"Ugh..."
A helpless sigh came from the darkness. Footsteps followed, and a figure emerged.
Sasuke froze as he stared at the person before him.
Delight quickly spread across his face. He ran forward a couple of steps. "Big Brother Shisui?! You're back! Big Brother Shinji..."
"..."
Shisui had no answer. He looked at Sasuke with a complicated expression.
Tap.
Another set of footsteps sounded.
Sasuke stopped and looked past Shisui in confusion.
In the darkness,
a human silhouette gradually came into view. The October night breeze rustled the trees. Sasuke had just worked up a sweat and had been hot all over, but now he felt ice-cold.
The air went still.
"Sasuke... It's been a long time."
Sasuke stood stunned. He stared coldly at the person before him, someone achingly familiar yet somehow a stranger. Someone he had once called "big brother."
A sudden sense of absurdity surged through him.
He...
How dare he come back? How dare he show his face?!
In that instant,
the wound left by his brother's defection—a wound Shinji's presence had nearly healed—tore open again.
He had been fine before...
Big Brother Shinji and Brother Nobihi were both good to him. Mom and Dad were good to him too.
He still had people who loved him. It was just that hateful Uchiha Itachi who had defected.
What did that have to do with him?
But now...
Sasuke was at a loss.
"Uchiha—Itachi!!! How dare you come back? How dare you show your face to me?!"
Sasuke roared in fury. The two tomoe in his eyes spun with a hum, becoming three scarlet tomoe in an instant!
Shisui looked baffled, then slapped a hand over his face. "...I knew this would happen."
The Uchiha tilted his head. "..."
Before either of them could recover, a sharp,