[Comprehensive] living to death

?The first choice is to set off a doomed coup with the family, bring another turmoil to Konoha, and then die with the family in internal friction.

The second option is to kill the rebellious family and save the only younger brother.

The 13-year-old Uchiha Itachi chose the second.

All the struggles, trade-offs, and painful choices... Needless to say, in short, on that full moon night, Itachi pierced the chest of every clansman with the knife in his hand.Including girls who like him, including unarmed ordinary people, including his parents.

Only the younger brother survived.

He thought a lot.He decided to go undercover in the "Akatsuki" organization as a traitor, to collect information about the enemy for Konoha, and then let Sasuke kill the sinner of his own family, the "traitor" of Konoha, and let Sasuke get everything he had hoped for. ,bright future.

But until he was covered in the blood of his kin, until he stood in front of his parents' dead bodies, until his young brother stared at him blankly and terrified...

Until all this really happened, Itachi realized that he only had one expectation for his younger brother.

— Live, Sasuke.Even if you are suffering, even if you are dying...you must work hard to live.

Itachi once wanted to become Hokage; he once promised his best friend that he would lead the family out of the predicament in the past; he once hoped to see his younger brother become a powerful ninja with his own eyes...

Countless gorgeous dreams have sunk into the abyss, including himself.

——Sasuke...to live.

There is only... this obsession.

For himself, after that blood-stained moonlit night, the world will only remain eternally cold.Occasionally recalling the past, I only feel that there are all kinds of old dreams, as if they have passed away.

But I don't know when...

Itachi began to have a long dream.

In the dream, he saw himself as a child, saw his parents, family, village... everything was exactly the same as he remembered, but there was one more person.

——"I will protect you as a big sister, Weasel."

He saw a young girl, very similar to her mother, standing in front of the crib poking the baby's face.

The baby is...he?

——"Little Itachi, I'm back! Come and give me a kiss!"

The child who was picked up by her with a laugh did indeed look like herself when she was young.Itachi can even perceive the mood of "that self": the walking practice was disturbed by his sister, and he was a little troubled.

It is indeed the idea that I would have when I was young.Itachi thought.

——"Do you want to eat candy? Hush, quietly, don't let mom find out."

He saw her stuffing candy into her younger brother's mouth with a smile, the smile was so bright that it didn't fit the dull background.

...What are these?Illusion?At first, Itachi felt deeply troubled and wary.Is it to numb him by instilling these seemingly warm but never-before-seen images into his mind?Who can do this?

But no matter how he checked, he couldn't find any trace of illusion or control.

But the dream still exists.Many nights, whenever dreams come, Itachi can see those scenes.

——"Little Weasel! Look, this is our father! He even beats his daughter in a hurry, he has no measure!"

——"U·Chi·Ha·Ming·Moon!!!"

In the dream, when he was young, he witnessed countless times his majestic father jumping his feet in anger, but the intimacy between father and daughter had never been seen by Itachi who existed here.

Does father also have such moments of frustration?The gentle mother was also snickering.Itachi watched the girl jumping up and down in his dream, and finally couldn't help smiling.When he realized this, he suddenly froze.

... It's like the warmth of the illusory world, which still overflows quietly after being separated by a distant dream.

——"I'll tell you a secret. I only told you because Tiny Itachi is my younger brother!"

Itachi saw her holding up an ugly doll, seriously fooling her young self, and he foolishly believed it.

... When was he so stupid?This is indeed an illusion.When Itachi came to the conclusion so seriously, he intentionally or unintentionally ignored the urge to laugh in his heart.

The little girl in the dream graduated from ninja school in only one year, and then went to the battlefield with Shisui.Itachi found that he could only see what he could see in his dream.

He had seen her come home after the war and have a big fight with her father over her brother.The young self was puzzled by the reason for her anger, but itachi who was at this moment understood that feeling—the feeling of wanting to protect his younger brother.

...No, Uchiha Itachi doesn't need to live under someone else's wing.Itachi watched the pair of siblings under the night sky calmly, without any weak envy in his heart.Must say...

At most, he just felt that if that illusory world could really exist...then someone wanted to protect him, although it was a bit strange...but he did receive it.

False world?But also a wonderful world.Peace is always good.

Itachi was a little confused.If all this is not illusion, what is it?Could it be that he couldn't bear the pain in reality and weaved this useless illusory dream for himself? , No, his capacity has never been so shallow.

But if it was a harmless dream, let it go; he couldn't stop it anyway.

The real time flows slowly, day by day, year by year; the dream is still going on, and the pair of false siblings grow up slowly.Itachi saw her sneaking around the ninja school to observe her younger brother, and was picked out by Shisui, but he was still confident and without embarrassment.The self in the dream was surprised and helpless, and the older Itachi also sighed with a bit of a headache.

It's so lively that it makes people feel helpless.

——"Ah, obviously at first I thought that Mingyue, as a big sister, could take good care of my younger brother, but I didn't expect that she would act like an ignorant older brother and encourage my younger brother to be mischievous."

Even a gentle mother will show a helpless but loving expression in front of her.It seems that as long as there is that person, even the air is relaxed.

——"Mom, a precocious child like Itachi just needs to be more lively!"

—— "Where is the truth, really, one set of one set."

Itachi stared at the false family members, not knowing that he was holding his breath.Those smiling faces that can no longer be seen in reality appear repeatedly in dreams... Is it painful, tormented, because every time I can remember that I slaughtered all of this with my own hands?still……

Miss it?

The world in the dream continued on a trajectory that he didn't know.

The Kyuubi attack did not happen, and Uchiha's clan did not move.The fourth generation is still alive, and even the changes that the clan has been eagerly looking forward to are slowly coming.Itachi compared his own memories and pieced together the truth of the matter from his dreams bit by bit, but he couldn't see too many things at that young age, the only thing he understood was that "Uchiha Madara" should be "Uchiha Obito", but It doesn't help.

what did she doNo, it should be asked, what did she see?As her younger brother, "Itachi" is in ignorance, but Uchiha Itachi, who is walking in the abyss, can see that all the subtle differences are related to one person.

Uchiha Meigetsu

...a name that is a bit of a mouthful to pronounce.

Itachi could even look into her eyes, and saw familiar emotions in them.When he was still in Konoha, trying to hold back the family that had fallen into ignorance and fanaticism; when he was the only member of the family who saw the ending, and suppressed all anxiety in his heart... he looked in his own eyes in the mirror. Here, I saw such a mood.

this person……

He saw his young self experience the death of his companion for the first time, but his father was busy happy with the appearance of his Sharingan.The child held back tears, tried to overcome the emotional shock with rational thinking, but cried out in her sister's arms.

——"A living person is dead! But my father is only indifferent and indifferent..."

She touched her brother's head carefully, made him sob little by little, and comforted him in a low voice.

——"If you see too much death, you will become numb easily. This is the instinct of self-protection in life. Ninjas are always prone to become like this. But you are different, Little Itachi. Don't you want to be Hokage, so come on, when you get there One day you can tell your father with facts that life is precious after all, and the world can be a better place."

……this person……

He saw his young self looking up at his sister's face, allowing her to wipe away his tears, and seriously said that he would definitely do it.

——"But even so, I still won't give up Hokage's seat to you, hahahaha..."

The itachis inside and outside the dream showed helpless eyes.

He watched her grow up little by little.

He saw her holding up an umbrella in the spring rain, covering her younger brother's head, shielding him from the cold rain.The self in the dream is already a Chunin, just like the real him, he is working hard for the dream of peace every day.

——"Life in this world is a practice. If you want to become Hokage, you can't do it with your own strength. You have to let other people understand your thoughts, so that you can truly be believed by people."

... This person is real...

——"Sister, even if I admit that you are right...but why do you wear a long white dress when it rains?"

——"It's a rare holiday! Don't you think that spring rainy days go better with fluttering white clothes?"

——"...No, I think mother will be angry."

——"Uh, don't care so much hahaha..."

Then a bicycle rode over and mercilessly splashed a few stains on the girl's white dress.He saw her despondent face, but also bluffing and forcing a smile.Itachi also followed himself in the dream, slightly hooking the corners of his lips.

If this is an illusion... then it is really a terrible illusion.

Because he has already begun to feel that this person...

——"Little Sasuke, I won't scare you anymore, please forgive me~"

——"Sister, you have said it many times! I don't want to trust you anymore, you big liar!"

——"Ah, I'm so hurt! Little Weasel, your brother bullied me!"

——"...Sister, don't bully Sasuke."

This man really... understood him.

Itachi kept dreaming of a world that never existed.

In the daytime, in reality, he is the Suzaku of "Dawn" and the quiet Konoha agent/spy.He hates disputes, but stays with them; he loves his younger brother and Konoha deeply, but he puts himself in the abyss of being forever hated.

However, in the false dream, he saw everything he had longed for.He watched the family slowly and peacefully integrate into Konoha, he watched him holding Sasuke's hand and walking on the road that had never been muddy, he watched Shisui move away from the node of his death...

Watching her bouncing and growing up, making jokes and laughing, but never changing the firm light in her eyes.

Itachi has always been a person who faces reality directly, always has been.He is also proficient in illusion, and people who are proficient in illusion are without exception deeply rooted in reality and do not yearn for any "if".

However, that dream was too warm and soft, as if there really was such a world, where everyone was fine and many regrets were compensated.

It was such a long, real, and so bright dream that one almost wanted to immerse oneself in it, and it became the only bright color in Itachi's windy, frosty life.He still never envied—let alone envied—nor regretted the reality he was in; he still had his own life goals unfulfilled, and everything was no more painful than before.It's just that... when he didn't even realize it, he did receive some comfort because of that night of dreams.

Like a weary and weary traveler in the desert who happens to taste a drop of dew, though it hardly helps, but for a split second...

He probably did feel happy.

Itachi couldn't touch that false world, and he didn't intend to.Just watching was such a luxury that he wondered if it was just sugar-coated poison.

Only once.

In the afternoon at the dumpling shop, the sunshine in the dream is as sweet and greasy as the dessert.She gave her brother an ordinary necklace, and there was a faint tension hidden under the casual appearance, but he never noticed it.

——"Sister, what happened to your hand?"

That kid just asked.

——"Suppress it somewhere, there will always be times when you are not careful..."

Then she covered her mouth and coughed, pretending to choke on water.However, the slender fingertips had a shocking lavender color.

It is exactly the same disease as the real Itachi.

What did she do, Itachi thought lightly, if he thought about it differently, if Sasuke was terminally ill, he would try his best to save him, even at the risk of his life.

He should be calm, but when he looked at the pair of siblings, he felt a little sad.If it were him now, he could easily detect something wrong with her, but as a younger brother, Itachi Uchiha was so well loved by her that he just let this abnormality go.

Itachi felt a little dissatisfied with himself in the dream: too weak.He was so pampered that he lost his due vigilance.

Only at that time, Itachi suddenly wanted to touch her head—just like she did to "self", and told her: Actually, you don't have to work so hard.He would not be happy to take on everything and sacrifice himself for his peace.

...But isn't that how he treats Sasuke himself?

A faint hesitation flashed in his heart, and it was quickly annihilated in the dark night-like deep thoughts.No, he has no turning back.

That illusory dream was so good that it gave Itachi an illusion, making him think that the three siblings would live on forever, at least when he finished everything and died, she would still be there.But what he didn't expect was that that person died before him.

Obviously it was just a dream.Obviously he doesn't have a sister named Yue.Obviously he is very aware of the reality he is living in.obviously...

She and her world have accompanied him for many years.

The ferret heard the long cry of the goshawk in his dream.The sky was clouded with clouds, and the black river rolled with gloomy waves.His vision pierced the sky and the river, watching her fall from a height and sinking to the bottom of the river.

Her eyes were closed, the sunken eye sockets and the bloodstains on her face said it all.Her long hair spread out in the water, hugging her unconscious body.

……do you died.

Dreams cannot be measured by common sense, so when Itachi couldn't help reaching out his hand, he really grabbed her hand.But only for a moment.The dagger she was holding slipped into his, and she herself sank into the dark bottom of the river.

He closed his eyes slightly.

When the moon is full, it will lose, and when the water is full, it will overflow; ninjas and death accompany each other, and they are destined to lose important things, and they must endure.This is true for him here, and it is also true for him in the dream.

Goodbye... no, goodbye forever.

bright moon.

******

"Mr. Itachi, it seems that you have never used that knife before."

The bonfire was crackling and beating, illuminating a small area of ​​dark night and also illuminating Itachi's black eyes.The bamboo hat he wore during the day was put aside, but the stand-up collar of the robe was still standing up, covering half of his face.Hearing this, he glanced at his companion, his expression was still flat and almost indifferent, without any emotional fluctuations.

"It belongs to an old friend."

"Oh, so," Kisame grinned, with a hint of blood in his smile, "Is it the kind of 'old friend' killed by Mr. Itachi?"

"That kind of thing doesn't matter," said Itachi.

The short knife lay quietly in the chrysanthemum pattern scabbard, and the crescent blade pattern on the knife body was hidden in the darkness, sleeping quietly.