Darkness.
Boundless, silent darkness, as if wrapped from all sides in some heavy fabric. There were no boundaries, no source of light, no point of reference for orientation.
Itachi's consciousness drifted slowly through that darkness for some time, as though carried by a current without ever reaching shore.
He did not know how long he had remained there—perhaps only a moment, perhaps longer than that.
Slowly, he became aware of his body. The weight on his shoulders, the contact between his back and the hard ground, the faint sensory signals from his fingertips. His eyelids twitched, then slowly opened.
The Mangekyō Sharingan activated the instant they opened, like a spinning pinwheel.
He abruptly sat up.
The movement tugged at his abdomen. Looking down, he saw a dark stain on his clothing over a treated wound.
"Don't move. Your wound hasn't healed yet."
The voice came from behind and to the side. Itachi's body stiffened slightly before he suddenly turned his head.
Tianyi stood against the wall several steps away, his gaze fixed on Itachi. He had evidently been standing there for some time.
"Master...!" Itachi's voice carried delight, but that delight was immediately buried beneath something heavier.
Then he seemed to remember something, and his voice lowered.
"Mother... Sasuke..."
His voice began to tremble uncontrollably. Tears slid from the corners of his eyes, trailing down his cheeks and dripping onto the sheets.
Sitting there with his head slightly bowed, the scene in the cave kept replaying in his mind—
The figures tied to the pillars, the hollow eye sockets, the blaze of the Explosive Tags, and the outlines vanishing amid the smoke and dust of the explosion—it was like the same unbearable scene playing over and over before him, one he could not pause.
Tianyi's voice came from in front