I do not own Naruto or Boruto; those manga's rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Ukyo Kodachi. Nor do I own or claim ownership of the world map created by Michael-Madlock. This story is just for fun and isn't part of the original properties. Please, enjoy.

Chapter 2: The Uchiha Clan Massacre

Itachi stared down at the smiling corpse on the floor, "Thank you, Izumi."

Slowly turning around, he looked at Izumi's mother's unconscious body on the floor. Sliding his sword from its sheath, Itachi approached the unconscious woman and pierced her heart with the tip of his blade.

Stepping out of Izumi's house, Itachi was met by his collaborator. "You've already begun?" Madara asked evenly.

Itachi watched the blanket of dusk fall through the sky and said nothing.

"I will take care of as many women and children as possible," Madara said calmly.

"I'll take care of the west side of the compound, and you have the east. We do this as we planned it from the start."

"Don't push yourself."

"Shut up."

"You're still young," Madara spoke slowly, "if you take on too much darkness, it will break you."

I've been broken for a long time now…

Swallowing the words in his head, Itachi looked at Madara. It was impossible to read the emotion on his face, covered as it was by his mask. His body, cloaked in a black coat that reached his shins, exuded a sinister chakra that resembled bloodlust.

"You don't need to worry about me," Itachi spoke.

"I'm not worried. It's a natural arrangement to execute our mission properly."

"Don't patronize me."

"It's precisely because I think so highly of you that I do not want you to expend excessive effort. Given my space-time abilities, my role should be to take on the women and children who will cry, shout, and run about. I do think that will prioritize efficiency?"

Itachi knew they didn't have all night. Danzo had ensured that Sasuke and Hiei, Shisui's younger brother, would be delayed at the Academy. But the two boys would return eventually, and everything should be over with by the time they arrived.

"Whatever you want," Itachi said, nodding.

"I'll see you again once it's all over," Madara said, disappearing into a spiral of empty space.

Itachi took a small breath. Close your eyes… He moved forward into the darkness, seeking a new target.

Approaching Inabi's house, Itachi gripped his sword in his right hand and slid the house's front door open with the other. He could sense two chakras inside the home as he crept down the hallway. Spotting his next victim, Itachi lunged forward and pierced his blade through Inabi's wife's back.

Inabi's wife died before she knew what was happening. Pulling his sword free from the body and shaking off the blood that wet the blade, Itachi turned his gaze to a gasping Inabi.

"D-do you understand what you're doing?" Inabi shot off foolishly.

Without speaking, Itachi slowly closed the distance between them. With each step he took, Inabi retreated.

"How about you just prepare yourself?" Itachi suggested gently, and Inabi shook his head from side to side. "What are you afraid of? It's only the inevitable coming for you now."

"Tr-traitor!"

"You all always distance yourself from everything like that. And that's why you're about to be killed by me like this." Itachi kicked powerfully at the floor, and the distance between them closed.

Inabi tried to wave signs.

Too late.

Before the flames could gush out of his pointed lips, Inabi lost his head.

Itachi put his hand on the front door. Inside the now-quiet house, only one chakra shimmered.

There was an aura in the room at the end of the hallway. He entered the house and crept down the hallway. He put his hand on the sliding door.

"Who's there?" He heard the voice from inside the room and slid the door open. "You?"

The man was sitting upright, a grim look on his face. The black spot on his forehead was unmistakably Tekka's. "Chakra is shaking all over the compound. So you're the culprit, Itachi?"

Even among the Uchiha, Tekka was a leading Sharingan user, and his ability to sense chakra was excellent. It wasn't strange that he had shrewdly grasped that some calamity had befallen the village.

"You're here. So why does chakra still shake elsewhere?"

"This isn't the time to be worrying about that."

"I see."

"Why didn't you move if you sensed something strange in the village?"

"You got here before I could, that's all." Tekka moved to stand up.

Sword in hand, Itachi stepped forward. The man rose up and caught Itachi in his gaze.

Without flinching, Itachi squarely accepted the surge of chakra emitted by Tekka's eyes.

"Wha-" Shock crept over Tekka's face as he watched the pattern of Itachi's eyes change. "Impossible!"

Tekka's stomach swallowed Itachi's blade. He thrust it in deeply, all the way to the hilt. No blood gushed out, not with the blade still in place. Their faces were so close that their noses almost touched.

"You all have the bad habit of underestimating your opponent's abilities."

"Itachi…" Blood flowed out of Tekka's clenched teeth.

Itachi leaped back and ripped the sword free. An ocean of blood wet the tatami mats; he was not caught by even a drop of splash-back.

Right hand thrust up, clawing at empty space, Tekka collapsed. "Th-they won't forgive you, Itachi." Those were Tekka's last words.

Itachi turned his back on the body, "I'm not asking for forgiveness."

It had already been an hour since he put Izumi to sleep. He had killed too many of his brethren to count, but Itachi still kept running.

His heart had long since frozen over. He had also forgotten to remember that it was all for the village's sake. He simply continued to swing his sword single-mindedly.

The target's father and mother, and then his wife. When the boy, not yet eight years old, stopped moving, he heard a shriek behind him. The voice was familiar.

The man fled down the hallway, the sound of his feet almost exaggeratingly loud. He jumped down into the entryway and ripped open the door.

Itachi went after him.

The man ran awkwardly through the compound until tripping headfirst onto the ground.

Approaching the white-haired man, Yashiro, Itachi clutched his sword. "Give up."

"P-please don't k-kill me."

Pathetic.

Itachi plunged his blade into Yashiro's chest and continued onward.

He strolled down the streets and returned to the area near the entrance to the compound. Only one family within the compound still lived—Itachi's family.

Leaping on top of a pole, Itachi looked down at the world and observed the front gates of the Uchiha Compound. Devoid of any people, the town was wrapped in silence.

Someone slipped through the front gates. A boy carrying a bag on his shoulder. His beloved younger brother.

Where's Hiei? No, it's better if he arrives later. Madara will deal with him.

Locking away in his heart the feelings he could not give voice to, Itachi flew toward his own house, leaving his little brother racing along the road home.

The sound of footsteps racing down the hallway stopped outside the door. "Father! Mother!" his brother shouted.

"Sasuke... You must not come in!" the father he had thought was dead shouted to the other side of the door. And then, this time, he really did stop moving.

The door slowly opened. Spotting the figures of his mother and father collapsed on the ground, Sasuke flew into the room.

"Father! Mother!"

Itachi showed his brother a face hidden by the moonlight.

His little brother's face was sweaty, and his eyes were twisted in fear. "Itachi!"

Sasuke stepped on trembling legs and began to speak desperately, spreading both arms wide. "Itachi! Itachi! Father and Mother are—! How?! Why?! Who would do such a—"

Itachi flung a kunai into the door behind Sasuke.

"Ngh!" A narrow cut appeared on the boy's shoulder, exposed by the rip in his clothes.

"Foolish little brother... " His final job. He would never be allowed to go back now. He caught Sasuke in his gaze and activated his Mangekyo Sharingan.

Activating his Tsukuyomi, Itachi replayed the night's events in Sasuke's mind. Forcing him to relive each moment over and over. His little brother cried out and fell over.

Crawling on the ground, almost licking it, Sasuke turned his face toward Itachi. "Why... did you...?"

"To measure my capacity."

"...Measure your capacity? You... You killed them for that?"

"I had to."

"What's..." Power returned to his little brother's body. "What's wrong with you?!"

Unable to move appropriately after being caught by the Mangekyo Sharingan, Sasuke simply leaned forward as if to start running and fell over. Before him was their father's face, the spark of life gone.

In that instant, his little brother got up and flew from the room. He ran out of the house and fled onto the street.

Fleeing showed an attachment to life. It was proof of a desire to live.

Finish it...

He stood in front of his brother.

"It's not true. My brother wouldn't do this. Because—"

"Pretending to be the kind of brother you hoped for... was to determine your ability."

Live.

"You will be an opponent to test my abilities. You have that potential in you."

Live.

"You felt anger and hatred toward me. You've always hoped to surpass me, so I'll let you live."

Live.

"...For my sake."

Live.

"Just like me, you have the power to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan. But there's a catch."

Sasuke stayed silent.

"You have to... kill your closest friend."

Sasuke's eyebrows shot up.

"Just as I did... "

Sasuke's eyebrows threatened to shoot off his forehead.

Live.

"That was you... You killed Shisui?!"

"And now I have the eyes."

Live.

"In the main hall of Nakano shrine... There's a secret clan meeting place under the seventh tatami mat from the far right."

"What?!"

"There, you'll find the true secret of why the visual jutsu of the Uchiha clan exists and for what purpose."

Sasuke's face was full of questions.

"If you awaken it, then there will be three people who have the Mangekyo Sharingan, including me. If that happens... Then I'll be right in letting you live."

Live.

"Right now..."

Sasuke looked alarmed.

"You are not even worth killing."

Live.

"Baby brother, you're pathetic."

Survive.

"If you want to kill me, settle for hating me! Hate me and live like the coward you are! Clinging to life without honor!"

Please.

"And someday, when you have the same eyes as I, come to me."

Live through this reality that I'm leaving you...

Trembling, his brother collapsed as though his strings had been cut.

Sasuke stuck his right leg out to brace himself, the eyes he looked at his older brother with filled with a crimson light.

Awakening.

And so, Sasuke gained another power to live. The timing was appropriate.

Itachi leaped up into the sky, about to disappear.

"Stop!" His little brother flew up into the sky after him and threw the three kunai that had appeared in his hand at some point.

Itachi held his breath at that sharpness. He dodged two. But he couldn't completely get out of the way of the last one. He tilted his head slightly and took it on his forehead protector; the force of the kunai undid the knot where it was tied. The kunai plunged into the ground, and Itachi's forehead protector tumbled down next to it.

As his little brother charged him from behind, breathing hard, shoulders heaving, Itachi slowly picked up his forehead protector. Already using up the last of his strength, Sasuke couldn't move from the spot.

But Itachi didn't have the luxury of worrying about the positioning of his forehead protector. With the Konoha mark facing off to the right, he tied it roughly. He wanted to get away from there as soon as possible.

Because Itachi was crying.

His feelings, supposedly frozen, were shaken by the figure of his little brother desperately, clumsily, awkwardly clinging to him. Sasuke was mustering every ounce of strength he had to try and stop his big brother; Itachi loved this Sasuke so much he could hardly stand it. He even had the impulse to run away with him. But under no circumstances could he do that.

Sasuke had to walk in a place where the sun reached as a ninja of the village. Itachi's life from that point on would be in the darkness. They would never live in the same place again. Not until Itachi's final days. Only then would a chance meeting in their lives be permitted.

The hero who killed his older brother, an evil criminal, and took vengeance for their clan. That was the glory that Sasuke would be given. For that purpose, Itachi would come face to face with his little brother one more time.

His brother would kill him. That was the form of Itachi's death. To that end, he could not allow Sasuke to see him crying.

He pressed his forehead protector onto his head and steeled himself.

Farewell for now.

Itachi's body moved faster than his thoughts. Before he knew it, his little brother was in his field of view. At that moment, he understood for the first time that he was looking back. His desire to burn the image of his brother into his mind had moved his body.

But that was another thing he could not be permitted.

A mistake.

Because Itachi could feel the hot tears streaming down his cheeks, he quickly turned away from his brother and resumed his jump. The aura of Sasuke collapsing behind him, he leaped into the moonlit night, not bothering to wipe away his tears.

The full moon, full of such beauty he wanted to rip it to pieces, was so hateful to Itachi that he could hardly stand it.

Hiei ran through the gates of the Uchiha Compound, looking up at the moon as he went. Noticing how quiet and dark the town was, he slowed his pace and carefully eyed his surroundings.

Spotting a shape on the ground, Hiei darted over to see the corpse of Yoko. Shaking the corpse in a panic, Hiei didn't notice the man approaching from behind.

"Ah, you must be Hiei."

Spinning around, he saw a cloaked figure in a strange mask staring down at him.

Looking at the man's Sharingan, Hiei stood up and took several steps back.

"If I were here to kill you, you'd already be dead."

"W-who? What happened here?!"

"Let me show you," The man said and caught Hiei in a genjutsu.

Watching from the man's right eye, Hiei watched as he cut down the women, children, and elderly. He watched as some of his brethren were sucked away into nothingness as others were beheaded and ran through. Hiei screamed and dropped to his knees as the visions intensified.

His vision blurred, and sparks of colors flew through his field of view. Suddenly, he was standing in a green field. His brother, Shisui, stood with his tanto in hand. Itachi appeared in front of him with a sword, and the two engaged in vicious combat.

The two men clashed their blades and danced around gracefully as they battled. Itachi spun his sword around and sliced deep into Shisui's chest.

"Shisui!" Hiei screamed.

"Die already!" Itachi shouted and drove his sword through Shisui's heart.

Hiei's mind was overwhelmed by the horrifying visions and the intensity of the genjutsu. The images of his clan being slaughtered and the tragic fate of his brother Shisui left him shattered and in immense pain. As the masked man approached him, Hiei struggled to regain his composure, his voice trembling.

"Wh-What... Why are you showing me all this?" Hiei managed to utter. His voice filled with a mix of fear, anger, and confusion.

The masked man's Sharingan eye bore into Hiei, seemingly emotionless. He spoke coldly and detached as if merely stating facts.

"I want to share with you the truth of our clan's power, the Mangekyo Sharingan. It is a secret known only to a few. The power that awakens within our eyes through tragedy and loss," the masked man explained, his words laced with an eerie calmness.

"Wh- what do you want?" Hiei asked, his voice wavering with a mix of curiosity and apprehension.

"I have been watching you, Hiei. Your potential is immense. Embrace the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan, and together, we can shape the destiny of our clan," the masked man replied, his voice dripping with a twisted sense of purpose.

To Be Continued