You Were Controlled by Kotoamatsukami

"Itachi Uchiha, you may not want him, but he's a treasure to me. If you have nothing else to say, then please leave. And don't come to my home to bully children again. I raised them all with great effort."

Orochimaru did not fully understand what was happening, but since A Luo had said he wanted to go back and rest, he had no interest in wasting more words on Itachi Uchiha.

Walking over to Kimimaro, who had yet to recover, Orochimaru slung the mentally injured boy over his other shoulder, turned around, and headed into the base.

They had been right at the entrance, so it only took a few steps to return inside.

Outside, Itachi Uchiha's fingers loosened and clenched several times, but he still did not pursue them.

He did not know what was wrong with him. Memories of A Luo and Sasuke kept surfacing again and again beyond his control...

Every so often, the night of the massacre would emerge before him—the pain and despair in Sasuke's eyes, A Luo...

That night, what kind of look had A Luo given him...

Itachi Uchiha went to a nearby tree, sat on a branch, closed his eyes, and tried to sort through those memories.

When A Luo looked at their parents, there had been sorrow, pain, and disappointment in his eyes...

It seemed to have been like that. But when A Luo looked at him, what had he felt? Itachi Uchiha realized that he truly could not remember.

"Was there... nothing..."

After a long while, blood dripped from the corner of his eye. At last, Itachi Uchiha remembered everything.

He used Tsukuyomi on himself and revisited that night.

From beginning to end, A Luo's gaze toward him had been hollow. There was no love, no hatred, no resentment. Though he stood nearby, he had never entered A Luo's eyes.

"Is torturing yourself like this fun?"

A Luo appeared beneath the tree. Looking up at Itachi Uchiha on the branch, he leaped up and crouched before him, asking as if genuinely curious.

Earlier, he had returned to the base with Orochimaru and checked on Kimimaro. Only after confirming that a good sleep would be enough for him to recover did A Luo feel reassured.

But Itachi Uchiha refused to leave, lingering here as if guarding the entrance to Orochimaru's base. It was rather awkward.

After reassuring Orochimaru and confirming that he really could return using Flying Thunder God, A Luo came out to see Itachi Uchiha.

He had not walked out. The wooden kunai Kimimaro had brought out earlier had fallen in a place that allowed him to appear directly there.

"A Luo..."

Itachi Uchiha reached out. Blood tears slid down from his opened eyes.

His two younger brothers were the ones he had once sworn to protect with his life...

"It hurts, doesn't it..."

A Luo had not yet decided what new item to buy, but as he looked at Itachi Uchiha's eyes blurred by bloody tears, he suddenly opened the system store and bought the scroll he had seen earlier but had been hesitating over.

[Purchased Wood Release: Healing Technique. Points consumed: 3000]

The scroll was learned directly. Though he did not have much chakra, this healing technique could still be of some use.

It certainly could not heal Itachi Uchiha's physical damage now, but it could barely provide some temporary relief to his blurred eyes.

"Why did A Luo come out?"

Feeling a small hand cover his eyes, Itachi Uchiha closed them and felt the coolness of the medical ninjutsu. He was somewhat surprised, yet did not know how to ask about it.

So he could only talk about something else—such as why A Luo had come out. Was he not afraid of being taken away by him and sent to Konoha...

"Because you're in the way. Teacher Orochimaru doesn't like you. You're squatting at the entrance to our base. Even if he wants to go for a walk, he has to guard against you running out to launch a sneak attack..."

A Luo's hand was gently treating him, but his words were not polite in the slightest.

Orochimaru did not like Itachi Uchiha lingering nearby, so A Luo had come out to drive him away.

"A Luo, I'm sorry..."

After a moment of silence, once he felt the small hand leave his eyes, Itachi Uchiha opened them and looked at his little brother. He suddenly apologized.

But before he could say anything further, A Luo kicked him off the tree.

After steadying himself and landing firmly on the ground, Itachi Uchiha looked at A Luo, utterly unsure whether he should speak again.

"Give me that Kotoamatsukami crow."

A Luo jumped down from the tree and pounced straight at Itachi Uchiha.

Once he was naturally caught, he made his demand.

Shisui Uchiha's eye should be worth quite a few more points. And if he ever gathered a pair, he might even unlock some achievement.

"What?"

Itachi Uchiha had not expected A Luo to know about Shisui's eye, and he could not understand why A Luo wanted it.

"Kotoamatsukami is really amazing. It can change a person's will, and even after they've been changed, they can't notice it. That night by the Naka River, Shisui Uchiha was truly ruthless!"

A Luo stared at Itachi Uchiha. His voice was not loud, but every word struck Itachi Uchiha's heart like a heavy hammer.

Kotoamatsukami. An undetectable, silent alteration. Even the things once most important could be cast aside, while the person himself remained unaware that anything was wrong...

The location and the person both matched.

The events that followed matched as well.

Even though he was unwilling to admit it, Itachi Uchiha's mind was already seriously analyzing whether he had truly been controlled by Kotoamatsukami.

"The village is the most important. The Uchiha clan is important, but the Uchiha clan cannot betray the village. The Uchiha clan must protect Konoha..."

A Luo slowly listed some of Itachi Uchiha's current beliefs.

Konoha. It was all Konoha. The Uchiha clan had been reduced to only Sasuke, yet Sasuke still had to grow stronger so that he could protect Konoha...

"How did you know about the Naka River..."

After thinking for a while, Itachi Uchiha had already reached a rough conclusion.

But one thing still could not be explained: how did A Luo know that, by the Naka River back then, the last person Shisui had seen was him...

"Because I was locked in the courtyard and came up with a way to play by sending my soul out of my body. I often went out to take a look, and by accident, I saw many things—the secrets unknown to others among Konoha's higher-ups, the Uchiha clan members, and other clans like the Hyuga clan..."

A Luo smiled at Itachi Uchiha, then his body directly entered a sleeping state while his soul floated before Itachi Uchiha.

No amount of talking could compare to showing him clearly through action.

"You... saw it... That's why, after that, you never called me big brother again..."

Itachi Uchiha suddenly understood. Once everything connected, it all became clear.

Because he could send his soul out of his body, A Luo knew everything.

The Naka River. Shisui died. He became even busier afterward, but he had still gone to see A Luo. Yet A Luo had never clung to him again.

Was it because he knew that the person he had become was no longer the big brother from before, so he refused to get close?

"..."

A Luo floated back into his body, shoved away Itachi Uchiha's hand in disgust, then jumped down and sat against the tree trunk.

He did not want to tell the truth. Back then, he had not arrived yet, but it had still been him, and all his preferences were the same.

So Itachi Uchiha, who was constantly going on missions and killing people, had been covered in a murderous aura that lingered for a long time. That was why his younger self had disliked him.

This was fine. There was no need to explain misunderstandings too much.