"Tonight is the night of the massacre, right..."
Over the past half year he had seen too many fools among the Uchiha. Just as Itachi said, they mouthed clan, clan all day, obsessed with the organization and with the Uchiha name. It was sheer stupidity.
There were normal Uchiha too, but only by comparison. To ordinary people they were still the haughty Uchiha.
After months among them, Yuki felt no attachment. If anything, he thought they deserved what was coming.
Even so, he did not agree with Itachi. In his eyes, Itachi was no different.
Konoha had been founded to protect family, comrades, and children. Yet now Itachi would kill family, comrades, and children for the village.
That was the world turned upside down. Itachi and those foolish Uchiha were the same, only inverted. He was obsessed with the village, with peace.
To kill your parents in the name of peace, that was beneath even a broken mind.
So Yuki did not try to stop it. He would not die anyway.
Let the Uchiha be as they would.
He did feel something for Uchiha Mikoto, the mother who had cared for him these months. But he had no power to save her.
He had obtained Thunder Breathing only a month ago, and he barely scratched the surface. With that level he could do nothing. Will alone could not bridge the gap.
After school, Sasuke did not go home. He stayed at the academy training field to practice shuriken.
Only when night was fully down did he head for the Uchiha district.
"Time to show off my acting." The district gates rose ahead. Sasuke's lips curved.
Yukiko's acting needed no praise. With her guidance, Sasuke could at least win Best Actor of the ninja world.
"This is..." Whether or not anyone watched from the dark, he dove into character. At the sight of bodies in pools of blood, shock spread across his face.
The farther he went, the more corpses there were. His expression twisted and cold sweat broke on his brow.
By a utility pole he lifted his gaze, instinctively, to the top. No one stood there, yet he knew Itachi had been perched above, watching him.
He was waiting for Sasuke to come home so he could go back and stage the fresh murder of their parents.
"Father! Mother! Brother!" Knowing no one would answer, Sasuke still put panic on his face and sprinted toward his parents' room.
At the door he stopped, swallowed, and with trembling hands slid it open.
BANG!
The horror within was something Yuki had never seen. He slammed back against the wall with a sharp THUD.
That was not acting. In two lives, this was his first time seeing people tied to him dead before his eyes.
In his past life his family had been fine, and he had crossed over for no known reason.
A figure stepped from the shadows.
"Brother, Father and Mother they..." It was Itachi. Sasuke's words died when he saw the blood wetting the sword in his brother's hand.
"Why! Why, brother!" He stared at Itachi's cold face, voice breaking into a ragged shout.
"My foolish little brother." Itachi closed his eyes. When they opened, the three tomoe had twisted into the Mangekyō, a windmill of blades spinning in his gaze.
Genjutsu.
Itachi cast him into illusion. Time rolled back. The slaughter of the Uchiha replayed before Sasuke's eyes.
He watched Itachi cut them down, one by one. He heard the dying screams. Clutching his head, Sasuke cried out, "Stop, brother! Do not make me watch this!"
"Ahhhh!"
At last he could not bear it. He collapsed, even working up a foamy string of spit to trail from the corner of his mouth for realism.
Unfortunately, Yuki felt too little for these people. His Sharingan did not awaken.
That was the curse of a transmigrator. Knowing most of the story blunted his heart. Little could shake him to the core or ignite true hatred. Unless Itachi dragged Hinata here and killed her before him, his emotions would not surge high enough.
Mikoto's death pained him, yes, but only that. It could not force the Sharingan open.
"Why... why, brother!" After a while Sasuke dragged himself up and asked through clenched teeth.
"To measure my capacity." Itachi's face did not change.
"Measure... capacity... For that alone you killed everyone, even Father and Mother..." Sasuke whispered.
"Because that mattered more." Itachi regarded him quietly.
"Scum." Time to close the scene. Sasuke lunged at Itachi, ready to take the punch and drop.
CRACK!
"Nice hit, brother," he thought, and went limp on the floor.
...