Truth

Synopsis
Madara Uchiha continues to tell Sasuke about the truth behind Itachi's actions. When Itachi was four, he had witnessed the deaths of many during the Third Shinobi World War, and thus developed a pacifist nature. Sasuke and Itachi's father, Fugaku, was the mastermind behind the coup d'état that would have had the Uchiha clan overthrow the Senju government.

In order to aid in his coup, Fugaku had Itachi placed within the Anbu so he would serve as a spy for them. However, Itachi's loyalty was not towards his clan, but towards the village, and wanted to do what was best for Konohagakure. Thus, the Konoha Council and Danzō Shimura had exploited that trait and had Itachi spy on the Uchiha clan for them. When the Third Hokage was unable to come to a peaceful negotiation with the Uchiha clan, the elders decided to eliminate them. Itachi was tasked with a hard decision — allow his clan to carry out its coup, causing the destabilisation of their village, deaths of countless innocent people as well as incite neighbouring nations to invade them, potentially starting the Fourth Shinobi World War, or to exterminate his clan in order to prevent a war and the numerous casualties that would come with it.

Madara tells Sasuke that around that time, he had infiltrated Konoha in order to have his vengeance on the village itself as well as the Uchiha clan who had shunned him. Itachi was the only person who had known he was still alive and had managed to locate him, and had proceeded to offer him a counter proposal — he would help Madara extinguish the Uchiha clan in exchange for sparing the village, which Madara had readily agreed to. However, while Itachi had managed to murder his father, his mother, and his lover, he was unable to kill his little brother, and thus had spared Sasuke's life. Following the clan's massacre, Madara and Itachi had split their ways while Itachi, reporting the mission's success to the village, had left Konoha; however, he had asked the Third Hokage to keep Sasuke safe from harm and threatened to leak the village's intelligence to unallied nations otherwise.

Sasuke refuses to accept Madara's story, claiming that Itachi had murdered their clan to test the limits of his abilities, that he was nothing more than a criminal who joined the Akatsuki, and that Itachi had no reason to protect him, citing that Itachi would not have used his Mangekyō Sharingan against him if he was not trying to kill him. Madara reveals to Sasuke that Itachi's goal, other than implanting the Amaterasu within Sasuke, was to seal away Orochimaru as well as Sasuke's Cursed Seal of Heaven, a feat that was only capable if he had reduced Sasuke's chakra levels to their bare minimum. Madara also divulges that following the Konoha Crush, Itachi's true motive for returning to the village was to make sure that Sasuke would be kept safe from the likes of Danzō following the Third's death, and that he was also spying on the Akatsuki from within for Konoha's sake.

As Madara finishes his tale, Sasuke stands on a cliff, noticing at a hawk flying around. Tears streaming down his face, he recalls the memories of his brother he had before the clan's massacre and how much he had loved and respected Itachi. He then declares that he is renaming their team from Hebi to Taka, and that their new mission is to destroy Konohagakure, awakening his own Mangekyō Sharingan in the process.