Itachi let go of Julian as he finally processed through the memories that he had received.
The flood of another persons entire life memories was strange yet he forced himself to examine every part of it with the same careful attention he always gave to important information.
He sat back on the stone of the courtyard and looked at the young man who now shared his body.
After a long silence he spoke in a quiet voice that carried both surprise and a touch of sadness.
“To think our world is nothing but a book and a show in your world.
Our suffering is enjoyed in your world as entertainment.
People watch the pain of entire clans and the deaths of children and call it entertainment.
That idea is difficult to accept even after seeing the memories with my own mind.” Itachi turned to look at the young man who was busy dusting off his clothes after the earlier struggle.
Julian brushed the imaginary dirt from his sleeves and answered, “Well to be fair I was forced to watch your story.
My little brother Justin kept asking me to sit with him and see the episodes.
I never cared much for those kinds of shows but he would not stop talking about them so I finally gave in.
I only watched the first part and never reached the later years because I was too busy with other work.” Itachi nodded slowly as more pieces of the future settled into place.
He spoke again with a thoughtful expression.
“To think that I would kill my own clan in the future.
The idea feels impossible when I look at the love I still hold for every member of my family.
Yet the memories you carry show that it happened and that I was the one who carried it out.” Julian slowly stood up and stretched his arms and shoulders as if testing the limits of the mindscape body.
He looked at Itachi and asked the question that had been sitting in his thoughts since the memories arrived.
“Yeah that was pretty gruesome to know.
But how did you manage to do so and at the age of thirteen at that.
Is not the Uchiha supposed to be the strongest clan in the village or probably even the world?
How does one thirteen year old boy wipe out an entire family of trained shinobi without anyone stopping him.” Itachi considered the question carefully before answering.
“I think there was more to it.
I probably did it to stop the coup that my clan was planning.
Since I left Sasuke alive it must mean that I wanted to protect him from what would have happened if the Uchiha attempted the coup against Konoha.
The village would have answered with full force and my little brother would have died along with everyone else.
By taking the blame myself I could make sure he survived.” Julian listened and then spoke with clear agreement in his tone.
“Ah yes the coup.
Your clan mates are pretty foolish to think they could take on the entire village forces and the other clans.
Not to forget the Hokage and the other S rank shinobi of the Leaf like Jiraiya and Tsunade of the Sannin.
The numbers and the power on the village side are simply too great.
A fight like that would end only one way and that way would be the complete destruction of the Uchiha.” He continued after a short pause and his voice carried a note of quiet approval.
“So it makes sense now.
If the Uchiha did carry out the coup your entire clan would be exterminated.
To protect your brother you killed them all in exchange for his safety.
It is something I approve of, Itachi Uchiha.
I understand that kind of choice better than most people ever could.” Itachi looked at the man who now occupied his body and who had done terrible things in his own world all to cure his young brother of a life threatening disease.
He would not call the man a psychopath for what he did because he himself had apparently chosen to exterminate his own clan in the supposed future for the sake of his little brother.
The parallel between their actions sat clearly in his mind and made it impossible to judge Julian without also judging himself.
He turned his attention back to the later memories and mumbled the next realisation mostly to himself.
“And I joined this Akatsuki a terrorist organisation huh.
The group that works in the shadows and carries out missions that the villages would never accept openly.” Julian answered in a straightforward way.
“I do not know much about them other than the fact they were after the tailed beasts.
They were probably part of the next part of the story which I did not bother watching.
My time was limited and Justin never managed to make me sit through the later seasons.” Itachi kept a thoughtful expression on his face while he turned the new information over in his mind.
Julian looked around the quiet courtyard and then spoke more to himself than to Itachi.
“So what do we do now.
Am I stuck in your body now.
Do you have a method of taking it back from me.
Of course you do not.
We both share the same memories now and neither of us knows a technique that can simply switch our places.” Itachi lifted his head and looked straight at Julian.
His voice was calm but carried a firm decision.
“I failed to protect my brother in the way I hoped.
You succeeded in saving yours.
I do not think I have it in me right now to do what is required in the days ahead but I think you do.
You have already walked a path of hard choices for the sake of someone you love.
That experience may be exactly what this body needs.” Julian listened carefully as Itachi continued.
“You killed your entire clan to do what was required to protect your brother.
That is the future the memories show.” Itachi nodded and then added the painful result of that choice.
“And look how that turned out.
Sasuke sole focus became to train and kill me.
He forgot to enjoy his childhood the way I wanted him to.
He grew up without anyone looking after him and the loneliness shaped him into someone filled with hatred.
The protection I gave him came at a cost I never wanted him to pay.” Julian let out a long sigh and then spoke with honest acceptance.
“Well I am not going to complain if you are going to give me the reins.
I would not mind enjoying the life in this world with chakra and these jutsus.
It is very fascinating from what I have found in your memories.” “The way energy moves through the body and the different ways it can be shaped into techniques is something my old world never had.
But it would mean I would have to deal with several headaches in your life too.
The politics of the village, the expectations of the coup and the coming coup are not simple problems.” Itachi answered in a plain and steady voice.
“Every positive comes with a negative.
That is the nature of most choices in a shinobi life.” “Judging from your memories I would have done the Uchiha massacre within a year.
I am still twelve years old.
I did the massacre at thirteen.
My birthday is ten months away.
So you have at least that much time to get used to my body and to decide how you want to change the path that lies ahead.” Julian looked at the younger form of Itachi and spoke with a note of mild surprise.
“Huh you got yourself quite a growth spurt in the past couple of years to be so tall at twelve.
Most children that age are still much smaller.” Itachi explained the reason in a simple way.
“My mother says it was because of chakra and my body adapting to the awakening of the Sharingan.
The energy changed the way my body grew and the constant training pushed it even further.” He then looked at Julian who was clearly getting ready to face the life that belonged to Itachi Uchiha.
A quiet doubt crossed his face and he spoke it aloud.
“I wonder if this is also a part of a genjutsu that I cast myself into.
The mind can create very convincing worlds when it is under enough pain.” Julian answered with a practical view that he had used many times in his own hard moments.
“Ah the conundrum of whether we are in a dream or not.
I have similar questions sometimes.
You know what I do.
If it is a bad moment I think of it as a dream a nightmare that I will wake up from soon enough.
And if it is a good moment I think of it as reality.
And it is up to you to decide whether what is happening right now is good or bad.” He straightened his back and spoke with purpose, “Now let us get going shall we.”