"When the Sed Hokage succeeded as leader, he made a decisioo Uchiha Madara's atta the vilge," Link reted, his tone calm as he reyed everything he knew from the manga.

  "Uhe guise of monit criminals, the police ford prison were relocated together, isoting the Uchiha to the outskirts of the vilge."

  "‘Even though the Uchiha was no longer what it once was,’ that man told me this..."

  Sasuke recalled his childhood, when Itachi had carried him and spoken those words in front of the Konoha Police Force building.

  "The Uchiha gradually grew dissatisfied, but they still loved the vilge—until the ails i." Link skipped ahead in his narrative.

  "With the pret of Madara trolling the ails, the vilge's treatment of the Uchiha became even harsher. Finally, dissent emerged within the Uchiha —"

  "The idea of a rebellion, a coup to restore the Uchiha's glory. And leading this pn was the head of the Uchiha at the time."

  "Bang!"

  Sasuke stood abruptly, his chair scraping back behind him. His Sharingan activated, revealing two tomoe in each eye.

  Li Sasuke's gaze directly and asked, "Sasuke, don’t you want to hear the rest of the story?"

  Sasuke’s fists ched tightly. His mind was clear: following the logic of this 'story,' the leader of the rebellion was—was—

  "Fugaku Uchiha," Link stated pinly, draining all strength from Sasuke's body.

  "Where is your loyalty, Itachi?"

  "You were the bridge between our d the vilge’s core..."

  Sasuke felt his thoughts spiraling into chaos. His childhood memories and logic told him the story was likely true, but his emotions screamed that it was all lies. Yet, did Link have any reason to deceive him?

  "Before the Uchiha 's rebellion, Itachi, who was then a member of the Anbu, received a mission from the vilge’s higher-ups—"

  Link didn’t rush to reveal everything. Instead, he paused and held up one finger.

  "This is the end of the first story," he said. "When you're ready, e find me for the sed part."

  Sasuke staggered out of the medical room, so distracted that he didn’t even bother closing the door behind him.

  Phase Two of the Pn—

  Link exhaled deeply. Raising Sasuke as a "shield" first required being someohe tter would reize as a "rade." That goal had been achieved before today.

  The sed step was to reveal the truth about the Uchiha ’s massacre.

  In the manga, everyone surrounding Sasuke—Orochimaru, Itachi, Obito—maniputed him through hatred.

  Link’s strategy was to y the "truth" bare, cutting off others’ influence while deepening Sasuke’s trust in him.

  It seemed that everyone around Sasuke was hiding the truth from him, a fact eventually revealed during the Freat Ninja War by the First Hokage. The justification? "He’s still a pure child of the Uchiha ."

  But as Sasuke himself once decred, he was her a child nor i.

  He was Uchiha Sasuke, a determined genius striving for power, not someone who needed prote.

  For rades, mutual reition and aowledgment were equally vital.

  "Knock, knock!"

  A medical staff member tapped oill-open door. "Time to go, Link."

  "Uood."

  Link gathered his things ahe Forest of Death.

  …

  The Day, Training Ground Seven.

  "Sorry, boss," Iris said sheepishly, his face full of guilt. Failing the written exam had been an ued embarrassment.

  Ami kept her head down, too ashamed to speak. Losing to a powerful oppo was ohing, but this...

  Link looked at the pair, shook his head, and said, "Enough. I won’t dwell on it. Starting today, triple the training iy."

  "Yes!" the two shouted in unison.

  With the Konoha Crush looming, where the Sunagakure and Otogakures would send numerous jonin into battle within the vilge, surviving would require their utmost effort.

  "Where’s Sasuke?" Iris asked curiously. Sasuke, usually the most enthusiastic about training, was absee being te for their scheduled session.

  "He—" Link paused, turning toward the figure walking over, hands in his pockets, exuding an air of indifference.

  "Apologies for being te," Sasuke said.

  As expected, Sasuke had ehe truth he’d learned.

  Link smiled at him warmly. "Wele back."

  Iris, clueless about what had transpired, walked over, threw an arm around Sasuke, and ughed. "grats! I heard you advao the finals. Damn it, if it weren’t for that guy—"

  Ami, more perceptive, noticed something different in the dynamic between her Boss and the newer. She quietly observed without enting.

  Sasuke didn’t resist Iris’s camaraderie. Instead, he looked directly at Link and asked, "Are we starting training now?"

  "Of course."

  Link removed his jacket, revealing the heavy weights strapped to his body. After realizing his strength gains had pteaued, he began weariremely heavy weights at all times.

  For most people, such weights would strain their internal ans, but with Delicate Illness Extra Jutsu, Link faced almost no adverse effects.

  "Let’s begin," Sasuke said, stretg his body, his face impassive.

  …

  At the Land of Fire’s Border, in a Forest.

  "Crackle!" The campfire sparks danced, casting flickering light on two men sitting nearby.

  Both wore bck cloaks adorned with red clouds. The shark-faced one spoke.

  "Itachi, this mission takes us to Konoha. There’s a ce you’ll see your cute little brother—"

  The man called Itachi, his face marked by deep tear lines, stared into the fire without responding.

  "Every time we recruit a new member, I think of that brat Deidara. I wonder if this target will be as much trouble," the shark-faced man tinued, grinning. "I heard he’s just a ten-year-old kid. Heh, these rookies keep getting more impressive—"

  "This time, I’ll ha. Last time, you—"

  "Don’t be careless, Kisame," Itachi interrupted coldly. "Acc to the leader’s ihe target’s teiques are extremely dangerous. If he touches you, you’ll pletely lose the ability to form hand seals."

  He gnced up at the cloudy sky, where the moon was barely visible. After a moment, he murmured softly, "It’s going to rain."

  Bleam