"Understood."
Itachi stood up.
Only after the figure outside the door had left did he sit back down.
He picked up his teacup, took a sip, straightened the high collar of his Uchiha clan uniform, and walked out.
Obito set down the teapot.
"Being ignored, rejected, ordered around and dismissed at will… doesn't feel good, does it? I'll be waiting for you to return—future Hokage."
Hearing this, Itachi's body trembled slightly, but his expression quickly returned to calm as he walked out of the cramped wooden hut.
At the moment he turned away, it was as if a caged beast flashed behind his eyes, trying to break free.
Behind his mask, Obito's lips curled faintly. He leaned back against the wall, shifted his mask slightly, and took a sip of the tea he had brewed.
Pfah—!
"So bitter!"
Obito frowned hard, spitting out crushed tea leaves.
He glanced at Itachi's teacup and realized—itachi hadn't actually drunk the tea earlier.
Being ostracized in Konoha… even the tea leaves you get are this miserable?
…
…
Outside the city, in a small town alley—
Hikari and "Madara" walked away calmly.
Hikari did not kill the Konoha ninjas—she simply manipulated their minds, throwing them into confusion.
When Ebisu and the others wake up, they'll go through a period of mental disorientation.
Watching Hikari's back, Uchiha Yu sighed inwardly:
"Is it because she has killed too many people… that after waking, she no longer wishes to stain her hands with blood?"
Earlier, even when she controlled the Konoha ninjas on the city wall, she didn't kill them.
Along the road, even though Yu was still keeping the persona of the "old hunter Madara," he had roughly pieced together Hikari's current situation.
So he could occasionally chat with her about her circumstances.
Carrying the daily goods he'd bought for her, Yu walked for a bit and then asked curiously:
"Next, are you going to find that Uchiha Itachi? If you find him, a lot of the doubts in your heart might be resolved."
Hikari thought seriously.
"I don't like the Uchiha clan… but I like traitors even less. If I want to know what happened to the clan, that Uchiha Yu would be the better one to ask."
"Good."
Yu nodded.
He had been worried Hikari wouldn't go to Konoha to find him.
He suddenly shifted the topic:
"Sorry—we came from far overseas, so we didn't realize the Hidden Leaf Village isn't actually located in the capital of the Land of Fire."
"Understandable. I asked them earlier. Recently, these former Konoha ninjas who were driven out of their territory have been claiming they are the real Leaf Village, the one recognized by the Fire Daimyo. So calling this place Konoha isn't wrong either."
Hikari sighed.
"And you aren't from the heartland of the ninja world, so being misled is normal."
Not once did she think Madara had deceived her—because she couldn't imagine any motive for him to do so.
Right now, compared to Yu's behavior, Itachi—who was here together with the other Konoha clans—looked far more like a traitor to the Uchiha clan in Hikari's eyes.
On the rooftops of the town, several dark shadows flickered by.
After the Konoha shinobi had fled here, the townsfolk, seeing ninjas leaping across their roofs, had first found it novel… but over time, both civilians and travelers had grown accustomed to it.
Those darting shadows now were Itachi and a temporary task force formed from ninja of various Konoha families.
They were rushing toward the alley where Ebisu's group had collapsed.
After the upper brass of Konoha issued an order, the team meant to rendezvous with Ebisu still hadn't found them. They realized something was wrong.
"Lord Itachi, another errand-running mission?"
The disguised voice of Obito sounded from behind him.
Itachi's expression shifted slightly.
He still hadn't noticed that the ANBU member behind him had quietly been replaced by the masked man.
"We're going to rendezvous with Lady Tsunade."
Itachi answered concisely.
"She? If she's the one who returned, your situation in the future might become even more difficult," Obito said.
Itachi didn't respond.
He had already lost direction in life; all he could do now was move forward one step at a time. For the moment, he only wanted to be a machine that completed missions.
As for the position of Hokage—unless it was something he absolutely had to accept—he didn't have much interest in it.
Swoosh—
When Itachi, Obito, and the other shinobi arrived at the alley, their expressions changed drastically.
There were no signs of a fight on either side of the alley walls. Ebisu and the other two were lying peacefully on the ground.
A Hyūga clan shinobi activated his Byakugan, stood on the rooftop, observed the three fallen Konoha ninja, and sighed:
"They're all dead. The neural pathways in their brains were disrupted—they suffered severe psychological trauma before dying. Their cause of death was strangulation by some kind of rope. They suffocated in their sleep."
Itachi jumped into the alley to examine the bodies himself.
Just as the Hyūga ninja had described, the three corpses had deep, dark-red strangulation marks on their necks.
"Search the area. Look for suspicious individuals."
Itachi issued the order.
"Yes, sir!"
Although the major clans of Konoha privately disliked Itachi, they would not oppose him during a mission.
Several Hyūga ninja flashed to the rooftops, scanning the surroundings.
Disguised as a Konoha ANBU, Obito also entered the alley, crouched beside the corpses, and remarked:
"The first person who struck them didn't intend to kill. The fatal blows were added afterward. There should have been two people here."
"Hm…"
Itachi wasn't focused on the three corpses. He was calculating internally.
If their deaths were connected to the mission Tsunade had briefed him on… the difficulty might be far beyond what he had imagined.
Konoha's upper management had told him—
Tsunade-hime had infiltrated a team of Cloud shinobi pursuing a group of kekkei genkai ninja; she was most likely gathering intelligence for Konoha.
Now, Itachi increasingly felt the mission was not that simple. After all, if it were a simple task, those two old Hokage advisors would never have assigned it to him.
"Sir, we found a clue!!"
A Hyūga ninja returned with a report the moment he landed.
With the Byakugan's clarity, picking out a chakra-marked shinobi among ordinary civilians was child's play.
Swoosh—
The group vanished from the alley.
A cool breeze blew through.
The weeds swayed, and a few inconspicuous vines lay quietly by the wall.
The deaths of Ebisu and the other two…
Had been the finishing strike delivered through plants under Uchiha Yu's control.
…
…
At the inn.
Uchiha Yu and Hikari were just returning to their lodging.
"Stay right here and don't move. I'm going to buy some fruit," Uchiha Yu said, walking away.
He left Hikari with the sight of his back as he headed toward a nearby fruit shop.
When he returned, he was carrying not only fruit but also several bags of snacks, as if worried Hikari might not eat well or get enough food while outside.
Hikari stared blankly at Uchiha Yu walking back, her eyes welling up with tears.
Inside the prison space—
Hashirama muttered, "You trick a young girl like that—can you really sleep at night?"
Tobirama didn't care about that issue at all. He sensed something wrong and asked:
"Where's Tsunade?"
Only then did Hashirama realize—ever since they were released and regained their link to the outside world, they hadn't seen Tsunade.
"As you wished, she's become Hokage. And this isn't tricking anyone."
Uchiha Yu's voice echoed through the confinement space.
The tension in Hashirama's and Tobirama's hearts eased.
With Uchiha Yu's temperament—killing someone and still adding an extra stab—having Tsunade by his side made the two brothers extremely uneasy.
"You should seal these things in a sealing scroll. Try to eat the fruit quickly—this weather makes it spoil fast.
"There are also some rations in here.
"And some daily necessities. Oh, and those outfits you liked—the dresses and the shoes—I bought them all for you."
Uchiha Yu patiently explained, then handed the various bags to Hikari.
"Madara—"
Hikari's nose stung, her head drooping. Earlier, Uchiha Yu had taken her to buy clothes…
She tried several outfits and liked them all, but she only chose two in the end. She never expected Uchiha Yu to secretly buy every single one she tried.
Even though he was clearly short on money.
°°°
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