Chapter 288: Sasuke and Itachi
If Naruto Uzumaki, after ending his conversation with Rei Kaguya, could not help having his thoughts surge and churn because of the various pieces of intelligence the other party had revealed, then on Sasuke Uchiha’s side, the matter that made him feel conflicted was something of an entirely different flavor.
“So, you are, uh, me from thirty years later, mister?”
The young and spirited Sasuke Uchiha, who had not yet been beaten down by society, looked at Sasuke Uchiha, the adult version currently tidying up the guest room in his house, and asked with curiosity all over his face.
“If you do not want to think too hard, you can understand it that way.”
Sasuke Uchiha looked at the guest room environment that was gradually matching and overlapping with the images in his memory, and sighed with a complicated mood.
He had never imagined that one day, when he returned to the Uchiha clan’s residence in Konoha, he would do so as an invited guest.
But for the current Sasuke Uchiha, only a status like guest would prevent him and the family of the young Sasuke Uchiha from feeling awkward and strange.
After all, not everyone could accept suddenly gaining a son whose age was not that far from their own.
“Then, can you let me see what your Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and Rinne Sharingan look like?”
The young Sasuke Uchiha tugged at the hem of adult Sasuke Uchiha’s clothes and asked with great interest, “When we were in the Hokage’s office, Lord Mizukage said these two super, super powerful dojutsu are the evidence that can prove your true identity. Even if you do not want to display that kind of power in front of other people, there should be no problem letting me see, right? You are me, and I am you, are we not?”
“That is not something worth boasting about. If possible, you had best never get involved with them for your entire life.”
Sasuke Uchiha frowned and spoke to “himself,” who still knew nothing and looked like an innocent child, in an extremely complicated tone.
“Huh? Why?”
The young Sasuke Uchiha pursued the question relentlessly, looking very much as though if adult Sasuke Uchiha did not explain the matter clearly, he would pester him and not let him sleep.
“Because for us Uchiha, the Mangekyo Sharingan does not only mean power. It also means unparalleled sorrow and loss.”
The person who spoke was Itachi Uchiha, who had just knocked on the door and entered.
After hearing his older brother say such words, the young Sasuke Uchiha immediately abandoned the lifeless and completely unfun “himself,” then happily bounced to Itachi Uchiha’s side and clung to his older brother as he asked, “Can you explain in a bit more detail, Nii-san?”
“That sort of thing is still far away from Sasuke. At the very least, you should wait until you complete all the courses at the Ninja Academy as the top student of your year, then go to Kirigakure to complete one or two elective courses, and then we can talk about these things.”
Itachi Uchiha gently rubbed the young Sasuke Uchiha’s head dotingly, using a warm tone that sounded like he was coaxing a child.
“All right, it is already late. Time to go to sleep, Sasuke… Remember to finish the milk I placed by your bedside before sleeping, understood?”
“Nii-san Tell me about it”
The young Sasuke Uchiha grabbed Itachi Uchiha’s clothes and refused to let go, acting spoiled and shameless in a rather sickening way.
“No~ Sasuke is not yet mature enough to bear the weight of this knowledge. Be good and go to sleep, all right?”
“Ugh, Nii-san is biased!”
The young Sasuke Uchiha made a huge face at Itachi Uchiha, then pretended to be angry as he ran barefoot out of adult Sasuke Uchiha’s guest room.
After watching his younger brother leave, Itachi Uchiha turned his face and spoke to adult Sasuke Uchiha, whose eyes were somewhat dazed, in a slightly apologetic tone.
“I am sorry, Sasuke.”
“Why are you suddenly apologizing, Itachi?”
Sasuke Uchiha withdrew his distracted expression and looked at the Uchiha Itachi before him, whose brows and eyes were gentle, and who wore a pair of plain glasses that had nothing to do with killing intent or bloodshed. His mood was complicated as he said softly, “You did nothing wrong, did you?”
“But in the world on your side, I should have done some terrible things that troubled you for a very long time and from which you were unable to free yourself, right?”
Itachi Uchiha pushed up his glasses and looked up at this “younger brother,” who was nearly half a head taller than himself. His expression was also somewhat solemn.
“The Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, according to the ancient records in the clan, is an eye whose ocular power never dries up, obtained by seizing the Mangekyo Sharingan of a blood brother born from the same mother… Given your personality, Sasuke, unless the situation was truly unavoidable, even if I personally dug out my eyes and gave them to you, you absolutely would not accept them, right?”
“You also heard about the future from that Mizukage, Itachi?” Sasuke Uchiha was silent for a while, then asked softly.
“No.”
Itachi Uchiha shook his head, then sighed as he said, “However, I know that the world on your side is one where Lord Mizukage does not exist. And if Lord Mizukage’s activities had not existed, what sort of terrible situation the Uchiha clan would have ended up in is something I can more or less infer based on what I have learned and the events that have already happened in this world.”
“What did you see?” Sasuke Uchiha continued asking.
“The extinction of the Uchiha clan.”
Itachi Uchiha paused slightly, took a blank scroll from the bookshelf in the guest room, then took out a pen from his chest and began writing simple notes on it.
“If Lord Mizukage did not exist, then Danzo would not have died during the Third Shinobi World War, and Shisui would not have been captured by Kirigakure. If we derive from that foundation, Shisui should have become the person who enlightened my thoughts and shaped my dream. Meanwhile, Danzo Shimura, who has always treated the Uchiha clan with radical hostility, would continue exerting his influence within Konoha’s upper ranks.”
“If matters were like that, then on the night of the Nine-Tails’ rampage, Obito might not have sent Kumogakure and Iwagakure’s Jinchuriki near Konoha, but the fact that he would attack the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and use the ocular power of the Sharingan to control the Nine-Tails and destroy Konoha Village probably would not change.”
“The Nine-Tails plus the Sharingan. Even if the Uchiha clan could prove afterward that the person who controlled the Nine-Tails was not someone from within the clan, it would not change the reality that the other people in the village would develop hostility and distance toward the Uchiha clan… And if we continuously became alienated from the other shinobi in the village, then we would inevitably be further regarded by Konoha’s higher-ups as an uncontrollable thorn in their side.”
“And if Shisui had not gone over to Kirigakure, then he would definitely have become a Konoha Anbu and worked hard to ease the conflict between the clan and the village… As for me, I would probably have followed in his footsteps and worked together with him toward that goal.”
“But that would most likely be useless… The conflict between the Uchiha clan and Konoha had already accumulated to a point where personal effort could no longer salvage it. A violent clash between the two sides would inevitably erupt, and that clash would decide who exactly was Konoha’s leader.”
“And the success rate of challenging an entire village with the power of one clan is obviously not high. In order, under such a contradiction, to avoid both the extinction of the Uchiha clan and damage to the village so severe that it would attract the covetous eyes of foreign enemies, Shisui and I would probably take some abnormal actions within that situation.”
“However, looking at the result, the person who made that choice against common sense in the end should have been me… Otherwise, Sasuke, you would not have obtained that pair of Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.”
After the proof ended, Itachi Uchiha set down the scroll that had already been filled with writing.
Then he opened his arms and tightly hugged adult Sasuke Uchiha, who was trembling all over, and once again said to him, “You must have had a very hard life, Sasuke…”
“…It is already in the past, Nii-san.”
“As long as it has passed, that is good, Sasuke… Rest well. This time, Father, Mother, I, and Sasuke will face the dangers from the future together with you.”
“Mm.”