A small figure ran through the silent streets in a panic.
Uchiha Sasuke's heart was gripped by an inexplicable unease, and he ran toward home by instinct.
But... it was too quiet, terrifyingly so.
Then, he saw them—scattered Kunai, dark red blood splattered on the walls, and... figures lying on the ground, lifeless.
"Dad... Mom?"
Fear washed over him like ice water. Sasuke's legs felt weak, but he forced himself to run toward his house.
Just around the corner, a figure blocked his path.
Short black hair, the familiar clan uniform, and the Uchiha fan emblem on the back.
"Big brother!" Sasuke cried out, rushing toward him as if seeing a savior. "Everyone... what happened to everyone?! Just what is..."
The next moment, his words stopped abruptly.
Sasuke saw Uchiha Itachi's eyes.
They were not the gentle black pupils he knew, but a blood-red background etched with cold, eerie patterns shaped like shuriken.
What made his blood freeze even more was the dripping Kunai in his brother's hand.
"My foolish little brother."
Itachi's voice was colder than the night wind.
Before Sasuke could understand, that blood-red color occupied his entire field of vision.
In an instant, the world spun, and he found himself tied to a massive cross in a distorted, sinister world.
The Tsukuyomi space.
Here, time was stretched infinitely.
Sasuke was forced to "witness" over and over again, from the clearest angles, how his parents were brutally murdered by his beloved brother with that Kunai.
With every repetition, the pain, fear, and despair cut deep into his bones.
"Why... Big brother... why are you doing this?!" Sasuke screamed on the brink of a mental breakdown.
Itachi's figure stood before him like a demon god, his voice devoid of emotion: "To measure my capacity. A foolish little brother like you isn't even worth killing."
"If you want to kill me, then resent me, hate me. Then, live on in an unsightly way, run as hard as you can, and cling to life as best you can."
"Wait until the day you possess the same eyes as I do... then come find me."
In the reality of the clan grounds, Sasuke's eyes rolled back, and his body fell straight back, completely unconscious under the extreme fear and mental devastation.
Itachi looked at his brother's pale, tear-stained little face. Behind those cold Mangekyo, a single tear finally slid down uncontrollably.
With one last look at Sasuke, Itachi turned away resolutely and vanished into the night.
Danzo looked at the Uchiha Clan grounds with burning eyes. Today, he had finally fulfilled his teacher's vision.
Moreover, after tonight, he would have a vast supply of replaceable Sharingan.
Just then, a figure appeared silently behind him.
"Konoha must guarantee Sasuke's absolute safety. Otherwise, I don't mind selling all the Village's intelligence to enemy forces."
These words were a direct warning to Danzo.
Danzo's gaze turned cold, but he soon regained his composure.
Just a fool who's being used and still moved by his own actions... In the Hokage Office.
The atmosphere was so heavy it felt like it could drip water.
The Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the blood-stained youth before him, whose eyes were terrifyingly calm. He took a deep drag from his pipe, which eventually turned into a long sigh.
"It's been hard on you, Itachi."
"I will join 'Akatsuki' and monitor them," Itachi continued. "I'll leave Sasuke's future to you."
Hiruzen Sarutobi closed his eyes, nodded heavily, and said solemnly, "I promise you in the name of the Hokage."
Itachi gave a slight nod, and his figure transformed into a flock of crows, dissipating in the office.
After Itachi left, only the flickering light of the pipe remained in the office, reflecting Hiruzen Sarutobi's incredibly complex face.
Shock, regret, and a hint of... an indescribable chill intertwined in his heart.
This youth had personally slaughtered his entire clan, inflicted endless hatred and pain upon his only brother to use as fuel for his brother's growth, and simultaneously bore the name of a traitor to infiltrate the most dangerous organization... All of this was done under the name of "protecting the Village."
Was this not an extreme form of the "will of fire"?
It was just that it was so paranoid and cruel that it made even the Third Hokage, who had written books on the subject, feel his heart skip a beat.
Hiruzen Sarutobi thought of the Uchiha Clan's past—those paranoid, intense, and extreme personality traits.
"The Uchiha... are they truly a cursed clan?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi muttered to himself, filled with a sense of lingering fear and deep exhaustion.
"I thought Itachi was the genius who could leap beyond the limitations of the clan, but I didn't expect... he didn't just fail to leap out, he performed the Uchiha traits to the absolute extreme."
"This almost pathological obsession... is truly... even more prominent than his clansmen."
The Third had to admit that such a burning will of fire made even him feel afraid!
In a mysterious space that intertwined with reality yet was completely isolated, a figure was leisurely "watching" all of this.
Yin An, a soul that originally did not belong to this world, was currently crossing his legs as if sitting on an invisible sofa. Floating before him was the tragedy currently unfolding in the Uchiha Clan grounds.
He watched Itachi kill his parents, watched Sasuke collapse in a coma, and watched that one tear quietly fall from Itachi.
A playful smile curled at the corner of Yin An's mouth as he whispered to himself, his voice echoing in the empty space:
"Truly... a bunch of lunatics. Paranoid, crazy, and self-righteously pulling off some self-sacrifice... but that's what makes it interesting."
Yin An stretched, his eyes flashing with the light of calculation.
"The script is ready, and the emotional buildup is in place. Now, as the director, it's time for me to start 'modifying' everyone's perception to make this play better suit my interests."
The law of transmigrators: there must be a cheat!
Yin An's cheat was a system focused on "Deception and Emotional Harvesting."
The "Absolute Hidden Space" provided by the novice gift pack perfectly evaded all detection. Without his permission, no one could come here.
And now, it was time for him to use the system's core ability.
As long as Yin An committed any deception or changed the perceptions of the Ninja World, and as long as someone believed it, Yin An could obtain benefits from the system.
The next day, dawn broke over Konoha.
Official news spread like a plague: the Uchiha Clan was wiped out last night, and the culprit was the rogue ninja Uchiha Itachi!
The entire Konoha was instantly set ablaze with the news.
The reactions of the various clans became subtle and unified.
Empathy for their own kind?
Perhaps!
But all the clans remained silent, offering no opinions to the Konoha Leadership.
The civilian class, however, was a different story.