Chapter 137 Forgive Me, Sasuke
"You can catch a cold even when the seasons change? Are you really a Chunin?" This was Uchiha Sasuke, who came to visit him in the hospital and made a sarcastic remark.
"I'm so sorry that I caught a cold, even though I'm a Chunin." Haruko looked at him with a hint of resentment.
Completely charmed by her adorable, cat-like expression, Uchiha Sasuke awkwardly turned his head away and clumsily picked up an apple from the fruit basket and began peeling it.
Haruko Hayama was surprised to see that he had this skill, and curiously looked up to see.
"..." Sasuke Uchiha, who was being stared at, began to stiffen, and accidentally sliced off his skin and flesh.
Seeing his awkward moment, Haruko breathed a sigh of relief and lay down peacefully.
Sasuke Uchiha's face darkened, and he gripped the fruit knife tightly in his hand. "This is all because you were staring at me, not my fault!"
"Mmm, it's my fault, it's my fault," Haruko replied dismissively to the strong-willed cat.
A surge of anger rose in Uchiha Sasuke's eyes, a anger born of provocation. Today, he was determined to carve out a perfect apple!
Amused by his foolish younger brother, Itachi patted his head and then looked at Haruko Hayama.
"I took Sasuke to observe yesterday, and only found out you were sick after I got back. I'm so sorry that I'm only visiting you now."
"No, I'm already so happy that you all came to see me!"
Itachi Uchiha felt a warmth in his heart. "Haruko can actually ask for something, otherwise, it makes me, her older brother, seem really useless."
"Hmm..." Haruko thought about it seriously for a moment, then smiled, "Then let Itachi and Sasuke continue to be happy together!"
Sasuke Uchiha, who was peeling an apple nearby, heard her words and snorted, but accidentally broke the skin on his hand that was still intact.
"...Pfft." Haruko Hayama tried hard to suppress her laughter, but the sound still escaped.
Enraged, Uchiha Sasuke shouted, "From now on, you're not allowed to speak!"
"Huh? Sasuke is such a domineering manipulator!"
"You can tell me once I've finished peeling it."
"But if you need others to stay silent when peeling an apple, then Sasuke's skills aren't necessarily that good."
"……Shut up!"
The room was filled with the lively sounds of the two children bickering. Uchiha Itachi looked at them with a quiet smile, but through Haruko's words earlier, he suddenly saw those bloody and crimson scenes from his dream.
That day at the Nanga Shrine, after learning of his father's rebellious idea, he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
“I wasn’t planning to tell you, since I already know the consequences.” Fugaku Uchiha gave him a deep look.
Uchiha Itachi clenched his fist. "What... does this mean?"
Fugaku Uchiha did not answer him, but instead activated his Mangekyou Sharingan and used genjutsu to show Itachi the future where the Uchiha would launch a coup.
However... it's a future where the Uchiha coup fails.
Under the moonlight, the Uchiha clan members were slaughtered one by one.
The culprit... was Uchiha Itachi.
Faced with a street filled with bloodshed, his father confronted him, demanding to know whose eyes they were—Konoha's or the Uchiha's?
They all knew how fierce the struggle for bloodline limits between great powers was. Many people in the village had already gone missing, including their Uchiha clan members. The Konoha Police Department, led by the Uchiha clan, had long been defunct and could no longer recapture its former glory.
Faced with his father's questioning, he used the Mangekyou Sharingan to show his father the future of the Uchiha clan, just like his father does now.
The father remained unusually calm in the face of the failed coup. Since such an outcome had already been reached, he was no longer willing to kill his own family members.
In the end, the father gave up resisting and died at his hands along with the mother.
"It was a chance encounter that flashed through my mind about the possible future of the Uchiha clan," Fugaku Uchiha explained calmly.
Emerging from the illusion, Itachi Uchiha knelt down in a daze. His hands, which were supporting him on the ground, slowly clenched, and the pain from his fingernails pulling at them could not alleviate the agony he was experiencing from the blood-red illusion.
The murderer who slaughtered the entire clan... was him.
This illusion, told from the father's perspective, matched the images that had vaguely flashed through his kaleidoscope earlier.
It was the same night as today, and his father said the same thing to him—Fugaku Uchiha hoped that Itachi Uchiha, who worked in the Anbu, would act as the clan's eyes and ears to gather intelligence and coordinate attacks from within and without.
However, after weighing the pros and cons, Itachi Uchiha chose to report the news of the coup to the Konoha leadership.
"The Uchiha are part of Konoha and would never do anything to betray Konoha."
The Konoha leadership instructed Itachi Uchiha to take one path: prevent the coup.
Itachi Uchiha knew that if the Uchiha launched a coup, even if they succeeded in gaining leadership, it would end in failure, provide a pretext for foreign invasion, and ultimately lead to Konoha facing internal and external troubles and being destroyed.
Therefore, Itachi Uchiha chose to take a plan outside of Konoha's instructions and invited the masked man Tobi to join him in the operation to exterminate the entire Uchiha clan.
In the end, he was branded a rogue ninja and fled Konoha, leaving Sasuke Uchiha as the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan.
Uchiha Itachi's vision gradually blurred with tears. He clutched his clothes tightly, as if trying to extinguish the image of himself witnessing all of this.
This can't be real... How could this be...
How could it end like that...?
No matter how much he deceived himself, Itachi Uchiha knew in his heart that if he had not known the future in the illusion, upon hearing the voices of his clansmen rebelling, he might have chosen to report it to the Konoha leadership, just as he did in the illusion.
The horrifying sounds of his clansmen's deaths still seemed to linger in his ears, and Itachi Uchiha shook his head in anguish.
He heard his father's voice cut through the illusion and reality, overlapping with the words spoken when his father turned his back on the butcher's knife.
"Despite our differing opinions, I am still proud of you."
Fugaku Uchiha walked up to him, squatted down, and patted his shoulder. Each pat was heavy, so heavy that Itachi Uchiha remembered that he carried the lives of the Uchiha clan on his shoulders.
In the days and nights that followed, Itachi Uchiha seemed to be separated from reality by a veil, unable to see his true self.
"Look! This is my true skill level!"
The voice of his younger brother, whom he had carefully cared for since childhood, cut through the air and pulled him back to the present.
Haruko Hayashi reluctantly reached out and clapped for him, "Wow, Sasuke is amazing."
"..." Sasuke Uchiha blushed. Why did he feel like this made him seem so childish?!
With a displeased expression, he handed her the peeled apple. Seeing that Haruko was enjoying her breakfast, Sasuke barely managed to stop being angry with her.
Seeing how much she enjoyed the food I peeled myself, I reluctantly forgave her!
Ignoring the tsundere cat's awkwardness, Haruko looked at the stunned Itachi Uchiha beside her and said, "Itachi-nii, do you want to eat an apple? I think Sasuke really likes peeling apples."
"What do you mean I like to shave?!" Uchiha Sasuke was immediately amused and burst out laughing.
"Hahaha, Sasuke's got a temper!"
"I didn't!"
The vivid interactions between his younger brother and sister are presented before his eyes. How happy Itachi Uchiha was when he saw these things before, how painful he is now.
Forgive me... Sasuke.
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