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NAJ Chapter 44: Whispers of a Massacre
🕑 Added 2025-06-21 04:32:58 +0000 UTC“Hokage-sama.”
Just as Fugaku had guessed, Uchiha Itachi had gone straight to report in to the Anbu. Now dressed in full Anbu uniform, he stood before Sarutobi Hiruzen.
“Itachi…”
Even with the Anbu mask covering his face, Sarutobi could recognize him by his frame and voice.
He let out a heavy breath, clearing the lingering gloom of grief over his lost son.
He asked curiously, “Is something wrong?”
Uchiha Itachi began, “Before dawn today, I met with Uchiha Keizumi.”
Hiruzen fell silent for a brief moment, then said, “If I recall, you and Keizumi have had some… disagreements, haven’t you?”
He glanced over Itachi and noted that the young man didn’t appear injured.
Nor did he look like someone who had just been in a fight.
“The ‘misunderstanding’ has been cleared up.”
Itachi’s tone was low and somber. “But the conflict between us… has likely deepened.”
Hiruzen frowned. “What do you mean?”
Itachi’s next words landed like a thunderclap.
“Hokage-sama, Uchiha Keizumi may have awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan—the legendary ultimate form of the Sharingan. His eyes… can see the evil that lies in a person’s future. He saw mine.”
Hiruzen’s pupils contracted sharply.
“In the future, I will—without hesitation and for the sake of protecting Konoha—shoulder all the hatred and condemnation, and personally kill nearly every member of the Uchiha clan… all to return the village, scorched by conflict, to peace.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen was stunned.
The sheer weight of the information in Uchiha Itachi’s words made it hard for him to process everything at once.
Quickly, Hiruzen worked through his thoughts—Uchiha Keizumi had seemingly awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, and his eyes had seen the evil in Itachi’s future. That explained the growing rift between the two.
And the 'evil' Itachi spoke of? It was the massacre of his fellow clansmen—for the sake of the village’s peace.
As for what would drive Itachi to such an extreme…
Hiruzen had already figured it out.
It could only mean that the Uchiha clan would eventually choose to stage a coup.
The magnitude of what he was hearing made Hiruzen suck in a quiet breath. His old face grew grim, and he asked in a low, weighty voice, “Itachi… do you understand what you’re saying? Can you be certain this information is accurate?”
Uchiha Itachi lowered his head and answered, “Hokage-sama, these were Keizumi’s words to me. Though we stand on different sides, I believe what he said can be trusted.”
Hiruzen fell silent.
“A dōjutsu that can see the evil in a person’s future…” he murmured, his gaze distant. “So that’s what it is…”
He had known Keizumi’s eyes could perceive the evil someone had committed in the past.
But to think they could also peer into future sins…
That kind of ocular power—
Frightening, certainly. But not in the conventional sense. It couldn’t be weaponized directly in battle.
Still, Hiruzen believed him.
He believed Itachi’s account, and in turn, placed his trust in Uchiha Keizumi from afar.
If the Uchiha clan were truly to be wiped out in the future for attempting a coup…
Who would be the one to give such a ruthless order?
Would it be him—Sarutobi Hiruzen?
His expression grew more complex as he looked at the boy standing before him—only twelve years old.
“Itachi…”
“Yes, Hokage-sama,” Itachi replied.
“You’ve done well…” Hiruzen said quietly. “But everything you just told me—keep it to yourself. Pretend this day never happened. Pretend you never heard anything from Keizumi.”
Itachi looked up, puzzled.
Hiruzen stood and walked over to the young shinobi, speaking gently.
“Itachi, I truly hope such a future never comes to pass. You are one of the rare young shoots of Konoha—I don’t want to see a child like you forced into that kind of suffering.”
“Especially if your clansmen were to find out about this… they would certainly isolate you. You could even be putting your life in danger. So just… pretend nothing happened.”
After a moment of contemplation, Hiruzen added with a sigh, “You really are the child I trust most. I’m proud of you. But… let’s hope things don’t come to that.”
“…Understood, Hokage-sama.”
Uchiha Itachi bowed deeply. And within his heart, certain thoughts grew all the more resolute—fortified by Hiruzen Sarutobi’s words.
...
Today, within the Uchiha clan’s compound, a strange rumor had suddenly begun to spread for reasons unknown.
—It was said that Uchiha Keizumi’s Sharingan possessed a terrifying dōjutsu that could see through both the 'evil of the past' and the 'evil of the future'. He had seen the “future evil” of the clan leader’s son, Uchiha Itachi—that on a certain day in the future, Uchiha Itachi would betray the clan and massacre the entire Uchiha bloodline.
—Every single member of the Uchiha clan—man, woman, child, and elder—would fall beneath Itachi’s blade. Even his own parents, relatives, and friends would be ruthlessly slaughtered by him.
—And when Uchiha Keizumi tried to eliminate this 'future evil', it was the clan head himself, Fugaku, who stopped him—choosing instead to protect Uchiha Itachi, who would one day plunge into the abyss.
This rumor involved the three most prominent figures in the Uchiha clan.
So much so that even the ninja cats didn’t need to fan the flames—
The rumor spread rapidly through the clan on its own.
But the sheer weight of the rumor made it hard to believe.
People instinctively questioned whether it could possibly be true.
After all, no one had ever heard of a terrifying eye technique that could see both past and future evils.
Moreover...
Even if Uchiha Itachi was a bit of an outsider within the clan—
Many members did find him disagreeable, especially since he always seemed to side with the Hokage—
Still...
Could he really be that much of a monster?
He was still an Uchiha, after all!
…
“You! The rookie! Yeah, I’m talking to you.”
In the women’s restroom of a public toilet inside the Uchiha district, Izumi had just finished and was washing her hands when someone suddenly called out to her from behind.
Shaking off the heavy thoughts weighing on her mind, she flicked the droplets of water from her hands.
Then turned around curiously.
She saw a female Uchiha dressed in the standard uniform of the Uchiha Police Force, who leaned in and asked in a hushed voice, “You’re Uchiha Keizumi’s trainee, right? You must know something the rest of us don’t. Let me ask you... Is that thing from this morning true?”
Izumi blinked, confused. “Huh?”
She had no idea what Tachibana Jirō had done.
“I mean the thing about Uchiha Itachi,” the woman clarified. “Did Uchiha Keizumi really see the future evil in him?”
Izumi: “!!!”
She froze in shock, staring at the woman.
The expression on her young face said it all—loud and clear.
“It’s actually true...”
Even without Izumi answering, the woman had already realized the truth.
Her voice trembled as she repeated the words, stunned: “It’s actually true.”
Uchiha Izumi noticed that as the woman muttered to herself in a neurotic daze, the veins on the back of her hand bulged visibly.
This senior member of the Uchiha Police Force seemed to have become inexplicably enraged.
Izumi even saw her Sharingan flare open in her fury.
“U–chi–ha… I–ta–chi… how dare you!”
Izumi heard her grit out Uchiha Itachi’s name, one syllable at a time, through clenched teeth.
Things were clearly spiraling in a direction far beyond what Izumi had anticipated.
And—
How did this woman even know what had happened that morning?
Izumi was completely bewildered.
…
With Uchiha Izumi unknowingly baited into confirming the rumor, the gossip—originally met with much skepticism—suddenly gained a disturbing degree of credibility.
Enough to send chills down the spines of countless Uchiha clan members.
…
Uchiha Setsuna handed his cane to the guard beside him and slowly knelt onto a soft cushion.
His sharp gaze swept across the gathered group of hardline Uchiha shinobi.
In a hoarse voice, Uchiha Setsuna asked, “How credible do you believe today’s unusual rumor is?”
“At least 70%.”
One Uchiha ninja answered in a deep voice, “The girl who’s always with Uchiha Keizumi basically confirmed the story. And based on our investigation, a few clan members did witness the clan head leaving Keizumi’s home early this morning.”
“Moreover, when we take into account Uchiha Keizumi’s absurd success rate in solving cases, perhaps those eyes of his really do possess some unique dōjutsu we’ve never encountered before.”
[BANG!!!]
Someone slammed their hand on the table and growled through clenched teeth, “That damned Uchiha Itachi! That damned Uchiha Fugaku! We’ve all worked tirelessly—day and night—to safeguard the future of our clan… and they are the ones trying to destroy everything we’ve fought for!”
Another shinobi clenched his fist, eyes cold and sharp.
“Elder Setsuna, we must crush this looming threat before it takes root.”
“But what if the intel is wrong? Can a standard three-tomoe Sharingan really see the evil of the future?”
“There is no ‘what if’! Even if there’s only a sliver of a chance—We cannot allow that chance to exist in this world. Besides, Uchiha Itachi was never truly aligned with us. I’ve long suspected that Shisui was killed by Itachi’s hand. Think about it—On the day Shisui died, the whole clan was attending a meeting… only Shisui and Itachi were absent.”
“…”
With just a few exchanged words, the Uchiha hardliners had already reached a unanimous decision.
—Believe the rumor.
Even if there was just the slightest possibility—
They would never allow such a future to come to pass.
“Everyone,” At last, after a long silence, Uchiha Setsuna slowly spoke up: “I believe that Uchiha Fugaku, who chose to shield Uchiha Itachi, no longer has the right to serve as the head of the Uchiha clan.”
All eyes turned to the elderly hardline elder.
