In defiance of all odds, I became a successful, retired, ANBU Saboteur. It's strange- I thought if I became something impossible, I'd finally feel… important. Better, than my cousin. It doesn't work like that.
Yayoi-chan punched me out when I told her that- she hit me so hard I was still seeing stars the next day. When I came to, she told me that the only thing anyone could ever reasonably ask of me was to be the best version of myself- the best me I could ever be.
She told me that the best way to defy the odds was to be myself- to not let myself become beholden to an ideal that was, above all other things, not real. Itachi is not superhuman. He is, above all things, just a boy- he is, despite everything, just a boy given a man's job.
This is a job for men and women, not children- not us. Shinobi- it's a job. Not a superhuman ideal, not something to strive to become- a job. Just something a person does.
People become ninjas to make their parents proud, to feel better about themselves, to be- special. But it's a job, and it takes things from people- and all it gives you in this physical world is money. Money that can't buy back whatever the job takes, more often than not.
This job took my sense of self-worth. It took Itachi's peace of heart and mind. It took Raiko's dreams. It took Kirara's freedom. It took Yayoi's love. It'll take something from Sasuke- it hasn't yet, because he's not even in the academy yet. But it'll take something from him. It takes something from everyone.
Money can't buy it back- that's all you get from the job. Yayoi told me that, that the only thing to do, the only way to possibly get what the job took from me is to… take it back. Defy the job, and take back what it took from you.
That's why she punched me and told me to figure out how to be worth something. That's why Itachi is trying to make a division of ANBU devoted to medicine. That's why Raiko sings every time someone asks her, writes songs in a book lined with rows of six-lined something's, plays a gottan and sings like an angel every chance she can. That's why Kirara jumps off of everything she can, every building, every bridge, every tree- makes kites and dissects dead birds, sews beautiful embroidered kimono and always wears a blue and white uchikake even though she's not on stage and not getting married. It's why Yayoi is friends with Itachi, still- why she always makes him go to the doctor and get himself checked out, why she traps him with needles and genjutsu and drags his ass to their shishou.
Defiance in this job is as simple as remaining human in a world that demands you be inhumane.