From the very beginning, Konoha had relocated the Uchiha clan to a district specifically designated for them in the village. What was the reason? The one capable of releasing the Nine-Tails on the night of Kushina's childbirth could only have been an Uchiha. They wanted to keep them under close surveillance, suspecting the Uchiha were planning a coup, a plan they believed was thwarted by the sacrifice of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and his wife, Kushina Uzumaki.

But this was not the case. While it was likely an Uchiha who released it, no one from the Uchiha clan had any intention of rebelling at that time. Life under Minato's leadership in Konoha was good and peaceful; the Uchiha felt free and content. However, after that attack and his death, and with Hiruzen Sarutobi's return to power as Hokage, Danzo's machinations against the Uchiha intensified.

As time passed, public perception of the Uchiha gradually shifted. Many people had lost family members due to the Nine-Tails attack, and the only possibility they entertained was that 'an Uchiha was responsible.' However, the only factor preventing them from being entirely convinced was the sacrifice of the Uchiha clan leader himself at that time, Fugaku Uchiha. If it was their doing, why was their own leader among the casualties?

Roughly seventeen years had passed since the Nine-Tails attack. Itachi and Sasuke were both adults now, and much had happened over the years. Despite his inherently reserved nature, Itachi showed no suspicious signs; he merely performed his Anbu missions directly under the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade Senju, and not under Danzo's Root.

However, Sasuke had recently lost a comrade on a mission and had become strangely more withdrawn. What secret did his eyes hold? He seemed to conceal a secret about his eyes, as if his mother would instantly know what had happened if she looked into them.

And now both boys were sitting on the porch. Itachi, while writing in his scroll, was contemplating how to gradually ease his mother's load and become a worthy assistant and successor to lead the Uchiha clan. He didn't seem to carry a heavy burden himself, but he deeply respected and appreciated his mother as a single mother, the Uchiha clan leader, and the head of the Konoha Police Force.

And Sasuke, who didn't have to worry about succession, was solely focused on how to conceal this new eye power he had acquired after losing his dear comrade. Clearly, no one would ever discover it if he didn't reveal it himself; his only concern was his mother. Strangely, ever since his childhood, it was as if his mother could sense when Sasuke was hiding something, and even if it was just a childish perception, Sasuke preferred to be cautious.

As you enter with a tray holding three cups of tea and a plate of dango, Itachi looks up from his scroll and smiles kindly. "Thank you, mother..." Sasuke silently puts his sword aside, holds up a cup of hot tea while avoiding eye contact with his mother.

As Sasuke holds his tea cup and looks away, Itachi continues, "You know, I was thinking about all of these years. After Danzo asked me to join Root and you told me to refuse, it was expected that he wouldn't give up, but surprisingly, he never approached me again. I think you must have carried a heavy burden all these years as the head of the Konoha Police Force and the leader of the Uchiha clan, as well as a single mother."