Sasuke stared blankly at Naruto, lying on the ground, his face pale.
At the last moment, Naruto seemed to see Sasuke, his lips trembled, but no sound came out. He could only tilt his head back and fall to the ground, washed by the heavy rain.
"I will definitely bring you back to Konoha!"
Sasuke mumbled. In the end, back in the Land of Nothingness, Naruto had said the same thing to him. Now he had returned, but he hadn't seen him. Had he really died?
Sasuke stood silently in the pouring rain, an unspeakable sadness in his heart. His brother was dead, and Naruto was dead. The people in this world who truly cared about him... were all gone.
"Everything I did was for you, my foolish, yet most beloved brother."
"I will definitely bring you back to Konoha."
These two sentences swirled in Sasuke's mind like a curse. Sasuke gritted his teeth, his hands clenched tightly. His nose stung, and his eyes felt like they had something in them, so he couldn't help but close them.
But, tears the size of beans fell uncontrollably onto the ground...
Everything with Itachi, the days spent with Naruto, things that Sasuke had once considered "dead weight" were now, at this moment, transformed into the most precious treasures of his life.
As he finally understood love, tears and drops of blood fell from his eyes.
...
"That's it, it's done!" Neji clearly watched as Sasuke's Chakra surged like a spring into his eyes. He immediately announced, feeling a sense of pride.
After all, this was his plan. He had used genjutsu to activate the Mangekyou, which was quite unique.
The moment he and Itachi withdrew the genjutsu, blood flowed from Sasuke's eyes. His blood-red eyes snapped open, and within the black pupils, crimson six-pointed star petals floated peacefully.
Mangekyou Sharingan—Hitotsume.
Hiss!
As his eyes opened, a powerful black flame erupted on a nearby wall, filling the alley with an indescribable heat.
"Amaterasu!" Itachi exclaimed in surprise, not expecting Sasuke to awaken the same ability as him.
Bang!
At this moment, with a few crisp sounds, Neji was quick-witted again. With a few blows from a brick, Sasuke's vision went black, and he dizzily fainted.
"Neji, what are you doing?" Itachi's mouth twitched. Hitting Sasuke with a brick right in front of him was certainly an interesting move.
"We went too far with the excitement. He got too emotional and needs to calm down," Neji said casually, glancing subtly at Sasuke. This guy was truly a case of love-hate with Naruto.
Naruto's sacrifice, boundless power.
Itachi nodded, finding Neji's words believable. He immediately produced a sealing technique to seal Amaterasu and, with Neji and the others, vanished from the spot.
It was late at night when Sasuke groggily woke up in a room. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw Itachi. His mind roared, and his heart skipped a beat.
"Itachi... Brother, why are you here?" Sasuke leaned back, accidentally hitting the back of his head, and winced, gasping in pain.
"Why does my head hurt so much?" Sasuke thought to himself, a feeling of dying growing within him, his expression extremely complex.
"Itachi, explain it to him!" Neji said calmly.
"Alright," Itachi nodded and explained everything that had happened, though he instinctively avoided mentioning the brick.
"So, you were playing me?" Sasuke's cold gaze swept over everyone. All his tears were shed for nothing, and it was all fake. Itachi was alive, and Naruto was just training.
Sasuke, with his temper, would have really wanted to burn the place down if he hadn't already been psychologically scarred by Neji.
"Hm?" Neji's indifferent gaze turned to Sasuke, and he said lightly, "If it wasn't to make you awaken the Mangekyou, would we have gone to all this trouble?"
Sasuke fell silent, his mouth twitching. He felt that if he said another word, Neji would find an excuse to strike him again. Although Itachi said nothing, he had keenly noticed that the lump on his head was surely Neji's doing.
"Mangekyou Sharingan, huh? Not bad," Sasuke said, very satisfied. With this power alone, he could reach the quasi-Kage level, or even the Kage level.
"With this power, I can definitely kill those two guys," Sasuke said, clenching his fist, a flash of excitement in his eyes.
"Sasuke, seeing you activate the Mangekyou makes me feel at ease," Itachi said gently to Sasuke. "However, the Mangekyou Sharingan consumes eyesight. Only by becoming the Eternal Mangekyou can this hidden danger be eliminated."
"Eternal Mangekyou?"
"Ah, Eternal Mangekyou, which is to merge..." Before Itachi could finish, Neji interrupted him.
"Itachi, it's not time yet. I will fulfill your wish, but not now," Neji said calmly.
Sacrificing Itachi to get Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyou, he wasn't foolish enough to do that.
"Is that so, alright," Itachi said, ruffling Sasuke's slightly awkward hair and smiling. He was reluctant to part with Sasuke too.
"Alright, Brother, I'm not a child anymore," Sasuke said discontentedly, feeling a little awkward with everyone watching his brother pat his head.
With the emotional barrier removed, the brothers had returned to their previously close relationship, at least from Sasuke's perspective. But what was Itachi thinking?
Compared to the clan members who had died, he had carried this pain his whole life. If he hadn't been so concerned about Sasuke, he might have chosen to die elsewhere.
"It seems sending you to Orochimaru back then was the right gamble," Itachi said, stroking Sasuke's head, feeling relieved.
"Brother, what, what did you say?" Sasuke was astonished, and the others were no better, almost not believing their ears.
Neji clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Haven't you guys figured it out yet? Orochimaru withdrawing from the Akatsuki organization was Itachi's doing. He was paving the way for Sasuke."
By using Orochimaru's obsession with the Sharingan, he had led him to Konoha to abduct Sasuke. Therefore, Sasuke's defection from Konoha was also part of Itachi's plan. The reason, of course, was that the Konoha higher-ups' prejudice against the Uchiha would never have allowed Sasuke to truly grow.
On the other hand, although Orochimaru's motives were impure, his teachings to Sasuke were perfect, and Sasuke's strength improved rapidly, fulfilling the trust placed in him.
"So that's how it is," the young ninjas realized with enlightenment, looking at Itachi with admiration.
Itachi had truly worried himself sick over Sasuke.
"However, Itachi, you should know what to do next."
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