"By the way, Shisui," Homura said suddenly. "How did things go on your end? Did that masked man leave?"
Shisui looked at him with surprise first. Then, catching the familiar tone in Homura's voice, understanding dawned. A flash of recognition crossed his eyes. This seemingly unremarkable Uchiha from the clan compound was the puppet Kenji had mentioned.
"You're..."
"That's right. It's me." Homura nodded, admitting it directly.
Even after confirming his guess, Shisui still looked somewhat surprised, but he quickly composed himself and began reporting seriously.
"That masked man's abilities are definitely troublesome. He can also use Wood Release, though the power isn't particularly strong. I don't know how he acquired it, but I can confirm his primary ability is definitely a Mangekyō Sharingan technique."
He paused, then continued.
"Besides the strange space-time ninjutsu, his raw combat strength isn't Kage-level. With advance knowledge of his abilities, I couldn't injure him, but I was able to hold him back and prevent him from completing his objectives."
Shisui's expression grew more serious as he moved to the second part of his report.
"As for the Police Force, most of them survived. Aside from the two ninjas on guard duty at the entrance who I couldn't save in time, the others were only injured. There weren't heavy casualties."
"Low casualties among the Police Force makes sense," Homura said, nodding. "They're all elite Uchiha. They wouldn't be easily crushed like civilians. My side was worse. More than a dozen regular clan members died, and several others were seriously wounded. I stabilized them with medical ninjutsu for now. Once this is over, we'll need to arrange transport to Konoha Hospital for proper treatment."
"More than a dozen clan members..."
Shisui's eyes darkened instantly. He knew all too well that ordinary people had no real power to resist against ANBU jonin. Those deaths weren't just numbers. They were people he'd known, trained with, lived beside.
As the two were talking, Itachi, who had been silent this whole time, suddenly spoke, "That masked man claimed to be Uchiha Madara. He said he's a member of Akatsuki."
"You know him?" Shisui turned to look at him immediately, eyes full of confusion.
Itachi didn't hide anything. He slowly recounted how he'd cooperated with Obito, including the details of Obito inviting him to join Akatsuki. He explained the entire arrangement.
Fortunately, Kenji had already eliminated all the White Zetsu lurking in Konoha before the massacre began. If White Zetsu were still around, Itachi's disclosure of information now would have likely already reached Obito. And Kenji and Minato had long planned for Itachi to infiltrate Akatsuki as he had in the original timeline, becoming Konoha's undercover agent. Under no circumstances could Obito be allowed to know this.
The group walked together toward the outskirts of the village. When they reached the edge of the residential district, Homura suddenly stopped.
"You all go to the Hokage Building first. I won't be going. After Minato finishes dealing with Danzō, he'll come meet up with you. Just wait there."
Mikoto's face showed clear unease when she heard this. She knew that Homura and Shisui were key to the Fourth Hokage's promise to deal leniently with the Uchiha. Now that Homura wasn't accompanying them, she couldn't help but worry about what would happen next.
"Homura, this..."
"Don't worry, Mikoto-san," Shisui said immediately, offering reassurance. He knew Homura's true identity and understood why he was staying out of sight. He turned to Homura and gave a slight bow. "Then we'll head over first."
After that, he gave Mikoto a reassuring look and led the two of them toward the Hokage Building.
Watching the three figures disappear into the night, Homura turned and headed back the way he'd come. Izumi and Hazuki were still waiting for him at home. With so much commotion outside, they were bound to be worried.
---
At the same time, the atmosphere in Izumi's living room remained tense. Even though it had been quiet outside for some time, she did not let her guard down. She gripped a kunai tightly in one hand and stood protectively beside Hazuki, watching every movement around them.
The house was dark except for a single candle burning in the corner. They'd extinguished most of the lights to avoid drawing attention.
Suddenly, a figure appeared at the entrance to the living room.
Izumi's body tensed instantly. Her kunai came up.
"Who's there?!" she demanded sharply.
"It's me. It's over."
Homura's voice immediately eased Izumi's tightly wound nerves. She didn't lower the kunai right away though. Instead, she activated her Sharingan, examining Homura's chakra signature to make sure it wasn't a Transformation Technique or some kind of trick. Only after confirming it was really him did she fully relax and put away the weapon.
"Are you hurt?" Hazuki hurried over as well. She reached out to check him over, looking for injuries.
"I'm fine," Homura said, shaking his head.
The words had barely left his mouth before Izumi cut in, unable to contain her curiosity any longer.
"What exactly happened outside? Those screams earlier... what was that about?"
She didn't believe for a second that he'd been injured. The question wasn't about him. She was desperate to know what had caused all that chaos, what had made people scream like that in the middle of the night.
This whole time, she'd been suppressing the urge to go outside and look, remembering Homura's instructions to stay inside no matter what. Now, finally, she could voice the questions that had been eating at her.
Homura didn't hide anything.
"Itachi suddenly betrayed the clan and slaughtered clan members within the compound. He's already been subdued and taken to the Hokage Building to await the Fourth Hokage's judgment."
At the same time, he watched Izumi's reaction with curiosity, interested to see how she'd take the news.
"Itachi? How is that possible?!"
Hazuki gasped, instantly covering her mouth with both hands. Her eyes went wide. She subconsciously looked at Izumi, knowing full well that Izumi had always admired Itachi.
Sure enough, Izumi's expression changed drastically when she heard this. She shook her head again and again.
"That's impossible... Itachi would never... how could he do something like that?"
In her eyes, Itachi had always been the pride of the Uchiha clan. He was the genius everyone talked about, the object of admiration for all the girls at the Ninja Academy. The idea of him becoming a murderer who slaughtered his own people was incomprehensible.
"That's the truth," Homura said calmly.
"When I arrived, he was attacking ordinary clan members on the street. Although I stopped him in time, more than a dozen people still didn't survive. After that, he returned to his home and personally killed his own father."
"He killed his own father with his own hands?"
Both Izumi and Hazuki gasped sharply, covering their mouths in synchronized shock. Seeing their almost identical reactions, Homura couldn't help but let a slight smile cross his face. He continued his explanation.
"And if I hadn't arrived in time, he probably would have killed his own mother as well. She barely survived."
"Ah!"
They cried out at the same time, but their expressions were no longer synchronized. Hazuki showed mostly shock and sorrow, clearly disturbed by the news but not personally devastated.
Izumi, however, looked like her entire world had gone mad. Her face twisted with confusion and distress, like her fundamental understanding of reality had completely shattered.
"How could this happen... why would he do something like that?"
Seeing Izumi's expression, Homura found it somewhat amusing. He knew very well that at the Ninja Academy, Itachi's popularity had been no less than Sasuke's. Izumi, like many other girls, had once fawned over him from afar.
However, because of Homura's interference during the Nine-Tails attack on the night Naruto was born, Itachi hadn't saved Izumi. The two had never formed any special bond beyond the distant admiration of a student for a prodigy. So Izumi's fondness for Itachi was no different from that of other starstruck girls. There was no real love involved, just teenage infatuation with someone impressive.
Now that she knew the truth, what she was experiencing was more the confusion of having her values completely overturned than heartbreak.
He simplified the explanation, choosing not to mention Danzō's schemes or the internal conflicts that had plagued the Uchiha clan. The filth and calculations between the Uchiha and Konoha's older generation, all those grudges and political maneuvers, would hopefully come to an end with tonight's events. There was no need to burden a child with that knowledge.
So instead, he said, "He did all of this to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan."
"The Mangekyō Sharingan?" Izumi latched onto the unfamiliar term immediately, Itachi temporarily pushed from her mind. "What's that?"
"It's a Sharingan form stronger than the three-tomoe," Homura explained. "With it, a ninja's strength is enough to rival the Hokage."
"What?! I can rival the Hokage?"
Izumi's eyes widened instantly. In her understanding, the Hokage was the strongest ninja in all of Konoha. She hadn't imagined there was power that could stand on the same level.
But she quickly processed this information and her expression shifted to confusion.
"But what does that have to do with him killing clan members and his parents?"
"Of course it does," Homura said calmly. "Great power always comes with a price."
Izumi's face suddenly turned pale, as if she'd realized something terrible. Her voice trembled slightly.
"The price couldn't be..."
"More or less what you're thinking."
Homura nodded and revealed the answer directly, not sugarcoating it.
"The Sharingan is called the 'eye that reflects the heart.' An Uchiha can only awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan after experiencing extreme trauma, when the most intense love transforms into the most intense hatred. And the most direct, most reliable way to trigger that transformation is to personally kill the person you love most."
Watching Izumi's face go pale and her body start to tremble, he let out a chuckle. "For example, if one day you wanted to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan, you could just kill me yourself. You'd probably succeed."
"I won't!"
Izumi lunged forward and covered Homura's mouth with her hand.
"I don't want any Mangekyō! You can't die!"
Standing behind Izumi, Hazuki rolled her eyes at Homura. Of course she knew that the current Homura was merely Kenji's puppet. He'd be fine even if someone stabbed him. Saying something like that was obviously just him teasing Izumi.