Black Zetsu's voice still echoed through the quiet forest.
Itachi kept his gaze lowered. He didn't answer right away. Hidden within Zetsu's urgent words, he had caught something unusual.
'In his haste... did he expose himself?' Itachi thought.
Orochimaru was captured. The Konoha infiltration plan was a failure. At this point, the Akatsuki's exposure was already guaranteed. Even if Konoha pulled secrets from Kisame Hoshigaki's head, it should just be old news.
But Black Zetsu's nagging confirmed Itachi's suspicions. Kisame knew far more than Orochimaru ever did. He knew enough to make a creature like Black Zetsu lose his cool.
"I understand," Itachi finally said.
He shot one last look at Sasuke, then turned and dashed toward Tejima Shinichi.
'Just as well', Itachi thought as he ran. 'I want to meet you, Tejima Shinichi. I want to see the man who changed Sasuke so quickly. The man he trusts... and maybe even follows. Are you truly worthy of him?'
With Itachi gone, only two figures remained in the clearing: Black Zetsu, half-merged with a tree trunk, and Sasuke, lying unconscious from Itachi's unseen attack.
Black Zetsu stared down at the boy. His eerie yellow eyes churned with dark thoughts.
By his calculations, this generation's reincarnate of Indra should have already surfaced. After the massacre, Sasuke was the only Uchiha of the right age. But the boy's strength and potential? They were completely wrong for an Indra reincarnate.
Even factoring in Itachi's overprotective restrictions, Sasuke seemed incredibly... average.
Black Zetsu frowned, a thousand years of memories flashing through his mind. Every past reincarnate—from Uchiha Madara to the ancients before him—possessed a razor-sharp edge. They had an undeniable obsession that drew everyone's eyes, long before their true power awakened. Those traits were carved into their souls. They couldn't be hidden.
Sasuke had the hatred. He had the obsession. But his ceiling—the limit of his power—was just too low.
'Unless...' A terrifying new thought burrowed into Black Zetsu's mind.
'Unless the Uchiha bloodline wasn't truly wiped out that night. Are there other Uchiha descendants hiding in the shadows of the ninja world? Or maybe... the real Indra reincarnate is out there, perfectly hidden from my sight?'
A cold chill ran through the ancient entity. Shaking his head, Black Zetsu forced the paranoid thoughts away. His pitch-black body slowly sank into the earth, vanishing without a trace.
The accumulated water still pooled in the craters, forming murky, low-lying puddles. Splintered giant trees littered the cracked earth, and the raw devastation of high-level ninjutsu scarred the landscape.
Crushed by Wood Release, Kisame Hoshigaki's headless body was nothing more than a ruined mess of flesh. Only his severed head remained intact. His eyes stared blankly, frozen with the regret of his final moments.
Splash!
Footsteps broke the silence. Tejima Shinichi stepped through the puddles and walked up to the severed head. He looked down at it for a few seconds.
"Funny shark man," Shinichi murmured lightly. "Massive chakra reserves. Incredible mastery over Water Release. It's just a pity he ran into me."
Before his voice could fade, another set of footsteps echoed behind him. They were very light, treading on the muddy ground, almost masked by the sound of the wind.
Shinichi didn't turn around. He kept his posture relaxed over the head, merely shifting his gaze to catch the visitor in his peripheral vision.
The footsteps stopped exactly fifteen meters away. Only then did Shinichi turn to face his guest.
Uchiha Itachi stood there. Clad in the iconic black cloak with red clouds, his Mangekyo Sharingan glinted fiercely in the sunlight. Between the two men lay the ruined battlefield.
"Took you long enough to show up," Shinichi said, his voice low. He deliberately avoided looking directly into those Mangekyo eyes. "Seems you and your brother had a lot to talk about."
Itachi said nothing. His gaze drifted from Shinichi's face down to Kisame's wide-eyed head on the ground.
"Could you give me his head?" Itachi finally asked. He paused, adding a heavy, deliberate emphasis. "After all, it is very important."
'Oh?' Shinichi's eyes narrowed slightly. He instantly caught Itachi's hidden meaning.
It wasn't safe to speak openly here...someone was watching. And the intel locked inside Kisame's brain was critical.
Thanks to his foreknowledge, Shinichi immediately understood exactly who was spying on them, and what secrets were hidden in that head.
He dismissed the thought entirely.
With his current strength and status in Konoha, his word was essentially law. No matter how outrageous his claims were, the village higher-ups would believe him and follow his lead. The Akatsuki's inner workings. The Eye of the Moon Plan. The truth about the so-called "Uchiha Madara."
He didn't need a dead man's head to prove any of it. He didn't need this intel at all...
But right now, there was something far more interesting standing right in front of him.
With a single thought, a wooden branch sprouted from the earth, lifting Kisame's head and bringing it right to Shinichi. Raising his right hand, Shinichi grabbed the severed head firmly by its hair.
"Those things," Shinichi said indifferently, "aren't important. Compared to them, Itachi..."
He paused, the corners of his mouth curling into a slow smirk.
"...What I care about far more is your strength."
Itachi remained silent. His brow furrowed slightly as a sudden, heavy sense of foreboding washed over him.
"My battle with Kisame just now..." Shinichi gestured with his chin toward the head dangling from his grip. "...He failed to satisfy me."
He took a slow step forward...Splash! ..."But you are different," Shinichi continued. "Your Sharingan. Your genjutsu. Everything about you is spoken of like a miracle. Orochimaru covets your body. Danzo fears your eyes. Even those hiding in the shadows hold you in the highest regard."
Shinichi tilted his head slightly, locking onto Itachi. "So, I really want to know... just how high is the 'purity' of someone like you, Uchiha Itachi? A man valued by so many?"
Itachi blinked, momentarily stunned in place.
Then, the meaning behind that ominous feeling finally clicked. Tejima Shinichi hadn't stayed behind to negotiate or chat.
He was looking for a fight.
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