Night settled quietly over the Fujimoto home, but Tōma couldn't calm his mind.He stood at his window, staring into the dark, knowing exactly what was happening across the village.
The Uchiha compound was far from the academy… but by now, Sasuke would've already gone home.
Which meant the massacre was underway.
Tōma had told himself from the start that he wouldn't interfere.He was too weak, too exposed, too involved in nothing but his own survival.
And yet—the greedy, shinobi part of his brain still whispered:
A pair of Sharingan… even just one tomoe… wouldn't that be enough?
He shut his eyes.
He knew better.
Even if he wanted to exploit the chaos, Root was there.Tobi was there.Maybe even other unknown forces.
Walking into that deathtrap as a six-year-old was suicide dressed up as ambition.
Finding a disposable, low-profile Uchiha with an awakened Sharingan?Impossible.They were a proud clan; even their "ordinary" members outclassed most genin.He'd only get himself killed.
The fantasy crumbled quickly.Tōma exhaled, steady and quiet.
He wanted those eyes. Almost anyone would.But he wasn't delusional.
Even if he somehow secured a pair…
He didn't have the chakra to support them.He didn't have an Uchiha body to stabilize them.He didn't have a trustworthy medic to perform the transplant.
Sharingan consumed chakra continuously, even when inactive.Long-term use would suck him dry—like how the Rinnegan nearly killed Nagato, and he was an Uzumaki.
Tōma?He'd die faster than a candle in a storm.
"Forget it," he murmured. "I'd be dead before I ever used them."
He could preserve them in a solution—sure, he knew how.But hide them at home?A Root raid would get him executed on the spot.
He walked through scenario after scenario, every path ending the same way:
Not worth it. Not now.
If I ever do this… it'll be years from now. When I'm strong enough to take them from someone like Danzō instead.
He closed the window with finality.
Tonight, the Uchiha would fall.After tonight, there would be only a handful left—fewer even than the scattered remnants of the Uzumaki.
"Sasuke will be alone tomorrow," Tōma whispered.
And that thought triggered another chain of questions—ones the anime had danced around but never truly answered.
Why leave only Sasuke alive?
Even if the village publicly needed a single survivor…Root should have wanted more.Experimental stock. Controlled heirs. Quiet breeding programs for Sharingan research.
It would've made more sense politically.
Unless—
Did Itachi see that coming and decide that "no survivors" was the lesser evil?Or was the true clean-up handled by someone other than him and Tobi?Root? White Zetsu? Something darker?
Whatever the truth was, it wasn't his problem.
The aftermath would shake the village for weeks.No matter what canon promised, Konoha didn't lose one of its great clans overnight without turbulence.
He'd keep escorting Ino for a while longer.Stopping abruptly would undermine his original excuse and risk unnecessary suspicion.
And as for his mother—he'd go back to shadowing her after tonight.Until Konoha calmed down again.
He lay down and forced his mind to quiet.
Tomorrow would be loud.
The Next Morning
Chaos.
The academy buzzed with panic the moment students arrived.
The Uchiha seats were empty—especially Sasuke's.
Small groups of girls cried openly, some unable to even look at his desk.Iruka himself looked shaken, torn between maintaining order and dealing with his own shock.
He'd rushed to the Hokage as soon as he heard the news.The Third assured him Sasuke had survived but needed time to recover.
That information was classified, so Iruka could only watch helplessly as half his class mourned the boy they thought was dead.
The first two periods were a wash.Eventually the room quieted, but the tension sat over them like a storm cloud.
Shikamaru stared at the empty desk and clicked his tongue.
"So that's what all the weird movements around the village were about… even my dad didn't say anything."
His voice carried frustration—at the limits of his own insight.
Tōma, meanwhile, flipped a page in his book without looking up.
He'd known Sasuke would survive.He also knew Sasuke was one of the strongest safety nets Konoha—and he himself—would ever have.
Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto…Two walking cheat codes.
As long as they lived, the future wasn't hopeless.
Tōma let his gaze slide briefly to Sasuke's empty seat.
When the boy returned…he'd no longer be the quiet, aloof child of a clan.
He'd be the Sasuke everyone recognized.
The one forged in grief and revenge.
Tōma sighed.
"Welcome to the real story," he murmured under his breath.