Sasuke had completed his revenge.
The flames vanished, revealing two human-shaped piles of ash.
Sasuke murmured, "With this, the hatred between the Uchiha and Konoha is settled..."
Rain came pouring down, and an inexplicable emptiness washed over him.
Sasuke looked up at the sky, lost. "Where do I go from here?"
For almost all of his seventeen years, he had lived for revenge. Now that he had avenged them, he no longer knew what to do.
"Sasuke-kun." Kabuto Yakushi approached him.
"Kabuto." Sasuke turned to face him.
Kabuto Yakushi hesitated for a moment, then pushed up his glasses. "There's something I've been thinking about ever since I returned from Konoha. I think it's time I told you."
"What is it?" Kabuto's unusually solemn manner left Sasuke uneasy.
Kabuto Yakushi said slowly, "We should part ways here..."
After a stretch of silence, Sasuke asked in confusion, "Why?"
Kabuto Yakushi said earnestly, "There's something I have to do. For personal reasons, I don't want to involve you, Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke clenched his fists. "Is it that important?"
Kabuto could hardly bear to look into Sasuke's anguished eyes. He gazed up at the sky, his feelings tangled. "Sasuke-kun, I've always believed that everyone has a reason for existing. After all these highs and lows, I feel an even greater urgency to find my own answer."
Sasuke asked again, "Didn't you want to raise me into a ninja who surpassed Naruto, to prove you were better than Orochimaru?"
Kabuto Yakushi shook his head with a faint smile. "But doing that would amount to hijacking your purpose in life to serve my own. Now I think that was selfish. Besides, a ninja's worth shouldn't be judged by strength alone. I've come to understand a great deal lately, so I've given up that idea..."
After a long