My name is Uchiha Touhuan, and I beat the villagers so badly they cried out in pain.

Chapter 77 Itachi Uchiha's Decision

When Itachi returned home, it was already late at night. Sasuke and Mikoto had already gone to sleep, but Fugaku was still busy in the study.

Uchiha Itachi took a deep breath, glanced at the familiar furnishings in his home, and then returned to his room.

Not long after, Itachi Uchiha, carrying a box of luggage, walked out of the room and came to the entrance.

Just then, a dignified voice came from behind him: "Where are you planning to go?"

Itachi Uchiha turned to look at his father and said calmly, "I plan to move out. The clan's missions have taken up a lot of time, and I'll probably have more missions in the Anbu recently. The house is still too far from the village."

Fugaku's face was cold, and his lips twitched slightly. After a long while, he finally spoke: "Itachi, once you've made a choice, there's no going back."

Upon hearing this, Itachi Uchiha stopped and turned back, saying solemnly, "Father, what we can't turn back from is the current state of our clan."

Fugaku Uchiha sighed. His Mangekyou Sharingan allowed him to see fragments of the future, and these fragments would change according to his thoughts and choices. He once saw himself and his wife die at Itachi Uchiha's hands, but Sasuke was able to rebuild the glory of the Uchiha clan in the future. He had tried to reverse this future, but in the end, he realized that he did not have the ability to change it and could only quietly wait for his own fate.

However, after Uchiha Touhuan forcefully intervened in the clan's affairs, the previous ending quietly shattered. Uchiha Fugaku saw a completely new future. Although this new future was only a small fragment, it almost blinded his Mangekyou Sharingan due to the backlash. However, he could still vaguely see the clan's prosperity far surpassing that of his ancestors.

However, in this future, the only thing missing is Itachi.

He wanted to save his son, so he made several more attempts after that, including trying to tell Itachi about his eye techniques in their entirety. But even after his Mangekyou Sharingan power was nearly exhausted and his eyesight was almost half-blind, the outcome was still the same. He had to accept the fact that he could not persuade his eldest son to come back, just as he had accepted his own fate.

Calling out to Uchiha Itachi today was merely his last attempt as a father.

As Fugaku watched Itachi's blurry figure disappear into the distance, he couldn't help but recall what Uchiha Touken had told him: if he hadn't brought four-year-old Itachi to the battlefield, things might not have turned out this way.

……

The next morning, Sasuke got up and immediately ran to Itachi's room. Although the conversation last night was a bit unpleasant, Sasuke had made a plan before falling asleep last night: to apologize to his brother first thing in the morning and then have his brother take him to school.

However, when he pushed open the door to Itachi Uchiha's room, he found the room empty. Itachi Uchiha hadn't taken much with him. Apart from a few changes of clothes and his usual ninja tools, he only took a photo of himself and Sasuke that he had always kept in the room. But Sasuke felt something was amiss because of this.

"Mom? Where did my brother go?" Sasuke ran into the kitchen and asked Mikoto, who was making breakfast and preparing bento boxes.

"Itachi will be very busy in the Anbu recently," Fugaku replied to Sasuke, who was drinking tea at a nearby table.

Upon hearing this news, Sasuke lowered his head dejectedly, and after a while, he said, "Did I make my brother angry last night?"

"This has nothing to do with you, Sasuke," Fugaku said. "Hurry up and finish your meal so you can go to school."

"Okay," Sasuke said weakly.

……

Itachi Uchiha, who had spent the night at an inn in the village, changed into his Anbu gear early the next morning and went to the Hokage Building to report.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was equally surprised to see Itachi Uchiha reporting for duty. He knew that Itachi had been sent by the clan to inspect the Uchiha clan's businesses in the Land of Fire. He had originally thought that Itachi would leave the Anbu under the clan's arrangement after returning, but he did not expect Itachi to come back to report for duty today.

"Lord Hokage, I apologize for taking such a long leave due to a clan mission." Itachi Uchiha, wearing a mask, bowed to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"It's alright, it's alright," Hiruzen Sarutobi said with a smile. "Whether it's a clan mission or an Anbu mission, it's all for the sake of the village."

"Lord Hokage, have the Anbu had any missions lately?" Itachi Uchiha asked.

Faced with Itachi Uchiha's question, Hiruzen Sarutobi did not rush to answer, but instead asked in return, "Itachi, the Security Department has made a lot of contributions to the village recently. Why don't you try working at the Security Department for a while? The Anbu doesn't have many missions lately, so working there would make commuting much easier for you, since the Anbu base is quite a distance from the Uchiha clan's territory."

After experiencing all these events, especially witnessing Shisui's Susanoo displaying its power against the Mitokado clan in the Utatane chamber, Hiruzen Sarutobi's trust in Itachi Uchiha was clearly no longer as strong as before.

"I probably can't be of much help with the security department, I'm more used to being here in the Anbu," Itachi Uchiha said with his head down. "As for the commuting issue, I've already decided to move out of the Uchiha clan's territory and rent a house in the village."

Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, not a single look!

After hearing Itachi Uchiha's reply, Hiruzen Sarutobi gave him a deep look, pondered for a moment, and then said, "Yesterday, a caravan from the Land of Lightning came to the village. According to reports from the village ninjas, some of the people in the caravan are acting suspiciously. Shikaku suspects that they are people sent by the Land of Lightning to make contact with spies lurking in the village. I have already sent ANBU to monitor them. Go and assist them. I believe that with the help of your Sharingan, you will definitely be able to find their clues and follow the trail to find the spies lurking in the village."

Upon hearing this, Itachi Uchiha nodded vigorously: "Yes."

……

While Itachi Uchiha was monitoring the caravan coming from the Land of Lightning, the interrogation of those from the Shimura, Utatane, and Mitomon clans who were colluding with Orochimaru was also proceeding in an orderly manner.

The evidence Orochimaru fabricated for Uchiha Touhuan was only partially true. Among the dozens of people captured, some may not have actually participated in kidnapping their fellow villagers, but most of them, especially the die-hard members of the Shimura clan, were not innocent. Under Uchiha Touhuan's special arrangement, the ANBU sent by Hiruzen Sarutobi to assist in the investigation were responsible for interrogating these people. With the ANBU's professional methods, they quickly got them to talk.

Then, the police seized the properties of the three clans to compensate the victims in these old cases.

(End of this chapter)