CXnovel Chapter 543 The Objective Truth
Chapter 543 The Objective Truth
"...Okay, that's about it."
Naruto's voice was unusually calm amidst the roaring waters of the Valley of the End, but beneath that calm lay a weight that could not be ignored.
Each word was like a nail, hammered into Sasuke's heart.
"While I don't deny that he wanted to protect you, his hands are indeed stained with far too much blood, and that blood won't become clean just because he had the reason of 'protecting his younger brother'."
"I cannot agree with Itachi's path."
During the story just now, Sasuke interrupted several times.
Each interruption was a furious, hysterical, and out-of-control outburst.
He wanted to shut Naruto up, wanted to rush up and tear this bastard to shreds, wanted to use his fists to shut up those words that were tearing his heart apart.
And then each time he was subdued with one hand.
Naruto could simply reach out and pin him down, rendering him unable to move.
The power gap was so vast that it was despair-inducing, leaving Sasuke feeling utterly powerless after his initial anger.
At that moment, Sasuke stood there, his eyes, which had once burned with the flames of revenge, now terrifyingly empty, with no focus in his pupils.
"No...this is impossible..." he muttered to himself.
"You must be lying to me..."
"You...you have no evidence at all...it's all fake...you made it all up to deceive me..."
"We can have as much of that stuff as we want."
Naruto gave him no room to escape or deceive himself.
"I can take you to see Uchiha Itachi in person now. Anyway, for me, finding his location from here is just a matter of a moment."
"Your brother is no match for me. He has no chance to lie or resist me."
Sasuke's pupils contracted sharply for a moment.
"Or you could ask the three generations of old men. Although he wasn't personally involved in all of that history, he knows far more than you think."
Naruto continued, leaving Sasuke with nowhere to escape.
"Or, I can take you directly to Shimura Danzo and have him tell you in person what exactly happened back then, what role Itachi played in it, and what those so-called 'conditions' were."
He stopped and looked at Sasuke's face, which had completely lost its color.
"I can find any kind of evidence. As long as you want to see it, as long as you want to hear it, I can show you every corner of the truth, without any embellishment or concealment."
Sasuke bit his lip hard.
The force was so great that the teeth quickly embedded themselves in the flesh of the lips, causing thin streaks of blood to seep out and slowly flow down the corners of the mouth.
But he couldn't feel any pain.
Or rather, compared to what's churning inside, this pain is nothing at all.
When the initial denial finally passes, when the stubbornness used to protect oneself is finally shattered—only then does the real pain begin to surface.
"Is this for protection...?"
His voice trembled violently, "Even... even if I'm left all alone in the end... is this considered protection?"
His eyes began to redden, and something warm was gathering in them.
Why...?
His voice became even more broken.
"Why is even Mom...?"
"What crime did my mother commit? Why was she killed by the itachi too... What crime did she commit?!"
Naruto's account is very objective.
He did not deliberately beautify anything, nor did he deliberately exaggerate any tragedy.
He simply laid out the concealed facts and distorted truths one by one in front of young Sasuke.
Those things that Danzo, Obito, and others glorified as acts of justice with terms like "necessary sacrifice"—in the true accounts, became bloody, undeniable acts of slaughter.
The blood kept flowing, constantly staining the shell called "protection".
Until that outer shell could no longer conceal the cruelty within, and it shattered completely, revealing the bloody truth.
"No... I can't admit it...!"
Sasuke's voice grew even sharper and more broken, "Itachi...!"
He raised his head, his eyes filled with shocking bloodshot veins, tears welling up but stubbornly refusing to fall.
"He's a madman!"
"Is he crazy?"
Naruto said softly, his voice neither rebutting nor agreeing, "Although I think it also has a lot to do with his upbringing."
He paused, his gaze falling on the enormous statue of Uchiha Madara standing at his feet.
"After all, your brother was forced to go to the battlefield at the age of three and witnessed countless deaths."
"He has seen more corpses than children his age have seen living people. People who grow up in this kind of environment take life far too lightly."
Sasuke was in a daze.
"So my life... has been planned out by him too?!"
Sasuke's voice trembled with collapse. "In Itachi's plan... I was the last..."
His voice trailed off, lower and lower, "...Would I really...?"
"That's right."
Naruto's voice shattered Sasuke's last shred of hope. "Your brother has decided the entire course of your life. From what you should do at what age, to who you should hate, and where you should go."
"Even if it completely alters your will, forcibly changing your thoughts with something like Kotoamatsukami, it's all to make you return to Konoha and follow the path he set."
"Ugh—"
Sasuke suddenly covered his mouth.
A strong, uncontrollable feeling of nausea surged up from my stomach and rushed to my throat; it was the feeling of wanting to vomit.
To protect oneself, one is willing to completely alter one's will?
In the end, am I still myself?
Those memories, those emotions, that burning hatred that raged day and night—if all of these were arranged, planned, manipulated by someone—
So, who exactly is "Uchiha Sasuke"?
Is he Itachi's younger brother? Or a puppet orchestrated by someone else?
still is……
He stood there, his young face etched with unprecedented pain and confusion. Tears finally welled up and silently streamed down his pale cheeks.
But... should I hate Itachi?
Hate the weasel?
But he did manage to save himself.
Forgive Itachi?
But what about the dead?
What about those Uchiha civilians? What about those children who knew nothing? What about those who were just living ordinary lives and did nothing wrong—what crime did they commit?
Why should someone die for the reason of "protecting Sasuke"?
Avenge them?
Then he would have to kill the person who "protected him" with his own hands.
He killed the only living relative in the world.
Kill that...brother.
Let go of everything?
How could I possibly let go?
He saw it with his own eyes.
It's something he'll never forget.
That night, the figures lying in pools of blood, his father and mother lying in pools of blood, the corpses of his clansmen scattered all over the ground, and his brother standing in the middle of the sea of blood, looking at him with those cold, chilling eyes...
"……I……"
Sasuke's voice was so soft it was almost inaudible, "What should I do...?"
He murmured helplessly, his tear-filled eyes now showing only endless confusion and pain.