A bountiful fishing season should have been something to celebrate, but Hoshigaki Kisame saw it with his own eyes — the fishermen's lives hadn't improved at all. In fact, they were worse than before.
Ordinary folks had no way to store large amounts of seafood. If they couldn't sell it quickly, it would just rot and stink. Yet, with the fish market oversaturated, buyers took advantage of the situation, mercilessly driving down prices. The harder the fishermen worked, the more they were exploited, forced to sell their catch for next to nothing.
To make things worse, inflation was driving up the cost of all other necessities.
While out on missions, Kisame and Uchiha Itachi often encountered ordinary people beaten down by the hardships of life, struggling just to survive.
Kisame wasn't exactly a saint — he didn't care that much. But he couldn't understand: why did abundance lead to suffering? Itachi didn't get it either. It was something that went beyond his understanding as a shinobi.
Back then, Itachi had killed his own parents and clan for the sake of Konohagakure's peace and justice, shouldering all the blame by himself. He had been only thirteen years old, yet he was utterly intoxicated by the idea of self-sacrifice for the greater good. Even if you killed him cruelly, you couldn't break his will.
But after leaving Konoha, Itachi couldn't say for sure if he was still as unwavering. The village had fallen into turmoil after the Uchiha Clan's downfall — a chaos that hadn't yet fully settled. This outcome was completely opposite to the goal he'd once had when he made the terrible decision to massacre his clan. Cracks began to form in the conviction he had once been so sure of, and doubt crept into his heart.
During this time, Itachi witnessed firsthand the harsh realities of life for the poor. He met all kinds of people, saw strange and bizarre things, and gradually came to understand what it really meant when they said, "Plans can't keep up with changes."
Just like how a good fishing season had brought even greater misery to the fishermen, Itachi began to fear that everything he had done might someday condemn Konoha — and Sasuke — to a fate far worse than he had ever imagined.
Word of Itachi's reasons for annihilating the Uchiha Clan had already spread across the entire shinobi world. "He abandoned narrow clan loyalties to embrace the broader family of Konoha" — that kind of idealistic thinking was difficult for most people to grasp.
Kisame had once joked with him, "Itachi-san, why not abandon your narrow loyalty to Konoha too, and serve the Land of Fire directly instead? As far as I know, Konoha and the Land of Fire don't exactly share the same will. Shouldn't the nation matter more than the village?"
Kisame swore he was just joking... but Itachi had seemed disturbingly thoughtful about it.
...
Meanwhile, back in Konoha, Sasuke was having a serious conversation about Itachi, the village, and the Uchiha Clan.
It all started from Sasuke's confusion. He couldn't understand: the Uchiha had been one of Konoha's founding clans. How had things fallen apart so badly in the end?
Without finding an answer to that question, Sasuke knew he would never be able to let go — even if he destroyed Konoha.
The shadowy figure asked him, "Do you know the original reason why Konoha started suppressing and ostracizing the Uchiha?"
Sasuke thought hard, trying to recall the manga's story, and answered slowly,
"It was Senju Tobirama. He didn't trust the Uchiha, so as Hokage, he replaced their government positions with duties that would inevitably cause friction with the villagers — oh, wait, not government roles, but the police force. That way, the Uchiha were gradually isolated!"
The shadow didn't refute him, only said,
"You're a descendant of the Uchiha. Naturally, you look at things from the Uchiha's point of view. So your words are full of personal bias."
"Sure, Tobirama definitely had his flaws. If he were just the head of the Senju Clan, it wouldn't have mattered what he thought of the Uchiha. But he was the Second Hokage. There's a saying: 'The preferences of those at the top are amplified by those below.' If he casually made comments like 'the evil Uchiha,' the people under him would absolutely follow his lead."
"In that kind of environment, even if the Uchiha had wanted to build good relationships with other clans, who would have dared defy the Second Hokage's prejudice? The Uchiha were isolated, so they clung tightly to the little power they had — their police authority. But that only made the rift with the villagers even deeper, leading to a vicious cycle."
At this point, Sasuke couldn't hold back and interrupted,
"As the village's leader, Tobirama didn't even understand the importance of leading by example! He personally fueled the divisions, and his students inherited all his biases — if anything, they made it worse, especially Shimura Danzō!"
"The Uchiha might have been proud and arrogant, but they were still human. They shed blood on the battlefield and came home only to be treated with suspicion by their own people. Sometimes Danzō even targeted them behind the scenes. It's only natural the Uchiha became resentful, complained, and resisted."
"Looking at it from any angle, the Uchiha were clearly victims of Konoha's oppression! So why did Itachi think it was the Uchiha who were wrong? Was he expecting them to give everything without asking for anything in return?"
Sasuke's voice was thick with resentment, as if the Uchiha were the most innocent victims imaginable. But the shadow quickly corrected him.
"You think the Uchiha were completely blameless in their downfall? Reality isn't that simple. They had plenty of their own problems."
Before Sasuke could argue, the shadow continued,
"First, you have a major blind spot. From the Uchiha's perspective, Konoha was founded through cooperation between Senju and Uchiha. But what about from the Senju's point of view?"
"Don't kid yourself. The Senju defeated the Uchiha. Senju Hashirama didn't kill Madara or exterminate the Uchiha — he proposed building a village together. But in the Senju's eyes, the Uchiha were the losers, the ones forced into signing a treaty. Prisoners of war! If not for Hashirama's generosity, the Uchiha would've been wiped from history!"
"Most people don't know how deep Hashirama and Madara's bond really was. Outsiders only saw Hashirama's decision as a masterstroke — winning over even their greatest enemies, proving the village's sincerity, and encouraging smaller clans to join."
"So when the Uchiha kept insisting they were a 'founding clan,' you think the Senju or anyone else took it seriously? They probably just laughed behind their backs."
"By Fugaku's generation, the Uchiha had collectively lost their minds. They couldn't keep secrets, couldn't rally their elite members, let themselves get manipulated into giving away their Mangekyō Sharingan... They couldn't even manage basic unity. Their downfall was honestly well-deserved."
The shadow's words were sharp and merciless. Sasuke's face darkened.
"So you're saying the Uchiha had it coming?"
The shadow chuckled. "Wasn't it the Uchiha's own young clan head who destroyed them~?"
Sasuke's face turned even blacker. "That idiot Itachi!"
The shadow grew serious.
"Honestly, you don't need to worry about understanding Konoha or Itachi's thoughts. When you try to see things from your enemy's perspective, you risk being tainted by their way of thinking."
Sasuke muttered, "I'm not trying to understand them. I just... just... I don't even know what exactly I'm struggling with, but there's this suffocating frustration in my chest that I can't get rid of!"
The shadow immediately understood.
"Maybe what you really want is to stand on the moral high ground and pass judgment. You want to see Konoha's leaders and Itachi break down in tears, overwhelmed with regret. You want to be the righteous one, forcing them to acknowledge their sins."
Sasuke: "..."
Damn it. He really had nailed it.
----------------
Pls Drop some Power Stones
+60 chapters and support me on Patreon(.)com/Jixo