Determination and Surgery

Sasuke sat there alone, not knowing how much time had passed.

Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

Itachi's eyes.

Those words echoed over and over in his mind like a melody stuck in a loop, one he could not escape no matter what.

He remembered Itachi's eyes. Those eyes that had always been calm and deep, as though they held an entire night within them. Those eyes had looked at him during their final battle, carrying a tenderness he had been unable to understand at the time.

Now, he understood.

That tenderness was the relief of someone who had borne every sin and could finally set down his burden. Itachi had carried everything on his shoulders—the charge of slaughtering his clan, his younger brother's hatred, Konoha's darkness—and then he died, at the hands of the brother he loved most.

That was the ending Itachi had wanted.

That was the end Itachi had chosen for himself.

But Sasuke did not want that ending to be the end.

He wanted more. He wanted power—power strong enough to destroy everything that had made Itachi suffer. Konoha's upper ranks. Danzo. The Third Hokage's statue. Every face on Hokage Rock. All of it—every last bit of it had to be destroyed.

But...

Transplanting Itachi's eyes.

That meant taking out his own eyes and putting Itachi's in their place.

He remembered Itachi's final words to him—"I won't give you another chance... This time, I'll use these eyes to see through you completely."

Itachi's eyes.

If he possessed Itachi's eyes, he could use them to look upon this world. To look at Konoha. To look at Naruto. To look at the people who had made Itachi suffer his entire life.

His fingers unconsciously reached up to touch his eye sockets.

"What are you hesitating for?"

Obito's voice came from the