"Why would they banish me here if they didn't want to back me into a corner?"

Sasuke stared at the ground, gripped the sword against the pulling and ignored the hand stretched to him. This was what they'd wanted all along--to drive him to madness, incurable despair so that he would stop sullying their name with his existence. He'd been a fool, a child--he'd thought about it so many times when he was little, but always pushed it away with thoughts of taking his brother's life and earning the right to live again.

But that had never been an option. And they must have known.

"I can't," he muttered.