"Once, I thought they all needed my protection. They weren't outsiders, they had no Transcendent Power, nor did they possess intelligence about everything. And nearly every one of them faced a fate of death, because they did not exist in the future. So I had to protect them with everything I had. I couldn't let them take risks. I had to bear everything myself, because they gave me the foundation to live properly in this life. No... if I wanted to live properly in this life, they were the very foundation. But in the end, I protected nothing. They, however, had always been protecting me and fulfilling my wishes."
Watching Uchiha Nobuhiko's expression shift from calm to anger, from anger to silence, and finally to stunned silence, Chiba's gaze became slightly unfocused as he murmured again.
He gave Uchiha Nobuhiko no chance to react or speak, as though he were venting all the pent-up bitterness in one breath, speaking to himself.
Yes, Chiba had once believed that he was protecting Kushina, Hirohiko, Yukina, and the other precious people close to him. He had always thought that he absolutely had to protect them well. Yet in the end, they were the ones who protected him.
He had merely believed that he was protecting them.
In a sense, he had always imposed his own will upon them. In the end, because he had focused too much on the thought of "protecting them and reviving them," he had overlooked Yukina's feelings for him, which was why everything had ultimately fallen short at the final step.
It could be said that before this, he had always thought only of himself—of how unwilling he was to lose them—without paying attention to their feelings for him, or their unwillingness to lose him.
He had been determined