Chapter 144: The Night of Sorrow

 

Itachi stood upon a utility pole overlooking the Uchiha district.

The night was clear. Lamps burned behind windows. A patrol crossed the eastern road at the expected time. Families finished meals, studied, argued, and prepared for sleep beneath a peace already condemned by decisions made elsewhere. Space twisted beside him.

The masked man emerged wearing the face Itachi could not trust and carrying power he could not replace.

"Act," the man said. "Show me what your choice is worth."

Itachi drew his sword. He had spent the preceding days moving between Hiruzen's delay, Danzō's ultimatum, his father's expectations, and the masked man's offer. Every side had presented the situation as a closing corridor. Shisui's last request had been to protect the village and the Uchiha name. Itachi had allowed those aims to become permission for a crime neither could survive intact.

Sasuke remained the one condition he had forced upon Danzō. The agreement did not make the rest of the killing necessary, merciful, or clean. It revealed only where Itachi's refusal had finally become stronger than obedience.

In a house near the southern court, Uchiha Tadashi studied beneath a lamp. Three Academy years had not weakened his intention to find Tonbo and repay him for creating Eightfold Flavor. What began as childish anger had become a reason to practice theory after other students stopped.

"You will graduate soon," his grandmother said from the doorway. "Surely there is a better ambition than striking a jōnin who once taught your instructor."

She carried tea and a plate of sweets. Age bent her shoulders but had not softened her voice. She remembered the last years of the Warring States period and spoke of survival without making suffering noble.

"It is not my only ambition," Tadashi said. "I will join the Military Police. I will protect the district. Then I will defeat him once."

"In that order?"

"Probably."

She laughed and sat beside him. Tadashi asked for another story about Madara, whom she had seen at a distance as a child. She described not a legend but a young clan leader who returned from battle with fewer relatives each season. Power had never made the cost invisible to those waiting at home.

Across the district, an ANBU route failed to report.

The police station received a routine message carrying the correct seal and a voice copied closely enough to delay suspicion. Two off-duty officers were redirected toward a disturbance beyond the district. A barrier technician drank tea prepared by a Root contact and lost consciousness before his shift. The attack depended upon institutions and access, not simply Itachi's ability to swing a sword faster than alarms could travel.

In the Academy training grounds, Sasuke turned toward the Uchiha quarter without knowing why.

Mizuki supervised the third-year night exercise while Iruka prepared the next day's examinations. Students navigated a dark obstacle course in pairs, using sound, touch, memory, and low-output chakra. Instructors watched every fall zone. Bruises were expected; head impacts ended participation.

Naruto had acquired leaves in his hair and dirt across both knees. Kiba and Akamaru completed the route nearly clean. Sasuke matched them by following a pattern Itachi had taught him: stop searching for complete vision and build the route from brief confirmed details.

"You still hit the same branch," Kiba told Naruto.

"It moved."

"Trees rarely do that."

Shikamaru, dirt on one sleeve, noted that Naruto had collided with him before reaching the branch. Naruto counted that as evidence the obstacle layout was unfair.

Mizuki praised Kiba and Sasuke. Jealousy flickered beneath the smile he showed the class, but he also acknowledged Naruto's practical improvement when no one else denied it.

Hinata completed the route by following movement visible through obstacles with the Byakugan, then repeated part of it without the dōjutsu because the exercise required a fallback. Shino used insects as contact points until Mizuki removed one marker to force adaptation. Chōji remembered every turn but struck a suspended bell while protecting a partner from falling. The class learned that night skill meant more than seeing in darkness.

"Progress does not excuse missing assignments," he added.

Naruto groaned. Sasuke barely heard them. Discomfort pulled beneath his ribs, formless and increasing. He had felt anxious during Itachi's absences before, but this was not absence. It was the sense of a familiar structure losing pieces too quickly for thought to name them.

Ino noticed first. "Sasuke, are you hurt?"

"No."

The answer came too fast. Mizuki ended training after the final safety count. Students cheered, collected equipment, and complained about daylight homework. Sasuke left before dismissal chatter cleared the field.

"He's going to study in secret," Naruto said.

Kiba watched the direction. "That isn't the library route. Something happened at home."

Naruto started to follow. Mizuki stopped him because students were required to leave through the monitored gate, not scatter through the village at night. Kiba suggested telling Iruka. The instructor sent a messenger rather than dismissing their concern. Sasuke ran.

Iruka received Mizuki's message and followed at a distance rather than treating anxiety as misbehavior. An ANBU operative intercepted him before the Uchiha boundary with an order from above: the district was under active security control. Iruka demanded confirmation through an independent channel. The second response arrived with Hiruzen's seal and no explanation.

He remained outside because crossing an ANBU cordon could draw Academy students into an unknown attack. He sent a Shadow Clone to report Sasuke's entry and waited where he could receive any child allowed back out. The choice would trouble him long after he learned that no one came.

At the Uchiha district boundary, Root units occupied concealed positions beyond civilian sight. Danzō waited among them. Orders restricted entry and response while Itachi and the masked man moved inside. The village barrier had been blinded through personnel and procedures already exposed to ANBU access.

No alarm reached the Academy. Tadashi heard steel outside his home.

Elsewhere, doors opened to familiar voices. Itachi's position within clan and ANBU placed him inside defenses designed to exclude strangers. Some Uchiha attacked immediately. Others hesitated because the first figure they saw was a prodigy they had watched grow. The masked man used every hesitation.

His grandmother stopped speaking. Both recognized the difference between a dropped tool and a body striking earth. Tadashi extinguished the lamp, activated the Sharingan, and reached for his equipment.

"Rear exit," he whispered.

His grandmother took her cane and refused to be carried. They crossed one room before a shadow blocked the courtyard door.

Elsewhere, Itachi moved from house to house with a precision that made hesitation invisible. The masked man eliminated patrols and anyone whose resistance might raise a village-wide alarm. Neither spared civilians. The silence surrounding the district became part of the weapon.

Sasuke reached the first road and found it empty. No sentry challenged him. No light shone from the police post. A kunai lay in the street beside a dark stain. He slowed because his body understood before his mind allowed the conclusion.

Then he saw the first corpse. It belonged to an officer who had once corrected Sasuke's shuriken grip. Sasuke knelt, touched the man's shoulder, and recoiled from cooling blood. A distant footstep gave him direction. Hope turned it into the possibility of survivors, and he ran deeper into the district.