It had been raining when he left.
Not a storm — just the kind of rain that made steel feel heavier and memories sharper.
Sasuke walked alone.
His cloak brushed the edge of the cliff as he stared down at the valley where the old Uchiha hideout sat — half-swallowed by roots, age, and silence.
No words had been exchanged.
No fanfare.
This was never a mission.
This was a conclusion.
He stepped forward.
The entrance opened before he touched it.
The stone moved like it remembered him.
Inside, the air was thick with the scent of ash, moss, and the faint trace of dried blood. It was as if time had paused here — waiting.
And at the far end of the hall, sitting on the ancient throne that once belonged to no one...
Was Itachi.
He didn't speak.
He didn't stand.
He simply looked.
And Sasuke saw it.
The same face from the massacre.
The same cold eyes.
The same silence.
But this time...
He wasn't a child anymore.
"I've come to end this," Sasuke said.
Itachi's voice was quiet, unmoved.
"I know."
No genjutsu.
No words.
No hesitation.
It began instantly.
Sasuke's kunai flew faster than thought — coated in lightning chakra, spinning straight for Itachi's heart.
Itachi deflected them without moving from the throne.
Sasuke vanished and reappeared above — blade extended, lightning howling.
Itachi caught the blade barehanded.
Sasuke's Sharingan spun — three tomoe blazing.
He unleashed a barrage — fire, wind, lightning — all layered, all angled to overwhelm.
But Itachi moved through them like a ghost through smoke.
Not attacking.
Just reading.
Watching.
Sasuke grew angrier with each second.
"You're still holding back!"
Itachi didn't answer.
Instead, his finger moved.
Sasuke blinked — and he was already in a genjutsu.
The room cracked. The ceiling melted. The floor turned into crows.
He screamed — and broke the illusion with a pulse of chakra so sharp it split his own lip open.
"You won't win with tricks anymore!"
But even as the battle escalated — as Amaterasu blackened the walls and Sasuke summoned Kirin to collapse the heavens — he realized something horrifying.
Itachi wasn't fighting to kill him.
He was testing him.
Weighing him.
Preparing him.
The moment hit when Itachi staggered for the first time — real blood, real pain.
Sasuke didn't hesitate.
He surged forward.
Blade drawn.
Lightning screaming.
And he stabbed his brother through the chest.
Itachi collapsed.
Slowly.
Gracefully.
Like a curtain falling after a final performance.
He touched Sasuke's forehead with two fingers — the same gesture from their childhood.
Sasuke's heart didn't shatter.
It froze.
Because Itachi smiled.
And whispered:
"You're strong enough now."
Then he died.
The silence afterward was unending.
Sasuke stood over the body.
His breath shallow.
His hands shaking.
He didn't cry.
He didn't scream.
He simply knelt.
And stared into those lifeless eyes.
Two days later, Sasuke sat in a sealed medical chamber
He didn't speak.
And when he opened his eyes.
The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan awakened.
Black and red — refined, unblinking, permanent.