Training Ground Seven, te night.
Iris and Ami had already left after an interaining session. Exhausted, Sasuke leaned against a rod suddenly spoke:
"I want... to hear the sed story."
Link, standing nearby and gazing at the dim and fragmented moon, began speaking slowly:
"The story starts with a man named Uchiha Shisui—"
This time, Sasuke didn’t interrupt. Perhaps he was too drained from training, or maybe he already had his suspis. He simply listened in silence.
With his current sensory abilities, Link was fident no Anbu could eavesdrop. Even if the Third Hokage attempted to spy using his Telescope Jutsu, Link would se. He wasn’t worried about his words spreading; he had already prepared an expnation for his vast knowledge.
So, he id everything out clearly: Shisui, Itachi, Danzo, and all the events surrounding the Uchiha massacre.
In the manga, Obito deliberately distorted the timeline, shifting the Uchiha 's persecution to just before the massacre to drive Sasuke against Konoha. The truth only came out during the Freat Ninja War when Orochimaru summohe past Hokage.
The so-called persecution had begun decades ago, rooted in Madara's departure from the vilge and his trol of the ails in an attempt to destroy Konoha.
Everything that followed stemmed from unresolved flicts and suspis. The Sed Hokage tried to address them but was killed by the Gold and Silver Brothers. The Third cked the ability to resolve the issue, leaving Shisui and Itachi with limited options when the Uchiha attempted their coup.
In the end, they chose the worst solution, maniputed by Danzo and Obito.
Uhe pale moonlight, with clouds drifting to obscure its dim glow, Link's youthful voice delivered the story. He cluded with Itachi infiltrating the Akatsuki as Konoha's spy arusting Sarutobi to care for Sasuke.
Sasuke sat silently for a long time, his tone devoid of emotion when he finally asked:
"How do you know all this?"
"I’ve had the ability to unicate with the dead for a long time," Link replied, weaving a half-truth into his answer.
Sasuke didn’t press for proof. Instead, he asked, "Why are you helping me?"
After hearing so mas, Sasuke didn’t believe Link was simply a ten-year-old in. Surely, there was more to his iions than the cept of "rades from the same vilge."
"I was born during the war," Link began, recalling his backstory.
"My mother didn’t even know she regnant when she went to the battlefield. She returned severely injured, discovered my existence, and recovered in the vilge before passing away when I was two. My father died on a mission when I was five."
He reflected on his life in this world—initial joy, subsequent sorrow, and lonely efforts. His childhood, devoid of possessions or family, seemed to boil down to these two simple sentences.
"Hey, Sasuke—" Liended his hand.
"You should know the pain of loss, shouldn’t you?"
After a moment, Sasuke’s voice finally came:
"Prove it—"
"Prove your ability to me."
…
Phase Three.
Link smiled, prepared to demonstrate. For the sake of seg an invaluable ally, he was willing to go all out.
Gathering his chakra, he performed a summoning jutsu. Infusing it with an excessive amount of chakra, he materialized the image of a deceased individual in the real world.
"Crossing the boundary between life ah, who are you—?"
The summoned figure, a semi-transparent man with short bck hair and a deep blue robe bearing the Uchiha ’s fan symbol, stopped mid-question when he saw Sasuke.
"Sasuke—" the man called softly.
Sasuke froze, his body trembling as he struggled to speak.
This guy—
Link maintained a ral expression but was internally astohe randomly summoned spirit turned out to be Fugaku Uchiha?!
What exactly determihe medium for his summoning jutsu?!
Sasuke suppressed his roiliions and formed hand seals to dispel an illusion, but nothing ged. The figure of his childhood memory stood firmly in pce.
"I’m Link," Link introduced himself, breaking the silence. "I’m Sasuke’s rade and the one who summoned you here."
Fugaku turo look at Link. His gaze lingered on the Konoha headband before his tone lightened slightly.
"Then, what do you need me to do?"
"Sasuke has some questions for you," Link replied, stepping back slowly. "I’ll leave you two to talk privately."
Sasuke raised his head and watched Link walk away before turning to face his father.
"Father..."
…
From a distance, Link stood in the shadow of the forest, too far to hear the father and son’s versation clearly.
Looking up at the sky, he noticed the thin drizzle f faint lines in the summer night breeze.
"It’s raining," he murmured.
…
Thirty mier.
The rain intensified, f a near-solid curtain that obscured the forest in a misty haze.
Walking through the muddy ground, Link approached Sasuke, who had not moved since Fugaku’s spirit returo the afterlife ten minutes earlier.
Drenched and staring into the distance, Sasuke’s face was unreadable.
"Now that you know everything—" Link’s voice was muffled by the rain.
"What will you pursue power for?"
He repeated the question he’d asked before.
After a while, Sasuke turo face him. Despite his soaked and disheveled appearance, his gaze locked onto the person who had revealed the truth to him.
Pain? Sadness? Hatred?
No, the crazed desire for destru had already been experienced before he sought the sed story.
Now, only profound fusion ainess remained.
"The world is far from perfect," Link said, meeting Sasuke’s gaze aending his hand once more.
"And being a ninja isn’t the best job."
"But there are still things worth cherishing."
"I’ve lost everything before... So I don’t want to see my precious rades die in front of me again."
Sasuke’s eyes seemed tain their light as memories of his teammates and Link’s sunny smile resurfaced. Slowly, as if his arm weighed a thousand pounds, he raised his hand and csped Link’s.
Looking at Link’s gentle smile, Sasuke murmured words even he couldn’t hear:
"For the sake of never losing anything again."
Unnoticed, his Sharingan evolved to three tomoe, swirling with new resolve.
