The curtain fell

With Orochimaru finally sealed away and destroyed,

the Cursed Seal of Heaven that had lurked within Sasuke for years instantly unraveled, vanishing completely!

The hidden threat was gone.

Having exhausted everything to eliminate every hidden threat, Sasuke lay quietly amid the ruins, utterly drained and unable to fight.

The entire Shinobi World erupted in an uproar. Everyone watched in a daze, their minds frozen, blindsided by one reversal after another.

"Insane! This is insane! Who could have predicted any of this?"

"One moment, Sasuke was being crushed by Susanoo, trapped and waiting to die! The next, Orochimaru burst out of his body and hijacked the battle!"

"I'd just thought Orochimaru would reap the rewards and become the final winner, only for Itachi to reveal another trump card-the Totsuka Blade!"

Countless shinobi watched with pounding hearts, marveling at Orochimaru's terrifying tenacity.

"Orochimaru really knows how to lie low-and how to survive! Even being consumed by Sasuke didn't kill him. He was still lurking inside, waiting for his chance!"

"That patience is terrifying. If Itachi had overlooked even one thing, if Sasuke had shown even one more opening, Orochimaru would have turned it all around!"

More and more people reviewed the entire battle. The more they thought about it, the more their scalps prickled, until they finally saw through Uchiha Itachi's scheme.

"Wait! Think carefully about everything that happened!"

"Itachi wasn't fighting Sasuke to the death at all!"

"He deliberately let Sasuke use every move he had, deliberately forced him to exhaust his chakra and drained him dry!"

"All to draw out Orochimaru, who was hiding inside Sasuke, waiting for his chance!"

"From the moment the battle started, he'd already seen through Orochimaru's plan to lie low! The whole thing was Itachi's trap!"

Those words opened everyone's eyes, and the crowd instantly exploded.

"My god! That scheme ran so deep! Every step was calculated, every opening covered!"

Beyond their shock, an enormous doubt arose in many people's hearts. The more they thought about it, the less it made sense.

"But here's the problem!"

"Itachi had Susanoo and the Totsuka Blade. He could anticipate everything and account for everything. He was terrifyingly powerful!"

"Did he really need to fight Sasuke for so long? Did he really need to push himself to the brink of death?"

"He staged a showdown between brothers, used himself as bait, and drove Sasuke into a desperate corner to draw Orochimaru out! All to eliminate Orochimaru and remove Sasuke's Cursed Seal!"

"This wasn't a battle between brothers. It was a meticulously planned setup!"

"Something is definitely wrong here! Something huge!"

"No need to guess. There's definitely one final twist coming!"

Everyone's heart hung in suspense as they stared fixedly at the Sky Screen, afraid to look away, waiting for the final answer.

Meanwhile, in a certain corner, Orochimaru watched his plans crumble on the Sky Screen and saw himself sealed away for good. There was no rage or resentment on his face, only a soft sigh.

"It seems Uchiha Itachi truly understood me inside and out."

Itachi knew him far too well.

That was why he had laid such an inescapable trap, cutting off every one of his escape routes.

Yet a moment later, a dim gleam of obsession returned to Orochimaru's eyes. His outlook remained lucid-and stubborn.

"But no one can guard against a thief forever."

"I, Orochimaru, can lose countless times, suffer countless defeats."

"But as long as I win once, I can overturn every outcome."

He had never feared failure, lying low, or waiting.

Losing was merely the process. Winning was the ending.

Watching the battle draw to a close on the Sky Screen, Orochimaru slowly gathered his thoughts, already adjusting his plans to suit the circumstances.

Once an opportunity appeared, he would strike again and turn everything around in one fell swoop.

On the Sky Screen, the towering crimson form of Susanoo dimmed bit by bit and dispersed.

Its immense eye power dissipated completely, and the overwhelming might that filled the sky faded into nothing.

Repeatedly activating the Mangekyō, summoning Susanoo, using the Totsuka Blade to seal Orochimaru, and expending chakra on Amaterasu had drained every last trace of life from Uchiha Itachi, whose sickly body had already been on its last legs.

He swayed on his feet, his breathing so faint it had almost stopped. He was like a candle flickering in the wind, liable to go out at any moment.

Yet he clung to his last shred of consciousness and dragged his ravaged body forward, slowly approaching Sasuke in the center of the ruins, step by step.

By now, Sasuke had broken under the relentless reversals, the overwhelming gap in strength, and the shattering of his obsession.

He had been beaten into utter collapse!

Exhausted in body and mind, out of chakra and covered in wounds, he no longer had the slightest will to resist.

As Itachi drew closer, only instinctive terror and panic remained in his eyes. He scrambled backward in disarray.

One step. Two.

His back pressed against a crumbling rock wall. There was nowhere left to retreat.

Itachi slowly raised his gaunt fingers.

At the sight of those fingers reaching toward him, Sasuke's heart abruptly stopped!

He instinctively squeezed his eyes shut and tensed his entire body, convinced that Itachi's final act would be to gouge out his Sharingan!

But the terrible pain he expected never came.

An impossibly light, gentle touch landed softly on his forehead.

Tender. Familiar. Soft.

Just like the affectionate taps his older brother had given him through countless days and nights of their childhood.

There was no killing intent, no scheming, no theft.

Only the utmost tenderness, and the release that came at the end of a spent lifetime.

With that final gesture complete, Uchiha Itachi had no strength left to hold himself up.

His body went limp. He toppled straight forward and landed heavily in the muddy ruins.

He fell utterly silent and still.

The wind stopped. Rain fell.

A steady rain descended from the sky, washing over the ravaged battlefield, washing away the blood scattered across the ground, washing over the two brothers' battered bodies and wounds.

After a long while, Sasuke stiffly opened his eyes.

Seeing Itachi motionless and utterly still, he froze in disbelief, his mind completely blank.

Hatred, bloodshed, their showdown, his obsession, years of darkness, his lifelong goal...

In that moment, everything collapsed into confusion and chaos.

He stood blankly in the rain, his entire body cold, his mind dazed.

Had he won?

Yet it felt as though he hadn't won anything at all.

He could no longer distinguish right from wrong, victory from defeat, hatred from tenderness. Least of all could he understand what Itachi had been plotting all his life, or what he had truly wanted to do.

Utter exhaustion swept through his body and mind. Amid the torrential rain, Sasuke went limp and collapsed to the ground as well, every last ounce of strength gone.

The fierce, fated battle between brothers, which had gripped everyone's hearts, came to an end.

Beyond the Sky Screen, the entire Shinobi World was dumbfounded. Everyone exchanged bewildered looks, their minds filled with confusion.

"It's over? It ended just like that?"

"Itachi... just died, that simply? Isn't this ending way too abrupt?"

"That doesn't make sense! I was confused the whole time! He spent so long setting up the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, only to die without taking the eyes?"

"If you ask me, Itachi's body was already beyond saving. Even if he'd gotten Sasuke's eyes, he probably wouldn't have lasted."

"I don't get it! I really don't get it! What was he trying to do? It feels like Itachi was just messing around."

Noisy discussions broke out everywhere. Some lamented the ending, while others were driven by greed.

"Say, since they're both lying on the ground unable to fight, couldn't someone go pick over their bodies?"