Chapter 68: Sasuke’s Unluckiest Misfortune Was Having Itachi as His Brother

At the Uchiha Fugaku household.

Reiji and Uchiha Fugaku sat facing each other in the living room.

After pouring tea for the two of them, Fugaku’s wife, Uchiha Mikoto, quietly withdrew.

"Speaking of which, Sasuke has already been enrolled for a while now, hasn’t he?"

Reiji suddenly remembered and asked.

"Mm. And Sasuke is doing very well at the Ninja Academy, too."

Whenever his younger son was mentioned, even Uchiha Fugaku’s usually stiff face showed a hint of a smile.

Of his two sons, the elder, Uchiha Itachi, had greater talent and made him even prouder. However, Itachi was becoming increasingly disliked by the clan members.

He always wore a cold expression, making it impossible for others to know what was really going on in his mind.

As for the younger Sasuke, although he was not as outstanding as Itachi, his personality was much better.

"Although he can’t compare to you and Itachi, Sasuke can still firmly take first place among his classmates."

Uchiha Fugaku spoke with some emotion.

Speaking of Reiji and Itachi’s generation, it had not only produced two geniuses, Reiji and Itachi, who graduated early while still in their first year.

After the two of them graduated, Uchiha Izumi immediately became the top student at the Ninja Academy and maintained that position ever since.

In other words, the top three students in that generation had all been members of the Uchiha clan.

The other ninja clans had no idea how envious they were of that.

And in Sasuke’s generation, he could also firmly occupy first place at the Ninja Academy.

"Sasuke is a pretty good kid."

Reiji narrowed his eyes and nodded, then suddenly changed the subject.

"It’s just a pity that he ended up with Uchiha Itachi as his older brother."

"..."

Uchiha Fugaku was stunned.

"Ended up with"?

That choice of words seemed a little excessive, didn’t it?

Unable to resist defending his eldest son, Uchiha Fugaku said,

"...Although Itachi may lean more toward the village when it comes to the clan and the village, his relationship with Sasuke is definitely very good."

Heh.

Reiji immediately let out a cold laugh.

How was Uchiha Itachi toward Sasuke?

Putting it in the best possible light, on the night of the clan massacre, Uchiha Itachi used the extermination of the entire clan as the price to preserve only his younger brother, Sasuke.

Afterward, Itachi even arranged a path for Sasuke’s growth, allowing him to eventually obtain the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and gain the ability to protect himself in the shinobi world.

But what about the consequences?

Because of Uchiha Itachi, a perfectly good child like Sasuke was twisted into what he eventually became!

After the clan massacre, Sasuke was obsessed with revenge, but he had not yet completely gone astray.

After joining Kakashi’s team, he even repeatedly risked his life to protect his teammates.

In the Land of Waves, he desperately shielded Naruto from Haku’s ice senbon.

During the Konoha Crush, he even intended to have Naruto take Sakura and escape while he stayed behind to hold off the tailed-beast-transformed Gaara.

However.

The moment Uchiha Itachi returned, everything went to hell.

He gave his beloved little brother a thorough "lesson," then followed it up with another Tsukuyomi, forcing Sasuke to relive the night of the clan massacre.

On top of that, Sasuke felt that he could no longer improve his strength in Konoha, so he directly defected.

If Naruto had not fought Sasuke and bought enough time for Orochimaru to miss Sasuke’s arrival and be forced to transfer to another body ahead of schedule, just how dangerous would that trip to Orochimaru have been?

Sasuke probably would have had his body taken over by Orochimaru right then and there.

Had Uchiha Itachi ever considered any of this?

And there was something even more outrageous later.

Afraid that Sasuke would hate Konoha after learning the truth behind the clan massacre, Uchiha Itachi had even left his younger brother a Kotoamatsukami, intending to implant the will to protect Konoha into Sasuke!

"You foolish little brother, you have to follow the path I planned for you. I’m even going to control your will."

What kind of wonderful older brother was that?!

How should he put it?

Reiji felt that if he had an older brother who had been manipulated into exterminating his entire clan, killing his parents, and then even wanted to control his own will—

He would have to grind that bastard’s bones into dust!

"I simply can’t understand what exactly is most important to him."

"To be honest, Uchiha Itachi is the most complicated person I’ve ever met."

Reiji shook his head.

He could threaten Danzo with exposing village secrets for the sake of his younger brother.

He could exterminate his entire clan for the sake of Konoha.

He could even use Kotoamatsukami to alter his younger brother’s will for the sake of Konoha.

Reiji found it extremely confusing.

In Uchiha Itachi’s heart, which was actually more important—

Konoha or Sasuke?

"Let’s take the current situation, for example. Clan Head, what do you think Itachi will choose in the future?"

Reiji looked at Uchiha Fugaku with amusement.

"...What other situation could there be in the future? Danzo is already dead, isn’t he?"

Uchiha Fugaku was somewhat confused.

In his view, the greatest enemy of the Uchiha clan had always been Danzo.

On the night of the Nine-Tails’ attack, Danzo had prevented the Uchiha clan from going to suppress the Nine-Tails.

Afterward, he had even demanded that the Uchiha clan move their district to the outskirts of Konoha.

Most of the clan members’ dissatisfaction with the village was directed at Danzo.

"Is that so? Then why haven’t the ANBU monitoring the area outside your clan district been withdrawn?"

Disappointment flashed in Reiji’s eyes.

Uchiha Fugaku was truly an incompetent clan head.

He could not unite the clan members, could not see who the Uchiha’s true enemy was, and could not make the right decision at critical moments.

"..."

Uchiha Fugaku was suddenly startled.

"You mean the Third Hokage still doesn’t trust us Uchiha?"

"More than just not trusting us!"

Reiji scoffed.

"To Hiruzen Sarutobi, the most important things are his power and position. And now, we have already clearly demonstrated strength that could threaten his power and position."

"How could he possibly feel at ease?"

"Unless the Uchiha clan is destroyed or completely submits, Hiruzen Sarutobi will never be able to trust us!"

"..."

Uchiha Fugaku opened his mouth, but found himself unable to say anything.

Would the Uchiha clan submit?

How could that possibly happen?

They were not the Hyuga!

So...in the end, would the Third Hokage choose to destroy the Uchiha clan?

The moment he thought of this, Uchiha Fugaku felt as though he were standing on the edge of an abyss, cold sweat running down his back.

"Looks like you’ve finally figured it out. Then, when that time comes, which side do you think your good son will support?"

Reiji spoke with undisguised mockery.

Uchiha Fugaku’s mind was already in complete chaos.

Itachi usually showed a tendency to side with the village and often expressed dissatisfaction with the clan members.

If a conflict eventually broke out between the village and the clan...

What would Itachi choose?

Uchiha Fugaku did not dare continue thinking about it.

"Oh, right. Let me tell you something else, Clan Head."

The corners of Reiji’s mouth curled upward slightly.

"After the celebration of Danzo’s death, Uchiha Yashiro and the others secretly came to me. They said they were preparing to launch a coup and hoped that I would deal with Hiruzen Sarutobi."

"I wonder if they have told you about this?"

Uchiha Fugaku was rendered speechless.

Uchiha Yashiro and the others were preparing a coup, yet they had not even told him, the clan head!

Had he already lost the trust of his own clan members?

Seeing what Uchiha Fugaku was thinking, Reiji said,

"It’s not that they don’t trust you. Mainly, they don’t trust Uchiha Itachi. At most, they’re disappointed in you."

Was that supposed to be comforting?

Uchiha Fugaku was filled with question marks.

Was he really that incompetent as clan head?

"...What are you planning to do? Are you going to launch a coup?"

After remaining silent for a long while, Uchiha Fugaku asked.

Reiji nodded, then shook his head.

"Sort of. But if the clan launches a coup directly, there will be heavy casualties among our people."

"When the time comes, I’ll deal with Hiruzen Sarutobi. You just need to hold the clan district."

With his current strength, he had absolutely no need to fear Hiruzen Sarutobi.

The only concern was that Uchiha Obito might attack the clan members while he was away dealing with Hiruzen Sarutobi.

That needed to be arranged in advance.

"There may be an enemy wearing a spiral mask. His right eye has a Mangekyo Sharingan."

"He possesses a space-time ocular technique. After activating it, he can transfer any part of his body into another dimension with a single thought, leaving behind only an afterimage at the original location."

"This ocular technique can be maintained for five minutes. Of course, once the time is up, as long as he has enough ocular power, he can continue using it."

With just a few sentences, Reiji revealed Obito’s ocular technique.

Obito’s right-eye ability was truly difficult to deal with.

Basically, as long as Obito remained sufficiently careful, it was impossible to hit him.

"...How do you know all of this in such detail?"

Uchiha Fugaku stared at him in shock.

He knew the enemy possessed a Mangekyo Sharingan.

He even knew the exact details of the enemy’s ocular technique, including how long it lasted!

And...

What kind of person was this?

Someone actually possessed a Mangekyo Sharingan?!

Could he be the mastermind behind the Nine-Tails’ attack?

"You don’t need to concern yourself with that."

"In any case, when the time comes, you’ll be responsible for driving him back, or at the very least, holding him off with your eyes."

Reiji had no intention of explaining.

There was no way he could explain it.

He certainly could not say, "I’ve seen the plot."

Uchiha Fugaku suddenly trembled.

His hand subconsciously touched his own eyes.

Could it be...

That Reiji even knew about his Mangekyo Sharingan?

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