Chapter 136: Mother and Son Reunion — Everything Has Changed, Nothing Remains the Same!
Mikoto looked at the thick fog enveloping everything around her, unable to see her own surroundings clearly.
The sounds of battle had completely ceased. She felt tense and uneasy.
After a few seconds, unable to hold back any longer, Mikoto called out softly:
"Are you still there?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, a tall figure slowly emerged from the mist ahead and walked toward her.
"It looks like they're still hunting down any remaining Uchiha survivors."
"You're not safe here."
"And neither is he."
Oborotsuki's gaze fell on little Sasuke.
Hearing this, Mikoto's expression darkened. She lowered her head in silence.
After a moment, she spoke with difficulty:
"So… what I guessed earlier… was true."
"But why… why did it come to this…?"
Tears shimmered in Mikoto's eyes as she shook her head, questioning herself again and again.
Itachi and Shisui had chosen Konoha's side. That was why they weren't treated as enemies.
Yet she—also a member of the Uchiha clan—and little Sasuke were being hunted down for "defection."
The enemy hadn't even given them a chance to explain. Once their identities were confirmed, they were marked for immediate death.
If Oborotsuki hadn't arrived when he did, she and her son would already be on their way to the afterlife.
Mikoto felt endless gratitude for Oborotsuki's repeated rescues.
But right now, her mind was completely consumed by the cruel truth before her. She couldn't spare any energy to think about anything else.
She simply couldn't understand why Shisui and Itachi would abandon the Uchiha clan.
Why Itachi would personally kill his own father—her husband, Fugaku…
They say blood is thicker than water. Did he feel nothing at all for his father?
Mikoto's heart was broken beyond measure.
It felt as though a dull knife was slowly sawing back and forth across her heart.
The soul-tearing pain made her throat feel blocked by a stone—suffocating, agonizing.
"At this point, do you still insist on staying?"
Oborotsuki slowly crossed his arms.
"Even if you don't think about yourself, you wouldn't want little Sasuke to live every moment under the threat of pursuers, would you?"
He stepped forward and gently touched Sasuke's cheek.
Mikoto slowly closed her eyes, as if unwilling to look at this cruel world any longer.
Two lines of hot tears slid down her fair, smooth cheeks once again.
Plip… plip… The tears fell to the ground, kicking up tiny puffs of dust.
After a long silence, Mikoto finally opened her eyes again.
"Please… take me to see Itachi. I have questions I need to ask him clearly!"
"I beg you, Oborotsuki."
Mikoto looked at him earnestly, her request resolute.
Knowing her heart hadn't fully accepted the truth yet, Oborotsuki didn't mind letting her confront Itachi directly—to see for herself whether he was lying.
So he didn't refuse. Instead, he placed a hand on her shoulder.
Then he activated Flying Thunder God.
They vanished from the cave.
…
Itachi—who had just awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan after personally witnessing his father's death—felt his head splitting with pain, as though he were living in hell.
Shisui had been ordered to stay behind and look after him, while also trying to counsel him and keep him from dwelling too much on what happened.
The two of them now sat amid the ruins of Naka Shrine.
"Itachi, this isn't your fault."
Shisui spoke in the same gentle, earnest tone Hiruzen had used earlier, trying to comfort him.
Perhaps because of the Mangekyō awakening,
The pure, innocent expression Itachi once wore had completely vanished.
His face now carried a perpetual mask of emotionless calm.
"Brother Shisui… I don't feel any regret for what I did earlier. You don't need to comfort me."
Finally, he spoke in a flat, indifferent voice.
He looked down at his own hands. At last, the massive flood of information in his mind had been fully received and processed.
Now, he understood every ability of the Mangekyō Sharingan—knew them by heart.
Once the pain subsided, he found the strength to speak with Shisui.
"If I had the chance to choose again… I would still drive that blade into Father's heart…"
Itachi said calmly to Shisui.
"You must have thought that with Lord Fugaku's strength, he could easily dodge that strike, right?"
Shisui sighed silently in his heart.
Though he hadn't personally killed a blood relative, he could imagine the feeling.
"He didn't dodge… perhaps in that final moment, he realized his own sins. By dying at my hand, he offered atonement to all the Uchiha who died for the clan… and to the village itself…"
Itachi's gaze remained calm and undisturbed.
It was as though he were analyzing something completely unrelated to himself.
"Someone's coming."
Shisui suddenly warned, turning toward the rear.
Itachi sensed it too and immediately stood up.
He was still too short to see over the ruins, so he jumped onto a large stone.
From this higher vantage point, Itachi finally saw who was approaching.
"Mom…"
Seeing Mikoto appear with little Sasuke in her arms, a rare flicker of emotion finally crossed Itachi's face.
"You're alive! Mom…"
Tears welled up in Itachi's eyes. He leaped down from the stone and ran toward Mikoto.
Mikoto had come with a heart full of mixed emotions—a stomach full of words she wanted to say, several questions she desperately needed answered.
But the moment she saw her child rushing toward her, memories of their warm, happy days together flooded her mind.
Instinctively, she opened her arms and pulled Itachi into a tight embrace:
"Itachi… are you alright?"
Tears shimmered in her eyes as she asked gently.
"I'm fine, Mom…"
"Are you okay? How's little brother?"
Itachi looked up at his living, breathing mother, feeling as though he were dreaming.
His gaze shifted to little Sasuke in her arms.
After confirming his baby brother was unharmed, a trace of tenderness appeared in Itachi's eyes.
"Lady Mikoto."
Shisui walked over at that moment.
Hearing his voice, Itachi suddenly realized something. He looked back at Mikoto:
"I'm sorry… Mom."
"A lot happened here. I'll explain everything slowly…"
Since he hadn't known in advance about the Uchiha clan's planned rebellion, Itachi began from the beginning.
He recounted everything: returning here with Shisui to stop Fugaku and the others from rebelling.
He even spoke honestly about how he had personally killed his father, Uchiha Fugaku.
After finishing, Itachi showed a trace of pain:
"Mom… I killed Father with my own hands."
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