The Uchiha clan, which was wiped out entirely, lacked vision.

Chapter 216 The greatest sorrow is a broken heart

Chapter 216 The greatest sorrow is a broken heart

As Jiraiya watched Itachi's gaze dim little by little, turning from hope to disappointment, and then to despair, he felt an intense unease in his heart.

Finally, after carefully considering his words, he said comfortingly, "Itachi, this is not your fault."

"This is...this is a wrong decision made by the village; you were just an executor."

"You did nothing wrong by being loyal to the village."

You don't have to feel bad about other people's mistakes.

"Let bygones be bygones. We should look forward instead of getting stuck in the pain of the past."

"Believe me, Itachi. After I become Hokage, I will definitely change the bad habits of the village and make the future of the village better."

"Itachi, come help me! Let's rebuild Konoha together, and create a beautiful village where everyone can live happily."

Jiraiya sincerely comforted Itachi, while An watched from the sky with malice, his mouth practically stretched to his ears.

In order not to interrupt Jiraiya, An had to cover his mouth tightly with both hands to prevent his laughter from leaking out.

Jiraiya wasn't entirely insincere, and what he said wasn't without reason, but the problem was that he completely failed to understand the obsessive effects of the Mangekyou Sharingan, nor did he know where the obsession lay.

This isn't a question of right or wrong at all!

It's not a matter of assigning responsibility either!

As expected, everything went as An predicted. Jiraiya's words of comfort did not help Itachi; instead, it caused him to break down even more.

He was as if he were dead, with no trace of life in his body, only a dry sound coming out of his throat.

"So, killing the entire Uchiha clan wouldn't benefit the village at all, right?"

"Uh—" Jiraiya hesitated for a moment, then said, avoiding the main point, "Let's just leave the past behind!"

"Hiruzen-sensei has already passed away, and several of the Hokage's assistants have already paid the price with their lives for this, so we don't need to dwell on whether it's good or bad."

"Heh heh—" Itachi suddenly let out a bitter laugh, his face filled with deathly aura. "How can I not be conflicted?"

"If wiping out the entire Uchiha clan wouldn't benefit the village at all, then what's the point of me doing it?"

"And what exactly have I done?"

"What's the point of all my insistence?"

Faced with Itachi's question, Jiraiya realized that he had made a mistake again.

"Uh—you, you were obeying the village's orders!" he tried to defend Itachi. "The village gave the order, how could you refuse?"

"But the village didn't force me!" Itachi collapsed to the ground, his spine seemingly ripped out, and said miserably, "I took on this mission willingly!"

"Hahaha—" An, who was eavesdropping from the sky, finally couldn't hold back any longer and slapped his thigh in laughter. "Jiraiya, you really delivered the finishing blow!"

"Itachi's motivation for massacring the clan was that he thought it would benefit Konoha, save the village from war, and keep the village at peace."

"Does he even care about right or wrong, or who bears the responsibility?"

"No, he doesn't care about those trivial things at all!"

"He only cares about one thing: whether what he does actually benefits Konoha Village!"

"He wouldn't hesitate to kill his own parents if it benefited Konoha!"

"No one forced him; he did it willingly!"

Once An Yi woke him up, Jiraiya immediately realized what had happened. His expression changed several times in an instant, and he was filled with regret. He deeply regretted speaking recklessly without understanding the situation, which had backfired.

"Hahaha————" An laughed loudly as she flew around in the sky, like a happy little bee, sometimes drawing an S shape and sometimes a B shape.

"Jiraiya, you probably couldn't understand Itachi's thought process either, right?"

"Isn't that pretty bizarre?"

"It's normal to be surprised. What ordinary person would have such a distorted worldview?"

"Let me tell you, Jiraiya, as a child prodigy, Itachi is incredibly arrogant!"

"He never believed in other people's ways of protecting Konoha; he always firmly believed that his way of protecting the village would be better."

"He loves this village deeply, so he wants to protect Konoha in his own way."

"But now it seems that his 'protection' wasn't protection at all, but rather harm!"

"And another thing, do you think he's loyal to Konoha or Hiruzen Sarutobi?"

"No, he's being driven by his own obsession!"

An stretched out his hand, pointed at Jiraiya, and exclaimed exaggeratedly, "And you, my hero, you just shattered Itachi's obsession!"

"As expected, only someone with a heart full of light like you can truly sting a dark creature like Itachi!"

"One sentence from you is far more effective than a thousand or ten thousand sentences from me!"

"No matter what I say to him, he won't believe me. He'll just think I'm maliciously slandering Hiruzen Sarutobi or trying to sow discord between him and the village."

"Only when a Hokage like you, who still has a sense of right and wrong, speaks up and tells him that everything he has done has only harmed Konoha and brought him no benefit whatsoever, will he truly give up!"

"Haha, Jiraiya, what you said before completely negated the meaning of his existence!"

An gave a thumbs-up, praising sincerely, "Well done, Jiraiya!"

"Look, you've solved such a big problem for me as soon as you took office."

"I want to thank you, Jiraiya."

Listening to An's affected, operatic singing and seeing Itachi who had completely lost the will to live, Jiraiya's face turned pale, and his head buzzed.

Although he knew before that there were things like killing someone by destroying their spirit, he had never encountered a second one in all his years of life, except for the incident with Hatake Sakumo.

Most ninjas do things by directly destroying the body; there aren't that many cunning old foxes who leave people there to kill them instead of messing with their mentality.

In his mind, only daimyo, nobles, or politicians liked to play this game, since they were dealing with their own people and it was inconvenient for them to kill.

Who would have thought that he had only just taken over the Hokage's mantle and hadn't even officially assumed office yet, but he had already witnessed firsthand what it meant to "kill someone by destroying their spirit"!

Itachi is still alive, but he can basically be considered dead.

How can a ninja who has lost all hope carry out a mission?

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