Chapter 215
Sasuke lay on the ground, exhausted and gasping for breath. Even with the power to control lightning, he hadn't expected to come this close to death. Itachi's genjutsu was truly hard to defend against.
He stared blankly at Itachi's lifeless body. Although his revenge had succeeded, he felt no joy—only an endless void and confusion lingered in his heart.
What now? he wondered. What do I do with my life? Where do I go from here? Was all this even meaningful? He had no answers.
Raindrops splattered across his face as if nature mourned with him. In the final moments before death, Itachi had said something—Sasuke couldn't quite make it out. Yet, for some reason, he recalled words Itachi used to tell him when they were little.
Thinking back to Itachi's strange behavior, Sasuke suddenly realized—Itachi had been hiding something from him.
"Even without these eyes... I can still stand at the peak..." Sasuke muttered as he struggled to his feet. Rain soaked his entire body, water sliding down his cheeks—tears or rain, it was impossible to tell. Lightning crackled in his hands. He wouldn't allow Itachi's body to be desecrated. The pride of the Uchiha Clan would not be tarnished.
A swirling space vortex appeared, and Tobi—his spiral mask slowly turning—emerged. His body seemed to twist unnaturally from the eye hole, like noodles stretching. He reached out with one hand and absorbed Itachi's body into a mysterious space. With the other, he made a halting gesture toward Sasuke.
Sasuke clenched his fists, irritation flaring. This bastard had shown up out of nowhere just to take Itachi's body. His intentions were clearly suspicious. But what shocked him more than the theft was the eye behind Tobi's mask—a blood-red Sharingan, slowly rotating.
"Who the hell are you? Another Uchiha?" Sasuke demanded. He wanted to say he was the only one left, but he couldn't rule out the possibility that the man had transplanted a Sharingan.