The Objective Truth

"... Okay, that's about it."

Big Naruto's voice was unusually calm amidst the roaring waters of the Valley of the End, but beneath that calm lay a weight that could not be ignored.

Each word was like a nail, hammered deep into Little Sasuke's heart.

"While I don't deny that he wanted to protect you, his hands are indeed stained with far too much blood, and that blood won't become clean just because he had the reason of 'protecting his younger brother.'"

"I cannot agree with Itachi's path."

During the story, Little Sasuke interrupted several times.

Each interruption was a furious, hysterical, and out-of-control outburst.

He wanted to shut Big Naruto up, wanted to rush up and tear this bastard to shreds, wanted to use his fists to shut up those words that were tearing his heart apart.

And each time, he was subdued with one hand.

Big Naruto simply reached out and pinned him down, rendering him unable to move.

The power gap was so vast that it was despair-inducing, leaving Little Sasuke with only a deep sense of powerlessness after his initial anger.

At that moment, Little Sasuke stood there, his eyes, which had once burned with the flames of revenge, now terrifyingly empty, with no focus in them.

"No... this is impossible..." he muttered to himself.

"You must be lying to me..."

"You... you have no evidence at all... it's all fake... you made it all up to deceive me..."

"We can have as much of that stuff as we want."

Big Naruto gave him no room to escape, no room to deceive himself.

"I can take you to see Itachi Uchiha in person now, anyway, finding his location from here is just a matter of a moment for me."

"Your brother is no match for me. He has no chance to lie or resist me."

Little Sasuke's pupils contracted sharply for a moment.

"Or you could ask the Old man Third. Although he wasn't personally involved in the whole history, he knows far more than you think."

Big Naruto continued, leaving Little Sasuke with nowhere to escape.

"Or, I can take you directly to Danzō Shimura and have him tell you in person what really happened back then, what role Itachi played in it, and what those so-called 'conditions' were."

He stopped and looked at Little Sasuke's face, which had completely lost all color.

"I can find any kind of evidence. As long as you want to see it, as long as you want to hear it, I can show you every corner of the truth, without any embellishment or concealment."

Little Sasuke bit his lip hard.

The force was so great that the teeth quickly embedded themselves in the flesh of the lips, causing thin streaks of blood to seep out and slowly trickle down the corners of the mouth.

But he couldn't feel any pain.

Or rather, compared to what's churning inside me, this pain is nothing at all.

When the initial denial finally passes, when the stubbornness used to protect oneself is finally shattered—only then does the real pain begin to surface.

"Is this protection...?"

His voice trembled violently, "Even... even if I'm left all alone in the end... is this considered protection?"

His eyes began to redden, and warm tears were welling up in them.

"Why..."

His voice became even more broken.

"Why is even Mom...?"

"What crime did my mother commit? Why was she killed by the weasel too...? What crime did she commit?!"

Big Naruto's account is very objective.

He did not deliberately beautify anything, nor did he deliberately exaggerate any tragedy.

He simply laid out the concealed facts and distorted truths one by one before Little Sasuke.

Those things that Danzo, Obito, and others used the term "necessary sacrifice" to glorify as acts of justice—in the true accounts, became bloody and undeniable acts of slaughter.

The blood kept flowing, constantly staining the outer shell called "protection".

Until that outer shell could no longer conceal the cruelty within, shattering completely to reveal the bloody truth.

"No... I can't admit it...!"

Little Sasuke's voice grew even sharper and more broken, "Itachi...!"

He raised his head, his eyes filled with shocking bloodshot veins, tears welling up but stubbornly refusing to fall.

"He's a madman!"

"Is he crazy?"

Big Naruto said softly, his voice neither rebutting nor agreeing, "Although I think it also has a lot to do with his upbringing."

He paused, his gaze falling on the enormous statue of Uchiha Madara standing at his feet.

"After all, your brother was forced to go to the battlefield at the age of three and witnessed countless deaths."

"He has seen more corpses than children his age have seen living people. People who grow up in this kind of environment take life far too lightly."

Little Sasuke was in a daze.

"So my life... was planned out by him too?!"

Little Sasuke's voice trembled with collapse. "In Itachi's plan... I was the last..."

His voice grew softer and softer, "... Would I really...?"

"That's right."

Big Naruto's voice shattered Little Sasuke's last shred of hope. "Your brother has decided the entire course of your life. From what you should be doing at what age, to who you should hate, and where you should go."

"Even if it completely alters your will, forcibly changing your thoughts with something Kotoamatsukami, it's all to make you return to Konoha and follow the path he set."

"Hmm--"

Little Sasuke suddenly covered his mouth.

A strong, uncontrollable feeling of nausea surged up from my stomach and rushed to my throat; it was the urge to vomit.

To protect oneself, one is willing to completely alter one's will?

In the end, am I still myself?

Those memories, those emotions, that burning hatred that raged day and night—if all of these were arranged, planned, manipulated by someone—

So, who exactly is "Uchiha Sasuke"?

Is he Itachi's younger brother? Or a puppet orchestrated by someone else?

still...

He stood there, his young face etched with unprecedented pain and confusion. Tears finally welled up and silently streamed down his pale cheeks.

But... should I hate Itachi?

Hate the weasel?

But he did manage to save himself.

Forgive Itachi?

But what about the dead?

What about the Uchiha clan members? What about the children who knew nothing? What about those who were just living ordinary lives, doing nothing wrong—what crime did they commit?

Why should someone die for the reason of "protecting Sasuke"?

Avenge them?

Then he would have to kill the person who "protected him" with his own hands.

He killed his only living relative in the world.

Kill that... brother.

Let go of everything?

How could I possibly let go?

He saw it with his own eyes.

It's something he'll never forget.

That night, the figures lying in pools of blood, his father and mother lying in pools of blood, the corpses of his clansmen scattered all over the ground, and his brother standing in the middle of the sea of blood, looking at him with those cold, chilling eyes...

"... I..."

Little Sasuke's voice was so soft it was almost inaudible, "What should I do...?"

He murmured helplessly, his tear-filled eyes now showing only endless confusion and pain.