Original subtitles

-Protect-- to protect me?

You've gotta be kidding me.

-I'll say it once more.

You think you know all about your older brother,

but you know nothing.

-If you continue spouting such nonsense and lies,

I'll kill you right here.

-You're not making this easy.

I suppose that's only natural hearing a story like this

from a complete stranger, but what

I'm telling you is the truth.

Itachi did mention it, didn't he?

That he wasn't alone that night, that he had an accomplice.

I am Madara Uchiha.

I know everything there is to know about Itachi.

I suppose Itachi died without realizing that.

-Shut up!

None of that matters anymore.

Just get out of my sight, you hear me?

-No, you will listen.

You need to hear this.

It's your obligation.

It's about the life of your brother

who risked everything for the sake of the Shinobi

world, the Hidden Leaf village, and most of all

for you, his younger brother.

You will know how Itachi Uchiha lived.

Do you know why?

Why Itachi implanted the Amaterasu into your eye?

It's because Itachi never wanted us to meet or to talk.

Listen to my tale and you'll understand.

The only ones who knew the truth about Itachi

were the Leaf's Danzo, the Third Hokage,

and the two advisers Homura and Koharu.

With the Third Hokage dead, there are only three elders

left who know the secret, and they

are likely to never reveal the abominable truth

that they're hiding.

The truth about Itachi will fade into darkness forever,

just as Itachi himself wished.

However, I also know the truth about Itachi.

As I said earlier, Itachi never realized just how much

I knew about him.

Apparently, he wanted to make doubly sure.

It seems that Itachi didn't trust me,

and just in case I did know the truth,

he planned to silence me with the Amaterasu he implanted

in you.

He probably anticipated that I would show you my sharingan

in order to speak to you.

-What are you saying?

What are you trying to tell me here?

Protect me.

Protect me.

The truth.

-Remember.

Think back carefully and remember Itachi.

[gasping]

Your kind and gentle older brother.

-Hey, what's up?

-That building is where Father works, isn't it?

-Mmhm.

Its headquarters for the Leaf police force.

-You know, I've been wondering something.

How come the crest of the Uchiha clan

is part of the Leaf police force insignia?

-What do you know, you finally noticed.

-Course I did.

-Right.

Let's see, to put it simply, it was the Uchiha clan's earliest

ancestors who established the police force here

in the Leaf village.

So when they created the symbol for the organization,

they used the family crest.

Since a long time ago, the Uchiha

have always ensured the peace here.

The crest is a testament of our clan's pride

in a way of life centuries old.

Over the years, the Uchiha clan has grown smaller,

but even now, nearly all of us are a part of the force

and work to uphold the peace in this village.

Which is good, because only the most exceptional of Shinobi

can weed out the criminals hiding among their brethren.

SASUKE (THINKING): Wow, Dad is the coolest.

-Are you going to join the force, too?

-Well, I'm not sure.

-Why not?

-No, it's impossible.

No.

He didn't want to protect me, he just tried to kill me.

He tried to steal my eyes!

-Just who could do something like this?

-My foolish little brother.

Mangekyo sharingan.

[gasping, coughing]

-Calm down.

Breathe slowly.

[panting]

-Don't touch me!

-Even if you do hate me, that's what big brothers are for.

-Sorry, Sasuke.

Maybe some other time.

[theme music]

-You're awake.

Sorry, I took the liberty of tying you up

since it didn't seem you'd stay still and listen

to me otherwise.

-Itachi was my enemy.

He killed our mother and father.

And he slaughtered our whole clan.

He was a rogue ninja and a member of the Akatsuki.

He was despicable.

He was my only goal.

-That fateful night.

It is true that he slaughtered the entire Uchiha clan

and then fled the Hidden Leaf Village.

-Then?

-But it was his mission to do so.

He was ordered by leaders of the Hidden Leaf.

And that is just the beginning of the truth about Itachi.

-It was his mission.

-Yes.

That night, Itachi set aside his personal feelings

and fulfilled his mission.

Well, it seems you've finally calmed down.

-But I still don't understand.

-In order to explain Itachi's story,

I must take you back to the beginning, when the Hidden Leaf

Village was founded.

Itachi sacrificed himself, a fate

that grew from a longstanding power struggle.

He was callously used to serve it.

-Sacrificed?

-That's right.

A problem that hearkens back to the very origins

of the founding of the Hidden Leaf Village,

it determined the path of Itachi's life.

It's a long story, but every word that I'm about to tell you

is the absolute truth.

-And on what ground should I believe you?

You're completely untrustworthy.

-I don't have any evidence that I can show you,

so it's up to you to decide whether you believe me

or not, but only after you listen to the entire story.

-Fine.

Talk.

-It all started more than 80 years ago.

Back then, the world was embroiled in battle.

It was an era of warring states.

Nations fought for power, for the right

to exist, or to expand their borders.

During this time of strife, Shinobi organizations

only consisted of individual clans serving as armed units.

Various clans were hired by various nations

to participate in the conflicts, and among all

of these numerous ninja clans were

two that were feared above all others as the strongest.

One was our own Uchiha clan, and the other

was known as the Senju clan of the forest.

We of the Uchiha clan possessed exceptional chakra

and the sharingan.

Excelling in all types of warfare,

we became known as a battle clan,

and then I was born into our clan, processing chakra that

was especially powerful, even for an Uchiha.

The fact that I've lived this long is proof enough of that.

Back then, I spent every day on the battlefield.

In an era where power was everything,

at the cost of my friends and younger brother,

I continuously sought ever more power.

-Damn you.

-But thanks to that, I was able to awaken the mangekyo

sharingan fully, and I became the leader of the Uchiha.

And with that power, I fought the Senju clan

more times than I can count.

Of course, it was inevitable that I

would face Hashirama, the leader of the Senju clan.

Hashirama Woodstyle Senju, the future First Hokage,

the man who stood at the top of the ninja world, and the person

that I respected most.

Led by Hashirama, who became the very first

to claim the title of Hokage, the Senju clan

became acknowledged as the fiercest

and most feared by all the other clans.

Whenever the Senju made a move, so did the Uchiha.

Our clan was pretty much the only one

who could take them on.

If a nation hired the Senju, their opponents

would hire the Uchiha.

We became rivals.

The more I faced Hashirama, the more my name

became known, as well.

-To reach the next level, to test the limits of my ability.

-You stole your brother's eyes merely

to heighten your own reputation?

Is that what you're telling me?

-I did steal them, but I did so only

to obtain the strength necessary to protect the Uchiha clan.

-To protect our clan.

-Yes.

As the Uchiha's reputation grew, so did its number of enemies.

Amidst ferocious battles, it was an unavoidable sacrifice

to protect our clan from external foes,

starting with the Senju clan.

It wasn't merely for distinction.

My younger brother was fully aware and agreed with it.

In fact, he volunteered his eyes to me.

But then one day, the Senju clan proposed a truce

with the Uchiha, and the Uchiha accepted it.

The majority on both sides had grown weary

of the endless conflict.

They had simply had enough of all the fighting.

I-- I was the only one who opposed it.

I was the sole voice of dissent.

Where has all our mutual hatred gone, I asked.

For what purpose had my brother sacrificed himself?

The Uchiha and the Senju were always like oil and water.

I couldn't help feeling that one day,

the Uchiha clan would come to be oppressed by the Senju clan.

However, everyone else in the Uchiha clan wanted the truce.

As their leader, I had no choice but to go along

with their wishes.

It wasn't too long afterward that our alliance

forged an agreement with the Land of Fire, which

had sought stability within their land.

And thus the powerful system of one village to one nation

came to be.

That was the Land of Fire and the Village Hidden

in the Leaves.

Other nations quickly followed suit,

and subsequently, one by one, the fires of war

were at last extinguished.

Instantaneous peace, but due to a certain incident, they

Hidden Leaf's peace was short lived.

-What incident?

-There was a battle over the seat

of the village leader, the Hokage.

As you already know, the first to occupy that

seat was Hashirama Senju.

Both the village and the Land of Fire chose him.

It was clear the Uchiha were being displaced from the power

structure.

I decided to advocate for an Uchiha

to take the leadership in order to protect our clan.

I knew that path would lead to a confrontation with Hashirama.

But no one, not even a single Uchiha supported me at all.

My followers shunned me for trying

to rekindle the flames of war, and betrayed me.

I was not only accused and berated

for having personal ambitions, but more than

that, they scorned me as a selfish brother who

stole his younger brother's eyes in order to save his own.

What man would wilfully hurt his own younger brother?

I swore I only wanted to protect the Uchiha.

I left the Hidden Leaf.

Having been betrayed by everyone,

I decided to return as an avenger,

and I declared war on the Hidden Leaf Village.

But I was defeated at that place that

has come to be known as the Final Valley.

I was said to have died there.

I'm sure even Hashirama believed that to be so,

and everyone forgot about me.

History forgot about me.

In order to prevent the rise of another traitor,

Hashirama's younger brother, who became the second Hokage,

bestowed upon the Uchiha a special responsibility

as proof of his trust.

He established the Hidden Leaf police force.

But the truth is that it really removed the Uchiha

from the governing body of the village

and placed the entire clan under close scrutiny of all in one

fell swoop.

There were finally some Uchiha who

recognized his true motives, and there

grew an anti-establishment faction that inherited my will.

But it was too late.

Time passed, the leadership stayed in the Senju's hands.

And the once proud Uchiha clan members

were reduced to being the Senju's lackeys,

and what I'd predicted came to pass.

And then another incident sealed the Uchiha's demise.

That's right, the attack of the nine-tailed fox 16 years ago.

-What do you mean by that?

-Only the Uchiha's visual prowess

can tame and control the Nine-tails.

So the elders of the Hidden Leaf village

surmised that an Uchiha was behind the Nine-tails attack.

But it was a spontaneous natural disaster.

The Uchiha had nothing to do with it,

and yet unjust suspicions persisted

that the Uchiha had tried to stage an insurrection

and seize power to take over leadership of the village.

As a result, the Uchiha were put under strict surveillance

by the ANBU black ops, and were forced

to relocate to the outskirts of the village.

They became completely isolated.

The third Hokage was the only one

to voice opposition to our treatment,

but Danzo of the ANBU black ops and the other two counselors

wouldn't listen to him.

In the end, the Uchiha clan was simply not trusted,

and that was the beginning of the discrimination against us.

Distrust trust bred hatred, and eventually their suspicions

became reality.

The Uchiha clan started plotting a coup

de tat to take over the village.

And so the Hidden Leaf's leaders planted as spy

within the Uchiha clan to watch us.

That spy was your older brother, Itachi Uchiha.

And that's when Itachi's suffering began.

[theme music]

SASUKE: You've laid false charges against the Uchiha.

MADARA: That's one of Itachi's lies.

SASUKE: No, I won't believe it.

This can't be true.

Itachi tried to kill me!

MADARA: If he'd really wanted to kill you,

you'd most certainly be dead.

SASUKE: Stop!

I've heard enough.

MADARA: You should know already it's because--

SASUKE: Next time on Naruto Shippuden-- Truth.

MADARA: This is Itachi's truth.