Sasuke's Answer

Once Hashirama wraps up his account, Sasuke remarks on the strange fact that Itachi, an Uchiha who never met the First Hokage face to face, wound up embracing his convictions more completely than anyone else. Tobirama pushes back, explaining that a handful of Uchiha across the generations placed Konoha ahead of their bloodline, with Kagami Uchiha standing out most vividly in his memory. The Second Hokage insists he never despised the clan, yet his office forced him to weigh their loyalties against the settlement's survival, a strain his brother naively assumed the village framework would dissolve. Both Hiruzen and Minato admit that they fell short of the men who preceded them and of what people hoped they would be.

Having heard all he needs, Sasuke concludes that the people Itachi died to shield must not be squandered to the Eye of the Moon Plan, so he commits to joining the battlefield and honouring his brother, with Orochimaru tagging along out of curiosity. Tobirama reveals the group cannot use the Flying Thunder God because a binding restrains them. As they leave Naka Shrine, Suigetsu tries to slip away rather than fight beside such a dangerous company, only for Karin to kick him and rage over being stabbed by Orochimaru before reluctantly pressing against Sasuke. Turning toward the front, Hashirama can barely contain his delight at glimpsing the village again, Tobirama swears to finish Madara for good, Hiruzen pledges his full strength, and Minato beams at the thought of finally meeting his son.

In the original magazine printing, Sasuke's deliberation ran as a two-page spread stitched together from his history with Itachi, with his verdict arriving on the following page. The collected tankōbon edition adds a further pair of pages beforehand, pulling back on Sasuke against a black backdrop while Itachi's words are scattered across them instead of layered over their shared memories.