very beginning of the massacre, Uchiha Yu never killed a single civilian."
At that, the entire reanimated Uchiha force was thrown into uproar.
After all, this was Inabi speaking—
The one who had once held the deepest grudge against Uchiha Yu, and even he now stood by his side?
°°°
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