Orochimaru chuckled to himself, as though savoring a riveting drama.
To Orochimaru, the decision made by the Hidden Leaf's higher-ups was both absurd and laughable.
Sasuke suddenly roared.
"The Uchiha clan were also ninja of the Hidden Leaf, who gave you the right to decide their lives and deaths?"
The Uchiha clan, his clansn, his parents.
Sarutobi Hiruzen lowered his head.
"Sasuke, I know this is very hard to accept, but the situation at the ti left us with no other choice, the Uchiha clan's rebellion was already on the verge of breaking out, and if we had not acted, the Hidden Leaf could have been plunged into civil war."
His voice carried little conviction, as though he were making excuses for himself yet could not persuade even himself.
As the Third Hokage, he had once believed he had made the most correct decision, but looking back now, it had been nothing more than a choice born of helplessness.
"No other choice?" Sasuke's voice carried a note of bitter scorn.
"Your choice was to exterminate the clan, to make Itachi bear all the sins, beco a rogue ninja, and endure everything alone?"
Sasuke had thrown all caution aside at this point, as though he wanted to pour out every grievance that had built up inside him.
Sarutobi Hiruzen had nothing to say in response, and his gaze was filled with guilt.
No matter how it was explained, it could not nd the wound in Sasuke's heart.
Senju Hashirama let out a sigh.
"Sasuke, this matter was truly a mistake on the part of the Hidden Leaf's higher-ups, the Hidden Leaf failed the Uchiha clan, and it failed Itachi."
Senju Tobirama was silent for a mont.
"Danzo was far too extre."
Sasuke's head throbbed as though countless fine needles were churning inside his mind.
His chest heaved violently as pain and confusion surged in like a tide.
Why, why had Itachi been willing to sacrifice the entire clan for the sake of the village, yet left only him behind?
He could not understand it, and he could not accept it.
Sasuke raised his head and looked toward Senju Hashirama standing nearby, the legendary First Hokage, the founder of the Hidden Leaf Village.
His very existence was a symbol of the pinnacle of the ninja way and the ultimate ideal of shinobi.
Sasuke's lips trembled slightly, and at last he spoke.
"First Hokage, what is a ninja, and why was Itachi able to give so much for the sake of the Hidden Leaf?"
Hashirama was silent for a mont and did not answer imdiately, instead walking slowly to Sasuke's side.
He understood that Sasuke's question was not rely a simple inquiry but an outpouring of anguish.
Hashirama recognized that Sasuke was standing at a crossroads, and that the choice he made would determine the path of his future.
"A ninja," Hashirama began slowly, "is not rely a symbol of strength, and not rely an executor of missions."
"The path of the ninja is filled with suffering and sacrifice, but a true ninja can find light in the darkness and hold on to conviction in the face of despair."
Sasuke's brow was tightly knit, and Hashirama's words had not fully resolved the doubts within him.
He said quietly, "And yet Itachi sacrificed his clan for the sake of the village, and even sacrificed himself, is that truly the path of a ninja, and was that choice truly right?"
Hashirama let out a sigh, and a trace of sorrow surfaced in his gaze.
"Sasuke, the world of ninja has never been simply black or white, Itachi's choice ca after he had shouldered far too much responsibility and expectation, and in the end he chose his own way to protect everything he held dear."
"But that does not an his choice was the only answer, or that it was the right one."
Hashirama's tone grew solemn.
"Whether it was the Uchiha clan, or the Senju clan, or even the entire Hidden Leaf Village, all of them have committed mistakes that cannot be undone."
"But it is precisely because of that, that we must draw lessons from the errors of the past and find a new path forward."
Yet the anger and hatred within Sasuke did not dissipate.
He clenched his fist tightly and said in a low voice, "I understand, but I cannot forgive Danzo, he is the instigator of all of this, and it was he who forced Itachi into making that choice, I will have my revenge on him, that is sothing I must do."
Hashirama did not try to stop Sasuke, he simply nodded, his tone heavy.
"Revenge may bring a montary release, but it cannot fill the emptiness within you, Sasuke, whatever choice you make, rember that a true ninja exists in order to protect."
Senju Tobirama stood to one side, and his fingers shifted slightly.
In that instant, he had genuinely felt the impulse to kill.
Sasuke's existence was undeniably a potential threat to the Hidden Leaf.
His hatred, his power, and his resentnt toward the Hidden Leaf's higher-ups could all beco the fuse of future turmoil.
As a forr Hokage, Tobirama's first instinct was to eliminate this risk and spare the Hidden Leaf future trouble.
However, his fingers ultimately relaxed, and his Chakra quietly dispersed.
Tobirama inwardly let out a quiet sigh, and the truth of the Uchiha clan massacre caused a heaviness to settle in his heart as well.
Although he had always been wary of the Uchiha clan, the extermination had been a genuine overreach on the Hidden Leaf's part.
Itachi's sacrifice and Sasuke's suffering were both consequences of the decisions made by the Hidden Leaf's higher-ups.
'Enough,' Tobirama said silently to himself, he was already a dead man, and there was truly no need to involve himself too deeply in such matters.
Moreover, Sasuke's hatred was not without cause, and what Danzo had done truly deserved to be paid for.
Tobirama glanced at Sasuke and thought inwardly, 'Danzo, you had better pray for yourself.'
Just then, Roy's voice broke the silence as he looked at Sasuke with curiosity.
"So what are you going to do about Itachi, kill him?"
Sasuke let out a cold laugh, and a glint of icy light flashed through his eyes.
"Kill him? It won't be that easy."
His voice was hoarse, suppressing endless emotion.
"I will lock him away and have him continue the Uchiha bloodline without end."
Upon hearing this, the expressions of everyone present imdiately turned strange.
Hashirama frowned, the corner of Tobirama's mouth twitched slightly, and even Roy wore a look of disbelief.
Lock him away? Continue the bloodline? Was this supposed to be a punishnt?
Sasuke's gaze remained ice-cold.
In his heart, Itachi was both his enemy and his only remaining kin.
He could not forgive Itachi's betrayal, but he equally could not sever the bond of blood between them.
Locking Itachi away was both a punishnt and a twisted form of protection.
Only in this way could Sasuke find a temporary balance for the contradictions within himself, and continuing the clan was, in a certain sense, also a kind of redemption for it.
Tobirama shook his head and said in a low voice, "The obsession of the Uchiha is truly sothing else."
Roy muttered under his breath, "What kind of punishnt is that, locking soone up to have children? The Uchiha way of thinking really is sothing strange."
At that mont, sowhere in the Naruto world, Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisa were carrying out a mission together for the Akatsuki organization.
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