Naruto 385

1
Naruto
#385: Secret of the Mangekyou
[insert text: Sasuke's blade pierces straight through Itachi's body...!!]
Flashback!Itachi: Look in the main hall of the Nakano Shrine... At the back, under the seventh tatami from the right, there lies hidden a secret meeting hall of our clan. // The true purpose behind the existence of the Uchiha Clan's doujutsu...

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Flashback!Itachi: You will find the true secret inscribed therein. // If you awaken to it, then the number of Mangekyou Sharingan users in this world, myself included, will be three. // And if that happens... // ...Hahah. There is reason enough to leave you alive.
Sasuke: Answer me this one question. / Until you do, this pain will not end...
Itachi: ...So you intentionally... didn't strike my vitals...

3
Sasuke: That third person... // The one other Sharingan user... / .........That one other Uchiha... who is it?
Itachi: ......... // Why... do you wish to know this?
Sasuke: Once you are dead, I must kill him. // That is all.
Itachi: Kill him?

4
Sasuke: On that day, when you slaughtered the entire Uchiha clan, you saw fit to mention this one other person... // An Uchiha whom you had not seen fit to kill... In other words, your accomplice. // No matter how powerful you are, you could never have taken out the entire force by yourself.
Itachi: ...So you realised.
Sasuke: Who is it?!

5
Itachi: Uchiha Madara.
Flashback!Kyuubi: Those eye techniques, that Chakra more accursed even than my own... // Just like Uchiha Madara all those years ago...
Itachi: He was one of the founders of Konoha... // ...and the first man to awaken to the Mangekyou Sharingan.

6
Sasuke: One of the founders...? // But then Madara should have been long dead! // Are you trying to mess with me?!
Itachi: ...Madara still lives. // If you choose not to believe me, that is your choice.
Sasuke: Stop messing around!
Itachi: ...All men rely on their own knowledge, their own perceptions, and live bound by those cords. / That is what men call "reality". // But knowledge and perceptions are essentially ambiguous. This "reality" may be a mere illusion. // All men live within a world forged of their own preconceptions. Do you see?

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Sasuke: What are you trying to say?
Itachi: When you say that Madara is dead... / ...you are merely making an assumption. // Just like once... // ...you used to assume that I was simply your kind older brother.

8
Flashback!Itachi: The only reason I played the role of the brother you wanted me to be... // ...was to understand your ability, your capacity, for myself...

9
Sasuke: When I witnessed what had happened that night... I thought it must have been just an illusion. // I thought I must have stumbled into some kind of terrible genjutsu... // But it was not!! What I witnessed that night was reality!!

10-11
Sasuke: My eyes are not as blind as they once were! // My Sharingan can pierce through any genjutsu!
Itachi: Hah... Your words are as harsh as ever. / But I will accept that they may no longer be empty words.

12
Sasuke: I think that's enough of playing along with your little game.

13
Itachi: But... Sasuke... // It would appear that you still have not obtained these eyes that I possess.
Flashback!Itachi: And one day, once you have obtained these same eyes, find me once more.
Sasuke: Hah... // Then why don't you activate your Mangekyou Sharingan and have a go at defeating me! / Or have I reached such a level that your own "capacity" no longer registers against mine?
Itachi: Your confidence is impressive...

14
Zetsu: (The two of them haven't moved for quite some time...) // (--THEY'RE JUST DEALING WITH EACH OTHER THROUGH GENJUTSU--)

15
Itachi: The Mangekyou Sharingan... // These eyes are special.
Sasuke: .........?
Itachi: Once they have been awakened, they begin their walk down the path to darkness. // The more they are used, the further they seal themselves away.
Sasuke: What are you getting at?
Itachi: The Mangekyou will one day be lost to the light.

16
Sasuke: Blindness... // Is that the price you have to pay for the ability to control the Kyuubi?
Itachi: Hah... / It would appear that you read the hidden inscription, just as I told you to.
Sasuke: Madara... // What exactly is he?
[bottom text: The terrible secret of the Mangekyou Sharingan...! Next issue, "True Goal"!!]

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Itachi: He was the first man to use these eyes to tame the Kyuubi. // He was my partner, my master, and he is immortal. // And he is the only man to discover the one other secret of the Mangekyou Sharingan. // That is Uchiha Madara.
[side text: The Mangekyou Sharingan, and Uchiha Madara... all their secrets are coming to light!!]