"Bro, I'm a little cold."
Within the Uchiha district, the glory of yesterday was gone. In a single night, every house had been swallowed by flame.
The emergency tunnels for evacuation and every trace of the clan's retreat had been erased. As Amane had said, Konoha would find only a few charred corpses.
If bodies were burned to cinders, then the so-called Sharingan would be ruined with them. Last night's inferno was no accident. Amane had prepared for it for years, layering fuels and guiding scarlet fire with his own control. Ordinary water release could not smother it. He paid a heavy price, but it was worth it.
The Uchiha had staged a play before the world. When they returned after the embers cooled, it would be a one-sided crush.
The clan lacked a true leader. Fugaku was good, but still not right.
Amane rubbed Sasuke's cheek and pulled his brother close. If you put on a show, you commit to it. The two of them were streaked with ash, ragged as refugees. Sasuke was still small. He had no system, no blazing control over flame. After the fire came the morning downpour, washing the remains from the ground. Amane shared his body warmth, eyes narrowing toward the group approaching in the distance.
What had to come would come. The big fire would be followed by a bigger storm.
Fugaku and Mikoto had already slipped away with the clan. Shisui would be the hidden conduit between Amane and Fugaku. Amane had three months to place the fighters somewhere safe, or the seams of this night would show. He had a plan.
For now, he had no desire to speak to the village's lofty "leaders." He closed his eyes with Sasuke in his arms and slept.
It had been one very long night. He was tired.
In the haze he dreamed. The three Uchiha brothers stood shoulder to shoulder, becoming Konoha's worst nightmare, and its kings before whom all bowed.
Konoha could not hide what had happened. The fire was too much. When the truth hit, people were stunned.
The prodigy, Konoha's Anbu hope, Uchiha Itachi, had gone mad. He had butchered his own clan.
And the reason, they said, was to test his capacity.
Could that be true?
Commoners and clan-born alike were struck dumb. No one dared discuss the inside story. Anyone with a brain knew what last night had really been. That young man named Uchiha Itachi had probably taken the blame.
As the Third had predicted, the clans' silence was fear. Who knew whether the Uchiha's fate would visit them one day.
There was one small mercy. Konoha Hospital reported two survivors. Whether by luck or hesitation, Itachi's two brothers still lived. The bloodline would not be severed. The Sharingan would remain within Konoha's future.
"Have the bodies been confirmed? Did you find Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Mikoto?"
In Root's base, Danzo, nominally forced to resign, still lingered. Root was his home, the only place he felt truly safe. Disband Root per the Hokage's order? Not happening. At most, they would lie low. Disbandment would come only when he wore the Hokage's hat.
"The most heavily burned area yielded only two completely charred bodies," his loyal hound reported. "With our medical capacity, we cannot confirm identities. For now we can only mark them as suspected to be the two you mentioned."
Suspected was enough. After combing the ruins, they were sure the clan was finished. A pity. Few eyes had been collected, but not nothing. Danzo glanced at the jars beside him, where several Sharingan floated, and sighed.
"Have our people burrow down. Root needs silence for a while."
At Konoha Hospital, Iruka stood before two students, his face full of guilt.
Amane and Sasuke sat on their beds, staring out the window, unmoved by his arrival. Because of Amane, their classmates had come by often to visit. But right now they wore the roles of children who had lost their clan.
Pity is real only when you pity yourself. Those with strong hearts keep moving no matter the blow.
"I am sorry," Iruka said at last, slumping. "As your teacher, I do not know how to comfort you."
He was Amane's homeroom teacher and would never treat them differently. Yet guilt gnawed at him. The Hokage's order to keep the boys at school had revealed itself in full. In his eyes that was not protection at all. It was keeping them from seeing their parents one last time.
If he told them the truth... He shook his head hard. He did not dare. Unless he wanted to die.
The more he thought, the more guilty he felt. A teacher, and he could do nothing. He was of less use than Uzumaki Naruto, who had just left. At least Naruto had said he understood. Iruka could not. He was an orphan too, but this was layered with plots.
"Comfort?" Amane turned, pushed his glasses up, eyes deep. He looked older somehow, more like an elder brother.
"No need," he said. "But if you really want to help, Iruka-sensei, can I ask a favor?"
"What is it?"
"Tell the Hokage I want to graduate early."
Iruka's eyes flew wide. This child... had he lost his mind?