(I will always love you deeply.)

Chitose woke up from a blur to find himself in light.

He was a little confused.

He seemed to have gone through a very long period of darkness, but suddenly, he was sitting in this light, with specks of dust dyed golden by the sun reflected in his eyes.

Chitose stared blankly for a while, then turned his head and looked to the side.

A woman with wavy blond hair and eyes of the same color, who was gently humming a song while watering roses on the balcony, entered his field of vision.

She had smooth, fair skin that seemed to glow in the warm sunshine. She wore a white dress that, together with the inadvertent smile at the corners of her lips, highlighted her gentle temperament like water.

She looked at the flowers in front of her tenderly, with a peaceful expression between her relaxed eyebrows.

If you look closely, you will find that the eyebrows and eyes of the black-haired boy are actually very similar to those of this beautiful person.

Chitose slowly sat up from the bed and looked quietly at the woman, his eyes moist.

He glanced out the window. He seemed to be in a small villa, where he could see a grassy courtyard full of red roses in full bloom from here.

Farther away, in the endless plains, blood-red flowers had gradually begun to bloom.

He was watching when he suddenly heard a gentle, familiar voice beside his ear: "What are you looking at, Chitose?"

Chitose grabbed the quilt he was on, took a deep breath and turned to look at the smiling woman gazing at him, the corners of his mouth also involuntarily curving up in a smile. But the tears that had already filled his eyes slipped down his cheeks with this movement, then dripped off his pointed chin.

"...Nothing, Mom." He opened his mouth, his voice hoarse, and said.

Yes, the beautiful woman was his mother, Minako Yatogami.

She watched the teenager gently wipe away his tears and get out of bed to walk towards her tenderly. She put down the spray bottle in her hand, then opened her arms to embrace the boy who had come before her.

Chitose buried his face in his mother's arms. As always, she carried his favorite scent, now with the smell of sunshine, plus the nice shampoo scent, forming his favorite, mother's smell.

He closed his eyes and smiled.

"Is this heaven?" he asked.

"No." His mother stepped back and bent over to gently caress his face. "This is the entrance to heaven."

Chitose opened his eyes, the black iris lowered.

"Oh... then let's just stay here from now on."

Silence hung in the air for a moment before laughter was heard. Chitose bit his lower lip and looked at his mother laughing brightly in front of him.

"Geez, Chitose, that expression of yours just now looked exactly like your dad's, he would inadvertently--" She covered her mouth with one hand, her pretty eyes bent, not at all angry or sad because of what her son had said, but laughing to herself because of his resemblance to his father.

After laughing for a while, she stopped and looked gently at Chitose for a moment before taking his hand to examine it carefully.

"My Chitose has grown up too..." She said softly, gently, her voice as soft as a breath, making it difficult to detect the sadness in it, "I thought I could watch you here until you got married and had children."

Chitose stood quietly, not speaking for quite a while as he enjoyed his mother's caresses.

Finally, Chitose spoke up.

"He is the only blood relative elder I have left in this world. After you died, when I was most desperate, he took me in and gave me a new home, a new family. He taught me everything my father was supposed to teach me, whether it was the Sharingan, our family's sword skills, or the fire escape techniques..."

He paused for a while. His mother listened with sadness already filling her eyes, but her actions remained gentle.

"I used to think that God had given me an uncle to make up for my father's absence in my life. But now..." His voice trailed off and his expression became blurred.

"My enemy told me that it was him who killed my father, the one who brought me a new life, the one I was determined to respect like I would my own father. He completely shattered the solid walls I had struggled to build from within..."

The teenager tightened his fist as he spoke.

"He is one of the most important people in my life now... I would do anything for him! But he..."

The black-haired boy suddenly clenched his teeth tightly, his molars biting down hard. After a while, he suddenly sank powerlessly and laughed bitterly.

"He destroyed all my will to live. To the enemy, my walls were impenetrable, but those walls simply couldn't withstand even one blow from him."

His mother paused for a moment, then heaved a deep sigh. "You didn't have to commit suicide for that..." Her flaxen eyes looked at him heartbrokenly.

"...At that time my mind was very confused. But after all, I really didn't want to live anymore." Chitose said in a low voice.

"I should have hated him, but how could I face Sarada then? Should I vent my anger on her? No... I knew in my heart that she had nothing to do with this, but I couldn't help thinking about these painful things whenever I saw her. I didn't know what to do, trapped in weak struggles... I was disgusted with myself like this, disgusted with all these things."

He clenched the clothes under his mother's hand.

"And there was my father killing the entire Uchiha clan... If I wanted to clear my father's name, the fact that the Uchiha clan had intended to rebel would be exposed, while if I wanted to revive the Uchiha clan, my father's life would have to be buried in darkness forever ..." As the boy spoke, his voice was already choked with sobs.

All of this was too much for him.

"To have to face these things while alive, it's too difficult for me, Mom."

Minako sadly closed her eyes, her brows slightly furrowed. More than anyone else, she knew her son best. And it was precisely because she knew him that she understood better than anyone that the current situation was inevitable no matter what.

Chitose was too kind. He cared about his family and friends far more than he cared about himself, while at the same time defining the meaning of life as protection. That was why the blow he suffered from Sasuke was so devastating to him, because Sasuke was the very person he was determined to protect, yet his actions were tantamount to completely denying Chitose’s feelings and will to live in the cruelest and most ruthless way possible, in a way that he learned from the enemy.

He could not forgive Sasuke, but his nature and love for his relatives also determined that he would never be able to hurt him. Then he would suffer for being "unable to hurt his enemy".

That was why he came here. But he couldn't. Even though it was too difficult for him, or he had lost the courage to live because of Sasuke's actions as his closest relative, she would not allow him to stop here, or continue on to heaven.

"Chitose, you have to understand that no one can avoid making mistakes all the time, even the greatest people have young and immature times," Minako said gently.

Chitose stared at her in disbelief. He gave a light, sarcastic laugh. "So what? Are you going to say that he was forced too?"

Minako looked at him gently, not angry at all because of his extreme words.

She just said gently, "Do you know? When your uncle was seven years old, your father killed everyone in the Uchiha clan except the two of them, including their parents, and then let your uncle relive it over and over again in illusions afterwards. "

Chitose was stunned.

Minako rubbed his head and lowered her eyes: "If you were your uncle, Chitose, what would you do?"

Chitose stared blankly for a while. He frowned, unconsciously biting his lower lip with his teeth.

"...I would go crazy. Or I'd kill myself." Eventually he lowered his eyes and said so.

"That would be your reaction, Chitose. You are gentler than your uncle, and your uncle is bolder than you." Minako stroked his head, "You know what your uncle did, don't you?"

Chitose lowered his eyes.

Minako sighed inwardly. In fact, one would rather hurt himself than hurt others, while the other believes in the things in front of him and then goes to resent and take revenge. Minako actually hoped instead that Chitose was the second kind. But in this regard, the child was exactly like his father to a tee.

She went on, "You also know the reason why your father did that to your uncle, don't you?"

Chitose suddenly frowned and grabbed her mother's hand.

"Why did everything turn out this way in the first place? Why did the Uchiha clan want to rebel back then? If not for that, none of this would have happened!"

He stared fiercely at one spot on his mother's skirt, a frustrated gleam in his eyes.

"Even so, you still take pride in your lineage, don't you?" Minako smiled lightly, unconcerned.

Chitose remained silent.

"So your point is, Uncle has been struggling just like me too, perhaps even more painfully than me?" He frowned at his mother.

"Your uncle has always regretted his ignorance and impulsiveness when he was young, and he has always been atoning," she said, looking at Chitose who was watching her inquisitively. "I believe you have felt it already."

Minako had her hands clasped on her lap, her gaze gentle and serene as she looked at Chitose. "He is atoning, for life, even though he is also a victim. And because of his atonement, he has made others around him unhappy too."

Chitose's gaze condensed. He remembered Sarada who hadn't seen her father for ten years and Sakura who was single-handedly supporting the entire household.

Sensing his shift in expression, Minako said gently: "They are also your loved ones, and the key to their happiness--"

She pointed a finger at the boy's forehead. "Is you, Chitose."

The teenager looked at her in surprise for a moment before slowly clenching his fists, his gaze sinking. Then he suddenly pressed his lips in a line and looked away, making a soft scoff.

Minako understood. She knew the only reason her son committed suicide was because the truth was too great a blow to him. Sasuke's betrayal plunged his world into darkness in an instant, and now he had finally calmed down and remembered what he still had to do.

Remembered those still beautiful things.

"I understand now, I won't hurt myself anymore. But how should I face him?" He raised his head to look into his mother's beautiful eyes: "Do you hate him?"

The color in Minako's eyes darkened slightly.

"No. I never hated him." Looking at Chitose who was watching her closely, she smiled lightly, tilting her head back to look at the sky.

"I was just very, very helpless at that time. I always understood that he was not to blame, let alone your father or the Leaf Village at that time." She pondered, speaking lowly, "The times were like that back then, everyone was a victim, all suffering the same, if we kept hating each other there would be no end to revenge, no one would be happy, someone more tolerant had to forgive."

Chitose squinted as he listened. After quite a while, he finally relaxed his hand that had been gripping his mother's clothes and asked in a flat tone, "Then what should I do?"

"You shouldn't ask me that question, Chitose." Minako put her hands on his shoulders and smiled at his eyes. "This is your life, I don't want you to make decisions that go against your heart just because you care too much about me and your father."

Looking at her contemplative son, her gaze was as tranquil as water. "But... if you can't figure out what's right and what's wrong, and can't decide what to do, then let it go for the time being. You still have a long life ahead of you, you can think it through slowly. But you must remember, Chitose--"

She leaned forward and embraced her child once more, whispering solemnly in his ear, "Never use the dead as an excuse to hurt those who love you."

"I'll remember that, Mom," Chitose said softly, inhaling the fragrant scent from his mother's hair.

Minako nodded before letting him go and gently caressing her son's delicate face, then gently pushed him back, "Go back, Chitose. Go back to where you should be, face it bravely. There are still people waiting for you."

As Chitose moved back following his mother's force, his vision gradually blurred, but he tilted his head back slightly to prevent the tears from falling. He didn't want his mother to see his tears when he left.

"Chitose--"

Seeing Chitose gradually fading away, Minako finally couldn't help but call out to stop him. Looking at the boy who was already like a young adult, the warmth in her eyes brimmed with tears.

She smiled. "I will always love you."

Chitose slowly retreated out of the room. He smiled at his mother standing still in the room. "Me too, Mom." Then he turned around and closed the door.

Outside on the grassy ground where the red flowers grew, a man in black stood quietly listening there. Hearing the sound of the door, he calmly turned his head, the two pronounced nasolabial folds beside his nose conspicuous.

Chitose stopped in his tracks as he watched the man walk towards him. Hesitating for a moment, he finally stepped forward until he was a few steps away from the other and stopped. The man looked at him with eyes as smooth as jade.

Encouraged by that gaze, Chitose finally sighed and looked up at him tentatively, "Do you want me to forgive him?"

He paused for a moment before addressing the man with the form of address engraved in his heart for the first time: "Dad?"

Itachi's mouth curved up slightly in a faint smile. He raised his right hand and beckoned Chitose to come closer.

Chitose looked puzzled and took two steps forward. Before he could take the third, Itachi had already stretched out his index and middle fingers and lightly poked them against the center of the boy's forehead. The world seemed to have slowed down at that moment.

Chitose leaned his head back and retreated half a step. He slowly widened his eyes, his gaze returning to the dark-haired man before him, then he slowly raised his hand almost incredulously to lightly touch the poked spot on his forehead.

"Do what you want, my son." The dark-haired man smiled, his eyes curving.

"No matter what decision you make, I will always support you."

Chitose looked at him and slowly smiled.

"Even if I disappoint you?" he asked.

"You will never disappoint me, I've always believed that."

Itachi smiled gently, holding the back of the boy's head. He bent down to lightly touch their foreheads together, the similar dark eyes full of warm love.

"No matter which path you choose, I will always love you deeply."

***

Chitose opened his eyes and looked at the snow white ceiling.

After a long while, the red rose on the bedside table heard the black-haired boy murmur in a low voice.

"I will never disappoint you."

 

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