The carriage's rocking suddenly stopped.
The hard carriage beneath him had turned into a soft bed.
Uchiha Itachi's eyes snapped open.
An instant later, he vanished from the bed and slipped soundlessly into the shadows in a corner of the room.
Familiar furnishings greeted his eyes.
The low table by the window, the clan's fan crest on the wall, and the faint voices drifting in from outside the door.
His father.
His mother.
And Sasuke.
"A dream?"
It took Itachi only 0.01 seconds to accept that he was having one hell of a dream.
Because this was the Uchiha Clan Compound.
It was his former home.
A place that had long since ceased to exist.
It's all fake.
Itachi did not lower his guard.
His first suspicion was that he had been caught in a genjutsu.
But with so many members of the Akatsuki in the carriage, slipping past everyone to target him alone was not something any ordinary person could accomplish.
Besides, Cangyue was in the carriage too.
Who could make a move unnoticed right under that guy's nose?
If someone that powerful really wanted to mess with him, then fine, he might as well let them.
The door suddenly swung open.
A young Sasuke poked his head in, his smile completely unguarded.
"Big brother, you're awake?"
"Mom says to come out and eat."
Itachi emerged from the shadows and quietly watched him for a moment.
Sasuke was still very young.
There was no hatred on his face, nor had his life been twisted by the night of the massacre.
"Big brother?"
Sasuke looked up at him in confusion.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
Itachi looked away.
"Let's eat."
The two left the room.
The buildings along the way, the conversations of their clansmen, the scents on the evening breeze-everything felt