It's a looong chapter. Enjoy:)

The universe has no mercy: he comes back the next night. And in a desperate attempt to wake up from his dream, he stands up, steps into the corridor and is ready to hit the opposite wall with full speed…

But a strong hand squeezes his arm, holding him back where he stands.

"I prefer not to even ask what you were up to" a low voice of his father make him flinch. "But before you wake up again, you have a bunch of very interesting things to tell me about. Don't you, Sasuke?"

He would feel bad for all those criminals who had the misfortune to be interrogated by Uchiha Fugaku, the head of the Police Force. He certainly would, if he wasn't this scared.

"Kitchen. Now."

He is sure in a moment he will turn into an eight-years-old version of himself. He should be happy that he wasn't called to his father's study.

They sit like the last time, each of them at his own side of the kitchen table. Sasuke avoids two penetrating black eyes that pin him to the floor, trying to think about what to expect.

"As I said" he flinches once again, when Fugaku's voice cuts the silence "it is rare for a shinobi to use sword. If we use one, it's usually a short version. But I have hardly met anyone who used the long one in my life. I didn't think much of it at the beginning, when you said you could use it, but you needed to have a teacher. I'm positive that on the day when I died there was no one in Konoha apart from me who was able to fight with it. So, do tell, who was your sensei?"

Sasuke bites his lip, not even thinking about giving an answer. For all these years, he considered himself somehow mature and independent, resistant to others' desires and emotions. The war forced him to rethink his opinion, but during the journey, he was perfectly capable of handling himself and completing the missions that Konoha sent him, no matter the rank.

But now, in the presence of his father, he loses all self-confidence and any remains of his old, forced arrogance that stayed hidden in the darkest corner of his soul.

"Uchiha Sasuke, you are going to answer my question."

"I just… found it. The sword."

"You found it."

"Yeah…"

"Make this lie at least a bit believable."

"It was in the shed, why wouldn't I…"

"It was not in the shed when I died."

"…huh?"

"Your brother used it to kill the Uchiha. I don't think he put it back on its place when he was done. And even if he had, you would not have found it."

Sasuke feels his blood freezing in his veins. His sword, the one he used as his main weapon, the one he mastered… was soiled with blood of his kin.

The blood of his parents.

No, he did not want to know that.

"Answer me."

"Just drop it, what does it matter anyway" he growls helplessly.

"How the hell did you end up with Orochimaru. Because correct me if I'm wrong, but he has not been pardoned for his actions, has he?"

"Why Orochimaru?"

"That's exactly what I want to know" his father penetrates him with his dark eyes and Sasuke breaks. He looks elsewhere wishing for nothing more than to evade this dark, angered look.

"How can you know it was him" he mumbles defeated, wiping his face.

"He taught me. He lent me this special sword when I was young. It was mine to use until I die, then he was to retrieve it. How could I not know?"

"He taught you?"

"Do not change the subject."

The atmosphere is getting more and more uncomfortable when Sasuke tries to prepare himself for the inevitable conversation. He is not ready for it. He is not.

"Sasuke."

"…I've told you already. I messed up."

He can see with a corner of his eye that his father clenches his fist.

"I… went to him" he utters silently.

"For WHAT."

"I needed power to beat Itachi."

"I hope you are proud of yourself, because I certainly am not."

Something like irritation fills his chest, but he cannot speak. He is too embarrassed of himself. Silence falls for long minutes when none of them tries to say anything.

"You have nothing to say?" Fugaku asks finally.

"What can I say?"

"Explain yourself."

"What for" Sasuke hisses, more irritated with every passing second. "I've already explained myself before the Council and I was pardoned. Don't treat me like I'm some little kid who doesn't listen to his parents."

"You deserted Konoha."

"Yeah, I did. And YOU plotted against the Hokage, so much for being the one to talk."

"This was the only possible way, and don't change the subject-"

"This conversation is finished now. I am not going to talk to you about my past. You have no right to judge me. I will not let you give opinion about something you didn't see with your own eyes."

"I am your father and what you did is very much my business-"

"You are DEAD!" Sasuke hits the table with his lone fist so hard that he feels the floor vibrating. "By some miracle or some curse, I met you once again after your elder son killed you for treason. I have no intention to explain myself to some ghost, and you have no right to expect anything from me after you dropped dead!"

"I raised you to become a decent man and a shinobi, but you wasted it all on some stupid desires!"

"You did not raise me, my mother did, along with my older brother, YOU ignored me for eight years of my life!"

"And you think Mikoto would be pleased with your actions?!"

"I was a child when you died! You left me on my own, in a world I knew nothing about, without anyone to ask about anything! I saw Itachi standing above your bodies with a blade covered with your blood, I watched him stabbing you with it in his Tsukuyoumi that he put over me! What do you expect from a child who saw his parents' death from his big brother's hands?! To make reasonable choices?! I was eight!"

"At this age your brother made chuunin-"

"I AM NOT Itachi and I will never be! I never want to be like him!"

"You would learn a lot from him if you only tried!"

"Yeah, for example how to traumatize your little brother and make him become a criminal. The son you worshipped for so long made me choose the path I followed for half of my life!"

"He made it for the sake of the Uchiha."

"The Uchiha were a clan of idiots who deserved to be condemned for their hunger for power, yet for Itachi their honor was more important than destroying the life of a brother he claimed to love."

"One lost life is nothing in the whole history. Sacrifices are always made."

Sasuke keeps silent for ten seconds, staring intensely at his furious father. He wants to gather his thoughts before he speaks again.

"So you approve of his decision" he growls.

"I wish there have been another solution. But the Uchiha must have been slaughtered without anybody knowing the real reason behind it. That Itachi didn't kill you only proves he thought about the future."

"I played along and I did everything he planned. I killed him, I had my revenge, I restored the honor of the Uchiha. No one knows about the coup the clan plotted. Yet now, when we speak, you are pissed with me."

"You wasted the honor Itachi tried to preserve with your unreasonable choices. You left the village, thus you became a missing-nin. For what?!"

"I. Needed. POWER. To fight Itachi and win. I needed to find someone strong enough to prepare me for this fight."

"It's a thinking of a child."

"I was TWELVE. What do you expect from a twelve-years-old boy, fresh out from the Academy?!"

"To think."

"Fine, I'm done with this. I should have known that you would take Itachi's side even before this conversation began" he stands abruptly, ready to leave the kitchen.

"I am not taking sides, Sasuke."

"Yes, you are."

"Do not turn your back on me when I am speaking to you."

"Who the hell is turning his back on who here?!" they stop in the entrance, facing each other.

"If you only tried to think about anybody but yourself" Fugaku pokes his son's chest with his index finger. "Maybe then you could understand the sacrifice your brother made for all of us. Especially for you."

"Maybe if you saw me just once back then. Maybe then you would realize that ever since that day I gave up on everything. My childhood, my time, my happiness, my sleep, any friends I would ever made. I gave up on all this to avenge my mother, my cousins, uncles, aunts, and you, my own father. I swore to kill Itachi, to hate him with all my power, even though I still loved him. All of this just for your sake, because such a crime, killing your own family for fun, cannot be overlooked, but no one cared about what happened. I tried to live up to the Uchiha name, I wanted to be worthy of being called one of you. So don't you dare tell me that I was an egoist."

"Sasuke-"

"I deserted Konoha, yes. I trained under Orochimaru, potentially risking my life, because he wanted me to be his next vessel. I was running out of time to become strong enough to beat him when the time comes. He was weakened and by some miracle I managed to kill him. I found Itachi, I fought him and I beat him. If this already disgusts you, then better plug your ears now. Because right after the fight, Tobi told me the truth behind the massacre and I decided to destroy Konoha, to make them pay for what they did to Itachi and to the Uchiha. I needed to complete my revenge. I joined the Akatsuki. I killed Danzo, which cost me my sight. He used Izanagi with sharingan eyes that he had stolen after the massacre, implanted into his arm. I overused my mangekyo. I implanted Itachi's eyes into my sockets. I met reanimated Itachi who tried to convince me to rethink my decision. I revived Orochimaru so he could help me revive the previous Hokage. I needed reasons to leave Konoha in peace, needed an excuse to abandon the revenge I vowed to fulfill for your sake. But they did not deserve my mercy. I fought in a war and helped them win just because I planned to start a revolution, because all those cheap ideals of love and peace have never worked so far in the history. By then, I've already turned into a madman and I was lucky that there were my friends I gave up on long ago who forced me to stop. I was pardoned thanks to my sensei from my genin days who became the new Hokage."

Fugaku's eyes do not leave his own when he speaks. Sasuke sees nothing in them.

A feeling of injustice and betrayal takes over him. He wakes up with wet eyes and this time, he does not deny it.

Again, he gets no rest from this dreamy world. He comes back next night and finds no power within himself to rebel against the universe. He makes no move, he stays in the kitchen.

Alone.

It takes Fugaku some time to notice his presence in the house. He stops abruptly in the corridor and Sasuke can sense his uncertainty. He does not turn around to face him. He does not move. He sits. Like a statue.

Fugaku slowly takes some steps and enters the kitchen. He stops in front of his son, but does not lower himself to sit on the floor. His stare irritates Sasuke. When he cannot bear it anymore, he stares back into his father's dark eyes, prepared not to lose this battle.

"That's it?" Fugaku's lips barely move. "You will now stare at me and keep quiet? After everything you spat out in my face?"

"You have only yourself to blame for it. I made it quite obvious that I didn't consider telling you about my life a good idea."

"I am actually glad I've heard this story."

"Oh, yes. Delighted."

"If you think that being disrespectful towards me is going to give you any advantages, then you are wrong. It only pisses me of."

Sasuke rests his head against the wall and sighs deeply closing his eyes. He stands up swiftly and looks at his father from almost the same level.

"If YOU think that looking down at me is going to give YOU any advantages, then YOU are wrong. Do not assume that I still want to gain your approval. I don't. You died nine years ago. You are no clan leader anymore. You are not my father anymore, even though I still forget about it when I hear you speaking."

"It is a good strategy to adjust to my disapproval, persuading yourself that I'm nothing more than a ghost, an unwanted illusion in your subconscious. You have never taken criticism with ease, so I am not very surprised. You bring on the defense, even though there is nothing to defend yourself from."

"You are attacking me. You can't expect me to sit still."

"I am no-"

"How is blaming me not an attack. HOW. Or maybe I'm too stupid to understand EVEN that in your opinion?"

"You messed up, you admitted it yourself, thus I fail to understand what you are so frustrated about. You cannot expect me to stay still and tell you that you did nothing wrong, especially considering that I am your father."

"I messed up, I did, I messed up like hell. But it's been a while now, I had plenty of time to think about it and I will not let anyone make me believe that it was my fault."

"Now you basically said that you don't think you messed up. Use your head, Sasuke, consider your words and only then speak aloud."

"So now I am incoherent as well. Joy" Sasuke turns back and leaves the kitchen. He walks to his room, shuts the door and falls heavily on his bed. He presses his hand to his forehead, trying to calm his racing mind. He is too tired for this conversation. A conversation with his dead father about his own mistakes. He needs rest. He breathes deeply to regain his coolness. Inhale. Exhale. He hears steps in the corridor. His father does not open the door, but it sounds as if he is positioning himself near the doorframe. But he does not speak right away.

Then again his close presence is enough to make Sasuke livid.

"Go away" he growls after a minute.

"Avoiding me is not a right way to deal with it."

"You don't exist anymore."

"Yet here I am, talking to you."

"You are not talking to me, you are lecturing me."

"I wouldn't if you were giving me decent answers" the door opens and Fugaku approaches the futon with calm steps.

"Get out of here."

"We are talking right now."

"You said that, not me. I don't agree. I have no intention to talk to you."

"Probably because you are afraid of being criticized-"

"I am not afraid of you. Not anymore."

And with that Sasuke closes his father's mouth. For one long minute.

"I am not trying to make you scared here. I simply want to talk to you."

"For what."

"For you to understand your mistakes."

"Spare your time then. I've already understood them. I don't need you to put me back into this endless stream of thinking that I've barely managed to escape before I came to this place. You claim that I need to admit I made mistakes. I admit that I made them, yet you still press that I don't. You claim that you know me better that I know myself despite that you've last seen me more than half of my life ago, and even then, you barely knew anything about me. I'm telling you I refuse to acknowledge that it was my fault, because I do."

"You are responsible for your mistakes, Sasuke."

"I am atoning for those mistakes right now. I can never fix what I destroyed, so all left to do is to make sure I will never take this path again. But it wasn't my fault. It was not my idea to plot against the village. It wasn't my idea to solve the impasse with a massacre. I didn't agree to become a pawn in Itachi's hands. You can blame me all you want. You can call me a monster, a degenerate, but it was not my fault."

"So you blame all the world for what you've become?"

"I blame Konoha's Elders. The Uchiha. Itachi. Do you think I would have become someone like that if all those people had been in their right mind?"

"Your brother saved you."

"My brother wrote me off. He made me become a sacrifice-"

"Which are always made. We are shinobi, Sasuke."

"I wasn't ready to be one. I wouldn't have ended up like this if he had just killed me along with all of you."

"He allowed you to live. You've got a privilege that none of us has been given back then."

"And what a magnificent life it was" he almost whispers. Fugaku hesitates for a second, before he speaks again.

"He could not know what you would become in the future. He thought it was the right decision."

Sasuke is quiet for too long. Fugaku eyes him after a while from his place next to the mattress: his lone arm that lays rested on his belly, moves to his head and tangles in dark hair.

"I wish Itachi was still alive" Sasuke says quietly. "Maybe then I would convince you to try to understand my actions."

"And here you go again, Sasuke. It's impossible to me to approve of your actions-"

"Stupid old man" Fugaku stops abruptly and watches Sasuke sitting up with his back facing him. "You are hopeless like that. You want to talk, but you stay deaf to everything I say. In your mind you call me incoherent and stupid, yet you make no effort to think why I seem to you to be like this. You said you wanted to talk" Sasuke turns his head to look at him. His eyes hold reproach and hopelessness that he does not try to hide. "How do you want us to talk if you don't listen?"

"I-"

"No, you don't. You DON'T. You've already made your own judgement about all of this. You created it in a short moment. You judged once and you don't waver. As always. Ever since I remember."

Fugaku furrows his brows slightly, watching his young face. He processes his words slowly.

"I am trying to think logically."

"What happened was not logical at all. It would be logical if Itachi killed me and himself along with all of you. There would be no one to avenge you then, no one to disturb Konoha's safety in the future. But honor and pride, some ideals people created for their own destruction, forced him to take a risk. This risk was leaving me behind. Alive. He took it. The Elders took it. And they paid for it."

"No matter how brilliant Itachi used to be back then, he was still barely thirteen. He made the best choice he could."

"And that would be what you would tell him if he appeared here right now?"

"Yes."

"So mother was lying" Sasuke lets his body fall back on the futon.

"What about, now?"

"How come you only let Itachi make mistakes when he is still a kid? How come he is allowed to make them and I am not?"

"It's… not like that, Sasuke. It's just…" Fugaku pauses for a moment. "Leaving you alive was morally a good thing. Leaving the village is not fine."

"I wouldn't have done that if Itachi hadn't made me."

"You could have gain power to defeat him in Konoha."

"You know very well I couldn't."

"Itachi would let you kill him no matter how strong or weak you were."

"And how was I supposed to know that, when he brainwashed me. How? I should have seen through his lies? Well, I am deeply sorry, but I did not. If I had known it was all an act, then I would have sat on my ass and enjoyed my everyday peaceful life with my friends. Unfortunately, I was too stupid and I had some delusions that I need to avenge my family."

"Sasuke…"

"What."

It takes Fugaku some minutes to open his mouth again. His voice is wary and tired when he speaks, his hand pressed calmingly to his forehead.

"Don't blame your brother."

Silence.

"This is all you can think of to say? Don't blame your brother?"

"He couldn't know."

"I couldn't either. Yet you consequently refuse to absolve me even a bit because this would mean that you have to blame something on Itachi. And you can't bear it" he closes his eyes, quietly exhaling to prepare himself for what he wants to say. "Of the two of us, you would always choose him. He was your perfect son. You was proud of him even though he betrayed the Uchiha. All those harsh words you said to him back then, when he refused to fulfill your orders, were nothing more than an act. You are actually happy that Itachi killed the clan. You are proud of him. He's your boy, like he has always been."

"I loved you both."

"You never planned to have another child, I have no delusions about it anymore. I was an accident."

"Many children are not planned, but it does not mean they are unwanted. I acknowledge you as my son not less than I acknowledge your brother. Don't try to persuade me that I hated you."

"There is a lot in between love and hate."

"And by that you mean…?"

"It's just an ending of our conversation in Itachi's style."

"I swear, boy, your sarcasm puts me on edge more than I like it."

"Deal with it. Now I suggest we end it before one of us goes rampage out of furry."

"We are not finished yet."

"Either we are finished, or you'll see with your own eyes just how disrespectful I can be when someone ignores me" he looks at his father sharply. "Get out. Or we will both regret that you didn't."

"It won't be any easier for you later, Sasuke."

Sasuke lets his eyelids fall. With his lone hand, he searches for a nerve on his neck and presses it firmly. Clenching his teeth, he watches as everything around fades away, along with the silhouette of his father.

He is awake. A kitten looks at him curiously from his left. Sasuke extends his hand to caress his small head.

Live. He has to live. Move on. But he does not know how.

Kitchen. Sasuke would roll his eyes, but does not feel like it at the moment. He slowly stands up and directs his steps towards the porch. He lays down on the wood, letting the rays of some unexplainable sun dance against his face. He remembers his childhood. Sometimes he spent long hours on the porch, sleeping, waiting for Itachi to come back home from a mission. He ceased doing this when he started the Academy… Why?

He did not want to be considered lazy. Itachi trained a lot. Everybody said Itachi trained a lot. Sasuke wanted to be like him. Back then he wanted to…

How immature of him. Indeed, he was a naïve child. He worshiped his brother. Later. he tried his best to hate him. And then, when he discovered the truth, he was doing his best to switch back to the adoration towards Itachi. Itachi was a martyr. A victim of the system. The best brother he would ask for.

He still believed it when he left Konoha and departed for his atonement journey. Realization came over around a month later. Endless thoughts, searches for reasons, arguments… And suddenly Itachi was not a saint anymore. Actually…

…actually Sasuke is getting more and more angry with him.

He tried to reason that his brother was thirteen when it all started. A child vulnerable to the influence of his elders. So fine. He made a stupid decision, he believed it was the right one. But he had seven years to change it. Seven years to realize that something was not right here, because you simply do NOT leave your little brother broken for the sake of people who are already dead. In fact, why leaving him alive at all? It was not that suddenly everybody hated the Uchiha when they all died. No, in fact everybody pitied them. Suddenly Sharingan wielders were not grumpy isolated people, policemen, weirdos. Suddenly everybody was sorry. So why did Itachi need him to execute him?

Egoist… Sasuke was not an egoist. Itachi? Yes. A damn egoist who wasted not only his own life, but his brother's life as well. But apparently expecting people to acknowledge it… is not fine.

Sasuke did plenty of mistakes, but he did not became a criminal on his own. He did not expect anybody not to blame him, but putting the whole blame on him? Half of it, maybe.

People do not like complicated things. Everything needs to be black or white or else it is not worth their time.

The massacre remains a secret. Everybody believes that Itachi was a crazy killer. And what? Bullshit. Nobody considers even for a minute understanding Sasuke's actions. What they see is that he became a threat. Why? How? What would they do if they were put in such circumstances themselves? Sasuke used to be a kind, happy child. He was not born a criminal, yet PEOPLE DO NOT GET IT. He did not become a criminal overnight, either. It was a process that took years, years of solitude, lack of care, lack of mental help.

Honestly. Sasuke would not be surprised if he found out Danzo planned all of this. To leave him like this, vulnerable to the horrors in his own mind. He wanted all the Uchiha dead, he could find a way.

People are people. But having his father, his dead non-existent father, not even trying to understand him… It hurts. It just hurts.

He hears his steps even now. The screens move and Uchiha Fugaku freezes at the sight of his son.

Sasuke opens his eyes and looks lazily at him. He sees his hand clenching the frame of the screen. He would roll his eyes, but limits himself to close them again.

"So?" he hears.

"So?"

"What do you want to say?"

He lets out a long hum and slowly stretches his limbs.

"Nothing new. What about you?"

"Then come back when you have something to say and don't waste my time."

"Wasting your time? I wouldn't even dream of it."

Two seconds. Then strong hands catch his clothes and pick him up from the porch. Before he knows it, his back slams against the wooden pillar. He can feel his mouth opening against his will in unspoken shock, when his father's black eyes penetrate him, half standing half hanging, with pure rage.

He wakes in the real world under the dark sky and stays still for some minutes.

His father was many things and made many mistakes, but he has never been violent towards his children, not even once. To think he would…

Sasuke presses his lips into a firm line.

His eyes close. He will not leave it like this. Not this time.

Not more than a minute later the kitchen appears once again. He raises swiftly and blocks his father's way on the corridor, startling him. They share a long look. Fugaku sighs heavily.

"What is it this time?"

"Well, you slammed me to the pillar a moment ago."

"It's been a while."

"Five minutes for me."

"Let me pass, Sasuke" his father tries to pass by, but is stopped by his son's lone arm.

"There is a question… I wanted to ask you" Sasuke utters through clenched throat.

"Ask me later."

"When?"

"When the meaning of your actions gets to you. Before that I have no intention to talk to you" Fugaku forces his way to the kitchen. Sasuke feels an urge to snap back, but quickly abandons the idea.

"Are you my biological father?"

The older Uchiha stops abruptly. There is a moment of suspension and then he slowly turns around with his fist clenched.

"What. The. FUCK. Sasuke."

"Believe it or not, I did wonder about it."

"WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU INSINUATING?!"

"That maybe mother got raped on one of her super-classified, super-secret mission she was getting all the time. The ones she thought I don't know about."

"If you tried to get my attention with a shitty idea like this, then congratulation, you succeeded" Fugaku growls through clenched teeth.

"I was serious" Sasuke says quietly, not looking away. "Just didn't find a good moment to ask earlier."

Silence falls over them for a while. The tensed silence they already know all too well.

"I could ask you what made you feel this way, but I guess it's useless as we have already had this conversation" Fugaku wipes his face with his hands. He makes some steps and starts walking back and forth. He stops, putting his hands on his hips, visibly thinking about something.

"Was it your idea?"

"What?" he looks at his son.

"Did you tell Itachi to make me hate him so I can avenge the Uchiha?"

"No, I had no idea which side he was on. You think I would let an order of such an assassination be given to my own child…?"

"As if you hadn't known."

It's the first thing that comes to his head and he voices it, even if just to irritate his father a bit more. But Fugaku presses his lips into a thin line and closes his eyes for a moment.

"What do you know about it?" he asks silently.

"Well… Nothing, really" and it has been a year since the last time when Sasuke felt the picture of the massacre wavering… unexpectedly. "Wait, what do you…" he blinks, fighting against the part of him that wants to dismiss the idea of such a possibility… "You-"

"Let's drop this for now" his father breaths out and for the first time Sasuke realizes that he is not the only one who is being drained of energy by their arguments. He keeps silent for a while, debating whether to push the matter or drop it…

No. He cannot deal with it right now. He doesn't even want to. He sighs and wipes his eyes with his hand.

"So you are positive that it was his idea?" he asks, trying to keep his voice steady.

"I don't know whose idea it was. But it was not mine" he answers tiredly.

"What would you do?"

"About?"

"If you had been in Itachi's place. What would you have done if you had got an order to kill your whole clan along with your closest family?"

He can see his father's searching eyes on his face. What is this man doing? Trying to estimate the amount of harm he is going to cause with his next words? Pondering how much more Sasuke can bear? Considering whether to lie or to say the truth?

"I don't know what I would have done" he offers finally.

"Then please think about it and give me your answer."

"What for?" the question is spoken in a suffocated voice. "What do you want to hear from me, Sasuke? You want to hear that I hated you? I told you I did not and I would never-"

"If you had to choose" Sasuke interrupts. "Between the two of us."

Fugaku stays still for a long moment, his eyes not moving of an inch.

"You… No. Sasuke, you simply… don't ask a parent to choose between their children."

"Yet you did."

"Do you have any idea how much pressure I put on your brother's shoulders ever since he became chuunin?"

"I have a vague idea, but how is that important right now?"

"Then you should think about it more before you make such a judgment."

"Perhaps. So what would you have done in his place" the answer does not come. "Just tell me."

"If I had been Itachi I would have done the very same thing" he says quietly. "I know you don't share my viewpoint… but this is what I would have done, too."

"Exactly?"

"What do you want to hear from me?"

"I? What do you not want me to hear?"

"What would you have done?"

Sasuke looks away for a couple of seconds. He hears his father's steps and registers the man stopping just in front of him.

"I would have killed us all. Had the job done. Ended it. Not leaving anything or anyone behind, myself included."

"You would have killed your little, powerless brother just so the job was done?"

"No, I would have killed my little, powerless brother so he didn't have to face horrors of the aftermath."

"You would kill a child?"

"Kill a child? It's not that I was the only Uchiha child when the massacre happened. Itachi killed-"

"Would you?"

"Yes, I would."

"And live with his blood on your hands?"

"My hands would already drip with so much blood that I wouldn't notice one or two drops more."

"Cruel."

"Merciful."

Sasuke watches his father eyeing him hesitantly. There is some kind of grief hidden in his features. The man finally shakes his head weakly.

"I don't understand you."

"I know" he lets out quietly. "It's hard to understand when you couldn't see it. I want to be angry with people who don't understand, but I guess Kakashi was right. I shouldn't just expect people to understand when they simply can't."

"Did you try…" Fugakus words die on his lips. He presses them and takes a step back.

"…to kill myself?" Sasuke finishes. "No. I had a clan to avenge. But… I probably would have. If I hadn't found out the truth about the coup."

"What about your friends? Have you ever thought what it would have done to them?"

"Why would they want me? When I violated values they held precious and showed them my middle finger? Abandoned them? Tried to hurt them? Today I know they would have understood. Back then, I did not. Not after what I did when I went against Konoha. That they couldn't understand, they could never. But they tried and I'm grateful for that."

The image of his father fades away. Sasuke could try to open his eyes and greet the new day, but he doesn't. He covers his face with the blanket and lies on the grass for another long, quiet hour.

Some things may seem a bit unclear, but that's because Fugaku and Sasuke need time to understand each other.

Fugaku has his own opinion.

Sasuke is angry because his father doesn't even try to understand him. But at the same time it's not that Sasuke made much effort to understand him either.

But he will;)

Thanks for reading! I want to know what you think:)