[Deep Within The Forest Outside Konoha]
Moonlight filtered through gaps in the branches, scattering mottled shadows across the ground.
Tonight's blood moon looked especially eerie. A crimson hue stained the entire sky, like a curtain washed in fresh blood.
In a forgotten corner of the forest, a carefully concealed entrance lay hidden behind tangled ancient roots.
A staircase descended from the hideout, leading to a cramped underground room barely ten square ters in size.
Uchiha Kyoshin stared at the monitor and sighed.
"So I still couldn't stop it…"
The cold glow of the screen illuminated his youthful face, one that was unnaturally calm for his age.
On the display, the Uchiha compound had already beco a living hell. Blood, silence, and the blood-red moon reflected one another in grim harmony.
Bodies of Uchiha clan mbers lay scattered across the streets. Blood twisted into streams along the stone-paved roads.
Every so often, another figure would collapse after being struck by a kunai or ninjutsu launched from the darkness.
The scarlet glow of Sharingan eyes lit up and faded again and again in the night.
Most unbearable were the children. Uchiha kids the sa age as Kyoshin, or even younger, never even had the chance to understand what was happening before the killers dragged them out from hiding places and forced their eyes shut forever.
In one corner of the screen, Kyoshin spotted a familiar neighbor, Uchiha Tekka. The jonin who always smiled while treating him to dango now had three kunai buried in his chest, his widened Sharingan eyes already devoid of light.
Several years ago, Kyoshin had transmigrated from Earth into the Naruto world, becoming a mber of the Uchiha clan, the sa age as Sasuke.
From that mont on, he had worked relentlessly to avoid the night of the clan massacre.
To make Konoha's higher-ups believe the First Hokage's ideals were still possible, Kyoshin played the role of a good person.
Other Uchiha clan mbers were arrogant and aloof, so even looking down on their own comrades.
But Kyoshin treated everyone with kindness. At the Ninja Academy, he built friendships with the Konoha Twelve and beca famous as a social butterfly. He even regularly helped elderly ladies cross the street.
He had tried to influence the attitudes within the Uchiha clan, but his words carried no weight.
He had tried anonymously informing Hiruzen Sarutobi of everything, but the man stayed silent like a useless husband.
He had tried using psychology to influence Uchiha Itachi, but the brainwashing ran too deep. In the end, he still beca the clan-slaying weasel.
Kyoshin had even attempted to make Danzo truly understand the Second Hokage's political intentions, but the man was a half-baked fool who only learned how to suppress the Uchiha.
Aside from the elusive Obito, Kyoshin had tried nearly every thod he could think of to warn or change the "main characters" of the massacre night.
None of it mattered. Everything still happened.
If only he had arrived a few years earlier, with enough ti to prepare, then maybe… just maybe… things could have ended differently.
Because Kyoshin possessed a system too, though its benefits required ti to accumulate.
The system had only one function: Linear Potential.
Effort always produced results. His potential had no ceiling and no bottlenecks.
If Kyoshin had rely been a few years older, or even just the sa age as Itachi, then he would have possessed enough power to change all of this.
Kyoshin frowned at the screen as more and more caras were discovered and destroyed, turning into static before his eyes.
The shadows inside the hideout began to shift.
Several pitch-black feathers appeared out of nowhere. They gathered together, gradually forming the outline of a human figure.
The feathers faded away, revealing the uniform of Konoha's Anbu.
Within a pair of scarlet eyes, three tomoe connected in a strange pattern and slowly rotated.
Without warning, Uchiha Itachi appeared inside the narrow room. His crow clone allowed him to pass through all physical defenses like a ghost.
He stood directly in front of the only exit. Under the dim glow of the instrunt lights, his shadow stretched long across the room, completely enveloping Kyoshin.
"So you really didn't die."
The voice suddenly sounded beside Kyoshin's ear, coldly rational and instantly recognizable.
Tear stains lingered at the corners of Itachi's eyes, but his voice remained calm.
"You completed the Ninja Academy curriculum in just one year, graduated early, and deliberately accepted missions in order to fake your death during one of them, all so you could distance yourself from the Uchiha and Konoha."
"Haah…" Kyoshin sighed, turning his chair to face Itachi. Not a trace of tension could be seen on his face. "You still went through with it. You really are beyond saving."
A flicker of madness surfaced in Itachi's eyes, but reason quickly buried it again.
"You're this calm… is this a shadow clone?"
Kyoshin interlocked his fingers beneath his chin. Neither his expression nor his tone resembled that of an eight-year-old child.
"Ti will prove just how stupid your choice was."
"I'm sorry." Itachi's heart and mind were both on the verge of collapse. "You're talented. Careful-minded. Your ideas were good too… but the village no longer had the luxury to afford failure."
An overwhelming sorrow filled Itachi.
'If only Kyoshin had appeared a few years earlier…'
But the story had already reached its ending.
Either tonight the village would purge the Uchiha, or tomorrow night the Uchiha rebellion would deal devastating damage to the village.
No matter what happened, the Uchiha's fate had already been decided.
Kyoshin made no effort to hide the disgust in his eyes.
"In jonin investigation theory, there's a section about using the subtle reactions of a clone to determine the approximate location of the original body."
"And now that things have reached this point, the remaining Uchiha are no longer capable of threatening the village at all. Was there really any need to take things this far?"
The Mangekyo Sharingan within Itachi's eyes continued observing Kyoshin, but he failed to gather any useful information from the thods described in those reconnaissance theories.
Still, Itachi refuted him.
"They're no longer capable of threatening the village physically. But the order I received was to kill everyone, in order to eliminate future public backlash."
The corner of Kyoshin's lips lifted slightly.
"Everyone?"
Itachi: "..."
Kyoshin slowly raised a finger. Chakra circulated lightly through his body as he prepared to dispel the shadow clone, leaving behind one final sentence.
"I'll help you finish your mission completely."
At that instant, Sasuke's smiling face flashed through Itachi's mind, and his Mangekyo spun violently.
The mont Kyoshin's clone vanished, Itachi caught the chakra inside it drifting northward.
At the sa ti, the sound of exploding tags burning reached his ears.
His body transford into a flock of black crows that shot out of the hideout, attempting to relay the information.
But it was already too late.
Flas engulfed the underground hideout as the explosion tore the entire place apart. The crows dissolved into white smoke amidst the blast.
Outside the hideout, Obito, who had been waiting nearby, activated his intangibility to avoid the shockwave from the exploding tags.
He never received any information transmitted from Itachi's shadow clone.
Once the dust settled...
———
On a large tree not far from Obito, the blast had torn apart so of the branches and leaves, revealing a hidden surveillance cara.
Its faint red light stood out sharply in the night.
Obito turned toward the cara and muttered coldly, "Useless…"
The next second, a kunai destroyed the cara.
———
In the northern forest outside Konoha, a black-haired boy stood silently atop a tree branch, watching the firelight from the exploding tags deep within the woods.
After receiving the mories transmitted back from the shadow clone, he turned and disappeared into even deeper darkness.
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