Itachi steeled himself, and opened the door. All eyes turned to him at once.
“Why are you here?” a man sitting deep inside the room asked, in a voice filled with malice. Yashiro.
“I came to talk.”
“What do you have to say at this late date?” Beside Yashiro, Inabi stood up and faced Itachi. “Hm, Itachi?”
The room fell silent. Looking out into that quiet, he found Izumi. She was staring at him with a look on her face like she was about to start crying.
“Stop this foolishness,” he said, honestly.
As Inabi glared at him, Inabi’s right eyebrow shot upward and twitched. “And what foolishness is that?”
“The coup d’état.”
Everyone started talking at once. The only person in the room looking at him with cool eyes was Gozu, now Kagen.
Following Inabi, Yashiro also stood up. “You don’t even come to the meetings. Nothing you can say will change anything now.”
“The village is not as soft as you think it is.”
“We’re not kids like you.” A blue vein popped up on Yashiro’s forehead. “We’re more than well aware of the fact that the village is not soft. That’s why we’ve endured this situation for as long as we have.”
“If you fight them, you’ll lose.”
“Quiet!” his father roared, still seated at the front of the room. The room froze instantly at his tremendous rage. “Anyone who says they will lose without even trying is not qualified to be a ninja. Leave this place.”
As if rejecting his father’s words, Itachi stayed where he was.
“Out!” The roar also did not yield.
“Do you really believe you can win, Father?” Itachi asked calmly.
After a brief silence, his father began speaking, choosing his words carefully. “You are still young. You do not know the true face of this world. There is a reality that cannot be changed, no matter how one might struggle in the face of it. You still do not understand just how empty life is, when you must simply continue to endure something until death.”
“If that reality is so empty, then change it.”
“That’s exactly what we’re trying to do!!” Yashiro interrupted the exchange between father and son.
“By relying on a foolish plan that doesn’t even examine the possibility of failure?”
“How much of a fool must you try to make of us before you’re satisfied, Itachi?! You think too much of yourself. Show some respect! However talented you might be, I will not permit any further mockery!”
“Be quiet a moment, Yashiro.”
“Captain!”
“I am speaking with my son.” Fugaku—“Wicked Eye”—glared at Yashiro with a murderous sharingan.
His hot-blooded subordinate sat, trembling, a look of dissatisfaction on his face.
“Itachi.” Taking the opportunity of Yashiro’s silence, his father began to speak once again. “Winning or losing is secondary; the fact that we acted is key. When we act, the people of the village will know the discrimination we Uchihas have been subject to. Then they will fear us, and the village will change.”
“You are already feared. That’s why the clan was gathered together in one place, and driven to the edge of the village.”
“That was the vague fear of the Nine Tails’ attack; this time, it will be a fear accompanied by real pain. The nature of it is different.”
“That’s splitting hairs.”
“Why won’t you understand?” A deep crease of sorrow was carved out between his father’s eyebrows. “I am acting for you, and for your children. My generation will change the way the Uchihas are currently ostracized.”
You … He meant Itachi and Sasuke. And their children would be his grandchildren.
“If you’re thinking about us, then why would you do something this foolish—” Itachi’s voice was choked, while his ears picked up hard words muttered by the group around him.
“Traitor sure talks big.”
“Get out.”
“Right. Get out!”
In the blink of an eye, the angry voices joined together to form a massively powerful wave. All of it hatred, focused on Itachi. His father could no longer do anything to stop the vortex of anger that had become the consensus of the clan.
Itachi lost the will to say anything else.
It’s come this far, then …
He slowly turned his back to his father. And then he walked lifelessly toward the door he himself had left open.
“Wait!” Izumi’s voice came at Itachi from behind.
Although he stopped, he couldn’t muster the energy to turn around.
Running over to him, Izumi came around to stand in front of him, and grabbed his shoulders. “It’s all right. It’ll be all right,” she said desperately, her eyes shining red.
“If you don’t go back, they’ll think you’re a traitor too, you know.”
“I don’t care what anyone thinks.”
Izumi’s voice held a sob, and he felt it only too painfully.
“Talk to them one more time. If you really talk to them, they’ll understand.”
“It’s no good.”
“But it’s just, like this …”
Itachi stepped back, peeling her shaking hands off his shoulders, and started walking again without looking at her.
“They’re already where they are.”
“Itachi …” She didn’t come after him again.
He walked home alone on a road shrouded in darkness. The compound was silent, since the majority of the clan was taking part in the meeting.
A man was leaning against the wall he could see out of the corner of his eye.
Monkey mask … Mezu’s, with the blue coloring.
Itachi stopped when he was in front of Mezu, his eyes still turned toward his destination.
“End of the line … That’s it, huh?”
Itachi continued to stare straight ahead, not responding.
“I wonder exactly how they’re gonna pin down the third Hokage aka the Professor, huh? Heh, heh, heh …” Mezu’s mean laughter drifted off into the night; then, apparently discomfited by the unresponsive Itachi, he cleared his throat, becoming serious. “Isn’t it about time we have to report the results of our investigation to the senior officials?”
“I know,” Itachi replied, briefly, and started walking again.
Among all the stars glittered in the heavens, only the moon was not visible.