Sakura calculated the time; it was about this time.
The Uchiha Clan massacre; under the orders of the Konoha higher-ups, Itachi wiped out the entire Uchiha Clan by himself.
At this moment, Sasuke still maintained that innocence, unaware that a nightmare was about to strike.
With her current strength, the young girl couldn’t change anything at all.
The only thing she could do was try not to go out these few days, because after school last night, Sakura had already clearly sensed something wrong.
In the Village streets, one rarely saw Jonin in plain clothes anymore.
Usually, when Jonin weren’t on missions, they would eat, play chess, or shop on the streets like normal villagers.
Moreover, hearing from Ino, her father was also leaving early and returning late every day now.
He wouldn’t say what he was doing when asked, and he hadn’t even accompanied his precious daughter to practice Mind Transfer Jutsu for several days.
Sakura knew that event was about to happen.
…
One week later.
Night fell, Hokage Office.
Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi furrowed his brows, the aged, brown skin on his forehead wrinkling together.
An Anbu Ninja wearing a cat mask flashed in front of the Third Hokage.
With a biting cold wind, the Third Hokage’s Hokage hat fluttered with the wind.
“You have come.” The Third Hokage spoke slowly.
“Yes, Hokage-sama.” The person removed the mask, revealing a handsome face behind it.
The young man had two deep tear troughs at the corners of his eyes; he was no more than fourteen or fifteen years old.
“Itachi, I apologize to you regarding the matter of Shisui.” Just a short while ago, in order to prevent the Uchiha Clan from rebelling, Shisui did not hesitate to commit suicide, throwing himself into the bottomless dark river, leaving no remains.
“This was Shisui’s own choice.
I think the reason he did this was out of loyalty and trust in Konoha, but even so, he still couldn’t prevent the Uchiha’s rebellion.” A flash of imperceptible sorrow crossed the young man’s pitch-black pupils.
Shisui was his best partner, a top-tier genius whose talent for genjutsu surpassed even his own.
Yet, because of Danzo Shimura’s conspiracy, he had to commit suicide to try and persuade his clansmen to change their minds.
“Have you decided, Itachi?” The Third Hokage stared at the young man before him.
He knew that if Itachi decided to stand on the Uchiha side and launch a coup against Konoha with his father, Uchiha Fugaku, things would become quite troublesome, and both sides would certainly suffer.
After all, at this time, Itachi already possessed Kage-level strength.
“I will spend my whole life protecting the Village and protecting the Will of Fire, but I have only one request.” Itachi already had the answer in his heart; he had already made his choice between his clansmen and Konoha.
It was just that there was one person he couldn’t stop worrying about.
“Speak.” “I hope Hokage-sama will take good care of my younger brother, Uchiha Sasuke.
I hope he can carry the former hope of the Uchiha Clan and continue living in Konoha.” “Very well, let your brother continue to grow up in the Village as a descendant of the Uchiha Clan.” The Third Hokage was stunned for a moment.
He hadn’t expected that Itachi, who had never made a request of him, would actually sincerely implore him for the first time for the sake of his younger brother.
“Thank you.” Having said this, the young man disappeared from the office building.
…
The next morning, Sakura woke up from her sleep and lazily stretched.
Her parents didn’t know where they had gone, and breakfast hadn’t been made.
While complaining, Sakura put on her school bag and headed to school.
But along the way, she saw the villagers whispering to each other, their faces showing disbelief.
Some faces were even filled with horror, as if some terrifying event had happened last night.
Looking at the notice posted in the distance, the young girl squeezed through the bustling crowd of onlookers.
The large characters on the notice were clearly visible: Uchiha Itachi assassinated the entire Uchiha Clan alone and betrayed Konoha, leaving behind only the young Uchiha Sasuke.
“So soon!” Sakura was shocked inside; as expected, what was meant to come, came.
The villagers looked at the notice and made various guesses.
Some said Uchiha Itachi was bribed by other great nations and became a rogue Ninja.
Others said it was related to the Nine-Tailed incident from before, and perhaps there was an even bigger, shocking conspiracy hidden behind it.
Only Sakura knew that this involved the unknown political maneuvers of the Konoha higher-ups.
Heh, pathetic and ridiculous…
Sighing, the young girl walked to school in low spirits.
“Sakura, did you know?
That kind of thing happened at Sasuke’s house.” As soon as Sakura entered the classroom, Ino leaned over and said with a sorrowful expression.
For the past two years, the Ino–Shika–Chō team, Sasuke, and Sakura had often trained and played together, having long since formed a deep friendship.
Naturally, Ino felt bad hearing this news.
“Yeah.” Sakura nodded silently and looked around; Sasuke’s seat was empty.
That made sense; after such a big event, how could he be in the mood to come to class?
It seemed that she probably wouldn’t see Sasuke for a long time.
After the bell rang, Iruka walked into the classroom.
The students were chattering because of the Uchiha Clan’s extermination, and only quieted down after the teacher arrived.
“Regarding last night’s events, I presume…
everyone already knows.
Sasuke has taken a month off.
As his classmates, I hope you will not discuss this matter in class in the future and consider Sasuke’s feelings.” Iruka said with furrowed brows; as a teacher, he naturally felt bad that this had happened to his student.
“Okay, teacher.” The students were mostly very sympathetic and responded in unison.
“Then next, we will learn a new lesson—Basic Theory of Shurikenjutsu.” Sakura rested her chin on her hand, watching Iruka explain on the blackboard, but her heart was no longer in the classroom.
She didn’t know how Sasuke was doing now; seeing his own parents die at the hands of his own brother, what kind of feeling that must be.
It must be the despair of falling into the abyss…
Before, when watching the anime, Sakura actually quite disliked the character Sasuke, thinking he was too obsessed with his family vendetta and was willing to join Orochimaru for it.
He did so many wrong things, even wanting to kill his own teammates, Karin and Sakura.
It was simply too much.
Now that she had become a character in the original story and had a personal experience, she could suddenly understand Sasuke’s later corruption.
…
When she saw the young man again, it was already a month later.
Sasuke sat alone in the furthest corner of the classroom.
The young man buried his head deep into his neck, and a chilling aura radiated from him; no student dared to approach him.
Some classmates wanted to go comfort him, but just as they were about to approach, they were pushed back by Sasuke’s silence.
“Hey!!
Come over and spar with me, Sasuke, I’ve found a way to defeat you!” The originally solemn atmosphere was suddenly disrupted by a crisp male voice.
The Crown Prince!
Although Naruto didn’t have high emotional intelligence, he wasn’t stupid.
In fact, he wanted to comfort Sasuke, but the yellow-haired boy’s way of comforting people was different from others.
He thought the way to get Sasuke to cheer up was to get into a scuffle with them.
But facing Naruto’s “provocation,” Sasuke didn’t move an inch, still keeping his head down and saying nothing.
Naruto’s lips twitched, and the atmosphere in the classroom became a bit awkward for a moment.
Sakura wanted to say something, but the thing she was worst at in her life was comforting people.
So she chose to be a mute who wouldn’t speak.
Otherwise, it would be even more awkward…
“Hey—Sasuke, hurry up and cheer up.
You’re a genius young man.
Cheer up, only then can you avenge your family in the future.” Naruto’s “Talk no Jutsu” skills had been very powerful since he was young.
Avenge?