[The problem is that, in all of his considerations for how this conversation would go, Sasuke had known it would never happen. His older brother was gone and lost. So to be confronted with this now — reeling, still, with doubt at the reality of his present, that perhaps this too is a bad dream — carefully constructed words are pointless. He didn't know how he would feel, seeing Itachi's face again in front of him. The ache of longing and loss that cleaves straight through his chest. The last time he'd seen his brother's eyes that natural, dormant black, it was only at goodbye. Once everything else between them was washed away.

He doesn't know how to say the rest of the story. Perhaps wishing Itachi would rip it out of his head is as much a mercy for himself as it is a weapon against his brother's past actions.]

... And nothing. My actions aren't worth repeating. I set out to destroy Konoha, because I hated them for what they did to you. [His hatred is not something that can simply be shed once its progenitor is gone.] I attempted to erase all of them — all of those leaders who created that world, who forced the rest to live within it, repeating the same mistakes over and over. [Sasuke's voice lowers to a hollow scrape, head turned as he restlessly paces the room. It is always excruciating to be pinned beneath his brother's judgment.] And I was stopped.

I'm not here to justify or explain my decisions. [I couldn't handle your death, he may as well be screaming with every cell in his body.] They are the burden I've agreed to live with, for the sake of someone else.

[He looks back at Itachi finally, while standing on the opposite side of the room now. The physical distance isn't purposeful, but it may be instinctive, some part of him seeking freedom from Itachi's oppressive proximity.]

Is it as you planned? Or didn't you think of what would happen once you were gone?