Chapter 549: Let Him Go to the Hidden Leaf Village He Loves

Kakashi’s eyes flickered slightly as he instantly understood Naruto’s meaning.

He recalled the previous incident: that time Uchiha Itachi and Kisame Hoshigaki infiltrated Hidden Leaf Village, they were eventually discovered and forced to escape by activating the Perfect Susanoo.

“Perfect Susanoo…”

Kakashi murmured to himself.

Before Naruto mentioned to him that his own eye was actually already a Mangekyo Sharingan, Kakashi had always thought the left eye Obito gave him was still just a three-tomoe.

As someone who possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan and had used its Dōjutsu, Kakashi knew all too well the terrifying toll the Mangekyo Sharingan took.

Especially a Perfect Susanoo of that scale—the burden it placed on the user’s body and Ocular Power was terrifying.

Even if Itachi’s Perfect Susanoo was much smaller than Sasuke’s, the toll it took on him was unquestionable.

It was by no means just a consumption of Chakra, but a direct overdrawing of his very life force.

And Uchiha Itachi…

Kakashi’s gaze also fell upon the haggard figure in the courtyard.

With Itachi’s sickly, weak, unstable Chakra, and internal injuries—that “ghostly state” of his—forcing open the Perfect Susanoo without dropping dead on the spot and still managing to flee was already a miracle of sheer willpower and Bloodline strength.

Through close-range sensing and observation, Naruto was now certain: forcing that ultimate move back then had dealt a near-devastating blow to Uchiha Itachi’s already riddled body.

Over-squeezing the power of the Mangekyo had accelerated the collapse of his body and the worsening of his illness.

Itachi was only eighteen this year, but Naruto judged that given how weak his current life aura was, he was likely not far from death; it was only a matter of time before his lamp ran out of oil.

In the original timeline, Itachi would have died of his illness at around twenty-one during his final battle with Sasuke.

But now, Itachi’s time of death had been significantly brought forward because he had forced himself to use the Perfect Susanoo.

However, this realization did not cause much of a stir in Naruto’s heart, let alone any pity.

After all, what Itachi had done was simply too Heaven-Defying.

For the sake of the so-called “stability of the Village,” “preventing a wider civil war,” “testing his capacity,” “Danzo’s orders,” “the Third Hokage’s tacit consent”…

…and a whole host of other complex, even warped reasons, he had slaughtered his entire clan with his own hands, including his own parents.

No matter how his actions were interpreted, whitewashed, or painted with the tragic colors of “righteousness” and “bearing humiliation for a heavy burden,” in Naruto’s eyes, the sheer cruelty and extremity of the act itself was a “Heaven-Defying” deed that could never be fully excused by any reason.

Especially now that Naruto had become the Hokage and shouldered the responsibility of protecting the Village and every single villager, he could even less agree with this kind of “protection” at the cost of sacrificing an entire clan.

Lives were not chess pieces to be so easily weighed and discarded.

Therefore, toward Uchiha Itachi’s life which was drawing to a close, Naruto held a cold attitude.

That was the price of the path he had chosen, the result of his body being unable to withstand the backlash of his power, a destiny long set in stone.

It was not worthy of sympathy, nor did Sasuke need to end it with his own hands, lest it taint Sasuke’s future path or leave a deeper scar in Sasuke’s mother’s heart.

“I understand, Hokage-sama.”

Kakashi nodded, casting a complex look at Itachi below. Then, his figure flickered and vanished from the spot, reappearing in the next instant beside Sasuke in the courtyard, whispering Naruto’s words to him.

Might Guy also took a deep breath, nodding solemnly to Naruto, and then kept his bright eyes fixed below to ensure no accidents would occur.

Naruto remained seated on the roof ridge, his golden figure looking like a silent statue under the moonlight.

He left the final decision to Sasuke himself, merely presenting a cold, hard fact.

His enemy did not have long to live.

As for whether Sasuke chose to believe it, insisted on ending it himself, or was left even more bewildered by this revelation…

…those were hurdles Sasuke himself needed to face and overcome.

The night wind blew, carrying suppressed sobs and whispers from the courtyard.

Hidden Leaf Village’s Hokage watched the final chapter of this tragedy, devoid of joy or sorrow.

Naruto’s voice, which was not intentionally lowered but calm and clear, reached the ears of everyone in the courtyard below.

Uchiha Sasuke’s violently surging Chakra suddenly froze. He jerked his head up to look at the golden figure on the roof, his eyes swirling with complex, unreadable emotions—anger, pain, a trace of disbelief, and a certain wavering from having reality forcefully laid bare.

Uchiha Itachi… was already dying?

That older brother who was so powerful he drove him to despair and whom he hated to his very core, the main culprit who had committed such monstrous sins, was actually… not long for this world?

And the one hit hardest by this news was none other than Uchiha Mikoto.

She froze first, and then tears gushed out again. But this time, besides sadness, the tears seemed to be mixed with an indescribable, deeply painful, and complex emotion.

She spun around and grabbed Sasuke’s arm beside her, but she didn’t dare squeeze too hard for fear of hurting her son, her voice trembling but filled with pleading:

“Sasuke… Naruto… Hokage-sama is right… Don’t… don’t kill Itachi anymore.”

Looking at her son’s eyes, which were filled with hatred and struggle, her heart wrenched with pain. “He… he is your brother after all, my child… He did unforgivable things, but he has also been punished… Just let him, in the final moments of his life, guard… the Uchiha cemetery. Let him use his remaining time to keep company with the clansmen who died because of him, to atone, to… apologize…”

This was a mother’s thought—to let her erring son return to the Family’s embrace at the end of his life, using guardianship to make up for a fraction of his sins.

However, Sasuke slowly shook his head.

Pulling his gaze back from Naruto on the roof, it fell upon Itachi in front of him, yet it also seemed to pierce right through him, looking at the faces of the clansmen who were so vivid in his memories but had fallen in pools of blood.

“Mother,” Sasuke’s voice was hoarse, but exceptionally calm, even carrying a cold, piercing edge.

“To let a guy like him guard the Uchiha cemetery, the clansmen who died because of him would never rest in peace. His presence would only defile the tranquility of that land.”

He paused, turning his gaze toward Itachi, his lips curling into an extremely sarcastic, even cruel arc:

“Let him go to the Hidden Leaf Village he so ‘loves’!”

As soon as those words were spoken, not only did Mikoto freeze, but even Uchiha Itachi, who had kept his head lowered as if indifferent to everything, gave a violent, almost imperceptible shudder.

He raised his head in disbelief, his dark eyes, cloudy from illness and overexertion yet still sharp, meeting Sasuke’s gaze directly for the first time.

Sasuke… actually said that?

Would he let him off so “easily”?

No, it wasn’t letting him off.

Letting him go to Hidden Leaf Village?

To go to the Hidden Leaf Village he had once “protected” but had betrayed everything for?

At the final moment of his life, to return to Hidden Leaf Village with such an identity and in such a state?

Countless thoughts flashed through Uchiha Itachi’s mind in an instant.

Surprise, incomprehension, a trace of absurdity, and even a hint of joy.

That works too.

A thought quietly surfaced.

Since he had so little of his life left, since he had nowhere to go, and since he carried such a heavy burden of sin…

…then, in the final moments of his life, he would go and feel the Village he had “protected” in such an extreme way, personally “experience” how the villagers viewed him, and directly face everything he had hand-delivered and could never undo…

He even felt a faint sense of anticipation.

Anticipating how the place he protected would view him.

And so, Itachi lowered his head once more, offering no rebuttal, no defense, and not even looking at Sasuke or Mikoto again, as if silently accepting this arrangement.

The next day, on the streets of Hidden Leaf Village.

The sunshine was as bright as ever, the streets clean and tidy, and the crowds bustling, filled with the vitality and noise of a peaceful Village.

However, in this everyday picture, an incongruous “scenery” appeared.

Uchiha Itachi, dressed in plain grey coarse clothes without any insignia, his hands still bound in Chakra-suppressing shackles, walked slowly and silently down the street under the escort of a solemn-looking Anbu.

He kept his head lowered, his long black hair obscuring most of his face, but his gaunt frame, pale sickly complexion, and signature tear troughs still allowed some well-informed or sharp-memoried villagers to quickly recognize his identity.

Whispers spread quickly like a plague.

“Look! That person… is he…?”

“Shh! Keep your voice down! That’s right, it’s him! Uchiha Itachi! That monster who slaughtered his entire clan!”

“Oh my god, is he really still alive? Didn’t they say he died long ago? How did he end up looking like this?”

“I heard Lord Sasuke brought him back… Tsk tsk, looking at him, he seems to be on his last legs? I heard he has a terminal illness?”

“A terminal illness? Humph! Serves him right! Retribution! A guy like him should have died long ago? Letting him live all these extra years was letting him off too easy!”

“Sigh, you can’t entirely blame him, can you? I heard… back then, he was following the orders of the former Hokage Assistant, Danzo Shimura, to carry out that ‘mission’…”

“Haha, Danzo? That Rogue Ninja who did all those evil deeds and finally fled? To listen to someone like that and commit such a heinous act as clan extermination, doesn’t that just prove he himself is no good either? He’s a cold-blooded butcher to his very core! Saying it was for the Village is nothing but an excuse!”

“Exactly! He could even lay a hand on his own parents… worse than a beast!”

“Why is Hokage-sama still keeping him around? Why not just execute him directly?”

“Who knows… maybe Lord Sasuke has some plans? He is his brother, after all…”

“Brother? If I were Lord Sasuke, I’d rather not have such a brother!”

Pointing fingers, undisguised disgust and fear, mixed with angry condemnation and vicious curses, pierced like cold needles into the figure walking with his head down in the middle of the street.

It was full of

speculation and emotional venting, but the core hatred and rejection were very real.

Uchiha Itachi walked quietly, as if deaf to everything around him.

Only his shackled hands, slightly clenching and releasing, and his slightly trembling eyelashes in the shadows where no one could see, betrayed that his heart was not entirely untroubled.

This was the Hidden Leaf Village he so “loved” and “protected” at all costs. Now, it “rewarded” his “devotion” in the most realistic and cruelest way.

No understanding, no tragedy, only the purest disgust and rejection based on human nature and moral instincts.

The sunshine was warm, and the street was bustling.

But walking through it, Itachi felt colder and lonelier than in the rain of the Land of Rain, than in the darkness of the Akatsuki Organization, than anywhere else.

This was the final “resting place” Sasuke had chosen for him.

Not a cemetery for atonement, but a real-life judgment stand.

To let him feel with his own eyes, ears, and body how the Hidden Leaf Village villagers judged him behind his “great” sacrifice.

This, perhaps, stung his already twisted and desperate heart even more than death itself.

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