Uchiha Itachi's consciousness felt as though it had struggled for countless centuries in an endless, pitch-black ocean. The weight, the cold, and the gnawing pain that clung to his very bones had nearly worn his existence away. Yet a faint but tenacious thread of resolve, like a buoy in the depths, kept drawing him onward, refusing to let him sink completely.
Within that resolve lay concern for responsibilities left unfinished, worry over someone he could not let go of... and a faint, familiar fluctuation of chakra that seemed to come from outside, carrying confusion and pain, stirring his numbed nerves.
Was that... Sasuke?
That realization flared like a spark in the silent depths of his consciousness. He had to wake up. He had to make sure...
His heavy eyelids struggled several times before finally trembling open a fraction. Blurred light flooded in, stinging his eyes and making him close them again at once. Only after taking some time to adjust did he slowly open them once more.
What greeted him was an unfamiliar ceiling covered in sealing runes. The air smelled of disinfectant and medicinal herbs, along with... an exceedingly faint, cold residue that his soul instinctively recognized and rejected-the lingering trace left after the Sacred Lord's power had been stripped away.
He was still alive. And he seemed to be in... Konoha?
"You're awake."
A calm voice sounded beside him. With immense difficulty, Itachi shifted his eyes ever so slowly and saw Kakashi Hatake standing beside the bed, with Ling a little farther away, faint azure chakra swirling around him. Both watched him with scrutiny and a barely perceptible hint of complicated emotion.
Itachi parted his lips, but his throat was too dry to produce a sound. Shizune immediately stepped forward, carefully moistening his lips with a damp cotton