The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

80: Dreaded Question

[OP: "Wishing Well"--The Oh Hellos]

The pause was dreadful.

The very fact that Shine wasn't answering him right off made Sasuke wary. What did she have to hide?

Or was she so ashamed that she hated anyone?

But no, it wasn't shame. That wasn't her expression.

Finally, she looked away. "I've dreaded this conversation for a long time, but I am almost surprised it took this long for it to come up...at least in earnest. I suppose you wondered it a long time but never pressed me to explain it when I refused. I suppose you won't accept that now...but I don't know if you're ready."

"Ready?"

"The truth might hurt you," Shine said.

"What truth?" Sasuke became angry again--but it was out of fear. "That he was an Uchiha? Is that it? The massacre disgusts you and he was human vermin?"

Why this made him so afraid he didn't know--hadn't he thought that for years himself?

But, deep down, perhaps he feared this meant that Shine really did think that he was the same as that then, as he'd plotted to do the same things Itachi had, and she'd said it.

That was it... He'd become more dubious about what kind of person he was lately--or at least he knew the doubts he'd always had--and Shine had seemed to reassure him that it wasn't as bleak as he thought...but he hadn't shaken the fear that this was just her being kind and her real opinion was the same as the world's in general... Why wouldn't it be?

What had he ever done to prove he was not another crazy Uchiha? Nothing...

But Shine didn't seem to be worried about what he'd said in a guilty way, more shocked.

"No, no, of course not," she said at once, concerned. "I mean, yes, the massacre disgusts me, but not because he was an Uchiha. What do I have against them? I only ever met 4 of them."

"But you treat most people as salvageable--but not him," Sasuke said. 

And if not him, then perhaps not his family either...

But he couldn't bring himself to admit this point.

Why was he acting like such a child? Why, Shine would see right through him.

She probably did, too, but she tried to handle it calmly.

"That was not because he was an Uchiha," she said. "Let me tell you why I think he was different--it won't be a nice take on it, but, for all I know of him, there was something off about that guy from the start. He claimed he loved people and he loved his Village, but all his actions only hurt the people he claimed to love. That kind of love frightens me, and I know it too well, as I've been on the receiving end of it. That's why he repulses me even more than Orochimaru did; it wasn't as personal for me and more just...ew, because he's a nasty human being...but Itachi is something else. Twisted love is worse than pure malice."

Sasuke couldn't handle this answer. He didn't quite think she was being completely honest. Her tone seemed like she was redirecting the conversation.

"I remember how you spoke to me," he said, "and him....or whatever you thought you were talking to?"

"If it was him, somehow in that corpse, then I would have spoken to him no different. I couldn't have saved him anyway... Even God will not usually save someone who's dead already. Perhaps some of them may be resurrected, but that's not what the reanimation was. Death is a cut off point for a reason. Ending it was just treating that just as fact and not give him the chance to torment any of us further."