"This... is also Sasuke."
Itachi's voice was soft, yet it struck like a massive boulder crashing into a tranquil lake, stirring colossal waves within the warm living room of the Uchiha residence.
It was as if the air had been sucked dry.
Time, in this moment, stretched unbearably long.
"Nii-san... what nonsense are you talking?!"
The first to break the deathly silence was this world's Uchiha Sasuke.
The shock on his face was quickly replaced by absurdity and irritation. He pointed at that one-armed man,seemingly drained of all vitality,and loudly retorted.
"This guy... how could he possibly be me?! Look at that half-dead state of his! And that arm... way too weak!"
The youth's voice was clear and bright, brimming with the untested pride of a genius.
He couldn't understand, much less accept, that this man before him,full of weariness and deathly aura, who couldn't even stand steady,could be another version of himself.
It was an instinctive rejection, as if rejecting an ill omen.
Yet his words, like the sharpest kunai, precisely pierced the middle-aged Sasuke's already numb heart.
Weak?
Yeah. So weak.
Lost my clan. Lost my parents. Lost my brother. Chased after hatred like a mad dog. And in the end, even lost an arm.
Compared to this youth before me,standing under the warm light, surrounded by family, face still tinged with a spoiled wilfulness,I truly am... pathetically weak.
"Sasuke! Don't be rude!"
A gentle voice, tinged with reproach, rang out.
Uchiha Mikoto snapped out of her shock. She quickly walked to her youngest son's side, pressing down his still-pointing hand.
Yet her gaze was uncontrollably drawn to that unfamiliar "Sasuke."
That face,identical to her youngest son's, yet rendered unrecognizable by years and suffering.
That empty sleeve.
And those eyes... eyes that were clearly Rinnegan, yet so hollow not a single gleam of light could be seen. Within them was a sorrow so vast she couldn't comprehend, but could clearly feel ,sorrow that threatened to overflow.
Maternal instinct, in an instant, overwhelmed all absurdity and bewilderment.
Her heart felt as if it were being fiercely gripped by a hand. It ached terribly.
"You..." Mikoto took a step forward, her voice involuntarily softening, carrying a cautious note of probing.
"Child... are you alright?"
Boom!
This simplest, most ordinary greeting exploded within the middle-aged Sasuke's soul like a divine thunderbolt from the ninth heaven!
His head snapped up. Those lifeless eyes stared fixedly at this woman before him,apron tied, flour still on her hands, face full of worry.
Mom...
She's alive.
She didn't fall in a pool of blood.
She's standing right in front of me, speaking to me in that gentle, heart-achingly concerned tone.
The middle-aged Sasuke's body began to tremble violently, uncontrollably.
He opened his mouth, but his throat felt as if blocked by scorching sand. No sound came out.
The string of reason, in this moment, completely snapped.
It wasn't that he had never imagined what it would be like... if nothing had ever happened.
But all those fantasies, the instant he witnessed this scene with his own eyes, transformed into the most vicious torture.
"Itachi, what on earth is going on?!"
Uchiha Fugaku's deep voice sounded. He had already moved to Itachi's side, his expression graver than ever before.
As the head of the Police Force, his first instinct was to detect danger.
The massive, chaotic chakra emanating from this one-armed man was a huge destabilizing factor.
Yet at the same time, as a father, seeing that face twisted in agony stirred a colossal tempest within his own heart.
"Father."
Itachi adjusted his glasses, concealing the complex emotions in his eyes.
"The situation is somewhat complicated. Lord Fifth instructed me to host them."
He glanced at the equally confused Boruto beside him, then at that "self" already teetering on the brink of collapse.
"He... comes from another world."
"What?!"
Young Sasuke and Mikoto let out simultaneous exclamations.
Only Fugaku's brow remained tightly furrowed, as if digesting this unbelievable information.
"Another... world?"
"Oi! Sasuke-oji! What's wrong with you?! Don't scare me!"
Boruto finally noticed something was wrong. He vigorously shook the middle-aged Sasuke's remaining arm.
"Are you... crying?"
Crying?
The middle-aged Sasuke subconsciously raised his hand and touched his own cheek.
His fingertips met icy wetness.
He was actually crying,in front of the enemy he hated most, and the happiest version of "himself."
How... pathetic.
How... wretched.
This final straw,the straw called "dignity",was utterly crushed.
"I apologize."
Itachi stepped forward, shielding him from the probing gazes of his parents and brother.
He offered a slight bow to the swaying man.
"Please, come with me."
Itachi turned to his family, speaking in a tone that brooked no argument.
"Father, Mother, Sasuke. I need to speak with him privately. He is a guest, not an enemy."
With that, he offered no further explanation. He led that soul-lost figure and the bewildered Boruto toward the guest room deep within the residence.
The wooden door closed softly, shutting out the warm lamplight of the living room. Shutting the warmth and happiness of that room outside.
The room was unlit. Only the cold moonlight streamed through the window, spilling onto the floor.
Itachi didn't speak. He simply stood there quietly, granting the other enough time to compose himself.
Within the guest room, utter silence reigned.
Moonlight, like water, poured through the window lattice, casting icy grids upon the floor.
Itachi hadn't turned on the lights. He stood silently by the door, like a silent statue, concealing himself in the shadows.
He granted this "brother" from another world ample time to lick those ruthlessly exposed, blood-dripping wounds.
The middle-aged Sasuke stood with his back to him, before the window. The tremors racking his body finally began to subside.
He gazed at the night sky outside,familiar, yet utterly alien.
The silhouette of the compound was clearly visible under the moonlight. Serene. Peaceful. Brimming with the breath of life.
This scene was what he had most yearned for, and most feared, during countless midnight dreams.
Pain.
Pain that carved into the marrow of his bones.
But after this ultimate agony, a strange wisp of warmth quietly sprouted from the depths of his long-parched heart.
He saw.
He saw with his own eyes.
His father's sternness. His mother's gentleness. His brother's protection. And... that cocky, blissfully ignorant, happy version of himself.
None of this was false illusion.
It was a real world,a world untainted by hatred and bloodshed.
"Heh..."
A hoarse, self-mocking chuckle escaped the middle-aged Sasuke's throat.
He slowly turned around, looking toward Itachi in the shadows.
Those hollow Rinnegan now held the faintest trace of focus.
"I'm alright now."
His voice was still dry, but it no longer trembled.
"This 'journey'... may be the greatest harvest of my entire life."
He gazed at Itachi's face,identical to the one in his memories, yet lacking so much of the weariness and resolve,and the sorrow in his eyes gradually settled.
"To be able to see you all again... see my brother alive, and my parents."
Boruto stood to the side, not daring to even breathe loudly. He stared blankly at this Sasuke-oji who seemed to have experienced life and death within the span of minutes, utterly unable to comprehend the weight behind his words.
"Please... give my thanks to Lord Fifth."
The middle-aged Sasuke's gaze seemed to pierce through the walls, looking toward the highest point of the village.
"I thought before... that he was tormenting me in the cruelest way possible."
"Now I understand."
"He merely... let me see a future that should have existed."
Itachi looked at him silently. The emotions within his eyes, behind the gold-rimmed glasses, were complex.
That man... in the most domineering, most unreasonable way... dragged this brother from another world out of the endless hell called 'hatred.'
Even if the process... was horrifically brutal.
"Rest well."
In the end, Itachi only uttered these three words.
He didn't press further. Didn't offer comfort. He merely stated it calmly.
"Call me if you need anything."
With that, he pulled open the door and disappeared beyond it, closing it behind him.
The room fell back into silence.