Yang

"Complaining to me won't do any good. It's not like I drugged your sister into falling for Shisui Uchiha."

Naruto felt a Sasuke run down his spine under Sasuke's resentful gaze.

Sasuke felt his head buzzing, and the pain made him involuntarily cover his head. Shisui Uchiha? Shisui Uchiha?! Is that him?!

He knew who Shisui Uchiha was. A genius Ninja of the Uchiha Clan, a few years older than Itachi, who had served in the Anbu, and was said to have extremely high talent in Dojutsu, even surpassing Itachi.

However, Sasuke was not familiar with him; in fact, he was a stranger—no, to be precise, when Sasuke was a child, he even disliked this guy a little.

Because Shisui would always appear at times he didn't like, taking Itachi, who was with him at those times and was like an "older brother," away.

Every time Itachi was called away, he would say, "Oh, it's me, Sasuke. Maybe next time," and then leave with Shisui, leaving Little Sasuke feeling bitter.

This man has now married his sister.

Why?! Does being different genders really cause feelings to turn out like this?!

Same soul, same bloodline, only different gender—how can there be such a huge difference?! Is this the world's fault, fate's fault, or Uchiha Sasuke's fault?!

"... So... are you going in or not?"

Naruto's voice drifted over from the side, "If you change your mind, shall we go back?"

"... No."

Sasuke's voice came through his fingers, "I... I'll go in... Give me some time."

He desperately tried to comfort himself, listing reasons in his mind one by one—so what if it's a woman? This world is a different world altogether, it has nothing to do with him. So what if she has a child?

That was Itachi Uchiha's life choice in this world, what does it have to do with him? In the end, he just came to ask a few questions, he just came... he just came to take a look.

No matter what form Itachi Uchiha takes, it won't affect the question he wants to ask, it won't affect his purpose for coming, it won't affect... probably.

He mentally processed this "probably" several times, trying to turn it into "certainty," but no matter how much he chewed, the "probably" remained firmly in place.

He took a deep breath, put his hand back on the doorknob, and pushed the door open.

"... May I ask what you want?"

Uchiha Yū's voice came from the room. She was holding her child and leaning against the bed, looking at the strange boy standing in the doorway, her face full of confusion.

"You're bothering me a lot."

Her tone wasn't harsh; it even carried a softness that she herself couldn't quite explain. But beneath that softness lay an instinctive defensiveness.

A strange young man suddenly barged into the room of a woman who had recently given birth. Logically, Uchiha Yū should have immediately become alert, called for help, and protected the child behind her.

But she didn't. She didn't know why, but looking at the boy at the door, she felt a strange feeling—a special sense of familiarity.

"... Itachi Uchiha."

Sasuke's voice rang out, calling the name he had repeated countless times in his heart, the name he had hated for so many years, the name he had chewed over repeatedly in his heart while sitting alone in an empty room late at night.

"I have some questions for you. As for my identity... I am a surviving member of the Uchiha clan."

After hearing these words, Uchiha Yū's expression changed. The confusion and hesitation slowly faded, replaced by something deeper.

Her fingers gently patted the baby's back in her arms, the rhythm slower than before. "Do you want revenge?"

"Regarding my past... I arbitrarily decided the fate of many people?"

As she said this, she hugged the baby in her arms a little tighter.

"About revenge..."

Sasuke's lips twitched slightly. "That's precisely why I need to ask you a question."

"... If, if you had found me a year ago, I would have granted your request for revenge."

Uchiha Yū's gaze shifted from Sasuke to the baby in her arms. Looking at the small, peacefully sleeping face, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.

"Because that was the ending I chose..."

"But not now."

Her tone suddenly changed. It wasn't the gentle, reminiscent lightness of her voice, but a firmer, more substantial tone, a weight that suggested she had grasped something tightly and wasn't going to let go.

She raised her head and looked at Sasuke again. The uncertainty and hesitation in her eyes were gone, replaced by a clear and alert vigilance.

She became fully alert, but she didn't shout or panic; instead, she was prepared to respond.

She was looking for an opportunity—an opportunity to call for help, an opportunity to escape, an opportunity to protect herself and the little one in her arms without harming the child.

Sasuke was in a daze.

He saw something familiar yet strange—in Uchiha Yū's eyes, in the way she held the child, and in the tone of her voice when she said "not now."

That look in his eyes, that awareness, that unwavering, even irrational, willingness to place another person above one's own life.

To cherish and treasure is to hold in one's hands the most precious thing in the world, the kind of awareness that is willing to give up everything for one person.

This is how Itachi Uchiha looked at Sasuke when he was a child. In those days before anything happened, on those sunny afternoons, Itachi looked at him with those eyes.

It was because of this affection and cherishing that Sasuke's favorite person when he was a child was his older brother.

In his world, Itachi was the best older brother, the strongest person, the one who would never hurt him, and the one who would always be by his side.

He never doubted this, never thought that such a gaze would one day disappear, never thought that the person who looked at him with such eyes would one day look at him with different eyes, and stand among the corpses on the ground and say to him, "My foolish brother."

Unfortunately, that deep love, that kind of love that stops at nothing, will hurt too many innocent people.

They were not victims of ruthless love; they were the price paid for that love.

As for the price to pay, the person who pays it feels they've given enough, while the person who bears the price doesn't even know why.

However, when Sasuke looked into Uchiha Yū's eyes, that look was no longer uniquely Sasuke's.

Uchiha Yū didn't want to die. No matter how many sins she carried, no matter how many people died that night, no matter how many debts she felt she hadn't yet repaid—she didn't want to die.

After being abandoned and estranged by her beloved younger sister, on a day when she thought she would never have any hope in this life, when Uchiha Satsuki turned and left, leaving her alone, Uchiha Yū thought that this was the end for her.

She thought she would stay in this cell until she died, that her end would be to disappear silently one day, and that there was nothing in this world worth living for another day.

But she found it again. She found something that made her look forward to tomorrow, something that made her feel "it's good to be alive," something that made her willing to stay in this world for someone.

It wasn't revenge, it wasn't atonement, it wasn't dying by someone's knife someday—it was a child, a tiny, sleeping child in her arms.

"What's this child's name?"

Suddenly, as if possessed, Sasuke asked this question.

"... Uchiha."