Board Thread:Fanon Canon 2/@comment-2185383-20140924182221/@comment-24384232-20140928010925

No one's debating that. Simply the assumption that Hiruzen had a conscience he needed to appease in the first place. Sasuke wasn't the only child at the time of the massacre. There were elderly, civilians, there were others as well. Itachi's condition for carrying out this act was that his brother be spared.

Hiruzen was going to allow the clan in its entirety to be destroyed. A man capable of that is perfectly willing and able to sleep at night with the blood of the innocents on his hand.