"Sasuke!"
Worried about Sasuke’s condition, she recklessly jumped out of bed and, following his hurried figure, rushed out.
Ignoring the calls from behind him, Sasuke charged forward headlong.
His brother must still be waiting for him at home.
His parents must also still be worried about him.
He had to get back to them!
Ignoring the people trying to stop him, Sasuke ran through the floors and out of the hospital main entrance.
A sudden force tightly gripped his wrist. Sasuke turned back in surprise and saw Chizhao, her face full of melancholy.
In the sky, the sun quietly hid behind the clouds, and the surrounding light suddenly dimmed. The empty, deserted hospital park added a few more layers of loneliness and silence.
"The Uchiha Clan… is gone…" Chizhao’s words were like a heavy hammer, striking Sasuke’s heart.
He forcefully shook off Chizhao’s hand, his voice trembling with emotion:
"Stop spouting nonsense! You're lying to me, aren't you!"
Both of them vividly remembered everything that happened last night, and it stung their hearts to different degrees.
As the orchestrator of it all, watching the hurt Sasuke before her, her heart felt as if it were being gnawed by ants, making her incredibly distressed.
"No, the disappearance of the Uchiha Clan is already common knowledge…"
"Impossible! Something must be wrong! My brother… my brother… Aaaah!"
Sasuke couldn't accept this cruel reality. Uchiha Itachi’s figure kept appearing before his eyes, along with that chilling Akuma mask.
These images haunted him like a nightmare, giving him a splitting headache, until he finally collapsed powerlessly to the ground.
Tears continuously streamed from his eyes, and his clenched fists left several clear scratch marks on the ground, silently venting his emotions.
Seeing Sasuke in such pain, Chizhao actually felt an urge to go and tell him the whole truth.
But reason ultimately took over her mind, and she swallowed back the words that were about to escape her lips.
She gritted her teeth and knelt before Sasuke in the same posture, gently cupping his tear-stained face with both hands, looking directly into his lifeless black eyes.
"They must all still be alive! They must be living well somewhere! Your brother too!"
"One day! One day you will definitely see each other again!"
"So… so…"
Chizhao’s voice grew softer, accompanied by uncontrollable sobs. Sasuke stared blankly at the teary-eyed girl before him, his emotions heavy and complex like a quagmire.
Stubbornly wiping away the precarious tears from the corners of her eyes, Chizhao held Sasuke’s cold hand, her voice slightly choked:
"I'll always be with you… until we find your family!"
The dark clouds blocking the sun were dispersed by the breeze, and the world suddenly brightened.
Sasuke suddenly felt the light before him was too dazzling. He lowered his eyes and sat dejectedly on the ground.
The chill emanating from him seemed out of place with the vibrant life around him.
"Thank you, Chizhao."
"If I find the Akuma… I’ll kill him with my own hands…"
The boy’s black pupils were gone, replaced by a Sharingan with only one tomoe.
His red eyes were filled with coldness, subtly emitting a dangerous aura.
Startled by his words, Chizhao’s body instinctively leaned back.
She opened her mouth, her throat constricted by bitterness, unable to make a sound.
Chizhao remained silent. She quietly stood up from the ground, extended her hand before Sasuke, and her gentle voice, accompanied by the pouring sunlight, flowed down:
"Okay! I'll go with you…"
A simple promise transformed into a thread, tightly intertwining their destinies.
A flicker of clarity passed through Sasuke’s vacant eyes, and he slowly placed his hand on her palm.
The warm touch slightly soothed his restless heart.
Her honest gaze embraced all his fragility and shame.
At this moment, in his helplessness, he seemed to have found some kind of reliance, and his suppressed emotions suddenly found an outlet.
He tightened his grip, suddenly pulling the girl in front of him closer.
He hugged her tightly with both hands, burying his head deep in the crook of her neck, his voice hoarse with a hint of an almost imperceptible plea:
"Don't look at me… just stay like this for a while…"
Chizhao, feeling a pang of sadness, gently patted Sasuke’s back. The dampness in the crook of her neck caused a pang in her heart.
I'm sorry, Sasuke.
I've made you walk down the path controlled by hatred again.
I hope you’ll forgive me…
Deep within the hospital building, a window was hidden beneath the dappled shadows of trees.
Hiruzen’s gaze pierced through the narrow gap, staring at the two figures embracing tightly below, his eyes filled with complex and indistinguishable emotions.
He slowly withdrew his gaze, and with a gentle wave of his arm, he tightly drew the curtains beside him.
In an instant, the bright hospital room was engulfed in dim light.
"Was it also that Akuma who attacked you yesterday, Danzo?"
Hiruzen’s voice was low and powerful, breaking the silence in the hospital room.
On the hospital bed, Danzo leaned back, his right eye tightly bandaged. His remaining left eye glinted with a cold light as he tried to recall the thrilling encounter of the previous night.
"Absolutely true. And we've checked many times, but we don't know where he infiltrated from."
Hiruzen gently pulled out a chair nearby and slowly sat down. Between the two of them, the dim light added a sense of solemnity and oppression.
Danzo, with only his left eye able to move, stared at Hiruzen who had sat down, inquiring for information:
"What exactly did that child see?"
"He saw Uchiha Itachi disappear before his eyes, as well as that unfamiliar enemy."
"Why wasn't he taken away? This matter is very strange, isn't it?"
Danzo’s voice echoed in the empty hospital room, sounding especially oppressive.
This incident happened two days before Uchiha Itachi agreed to the clan massacre, and combined with the events before it…
Uchiha Itachi had already come to threaten him. No matter how he thought about it, the whole thing was too bizarre.
"The Anbu used a Ninjutsu to control Sasuke’s mind. Aside from the obvious genjutsu when he finally fainted, almost everything else was true."
Danzo’s heart tightened, secretly speculating on the extent of Hiruzen’s knowledge of his actions:
"What truth?"
"According to the information obtained from Sasuke, someone coveted the Uchiha Clan’s Bloodline Limit, and Itachi exchanged himself to save Sasuke, then, like the other Uchiha Clan members, vanished without a trace in Konoha Village…"
"What about the surveillance? If there was surveillance, something unusual should have been noticed much earlier…"
"Unfortunately, I specifically checked with the Anbu. The footage seemed to have been subjected to some kind of genjutsu, causing the sensory-type Ninja to hallucinate, making it difficult for them to distinguish reality. It was likely done by another masked person with a Sharingan."
Carefully sifting through every detail of the incident in his mind, Hiruzen vaguely felt that a more complex truth was hidden behind this matter.
His suspicious gaze again fell on Danzo’s right eye bandage.
It seemed that from the beginning, the enemy’s target was Danzo’s eye, but whose eye was it?
"No matter what, the fact that that person could go from the Root Organization to the Uchiha stronghold in a short time, without anyone noticing, is already enough to pose a threat to the Village."
Danzo’s expression was agitated, his hands clenched into fists:
"Leave this matter to me! I will investigate this thoroughly. Those who threaten the Village are unforgivable!"
Hiruzen was not moved by his emotions.
He slightly raised his eyes, gazing deeply at Danzo, then stood up:
"Danzo, can you tell me whose eye your right eye is?"
Danzo’s body stiffened slightly.
Sure enough, he had aroused his suspicion.
Silence fell in the hospital room. Hiruzen probably guessed the answer.
With his hands behind his back, he slowly walked towards the hospital room door, leaving a meaningful remark before he left:
"The news of your attack has been sealed off from the outside world."
"As for your Root Organization, I've decided to integrate it entirely into a part of the Anbu. You should rest well during this period."
Provoked, Danzo unconsciously clutched the quilt in his hands. He roared, his voice rising several octaves:
"Hiruzen, do you not trust me?!"
"Everything I do is for the peace of the Village!"
"Without me, who would clean up your shady dealings for you?!"
The loud voice sounded particularly harsh in the empty room. Danzo’s breathing grew heavier with each gasp.
He stared intently at his former friend, overwhelmed by a feeling of unwillingness.
Even the throbbing pain in his right eye couldn't suppress his furious heart.
But Hiruzen did not stop. He gently pressed the doorknob, leaving a final remark:
"You need to rest, Danzo." Then he resolutely closed the door.
He pulled down the brim of his hat, which bore the symbol of fire, to obscure his eyebrows and walked forward.
Danzo, left alone in the hospital room, gasped heavily. He swept a nearby medicine tray onto the floor, creating a harsh clatter of metal.
The scene of Itachi warning him, with his terrifying Sharingan infinitely magnified before his eyes, reappeared in his mind.
Could it be at that time…
A drop of cold sweat dripped from his temple, and his Adam's apple nervously bobbed up and down.
That inexplicable chill spread from his back to his feet, startling him.
Uchiha Itachi, is all this related to you?
What is your relationship with that Akuma?
Have you betrayed Konoha?
The sunlight, squeezing through the curtain gap into the room, cast a hazy glow, like a sharp sword piercing a corner of the darkness.
But with a gentle breeze, that faint light quickly extinguished within the thick fabric.