Chapter 43: Enjoy Your Life in Hell!
Itachi walked through the clan compound. The bright moon above was ghastly pale, making the road surface hard to distinguish.
The streetlights on both sides of the road seemed to have problems, flickering on and off, alternating between bright and dark unpredictably.
Those wavering light spots cast on the walls transformed into countless struggling hand shadows.
Only at the end of the street, the white lantern at his front door emitted warm red light, pointing the way for Itachi.
His footsteps were light, full of joy as he returned home, reaching out to push open the door and enter.
"I'm home!"
"Oh, big brother's home..." Sasuke's voice was somewhat muffled, standing with his head lowered before the entrance.
"Mm? What's wrong?" Itachi smiled as he finished changing shoes, walked over and picked up his brother, asking with a smile: "Were you naughty and got scolded by Mom again?"
Sasuke kept his head down, burying his face deep in Itachi's embrace, saying dully:
"Big brother, where's my head?"
"What?" Itachi's entire body shook as if struck by lightning, completely freezing.
Sasuke slowly raised his head. Under the dim yellow lamplight, Itachi clearly saw—Sasuke's seven orifices were bleeding, his five features gouged out, leaving only pitch-black holes all over his face. His bloody mouth gaped open, completely empty inside without a single tooth.
"Well, big brother, where's my head?"
"My head hurts so much!"
"Give me back my head!"
"My teeth hurt so much!"
"Why can't I see you!"
"No..." Itachi screamed miserably, suddenly sitting up from bed, gasping for breath in huge gulps.
On the table before his bed, Sasuke's head sat properly placed there, a pair of eyes like dead fish gazing eerily at him.
"Sasuke..." With trembling hands, Itachi picked up Sasuke's head, hugging it tightly to his chest. Tears streamed from his eyes, his voice broken, barely audible: "I'm sorry..."
---
In another room not far from him, Obito was also "enjoying" his "sweet dream."
He stood dazed in an open field, looking around blankly. Everything seemed so familiar yet also so strange.
But before he could think carefully, he heard a familiar voice calling him from the distance.
"Hey, Obito, over here..."
When he looked up, he saw Rin bouncing and jumping in the distance, laughing joyfully while waving her arms toward him.
"Rin..." Great joy spontaneously arose in Obito's heart. Extremely moved, tears about to fall, he instantly forgot all doubts and hurriedly ran quickly toward Rin.
However, after just a few steps, a figure flashed before him. A familiar white-haired figure overtook him, reaching Rin's side first.
"Lightning Blade!"
The familiar lightning sphere, right before Obito's eyes, crackled as it penetrated Rin's body, piercing through front and back.
"No!" Obito screamed miserably, rushing forward to punch Kakashi down and cradle Rin in his arms.
Rin coughed up blood mouthful after mouthful, her eyes full of disappointment: "Obito, why didn't you save me?"
"Why didn't you save me?"
"Why didn't you save me?"
"No, I was trying to save you, just arrived too late..." Obito wept bitterly, sobbing as he explained.
"Obito, you really disappoint me..."
"You really disappoint me..."
"No!" Obito howled miserably, jolting awake from the nightmare. Looking at the empty room, his mind completely blank, dazed and confused, unable to recover for a long while.
After a long time, he finally buried his head between his arms, murmuring: "Soon... very soon..."
"Rin, don't worry. I'll create a world with only victors, only peace, only love, without war."
"Then we can be together forever."
---
While Itachi and Obito were plagued by nightmares, distant Yasushi gently wiped away the bloody tears beneath his right eye. Feeling that unfamiliar ocular power, he grinned, laughing silently.
Come then, Itachi, Obito—hell's life has already begun. Enjoy it well!
Starting today, such nightmares will continuously haunt you, gradually escalating, constantly challenging your psychological endurance.
Never-ending until death!
Embracing such fervent emotions, Yasushi, carrying his sincere "blessings" for the two, fell into deep slumber.
The next day, Yasushi rose as usual. After some activity, he went to treat Nagato.
Climbing toward the tower's summit, he encountered Sasori of the Red Sand and Itachi coming from the opposite direction.
Itachi's face was deathly pale, looking sickly with dark circles under his eyes—clearly he hadn't slept well. Seeing this delighted Yasushi's heart. He could barely restrain himself from adding a few more jabs.
But ultimately worried about being discovered and ruining his ocular jutsu, he kept silent.
"Hmph!" The two met on the narrow path, mutually disgusted. Each rolled their eyes at the other. Neither willing to yield, they stood in the road's center, glaring at each other.
Sasori felt nothing toward Yasushi. Hidden in that ugly puppet body, he nodded at Yasushi without speaking, only stepping back to make way.
Yasushi snorted coldly, saying nothing as he strode forward, brushing past Itachi.
Itachi's gaze locked deadly onto Yasushi, watching until his figure disappeared into the stairwell before slowly withdrawing his gaze and following Sasori away with lowered head.
Yasushi reached the tower's peak, knocked and entered. As usual, he began treating Nagato.
"Itachi and Sasori have already gone to recruit Kakuzu," Nagato said proactively. "Although I won't need more strength after recovering, his savings are urgently needed."
"This work was originally planned for you. After all, you provided the intelligence and surely know his weaknesses best. But since you're treating me now, the work transferred to those two."
"I originally wanted you to provide them some intelligence on Kakuzu, but Itachi refused."
"The hatred between you two is irreconcilable, but before the organization's plan completes, I won't allow any internal conflicts."
"Mm mm mm!" Yasushi made no mention of secretly undermining Itachi and Obito. He only nodded seriously like a good student, raising his hand high: "Leader, rest assured. What I hate most is actually Konoha Village. I most want to see Konoha's destruction and won't sabotage the organization's plans!"
"That's best." Nagato nodded with satisfaction. "Once I gather the Ten-Tails, I can use overwhelming power to suppress all shinobi villages, making them personally experience war's pain."
"At that time, having experienced pain, the great nation shinobi won't casually start wars anymore, nor dare to!"
"Under divine light's illumination, the world will have no more war and death."
"Ah yes yes yes!" Yasushi channeled his inner yes-man, constantly playing the straight man: "Leader speaks so correctly!"
"Just like Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha—why could they end the warring period and have nations establish the shinobi village system?"
"Wasn't it because their military strength was too powerful and others couldn't defeat them?"
"They originally had hope for lasting shinobi world peace, but their stupidest move was not uniting all shinobi villages into one unified nation, instead fragmenting them into separate countries."
"The nations already had grievances. Once they died, war immediately erupted again."
"Moreover, they actually split apart the nine Tailed Beasts, leaving no nation with overwhelming power, ultimately causing endless fighting with no one conceding."
"Leader must absorb the lessons from their failures!"
"Those nine Tailed Beasts must henceforth be under our unified management!"
For so many years, Nagato had never met anyone who so agreed with his philosophy—and spoke with such reason and evidence. He immediately recognized Yasushi as a comrade even more, nodding with satisfaction:
"You speak very reasonably."
"Merging all nations together, unifying them—then everyone will be family, and naturally war won't break out."
"I'll seriously consider your suggestion."
"However, there's currently a task for you."
"Some annoying insects have arrived outside—should be Konoha Village spies. You're most familiar with Konoha shinobi, so go clean them all out!"
***
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