After listening to Black Zetsu's report, Pain—controlled by Nagato—fell silent for a moment. He glanced around the room and said,
"There are still many unknown enemies in the shinobi world. The organization must continue to act with caution."
The meaning behind his words was clear: he was refuting Deidara's proposal.
Beside him, Konan cast a discreet glance at Pain but said nothing in the end.
After that, the Akatsuki briefly discussed a few other matters, exchanged intelligence, and then adjourned the meeting.
Pain asked Zetsu to stay behind. He wanted to ask about "Uchiha Madara's" whereabouts.
Black Zetsu made something up on the spot, claiming that "Madara" had urgent matters to attend to. In truth, Obito had returned to Konoha.
Black Zetsu had left out a lot—like how after destroying Konoha, Sasuke had committed a string of heinous, unspeakable atrocities. Obito knew full well that returning was walking into a trap, but he had no choice. It wasn't just about his parents and grandmother—it involved Nohara Rin and Hatake Kakashi too.
Sasuke had dug up graves, desecrated corpses, and toyed with the souls of the dead. He had no bottom line left.
...
On an unfamiliar street somewhere, a lean figure wrapped in a black cloak with red clouds stepped out of a noisy tavern, a rain hat hiding most of his face.
"Such is the way of the world..." he muttered softly, lifting his head to reveal the prematurely aged face of a young man—Itachi. In just a short time, the lines under his eyes and around his mouth had deepened noticeably.
He gave a soundless, bitter smile.
The night he raised his blade against the Uchiha clan, Itachi had already accepted that his life would end in tragedy. He had never hoped for redemption.
Ever since that night, he had lived like a hollow shell. Everything he did was for the village, and for Sasuke.
He had taken the burden of murdering his own parents and clan upon himself, all in the name of Konoha's peace and stability. He wanted Sasuke to have a clean slate, free from the bloodstained legacy of the Uchiha. In his heart, Itachi believed that under his guidance, Sasuke would one day revive the Uchiha and fully integrate into the village—no more resentment, no more grudges.
Itachi, who had killed on the battlefield at four and attempted suicide at seven, had always immersed himself in a self-justifying fantasy. He convinced himself his sacrifice was noble. Even cruel punishment could not shake his will.
He believed, unwaveringly, that what he was doing was justice.
What others said didn't matter. Even if his hands were stained with his parents' blood—it was all for the village.
That belief held strong even twenty-four hours ago.
But fate had played a cruel joke on him.
Konoha was gone. His younger brother, Sasuke, had obliterated the village in the name of peace and stability for the Land of Fire—and in the end, he was celebrated as a hero.
Everything Itachi had done made him look like a fool now—an idealistic, deluded teenager, living in a fantasy he refused to wake from. Sasuke's slap of reality had finally shaken him to his core.
He realized—this concept of "the greater good" wasn't necessarily correct. Just like he had sacrificed the clan for the village, Sasuke had sacrificed the village for the nation.
There was always a bigger "greater good." For the nation, sacrifice the village .For world peace, sacrifice the nation. For ecological balance, sacrifice humanity. For the harmony of the solar system, sacrifice the Earth...
It's okay to think of the bigger picture—but there has to be a line you won't cross.
Back when Itachi left Konoha and joined the Akatsuki, even though the truth behind the Uchiha massacre had spread through the shinobi world, he was still feared as the "Clan-Killer Itachi."
...
But times had changed. Now, "Itachi" was probably no better than a filthy cockroach in the sewers. Sasuke's actions had been almost transparently fueled by revenge—and most people could see it.
Itachi now felt, for the first time, like a pawn in the hands of fate. Everything he had clung to for years was crumbling. His two spiritual anchors—Konoha and Sasuke—one had vanished, and the other had grown beyond his reach. Whether or not Itachi had helped raise him no longer mattered. Maybe the only thing of value he still had was his Mangekyō Sharingan.
...
Hyūga Neji sat in his luxurious estate, sipping his morning tea. He was now a senior aide to the Daimyō of the Land of Fire and had earned immense credit for helping to wipe out Konoha's reactionary remnants.
He'd once thought that after the fall of Konoha, he would become a wandering fugitive. Instead, the Daimyō had personally recruited him. Only now did he understand the true importance of power and authority—how it could warp reality, twist truth, turn murderers into heroes, and victims into criminals.
Hinata and Hanabi were dead. Their corpses were dumped at the Root base.
Neji suspected their deaths weren't so simple, but he didn't care. Like how Sasuke didn't care about the regular Uchiha—if he wanted to forgive, he would. If not, then not.
Letting Hinata and Hanabi live back then had already been his greatest act of mercy. If someone else killed them later, it had nothing to do with him.
After finishing his tea, Neji went into his secret chamber and continued studying the forbidden jutsu and ancient texts he had seized from Konoha.
His reason for doing so had to do with a strange "magic" he'd been imbued with. He had the constant sense that this mysterious power was just another cage. No matter how strong he became, it was still a fragile illusion, subject to someone else's control.
But Neji couldn't give it up.
He had escaped the curse seal of the Caged Bird and risen to where he was now entirely thanks to this "magic." So he hoped that by delving into forbidden jutsu and shinobi history, he could trace its origins—and once again break free from the chains etched into his very being.
Unfortunately, he was still completely in the dark.
...
While Neji contemplated the nature of fate, Sasuke had no such thoughts. After years of bottling up hatred, he just wanted to vent it all without restraint.
Konoha was now a pile of rubble. The survivors had already been evacuated, but the cemetery remained untouched.
From a distance, Uchiha Obito stood watching the scene unfold at the memorial stone, his eyes filled with agitation.
The ruins of the Konoha cemetery were the stage for something out of a horror story.
With Orochimaru's "friendly assistance," Obito's grandmother, father, and mother had all been brought back using Edo Tensei. So had Nohara Rin, Shimura Danzō, Koharu Utatane, and Homura Mitokado.
Cruel and merciless, Sasuke had dug up their graves, crushed their bones, and dumped them into cesspits. He only kept a small piece of tissue from each body—just enough to perform Edo Tensei. Then, with sick delight, he trapped their souls, turning them into earthbound spirits condemned to eternal torment, never able to move on.
And that wasn't all.
In the center of the graveyard, Kakashi was hanging upside-down, barely clinging to life.
Obito had just returned from the Kamui dimension—only to witness this nightmare.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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