Did the Third Hokage have a timely grasp of everything that had just occurred?
If he did—then faced with the current outcome, what would he be feeling now?
"Uchiha Itachi… I've heard many things about you. This is likely our first proper meeting. The rumors are true—your talent as a shinobi is beyond doubt. But…"
Hagoromo paused briefly before continuing.
"What has been lost is already lost. You should think carefully about what you truly ought to be clinging to."
He was telling Itachi that instead of obsessing over eyes that could never be recovered, it would be better to carry on Shisui's ideals.
Shisui had entrusted his vision of the future to the Itachi he valued most—but that trust was, ultimately, tragic.
Because no matter how far Shisui stretched his imagination, he could never have foreseen that among Itachi's possible choices existed one so extreme as the annihilation of the entire clan.
Such a scorched-earth solution could only be conceived by an extreme individual under extreme circumstances.
It was something Shisui had never anticipated.
Shisui's own approach might be described as naïve, but it was understandable.
Itachi, however, was far harder to comprehend.
In his hierarchy of priorities, the order was:
Younger brother ＞ Konoha ＞ Uchiha clan & parents
Was there logic in that?
For Itachi, undoubtedly yes.
He was not insane—if anything, he represented the opposite extreme of madness.
When it came to choices involving life and death, his actions could never be explained by a single word like "fanatic."
Every decision had its reasons.
And unless one stood in his exact position, it was impossible to truly empathize.
That was why Itachi was so difficult to understand.
If this situation were applied to Hagoromo, however, it would make perfect sense:
Mirai & Naruto ＞ Konoha ＞ Uchiha
No one would question it.
That was simply who he was.
As for whether the Uchiha would ultimately be destroyed, or whether Itachi would still walk the same path as before—
To Hagoromo, it had become a secondary matter.
Destroyed or not, once Kotoamatsukami was gone, the Uchiha had lost their greatest deterrent.
Their overwhelming leverage no longer existed.
Itachi remained silent, weighing Hagoromo's words.
As expected, he would eventually arrive at what he believed to be the most rational conclusion.
Rationality—Itachi's greatest strength, and also his greatest flaw.
At that age, was it really necessary to shoulder so much?
Wouldn't it have been easier to live like Hagoromo once did—wandering around, uninvolved, carefree?
Itachi's behavioral patterns were the result of many overlapping causes:
The tail end of the war.
The Nine-Tails incident.
A yearning for peace.
Disgust toward his own clan.
Perhaps all of those played a role.
But the single most decisive factor was unmistakable—
His habit of thinking like a Hokage.
Was that self-realization, or self-loss?
Perhaps neither.
Perhaps being Hagoromo was simply easier.
Hagoromo walked past Itachi.
As expected, Itachi made no further attempt to attack.
Using the Mangekyō Sharingan was an immense burden for any shinobi—even for a pure-blooded Uchiha.
The night was silent.
Once their conversation ended, the only sound left was the flow of the Naka River beneath the cliff.
Shisui had just leapt from here.
Hagoromo looked down—but it was too dark to see anything.
"What are you going to do?" Itachi finally asked.
Hagoromo's posture made it clear that this was not yet over.
"There is a forbidden technique known as Impure World Reincarnation," Hagoromo said calmly.
"By offering a living sacrifice, it can resurrect the dead with their abilities intact. Naturally, using such a technique requires a portion of the deceased's body."
"So a shinobi like Shisui is at risk of being targeted."
In truth, Shisui had already been targeted.
For Hagoromo, even Madara's reincarnation would have been tolerable—
But Shisui was the one exception.
"You wouldn't want him to become a puppet manipulated after death," Hagoromo continued,
"especially one that still retains his original abilities."
Against fire, against theft, against Orochimaru—
The man had an incurable fixation on fresh, powerful corpses.
That obsession would never change.
Which meant Hagoromo had to locate Shisui's body before anyone else.
The Second Hokage might not have rivaled his elder brother in raw talent, but perhaps precisely because of that, he devoted himself to forbidden techniques—
And left behind an endless trail of future disasters.
In the end, Itachi did not stop Hagoromo.
He chose to believe him.
After all, having already secured Shisui's eyes, Hagoromo's reasoning carried undeniable credibility.
With Kotoamatsukami involved, Hagoromo would never allow another one to appear.
"Why didn't you stop Danzō and Shisui's confrontation? Why didn't you prevent Shisui's suicide?"
After a long silence, the Third Hokage finally voiced his accusation.
"You could have done so."
And he was correct.
His judgment was not wrong.
Because Hagoromo could have stopped it.
But he did not.
Shisui's body was eventually placed before the Third Hokage—something he had never expected.
The grief was immense.
More than that, it meant all of the Hokage's previous plans had completely collapsed.
Worse still, with the strongest Uchiha dead, the situation had only become more complicated.
Hagoromo explained everything that had happened that night.
His account largely matched the truth:
Danzō seized the eye.
Shisui committed suicide.
Hagoromo was "unable to intervene."
It took nearly three hours for Hagoromo to locate Shisui's body downstream along the Naka River.
He then sealed it.
By then, dawn was approaching.
Throughout the process, Hagoromo's thoughts had been… complex.
But emotion never interfered with his actions.
In response to the Third Hokage's challenge, his reasoning was solid:
"The incident unfolded too suddenly. No one anticipated that Danzō possessed a Sharingan, much less that he could use the legendary forbidden technique Izanagi."
"He took Shisui's eye in an instant—there was no time to react. Once I realized the consequences of Kotoamatsukami falling into Danzō's hands, I judged that reclaiming the eye immediately was the higher priority."
"Objectively speaking, I don't believe my actions were unreasonable. No one could account for every possibility."
"Who could have imagined that Shisui would choose suicide—to conceal the theft of his eye and protect his remaining one?"
By this explanation, Hagoromo was not at fault.
The Hokage's accusation could not stand.
In truth, the Third Hokage had little excuse for not knowing Danzō possessed a Sharingan.
Even if he hadn't known for certain, he should have suspected it.
After all, who covers an eye for no reason?
What he never anticipated was this scenario.
The damage was too severe.
The Hokage understood that responsibility was now meaningless.
The situation could not be undone.
And if blame were to be assigned, Danzō—not Hagoromo—would be the first target.
The Hokage looked at Shisui's body.
No matter what, it could not yet be returned to the Uchiha clan.
Now was not the time to provoke them further.
Returning a Shisui without eyes—
Compared to returning an intact body—
The difference was immense.
The former reeked of conspiracy.
As for returning Kotoamatsukami to the Uchiha—
Had the Third Hokage lost his mind?
"How should Shisui's body be handled?" he asked.
"Cremation," Hagoromo replied.
"To prevent it from being exploited."
Even with sealing measures in place, it still wasn't absolute.
Only disappearance was absolute.
The Third Hokage fell silent once more.
Was that tacit consent?
"Then…"
The critical question finally came.
"What about Shisui's eyes?"
"…They were destroyed."
That was Hagoromo's answer—
And the only truth he could give.
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