"One against seven."
Sasuke's voice was calm as he quietly drew a weapon scroll.
"One against seven!"
Compared to Sasuke's composure, someone else in the Root ranks was far more agitated. If not for Fugaku restraining her, Uchiha Izumi would have already rushed forward.
"My foolish little brother…"
Itachi glanced at Izumi in mild surprise, not quite sure why this stranger was reacting so strongly upon seeing him. There was something vaguely familiar about her, but he dismissed it. His focus was entirely on Sasuke.
"I thought you'd charge straight at me without hesitation. I didn't expect you to be calmer than I imagined."
"Is it because you joined Root… that you've grown cold?"
Those words told Naruto why Itachi had appeared at this moment. Compared to Orochimaru, Itachi clearly saw Danzō as a greater threat to Sasuke.
Naruto himself had spoken openly about Danzō, and had never hidden his own affiliation with Root. If even the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki served Danzō, then it was reasonable to assume Sasuke—Naruto's teammate—would join as well.
Sasuke sought power. And while Danzō despised the Uchiha, there was no guarantee he wouldn't use Sasuke against Itachi.
Truth be told, in all of Konoha, the only place that could truly offer Sasuke power was Root.
Otherwise, his only option would be to defect and seek out Orochimaru.
It was logical.
And now that Sasuke was standing among Root's forces, Itachi had come to confirm it for himself.
His seemingly casual question was nothing more than a test.
'Hmph. What a schemer.'
So thought a certain jinchūriki, quick to expose others' hidden motives—yet conveniently forgetting how he once deceived a certain sixty-nine-year-old elder with a "diary," stripped another of his authority, and manipulated the entire village into his palm.
'And who was it that did all those over-the-top things?'
'When I catch that guy Naruto, I'll be the first to make him pay.'
Even if exposed, Naruto would definitely say that with a straight face.
Of course, Itachi could never have imagined that by Sasuke's side stood a "hacked" Naruto, or that Root was now practically filled with Uchiha loyalists.
"I thought seeing you again would make me lose my mind and rush you." Sasuke followed Itachi's lead, deliberately not denying his connection to Root. In his mind, since Naruto had joined Root, then it was inevitable that he would too.
For Itachi, silence was admission enough.
"But I was wrong."
"Now, you just look like a pitiful clown to me."
Sasuke's weapon appeared in his hand. Not his usual blade—but a massive spiked club.
'That weapon…' Fugaku's eyelid twitched when he saw the enormous war mace. 'Why does it look so much like Karin's?'
Our clan wields blades. Even a Fūma shuriken would be more fitting. Who in the Uchiha carries something that brutish?
"Pitiful, hmm?" Itachi chuckled softly, then louder, until it rose into mad laughter.
The infamous Uchiha laughter had come.
"The one who's truly pitiful… is you, my foolish little brother."
"Your parents, your entire clan—slaughtered by my hand."
"Did you forget what I told you? To test the limits of my capacity… I awakened these eyes."
When Itachi opened his eyes again, they had shifted—into the pattern of the Mangekyō Sharingan.
He was deliberately provoking Sasuke, trying to draw him away from the Root shinobi. Their aura was unfathomable—Itachi couldn't gauge their strength.
By Sasuke's nature, he should have lost control by now.
But Itachi hadn't noticed Fugaku's eyes upon him—nor the gazes of every Uchiha present.
All looking at him as though at a pathetic clown.
"That's why I said you're pitiful."
Sasuke's voice was steady, unmoved. After all his time under Naruto's wing, if he still flew into rages at a word, he'd be condemned to a never-ending "special training" regimen.
"Because I see now—you're truly stupid."
"You think I don't know the truth?"
"My foolish nii-san."
"You claimed you slaughtered our clan to test your limits," Sasuke sneered for the first time, malice twisting his smile. His words dripped venom: "Then if I decide to test my limits by turning my blade on Konoha… will you try to stop me?"
Every surviving Uchiha knew the truth behind the massacre. And none could accept his reasoning.
Were they truly expected to submit like lambs to the slaughter? To accept that Uchiha lives had no worth? That they weren't fit to exist?
For the countless Uchiha whose souls rested in the Pure Land, they all longed to ask Itachi one question: Why?
'What exactly does Sasuke know?'
Itachi's heart jolted. When he saw no reaction from the Root shinobi beside Sasuke, his shock only deepened.
'Did Danzō tell him? What is Root planning? What is Danzō's true aim?'
He had thought Danzō only wanted to pit the two brothers against one another, so he could profit in the aftermath. But now… Itachi couldn't discern his intentions at all.
Not that anyone could. Danzō himself was lost in dreams of becoming Fifth Hokage.
"…And what does that matter?" Itachi forced calm, though inwardly rattled. "With your strength, if you continue as you are, you'll only die by Konoha's hand."
"Better that I end you here and now."
"With these eyes."
But what he faced instead was Sasuke's mocking smile, as if he had already seen through everything.
"You mean… the Mangekyō?"
Sasuke chuckled with a manic edge, his expression twisting into something frenzied. His lips curved upward in a warped grin.
"Guess what these are."
His Sharingan flared—first the two tomoe, then the three, and finally—
The six-pointed star.
The Mangekyō Sharingan.
Sasuke… had awakened it.
Itachi's heart thundered.
'How?! Was it Danzō? Or the Third?!'
Questions surged through him—countless things he wanted to demand of Sasuke.
But unlike Itachi's shock, Fugaku and the other Uchiha looked upon Sasuke with pride.
As expected of my son.
For these eyes, for this power, Sasuke must have endured much.
They themselves had lacked the aptitude. The Mangekyō was no cabbage by the roadside—not every Uchiha could awaken it. Even with the clan's growth in strength over the years, few truly possessed the qualifications. It was not just a matter of trauma, but of something far deeper.
"Itachi!"
Sasuke's eyes locked on him, burning with resolve.
"Your crimes cannot be washed away—even if you drowned in the Sanzu River of the underworld."
"I will avenge my parents you murdered. I will avenge the clan you butchered. I will avenge the innocent women and children you so mercilessly slaughtered!"
"I will bring you atonement—"
"Through your death."
"Your death will be the best atonement for them!"
"Today will be your end."
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