"Why… why, Kazuki? Aren't you supposed to be one of the Uchiha Clan's paragons?"
Kaguya asked in confusion.
"You didn't do anything to him. So why… why does he look like he's wishing for your death?"
"Like he'd be happy if I dropped dead, right?"
Kazuki responded naturally.
"Don't be shy, Kaguya. Just say it. That's exactly what it is."
"I brought you here to show you that—even in Konoha, this village Asuma described as built on bonds and trust—there are still people like Uchiha Fugaku, lurking in the dark, hoping for my demise."
"And it's not just Fugaku. There are probably plenty of others like him… They just don't show it."
Kaguya's brows furrowed as she glanced at Fugaku again—this time with a hint of killing intent. Yet her tone toward Kazuki had grown noticeably gentler: "Maybe… maybe it's all just a misunderstanding?"
"He doesn't know that you sealed the Sage of Six Paths with your life for the sake of the entire shinobi world…"
Kazuki laughed lightly. "Whether I died because Tobirama possessed me, or because I sacrificed myself to fight the Sage of Six Paths—does it matter to him?"
"As long as I'm dead, he'll be satisfied either way."
Kaguya fell silent.
Kazuki was right.
And to Kaguya—who saw Kazuki as someone who had given his life for the sake of the shinobi world, whose brilliance bordered on foolish selflessness—it was maddening to think…
That even someone like him could be cursed so cruelly behind his back by his own clan.
Was it really worth it?
And this business of the Uchiha turning on one another…
Among the ruthless Ōtsutsuki, internal bloodshed among the main family was strictly forbidden…
When Urashiki encountered Toneri, whose bloodline was almost as pure as the main branch, even he had said—
"After all, I'm not allowed to kill members of my own clan."
In contrast, within the Uchiha clan, they fought and slaughtered each other for the sake of their eyes—even between brothers and fathers and sons.
It was something that exceeded even Kaguya's imagination…
Unconsciously, she looked at Kazuki with a trace of pity in her eyes.
In a clan like this… how did Kazuki manage to grow into someone so bright and cheerful, like a big, sunny-hearted boy?
He must have—
Silently endured a great deal.
[From the target Otsutsuki Kaguya—You get Yomotsu Hirasaka!]
"Kazuki… that child called Itachi!"
Kaguya did her best to comfort Kazuki: "Look, he doesn't agree with his father's views. That shows there are still many in your clan who support you… They're worth protecting! Don't lose heart because of one person…"
Upon hearing that Itachi was worth protecting…
Kazuki smiled softly and said to Kaguya in a low voice: "I once copied his father's dōjutsu… Would you like to see what kind of person Uchiha Itachi would grow into if I no longer existed in this world?"
"Let me lend you my power. Go and find out for me, will you?"
Kaguya gently nodded, her gaze resolute: "I'll look for you, Kazuki… Believe me—your comrades, whom you protected at the cost of your life—there may be a few rotten ones among them, but most are truly worth it."
Kaguya didn't want Kazuki to lose faith in the bonds between people.
After all, she still hoped to deepen the trust between the two of them.
And given the delicate feelings she was gradually developing for Kazuki, she didn't want to see his sacrifice wasted on people who weren't worthy…
"Use Subi Chii in reverse, Kaguya…"
Kazuki said softly: "With your level of power and perception, if you use it to probe Uchiha Itachi, you should be able to clearly see what kind of person he would become in a world where I never existed."
"It'll give you a better look at his true character."
Kaguya nodded in agreement and carefully activated Kazuki's eye technique.
Kaguya was using the technique of Subi Chii...
She channeled her chakra to reverse-simulate what kind of shinobi Uchiha Itachi would have become in a world where Kazuki didn't exist.
She had originally expected to see a young Itachi, carrying the weight of his clan and the shinobi world on his shoulders, striving forward on a righteous and honorable path...
After all, her first impression of Uchiha Itachi was that of a helpful classmate with remarkable talent, showing no unusual signs.
But as Kaguya delved deeper—
She was dumbfounded.
Subi Chii, the ocular technique, had many limitations when it came to predicting the future...
At its core, it consumed ocular power to extrapolate a possible future based on existing information.
Someone like Uchiha Fugaku, for example, whose power was worlds apart from Kazuki's and who remained ignorant of the powerful figures hiding in the shadows of the shinobi world—could activate his Mangekyō Sharingan until blindness, and still only glimpse disjointed, nonsensical scenes, which he would then struggle to piece together with wild conjecture...
But Kaguya was different.
She possessed encyclopedic knowledge of the shinobi world thanks to Kazuki, and her own strength far surpassed that of Uchiha Itachi by orders of magnitude...
Using Subi Chii, she could accurately deduce Itachi's future.
More importantly, Kazuki already knew what would happen to the world without him. There was no need for genjutsu on his part—Kaguya merely had to use the ocular technique inherited from Uchiha Fugaku, and she could see a scene nearly identical to that of the original Naruto canon...
In the vision Kaguya witnessed—
In a world without Kazuki, Uchiha Itachi was caught between the high command of Konoha and the mounting tensions within his clan. Pressured by Fugaku, he became a double agent, firmly believing in the Will of Fire—albeit a version that lacked the depth and nuance Kazuki had helped refine.
Scene after scene unfolded before Kaguya's eyes, drawing her in like an anime binge. She became deeply immersed in the Uchiha clan's perspective, learning much from this world shaped by ocular illusion.
She absorbed everything—from the long-standing enmity between the Uchiha and the Senju, to the political machinations within the village. She now even knew who Shimura Danzō and Sarutobi Hiruzen were…
Kaguya was quickly becoming half a Konoha native herself.
"How did Kazuki manage to walk this path, step by step, from a beginning like that?" she wondered aloud, ever more fascinated by his story and curious to see how the Uchiha Itachi she had grown to admire might resolve his crisis.
Experiencing the malice of Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō toward the Uchiha, Kaguya, now deeply identified with an Uchiha's perspective, felt genuine fear.
Especially in light of Uchiha Fugaku's previous actions...
In other words, Kazuki had once walked this path alone—facing pressure both from within and outside his clan—and yet still made it to where he was today.
Originally...
Kazuki had only intended to show Kaguya the complexities of human nature, to stir her emotions and make her more susceptible to his influence amid her confusion.
But in contrast, through this deeply immersive ocular illusion, Kaguya came to understand just how difficult the situation had been for Kazuki back then.
If it had been her—
Kaguya doubted she could have accomplished even half of what Kazuki had. Just playing the role of Uchiha Itachi, she thought she might not have survived past the third episode—murdered in secret by Danzō, her body never found...
With this sense of dread and tension gripping her, Kaguya's perspective continued to fast-forward through time, each frame connecting to the next until it culminated in the Night of the Massacre—
One by one, Uchiha clan members collapsed to the ground, blood pooling across the floors. Uchiha Itachi personally struck down Uchiha Izumi—his lover—who had begged him for mercy...
As well as his parents, Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Mikoto.
And then there was Sasuke—kneeling, eyes wide with fear and confusion, his small face streaked with tears of blood.
The images flickered frame by frame.
Within the world conjured by the ocular technique, Itachi's voice echoed—
"The Uchiha clan was always a vile lineage—killing friends to obtain the Mangekyō Sharingan, killing one's own brother to achieve eternal ocular power—and taking pride in such strength! From the moment you're born into this clan, you're caught in a fate soaked in blood..."
"Come, little brother. I'm going to kill you—so that I can free myself from the fate of this clan, liberate myself from the limits of my own being!"
Then came a shift. No accompanying image followed, but the tone suddenly softened.
"I've always lied to you, asked for your forgiveness, always used these hands to push you far away. But thinking back now... maybe you once had the power to change our parents, to change the Uchiha. If only I had faced you properly from the start, if we had stood on equal ground to explore the truth together…"
"It's fine if you never forgive me. I will still always love you…"
This extreme contrast—
Didn't warm Kaguya's heart in the slightest. Instead, a wave of revulsion welled up from deep within her.
How arrogant and self-righteous!
Born of the Uchiha clan, yet just like his father, he degraded his family as worthless—boasting that he had transcended the narrow vision of his bloodline, when in truth he was simply wallowing in a twisted self-image.
Uchiha Itachi decided the clan was beyond saving, so he slaughtered them all?
What kind of person does that make him?
He killed his own parents, his lover, every single relative—and still had the gall to stand on moral high ground and pass judgment on them?
Who gave him that right?
And Sasuke's situation was even more upsetting to Kaguya.
Itachi's so-called love for Sasuke was utterly devoid of respect—it was arrogance, a force-fed ideology that he pushed onto his brother…
All of it—suffering, beliefs, and chosen path—crammed down his throat.
Sasuke's life hadn't even begun, and it was already shaped into a tragedy under Itachi's control, a horror masked in the name of 'love'.
And what disturbed Kaguya the most…
Was that final parting statement from Itachi—saying it was okay if Sasuke never forgave him, because he would always love him.
That was just…
Utterly horrifying!
In other words, even as his final words hinted at regret, Itachi still believed he was acting out of love for Sasuke…
By wiping out their entire clan, by inflicting unbearable suffering, he believed he had paved the best path for his brother!
Such a love was too distorted, too selfish, too arrogant—it made Kaguya sick to her core.
To the point that even Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, an alien being, was left deeply shaken.
In comparison, her own traitorous sons—Hamura and Hagoromo—suddenly didn't seem so bad. At least their conflict had been direct and straightforward, ending with her being sealed away.
If those two had tortured her mentally, in the name of love, as deeply as Itachi had done to Sasuke, Kaguya truly believed she wouldn't have survived it.
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