The masked man said, "Itachi Uchiha's way of living was self-sacrifice. For the peace of the entire ninja world, and even more so, for his younger brother."
—Itachi: I'm giving you my power, hoping you'll never have to use it.
The masked man continued, "Sasuke killed a brother like that with his own hands, and then learned the truth. He can no longer forgive Konoha, a peace bought with lives and suffering. The Sasuke of today has become true darkness. No one and nothing can stop his plan for revenge."
—Sasuke: My wish… or rather, my ambition is to kill a certain man and restore the honor of the Uchiha clan!
Sakura Haruno said, "Naruto, enough! It's already enough. Stop chasing Sasuke. That old promise doesn't matter anymore."
—Kakashi Hatake: Is she planning to go kill Sasuke by herself?
Nagato said, "My parents and family all died at Konoha's hands. How can the chain of hatred ever be cut?"
—The Fourth Hokage: The answer is something you must find on your own.
—The Fourth Raikage: Once we kill Sasuke, you people of Konoha just don't hold a grudge. That solves it.
—The Fifth Kazekage: Naruto, if your dream is to become Hokage, then do what you must do.
...
In the Land of Iron, buried under a sky of heavy snow, the Uchiha could feel the cold seeping from Naruto Uzumaki's body, clad in nothing but a thin tracksuit.
But worse than the cold was the pain of icy air tearing into his lungs.
Everyone had pushed the problem onto a sixteen-year-old boy whose head wasn't exactly the sharpest. The pressure he placed on himself was far too heavy, more than he could bear.
Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke was the first to sense that something was wrong within Naruto's consciousness.
Grief so deep that it stole his breath.
He had felt this once before. When he learned the truth about Itachi. Sorrow so overwhelming that even breathing, something that should have been instinctive from the moment of birth, suddenly became unbearably difficult.
Oxygen failed to reach his brain. Dizziness and suffocating pain followed.
Bleak despair…
'Naruto!' He wanted to shout, to force Naruto to calm down.
'Kakashi! And that guy Yamato!' Though it was only a few seconds, to him it felt like minutes had passed. He even resented Kakashi and the others for not noticing Naruto's condition sooner.
"Hah—hah—hah—hah—"
Naruto clutched his chest, and the sound and rhythm of his gasping finally drew the attention of Kakashi, Yamato, and the others behind him.
"Naruto! What's wrong?!"
'Hey!'
'It hurts… I can't breathe!'
'Hyperventilation! Naruto's putting too much pressure on himself!'
The Uchiha, especially Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke and Child Sasuke, could all feel Naruto's pain at this moment.
'It hurts…'
'Dead last…'
Kakashi noticed Naruto's hyperventilation slightly later than Obito, or rather, later than the masked man had noticed Sasuke's. Naruto collapsed into the snow, desperately gasping for air.
This sensation was something every Uchiha could empathize with. Child Sasuke, who had endured far less than Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke, found it especially unbearable. As his senses intensified, his heart churned with complicated feelings toward that so-called dead last from the Ninja Academy, the one he had once looked down on.
"Naruto!"
"Relax, Naruto!"
Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke realized that almost every kind of pain he had ever endured would later be reflected on Naruto's body.
And yet, back then, he knew nothing about it.
And then…
"Naruto! Watch out!!"
Naruto was injured again, this time while saving Sakura Haruno, the very person Sasuke had nearly killed with his own hands.
"Sasuke, I understand how you're feeling right now, and why you're acting this way."
"Didn't I say this already, Naruto?! Someone like you, without parents or siblings, how could you possibly understand how I feel?! You're an outsider. Shut up!"
Child Sasuke: (?_?) I really want to shut myself up.
Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke: (?_?) Why isn't there an Earth Release jutsu that just buries me alive? What are the odds of successfully killing myself with Amaterasu?
"I killed Danzō Shimura! I purified the tainted Uchiha! I'll make the Uchiha sever ties with this rotten ninja world! Aren't you people of Konoha so afraid of the Uchiha that the very thought of us terrifies you? Then I'll help you! I'll kill everyone in Konoha! That way, you'll never fear the Uchiha again!!"
"This is my plan to revive the Uchiha! Kill everyone in Konoha and prove that we, the Uchiha, are the strongest!!"
Fugaku Uchiha: ...
If this had been in the past, there would have been quite a few Uchiha who shared such thoughts, especially among the hardliners.
But now, their perspective was that of Naruto Uzumaki. Sixteen years of living that life had already given them the same way of thinking as Naruto, the same sense of Konoha.
Sometimes, they could no longer even tell whether they were Naruto Uzumaki or just some Uchiha anymore.
In this state, hearing Sasuke Uchiha declare that he would kill everyone in Konoha, their instinctive reaction was to recall scene after scene of Naruto's journey, from having nothing at all to becoming a hero of the village, acknowledged by everyone.
And then there was the Fifth Kazekage. In this ninja world, there were countless people far more unfortunate than the Uchiha. Yet only they, after tasting suffering and gaining power, kept trying to drag an entire village, even the whole world, into their revenge.
Watching Sasuke in such a hysterical state.
Listening to a clansman shout again and again about slaughtering all of Konoha.
At this very moment, some of the Uchiha actually asked themselves a question.
Could they really blame the Second Hokage and Konoha's higher-ups for being wary of a clan like theirs?
Where else in this world was there another person, another clan, like Madara Uchiha, Sasuke Uchiha, or Obito Uchiha, who used "I'm in pain" as an excuse to do things that were supposedly about saving the world, but were in truth nothing more than revenge against everyone?
To put it bluntly, wasn't this mindset just self-righteousness dressed up as suffering?
"I'm in pain, so none of you get to live happily either."
Without the influence of the Sharingan twisting their minds into extremes, and after sixteen years of thinking like a hot-blooded Konoha ninja, even if it wasn't complete enlightenment, it was enough to make the Uchiha present feel deep regret.
"Naruto, you and Sakura leave. I'll deal with Sasuke."
"Deal with him? Kakashi-sensei, you too…?"
Sasuke felt the bleak sorrow in Naruto's heart as he heard him say,
"Kakashi-sensei, are you giving up on Sasuke too? Have you decided to kill him as well?"
Kakashi didn't answer. His silence was an answer in itself.
As Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke recalled this memory, he remembered that at the time, after killing Danzō, his repeated use of the Mangekyō Sharingan and Susanoo had already left him blind.
That was why he couldn't see the sorrow in Naruto's heart.
He could hear Naruto's words back then, but it wasn't like now. At that time, he couldn't truly sense Naruto's feelings.
But now, it was different.
Naruto's emotions were perfectly clear to him.
"Thinking back on it now, I was the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, and you carried the fate of the Uchiha clan… You were a genius, and I was the dead last. Whenever I saw you, I felt so envious. I wanted to talk to you but didn't dare to, so I selfishly treated you as my rival…"
"From that moment on, you became my goal."
What had I been thinking back then?
It felt meaningless, rambling on about all kinds of nonsense at a time like that.
"Naruto, no matter what you say now, my resolve won't change. Including you, Sakura Haruno, and Kakashi Hatake, I will kill everyone in Konoha!!"
Yes. Just like that.
It should have been like that…
So why…
Why did I have to learn everything about this idiot?
Why did I have to know what I meant to him? To know that he's smiling right now, but crying inside?!
"Hey… do we really only have this one path?"
"That's right. You only have two choices. Kill me and become the hero who protects the village, or be killed by me and die a failure."
Naruto, if my brother truly wanted to destroy Konoha, would you kill him to protect it?
Everything unfolded exactly as Itachi had anticipated. Even this had been arranged perfectly.
"No! I won't become the failure you kill, and I won't kill you either, Sasuke!"
"..."
"If you really insist on revenge, then I'll shoulder your hatred, and then…"
"…die together with you."
!!!!
Shisui Uchiha, Young Itachi Uchiha: beaten, kneeling, hyperventilating, dying together…
Obito Uchiha x3: beaten, kneeling, hyperventilating, dying together…
The Uchiha: beaten, kneeling, hyperventilating, dying together…
Fugaku Uchiha: ...
Mikoto Uchiha, feeling Naruto's emotions at this moment, was so moved she was on the verge of tears.
"If we both die, you won't have to carry the honor of the Uchiha anymore, and I won't be the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki either. When we reach that world, we'll finally be able to truly understand each other, won't we?"
Right after that, Naruto collapsed without a fight, his face turning purple as he went down.
Child Sasuke and Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke felt their scalps go numb.
That idiot… that idiot… that idiot…
—What an absolute, unbelievable idiot!!
He almost died from the poison on Sakura Haruno's kunai!!
I'm going to die of anger!!!
Just when am I ever going to get back to my own era?!
Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke forcefully pulled himself out of the illusion, looking at the ring of anxious Konoha ninja, as well as Minato Namikaze and Naruto Uzumaki.
"Adult Sasuke Uchiha!" Seeing that Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke had exited the illusion, the people of Konoha hurriedly asked when the rest of the Uchiha clan would wake up.
Adult Kakashi said, "What did the Uchiha experience in the illusion? Why haven't Obito and the others woken up yet?"
Young Kakashi didn't speak, but his tightly furrowed brows clearly showed his concern for that idiot Obito over there.
"What happened?" Minato Namikaze asked. "Your face looks…"
…really red.
For a moment, everyone's gaze fixed on Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke's face.
"I'm angry. At a complete idiot."