I wasn't looking forward to this. Not at all, but it was a necessary, if unwelcome thing.

"Hokage-sama wants to see me?" Sasuke asked, confused, but hiding it well.

"Yes. There are some important matters that need discussing."

"Such as?" Sasuke asked.

"Not here, Sasuke. These are very serious matters, and I can't just tell them to you here." I responded.

I really wasn't looking forward to this.

But I was going to do it anyway, damn it.

"Right. When?"

"Five minutes." I said.

An eyebrow rose.

I nodded. "Very important matters, Sasuke."

So very important.

"I have to ask you to listen to all of it before you do anything."

An eyebrow rose. "This is going to be bad, isn't it?"

"It will shake your world, Sasuke."

"Hokage-sama." Sasuke bowed upon entering.

Discretely, the ANBU made their way out.

"May I ask what this is about?"

Hiruzen sighed, looking every bit as old as he was. "Matters relating to the Uchiha Clan Incident."

Sasuke stilled.

"Take a seat Sasuke-kun, this will be both an enlightening and taxing conversation."

He looked away, staring at the Hokage Mountain outside the window.

"Tell me," He began when Sasuke was seated. "Have you ever heard of a man named Danzo Shimura?"

Sasuke frowned, before shaking his head. "Should I have?"

"I wouldn't have been surprised if you did." Hiruzen stated. "Eight years ago, he was a member of the Konoha Council."

Eight years.

I could see the thought rush through Sasuke's head, an odd spattering of emotions appearing in his Heart as he remembered my previous words.

"Was?" Sasuke asked.

"He's dead, now." I answered. "I cut his spine, and Hiruzen stabbed him in the brain."

Sasuke blinked, taken aback.

"I once considered him a friend." Hiruzen reminisced, before shaking his head. "Moving too far ahead..."

He turned around, facing Sasuke. "Nine years ago, I received worrying information about the Uchiha clan."

Sasuke looked confused, understandably.

"Namely; that certain elements of the Uchiha Clan were preparing for a coup."

His eyes widened, and he drew a quick breath.

"It was a bad situation for a lot of people." I interjected. "See, in the aftermath of the Kyuubi's attack, there was suspicion cast upon the Uchiha Clan that the attack was related to them, as the Sharingan-"

"Had the ability to control the Kyuubi." Sasuke finished, his mind racing.

"Indeed." I 'nodded'. "The Uchiha Clan itself was innocent, though there was an Uchiha involved in the attack."

"Danzo Shimura, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, at the time forming the Konoha Council, moved the Clan's land to a more remote part of the village." Hiruzen said. "I disapproved, but as I was much more... passive back then, I ultimately allowed it." He sighed. "I wish I hadn't, but..."

"Naturally, after being removed and with all the suspicion being cast upon them, a considerable portion of the Uchiha Clan began plotting to forcefully take power."

"Itachi..." Sasuke realised, his expression twisting into a grimace.

"Itachi was ordered to join the ANBU and feed information to the Uchiha Clan." Hiruzen stated. "He passed all tests, and began feeding information to me thereafter. He sought to ensure peace. I searched for a peaceful resolution, but Danzo Shimura believed such a thing to be impossible."

"Danzo claimed to have acted in what he viewed as Konoha's best interests." I continued. "I sincerely doubt that, however."

"Shisui Uchiha, a close friend of Itachi's, had recently unlocked the Mangekyo Sharingan. Furthermore, he possessed a powerful Mangekyo ability known as Kotoamatsukami."

Sasuke blinked. "That one was listed on the Naka Shrine Tablet. It was... a mind control genjutsu?"

"The very same." Hiruzen nodded. "Shisui informed me that he intended to use it on the dissenters to force them to keep the peace, but before he could do so, Danzo stole his right eye."

"Hence my doubt of Danzo's motivations." I frowned. "A chance to end a possible rebellion, and he prevents it from happening."

"Shisui entrusted his left eye to Itachi, and then committed suicide." Hiruzen continued. "The Uchiha Clan believed Itachi to have murdered him."

"It's here where things get... complicated."

"It's also here that what happened gets rather murky. It took quite a bit of time for me to piece everything together." Hiruzen stated.

Sasuke sat slightly straighter. I wasn't entirely sure if he even noticed.

"Danzo approached Itachi and managed to convince him that the only option to keep the peace was to murder the Uchiha clan." He looked to the side again. "How, I am not entirely certain. Whatever Danzo said was apparently enough for Itachi to bypass even me, as, until the act itself came, I was unaware of his plan."

"At some point, Itachi encountered another entity, who we now know as Obito Uchiha."

"Obito?" Sasuke asked. "Kakashi-sensei's teammate?"

"Apparently. We had believed him dead until recently." Hiruzen stated.

"Suffice to say, everything related to that is kind of a clusterfuck."

"What we do know is, on the night of the massacre, both Obito and Itachi were present."

Sasuke stilled.

"At the beginning of the massacre, I sensed the deaths of several of the Uchiha, and intervened." Such Hate, Sasuke... "I found Obito first, and fought him. I was unsuccessful in killing him outright, but he eventually retreated." And, then... "After that, I found Itachi. Unfortunately, he had already encountered you."

Sasuke looked away. "Tsukuyomi..."

"Indeed." I 'nodded'. "He left before I could attack him. I brought you to the hospital myself." Where I found out I had saved four others, and we found out that sixteen Uchiha were still missing.

"What about the other Uchiha?" Sasuke asked.

"Four living Uchiha were found in the Uchiha Compound." Hiruzen answered. "Eighteen were unaccounted for."

"Eighteen? But there's..."

"Danzo."

"We later found out that Danzo had abducted sixteen Uchiha, alongside two corpses."

Sasuke blinked. "'Cut his spine and drove a Kunai into his brain.'" He echoed.

"Danzo's actions led to him being declared a traitor. He did not survive much longer."

Sasuke slowly nodded.

"Itachi... was Itachi innocent all this time?"

"No." Hiruzen bluntly stated.

Sasuke looked up in confusion.

"Itachi was one of my ANBU. He made the decision to murder the Uchiha Clan without consulting me, no matter what Danzo said to him. Once I had confirmed that it was indeed Itachi who murdered them, I came very close to declaring him a missing-nin. The only thing that saved him from that status was Itachi giving the details of everything that happened, and, even then, because he chose to join the Akatsuki and feed information from the inside as a self-inflicted penance, I had him declared one anyway." Hiruzen sighed. "Manipulation or otherwise, Itachi was still responsible for the deaths of multiple Uchiha who were not involved in the coup, on top of acting against the interests of Konohagakure. As a member of the ANBU, the latter is a severe crime already."

Sasuke looked down.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." He muttered.

Hiruzen nodded, before reaching into his desk and pulling out a folder.

He handed it to Sasuke. "This contains much of the information about the Uchiha Clan Incident. If you wish, you have my authorisation to share it with the members of your team." It wasn't a particularly subtle hint.

"Thank you." Sasuke bowed.

"Dismissed."

Sasuke vanished, gone in a puff of smoke.

Hiruzen sighed. "I am getting far, far too old for this."

"Another three months, and it's all Tsunade's problem." I noted.

"It couldn't come soon enough."