Itachi, Do You Want...

Standing before Deva Path Pain was Itachi, only four years old.

Having witnessed the brutality of the Third Shinobi World War, he displayed a calmness and maturity beyond his years.

"Fierce fighting is raging outside, yet you came to the Uchiha clan compound."

"And you even knew the name of an unknown child like me... Your target is my father, isn't it?"

"You wear the forehead protector of Amegakure, which became a battlefield for every nation during the last war, a symbol of rogue ninja... Are you seeking revenge against my father? Did he... kill someone important to you? Perhaps more than one?"

The moment Itachi spoke, he demonstrated extraordinary intelligence.

But his tightly clenched fists and faintly trembling shoulders in the rain betrayed the panic within him.

After all, he was still a child who had not even entered the Ninja Academy and had yet to master the use of chakra.

And inside... was his mother, who had only recently become pregnant.

Deva Path approached with cold, measured steps and asked impassively, "If that were the case, what would you do?"

Under that overwhelming pressure... Itachi forcibly restrained his instinct to retreat and tried to speak calmly. "My father is not here."

"But you went to great lengths to infiltrate Konoha and come here. If you leave empty-handed, you surely will not let it go. Yet staying here for too long is clearly disadvantageous for you."

"So... so the most beneficial thing for you would be to take me, Fugaku's only son, hostage and use me as leverage to force him into submission later!"

"I... am willing to go with you and become your hostage."

"The condition is... spare my family."

"Oh?" Deva Path raised an eyebrow. Stopping before Itachi, he looked down at the boy, who was barely as tall as his knee. "So this is the decision you would make under such circumstances? That truly surprises me..."

Standing in the shadow cast by the man before him, Itachi looked up at that cold face beneath the freezing rain and said nothing... He knew very well that the only bargaining chip he had was himself.

A cold smile appeared on Deva Path's lips. "It is raining heavily. May I come inside and sit for a while?"

Itachi paused briefly, then nodded. "You may."

"Creak."

The door opened. The lights inside were off, and only a dark hallway led toward the living room.

At the entryway, Deva Path removed his rain-soaked shoes and entered barefoot.

Itachi reached for the light switch, but Deva Path glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "There is no need to turn on the lights."

Itachi withdrew his hand and silently followed Deva Path into the living room.

Without any light, the living room felt dim and oppressive.

Deva Path stood on the tatami floor, looking at the two cushions.

This was where the grown Itachi would personally end the lives of his parents...

Before transmigrating into Nagato, Lin Feng had been an orphan abandoned by his parents since childhood. Orphans like him often went to one of two extremes: either they hated the parents who abandoned them and became exceptionally indifferent toward familial affection, or... they yearned for parental love even more than ordinary children.

He belonged to the latter.

He did not hate the parents who had abandoned him. Deep down, he believed they had had their reasons.

Therefore, once he was old enough to understand, he had refused the chance to be adopted by a loving couple, convinced that his biological parents would someday appear and take him home.

Unfortunately, until the very end... that wish never came true.

There had been times when he had lost all hope. During that period of depression, he learned to talk to the person in the mirror, living in his own world and savoring that loneliness...

He had thought that once he grew accustomed to being alone, he would no longer cling to any hope.

Yet whenever he saw other children laughing and talking with their parents, some place deep inside him still felt hollow.

Gradually, he developed a strong sense of alienation and detachment from the real world.

When he came into contact with the Naruto anime, the protagonist Naruto's experiences gave his emotions, which had nowhere to belong in reality, a place to rest.

But Naruto's excessive optimism and strength ultimately existed only in the world of fiction. Lin Feng was rational at heart, and Naruto's almost unreal optimism could not resonate with his soul.

This... was perhaps the fundamental reason why he had transmigrated into Nagato.

Both were orphans, both were Children of Prophecy. Nagato's personality might have had flaws, but flaws made him more real.

Back to the heart of the matter... Lin Feng had an obsession with parental affection that surpassed ordinary people.

So... when it came to Uchiha Itachi, he could marvel at his talent, admire his intelligence, and lament his circumstances... but he simply could not agree with what he had done!

He also knew... that Itachi had suffered immense hardships. The limitations imposed by his position as both a Konoha ninja and a member of the Uchiha clan had led him to decide to personally kill his parents and clansmen.

But emotionally, Nagato simply could not accept it.

No matter... how justified, righteous, noble, or unavoidable Itachi's reasons might have been, they were not a reason for him to slaughter his parents and clan!

How many people desperately yearned and gave everything just to have a complete family, only to never obtain one?

Yet Itachi, for the sake of peace... had personally destroyed a complete family.

Even taking a step back, was there really... no other way to protect Sasuke besides exterminating the clan?

So be it. Perhaps the Uchiha coup had come too suddenly, and amid the changing circumstances, Itachi had failed to step beyond his limited perspective. The matter of the clan massacre could be set aside for now.

But afterward... Itachi had practically controlled Sasuke's entire life.

He chose the cruelest method to spur young Sasuke onward, forcing him to grow according to the path he had envisioned.

Even if... the starting point had been love, that love had been far too bleak and suffocating.

Before Naruto had even formed a bond with Sasuke, it was hard to imagine how Itachi had planned to clean up after himself for Sasuke once he died.

What he had expected... was for Sasuke to defeat him, take his eyes, and continue protecting Konoha.

From beginning to end, he had ignored Sasuke's own feelings.

The facts proved that if Naruto, that beacon of light, had not illuminated the one brother he preserved, Sasuke would inevitably have fallen completely into darkness and destroyed the peace Itachi had protected!

Only after realizing this too late did Itachi decide, before his death, to find Naruto and grant him the ocular technique Kotoamatsukami.

Unfortunately... its starting point was still manipulation.

In the original story, Itachi only truly realized the right path at the very moment before the Impure World Reincarnation was released. Unfortunately... by then, the darkness in Sasuke's heart could no longer be erased.

In the end... it was only after Sasuke's battle with Naruto that the two finally reached a heartfelt reconciliation.

The ironclad facts were beyond dispute. Itachi's talent as a ninja was beyond reproach, but his actions in exterminating his clan and manipulating Sasuke's life... were wrong and unacceptable!

Back to the present, in this dim and oppressive room...

Deva Path said in a low voice, "Come here."

Itachi stepped forward.

Deva Path grabbed Itachi's small arm, took out a kunai, and sliced open his forearm.

The pain... made Itachi's lips tremble, but he did not move at all, allowing the blood to flow.

Deva Path took out a small blood collection vial, caught Itachi's dripping blood, and once it was full, sealed the vial and tucked it into his sleeve.

"The wound is not deep. Bandage it yourself."

Itachi was stunned, but he still tore off a strip of his sleeve and, using his teeth in the darkness, swiftly bandaged the wound... Then he waited for the person before him to make his next move.

Nagato... would not take Itachi's life here. After all, from the standpoint of benefits, he still needed Itachi's eyes as spares.

But... he still intended to let that young heart experience despair and terror, just as Itachi had done to his younger brother Sasuke!

It was not to seek justice for Sasuke's childhood, but to seek justice for the beautiful expectations of parental and brotherly love within his own heart!

"Itachi, you said outside just now that you were Fugaku's only son. That is not quite accurate, is it..." As his eerie words drifted through the room, Deva Path turned his gaze toward the tightly shut door!

Itachi's pupils abruptly widened. "Y-you, what are you going to do...!!!"

"Rumble!"

Lightning illuminated the dim room, along with the chilling smile at the corner of Deva Path Pain's mouth.

"Itachi, do you want me to help take care of your unborn little brother... Sasuke?"