What If 1: Shikai and Zanpakutō
Seven-year-old Sasuke was startled awake by a cold wind in the open wilderness.
He shivered uncontrollably, his body wracked by tremors.
Though he saw only a desolate, barren field and sparse, thin trees in the distance under a dim, warm glow, his vision remained filled with a haunting crimson.
“Itachi Uchiha…”
He forced the name out through trembling lips.
Tears welled up in his eyes, unable to hold them back. His sorrow was for the family and friends he had lost, but there was also anger at himself—at his own weakness the night before.
He had hidden, shaking in a closet, without resistance.
He’d already begun learning to be a ninja and constantly said he would become a strong ninja like his father or like Itachi, but when faced with true terror, he hadn’t done anything.
How pathetic.