The sound of footsteps racing down the hallway stopped outside the door. “Father! Mother!” his brother shouted.
“Sasuke … You must not come in!” the father he had thought was dead shouted to the other side of the door. And then this time, he really did stop moving.
The door slowly opened. Spotting the figures of his mother and father collapsed on the ground, Sasuke flew into the room.
“Father!! Mother!!”
Itachi showed his brother a face hidden by the moonlight.
His little brother’s face was damp with sweat, and his eyes were twisted in fear. “Itachi!”
Sasuke took a step on trembling legs, and began to speak desperately, spreading both arms wide. “Itachi!! Itachi!! Father and Mother are—!! How?! Why?! Who would do such a—”
Itachi flung a kunai into the door behind Sasuke.
“Ngh!” A narrow cut appeared on the boy’s shoulder, exposed by the rip in his clothes.
“Foolish little brother … ” His final job. He would never be allowed to go back now.
Mangekyo sharingan …
“Aaaaah!!”
Father …
Blood spray.
Mother …
Itachi …
The Uchiha crest ripped apart.
Two people covered in blood …
All the hatred he would leave behind, so his brother could live.
Crawling on the ground, almost licking it, Sasuke turned just his face toward Itachi. “Why … did you … ?”
“To measure my capacity.”
“… Measure your capacity? You … You killed them for that?”
“I had to.”
“What’s …” Power came back to his little brother’s body. “What’s wrong with you?!”
Unable to move properly after being caught by the Mangekyo sharingan, Sasuke simply leaned forward as if to start running, and fell over. Before him was the face of their father, the spark of life gone.
In that instant, his little brother got up, and flew from the room. He ran out of the house, and fled onto the street.
Fleeing showed an attachment to life. It was proof of a desire to live.
Finish it …
He stood in front of his brother.
“It’s not true. My brother wouldn’t do this. Because—”
“Pretending to be the kind of brother you hoped for … was to determine your ability.”
Live.
“You will be an opponent to test my abilities. You have that potential in you.”
Live.
“You felt anger and hatred toward me. You’ve always hoped to surpass me, so I’ll let you live.”
Live.
“… For my sake.”
Live.
“Just like me, you have the power to awaken the Mangekyo sharingan. But there’s a catch.”
Sasuke stayed silent.
“You have to … kill your closest friend.”
Sasuke’s eyebrows shot up.
“Just as I did … ”
Sasuke’s eyebrows threatened to shoot off his forehead.
Live.
“That was you … You killed Shisui?!”
“And now I have the eyes.”
Live.
“In the main hall of Nakano shrine … Under the seventh tatami mat from the far right, there’s a secret clan meeting place.”
“What?!”
“There, you’ll find the true secret of why the visual jutsu of the Uchiha clan exists, and for what purpose.”
Sasuke’s face was full of questions.
“If you awaken it, then there will be three people who have the Mangekyo sharingan, including me. If that happens … heh, heh. Then I’ll be right in letting you live.”
Live.
“Right now … ”
Sasuke looked alarmed.
“You are not even worth killing.”
Live.
“Baby brother, you’re pathetic.”
Survive.
“If you want to kill me, settle for hating me! Hate me and live like the coward you are! Clinging to life without honor!”
Please.
“And someday, when you have the same eyes as I, come to me.”
Live through this reality that I’m leaving you …
Trembling, his brother collapsed as though his strings had been cut.
Sasuke stuck his right leg out to brace himself, the eyes he looked at his older brother with filled with a crimson light.
Awakening.
And so, Sasuke gained another power to live. The timing was appropriate.
Itachi leapt up into the sky, about to disappear.
“Stop!!” His little brother flew up into the sky after him, and threw the three kunai that had appeared in his hand at some point.
Itachi held his breath at that sharpness. He dodged two. But he couldn’t completely get out of the way of the last one. He tilted his head slightly, and took it on his forehead protector; the force of the kunai undid the knot where it was tied. The kunai plunged into the ground, and Itachi’s forehead protector tumbled down next to it.
As his little brother charged him from behind, breathing hard, shoulders heaving, Itachi slowly picked up his forehead protector. Already using up the last of his strength, Sasuke wouldn’t be able move from the spot.
But Itachi didn’t have the luxury of worrying about the positioning of his forehead protector. With the Konoha mark facing off to the right, he tied it roughly. He wanted to get away from there as soon as possible.
Because Itachi was crying.
His feelings, supposedly frozen, were shaken by the figure of his little brother desperately, clumsily, awkwardly clinging to him. Sasuke was mustering every last ounce of strength he had to try and stop his big brother; Itachi loved this Sasuke so much he could hardly stand it. He even had the impulse to run away with him. But under no circumstances could he do that.
Sasuke had to walk in a place where the sun reached as a ninja of the village. Itachi’s life from that point on would be in the darkness. They would never live in the same place again. Not until Itachi’s final days. Only then would a chance meeting in their lives be permitted.
The hero who killed his older brother, an evil criminal, and took vengeance for their clan. That was the glory that Sasuke would be given. For that purpose, Itachi would come face to face with his little brother one more time.
He would be killed by his brother. That was the form of Itachi’s death. To that end, he could not allow Sasuke to see him crying.
He pressed his forehead protector onto his head, and steeled himself.
Farewell for now.