Sasuke intensified his training after learning Uzumaki Naruto became a Jonin, and began taking missions alone to strive to become a Jonin as soon as possible.
As for Kakashi and Sakura Haruno?
As an Elite Jonin with a family, Kakashi had been deathly busy lately.
Sakura Haruno couldn't keep up with Sasuke's pace, so she was now doing missions with Ino and the others.
Konoha was starting from scratch; forget Jonin, they wished they could use one Chunin as two.
Nara Shikamaru became the temporary Chunin leader for Choji, Ino, Hinata, and Sakura Haruno's team, while Neji also became the temporary Chunin leader for Rock Lee, Tenten, and Inuzuka Kiba.
Shino Aburame was temporarily pulled to the Ninja Academy to teach practical combat classes.
Because Shino Aburame was overlooked during mission assignments, he ended up filling a spot at the Ninja Academy.
Today, after returning home from a mission, Sasuke suddenly felt something was wrong.
Someone seemed to have entered his home?
Wary, Sasuke activated his Three-Tomoe Sharingan and scanned the house.
He also sniffed the air.
The smell of blood?
Why would there be the smell of blood in his home?
Thinking this, he pulled a Kunai from his ninja tool pouch and stepped lightly into the house, searching for the little thief who had broken in.
Soon, he heard a slight movement.
The moment he burst through the door, he saw a sight he would never forget.
Uchiha Fugaku was wiping a blood-stained long blade, and on the floor lay the corpse of Uchiha Mikoto, her eyes wide as if she died with regrets.
"Father? Mother?"
Weren't they dead?
Is it a Genjutsu... "They are your parents? The woman on the floor is indeed dead, but the man is still alive. This isn't a Genjutsu either; I can sense it clearly."
Indra's words dealt a heavy blow to Uchiha Sasuke.
It was like someone tore open his wound, poured a bag of salt in, stitched it crudely with a rusty iron needle, and then poured industrial alcohol over it, causing Uchiha Sasuke's spirit to feel immense pain.
"You're back, Sasuke."
Fugaku finally finished wiping the blade and casually tossed the blood-stained cloth beside Mikoto.
He turned around, his gaze falling on his son.
In those eyes, on the crimson background, a complex and eerie Mangekyo pattern slowly rotated; there was no excitement from a long-awaited reunion, no panic from a plot being discovered, not even a hint of warmth.
Only a bottomless, icy indifference, as if scrutinizing a tool or an obstacle that needed to be dealt with urgently.
"I didn't expect you to find out. I thought my plan to fake my death was perfect, but it seems I was one step short."
"What do you mean by that?"
Sasuke's heart shook; what plan to fake his death?
"Don't you understand yet?"
Fugaku sighed softly, but that sigh was filled with undisguised disappointment and contempt.
"Compared to Itachi, you really are disappointingly dull.
Haven't you already awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan?"
He took a step forward, his pace steady and full of pressure, the tip of the blood-stained long blade drooping slightly, reflecting a cold light.
"The Mangekyo Sharingan, the representative of the Uchiha Clan's ultimate power, has a flaw."
He stated slowly, as if teaching a cruel lesson.
"With use, it will bit by bit strip away the user's light until they reach eternal night.
And I refuse to accept such a fate.
To obtain flawless, eternal power—the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan—I meticulously planned all of this.
The death that night, the 'extermination' of the Uchiha Clan, was nothing more than a game I set up to escape Konoha's surveillance, hide myself, and wait for the perfect moment."
Sasuke's breathing stopped completely.
The blood of his clansmen, Itachi's crimes, the hatred and loneliness he bore... was all of this just a stepping stone for his father to pursue so-called 'eternal power'?
Uchiha Fugaku slowly approached Sasuke.
"It's a pity I've waited for you for so long, finally waiting for you to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan. Just as I was prepared to take it, your mother betrayed me and tried to come and warn you.
For my Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, I could only ask her to die."
As he spoke, he observed Sasuke; the three-tomoe in Sasuke's eyes were spinning rapidly, but they did not transform into the Mangekyo Sharingan.
"Useless."
He spat out two cold words.
"Witnessing your mother die before your eyes and you still can't awaken the Mangekyo?
Just because I am your father?
Are your emotions, your pain, so cheap and powerless?"
Before his voice faded, Fugaku's figure appeared before Sasuke like a ghost.
The cold blade, carrying the breath of death, lightly touched the skin on the side of Sasuke's neck, causing a small shiver.
Sasuke stood frozen as if his Soul had been snatched away; the massive shock of information and emotional collapse left him temporarily unable to react.
"It seems you don't even have this last bit of value left."
Fugaku's voice was close at hand, carrying the tone of a judgment.
"The eyes of a weakling like you surely haven't awakened any powerful Dōjutsu. Then I can only... go and kill Itachi."
"Did you know? Itachi didn't betray the Village because he killed the whole clan; it was I who slaughtered the clansmen who opposed and betrayed me."
"He drew his blade to protect you, but he only killed the Shadow Dancers I trained to look like me and your mother.
And Itachi is the son I admire most; I didn't have the heart to kill him, but instead faked my death to wait for you to awaken the Mangekyo."
"You are just a waste. When a waste dies, what is there to feel bad about?"
"I don't love you at all. Mikoto, who loved you, was killed by me because she missed you too much. After I kill you, I'll have to kill Itachi, who loves you, to awaken the Eternal Mangekyo."
"If you had a powerful Dōjutsu, your mother and brother wouldn't have to die at all."
"Do you see now, Sasuke?
It is your incompetence, your cowardice, that led to all of this today.
Your mother's death, your impending death, and your brother's destined death in the future.
It is your incompetence that killed everyone who loved you. Originally, it would have been fine if only you died."
Sasuke's eyes widened to their limit, his eyes nearly bursting.
This guy... what on earth is he talking about?
All the sounds, images, scents, and sensations, mixed with his father's cold words, like a monstrous wave, completely submerged Uchiha Sasuke.
He felt something explode deep inside his skull, and liquid gushed uncontrollably from his eye sockets.
It wasn't tears; it was thick, faintly metallic-smelling bloody tears, sliding down his pale cheeks, leaving two striking red streaks.
His eyes widened to the extreme, the pitch-black pupils trembling and shrinking violently against the crimson background.
Past, present, future; love, hate, lies, betrayal, death... everything rotated, shattered, and reorganized within this crimson vision.
The world, at this moment, completely collapsed before his eyes, or perhaps, it was about to reconsolidate into some entirely different form, filled with ultimate pain and darkness.
"Uchiha... Fugaku!"