Chapter 277: A Clash with the Uchiha
A figure emerged from the ice, standing in the dark night.
It was Haruno Sakura.
There were only two dim lights at the shrine. The flickering, small flames cast a weak glow.
The expression on Uchiha Itachi's face flickered in the firelight.
Half of Tobi's mask was illuminated by this faint, fiery light, while the other half was hidden in darkness. He tilted his head slightly and said in a tone that was hard to tell if it was annoyed or pleased, "The first one has arrived so quickly..."
"It's a little girl," Itachi said calmly. It was a slender figure. Although he couldn't see her face clearly, he could tell that she was a young girl.
Is she a young clansman?
He had already made up his mind to kill every living person in this compound tonight.
But his heart was so heavy that it felt as if he couldn't even lift his sword.
"Are you still hesitating?" Tobi turned around, facing the girl who had suddenly barged in, and said to Itachi, "Then I'll take the first one."
"No... I am not hesitating."
A girl of this age... including the many people he was about to kill, were innocent. The sins of the Uchiha should not be borne by those people.
Itachi had realized this long ago. Tonight, he would kill many people... including his former self.
Itachi gripped the hilt of his sword.
For the first time, he found that the sword in his hand was so light, as if he couldn't feel its existence.
"I'm sorry..." Itachi said in his heart. "It will be over in an instant. I won't let you feel any pain..."
Then, he raised his sword and charged.
His speed was extremely fast. As Shisui's best friend, the genius of the Uchiha, although his speed was not as unbeatable as Shisui's, it was still breathtakingly fast.
But...
His blow, which was top-tier among ninja in both power and speed, was calmly blocked by the other party.
What had blocked Itachi's long sword was a crystal-clear ice sword.
Ice? Itachi was slightly stunned. Is this a Kekkei Genkai?
The opponent's strange ninjutsu, her extremely fast reaction speed, all gave him a sense of unexpected shock.
"Uchiha Itachi..." In the darkness, the girl turned her head sideways. Her gaze passed over his shoulder and landed on Tobi, who was standing on the side. Her tone was one of equal surprise. "Who is that person?"
Tobi's crimson Mangekyo and the girl's clear, cold eyes met in mid-air.
Itachi was a little surprised that the other party dared to be distracted and look at someone else during a battle. But he had not forgotten his mission and instantly cast a genjutsu.
A genjutsu cast by the Mangekyo Sharingan, even if it was just a low-level, instantaneous genjutsu, still had extremely great power.
But the girl was not affected by the genjutsu at all.
He could feel it from the force transmitted from her sword.
If she had really been caught in the genjutsu, then the strength in her hand holding the long sword would have slackened. Itachi's long sword would have pierced her chest in that instant, penetrating her heart.
But she had not.
On the contrary, she had instantly increased her strength. An immense force that was completely out of proportion to the girl's slender figure suddenly pushed him away, sending him flying more than ten meters.
In the instant he was sent flying, the clouds were blown away by the wind, and the faint light of the round moon sprinkled down. Itachi finally got a clear look at the girl.
Pink long hair, light green eyes.
Not an Uchiha.
Itachi flipped in mid-air and landed steadily on the ground, his heart filled with shock.
Tobi was equally surprised.
An outsider actually got in...
This was not what was agreed upon.
"Who are you?"
He asked coldly.
"That's what I should be asking you! The Uchiha clan massacre, are you also involved in it? Who on earth are you?"
The girl's icy voice rang out in the courtyard.
Uchiha Tobi's eyes narrowed dangerously, and a heavy killing intent was released.
"It doesn't matter if you don't want to say. In any case, as long as I kill you, it will be fine..."
Both pairs of eyes turned cold at the same time.
"Ice Style: Swallow Snowstorm!"
Several huge ice shuriken shot towards Tobi at an unbelievably fast speed.
"Impressive..." Tobi praised in his heart. "A ninja who uses Ice Style...?"
He didn't have time to be distracted and think too much. The thought in his mind only flashed for a moment. This Ice Style ninjutsu had given him some pressure. This girl, who was in the bloom of her youth, seemed to be quite strong...
He had to get serious.
The ice shuriken made a sharp whistling sound as they passed through Tobi's phased body. With a few thuds, they were deeply embedded in the ground behind the man, or had pierced through the wall.
The masked man rushed over.
Haruno Sakura's pupils suddenly shrank.
"It passed through... what kind of ninjutsu is that?"
Bizarre.
The girl was awestruck. The butterfly dual swords in her hands twirled, and she also rushed up.
Tobi's speed was very fast.
But the girl's speed was even faster. She pushed off with her feet. The tyrannical power brought by her nin-taijutsu left deep footprints on the ground of the courtyard. Every step was like a high-speed Body Flicker!
"So fast!" After clashing with her, Tobi exclaimed in surprise for the second time.
In just an instant, that girl had rushed in front of him and had swung her cold, ice-like short blades at him.
If not for the phasing ability of his Mangekyo, he might have suffered a great loss in this one exchange.
Tobi thought to himself. He phased through the girl's body. Looking back, he saw the ninja, who had charged at him, stumble after her strength had hit empty air, and then instantly regain her footing.
She also turned her head to look at the masked ninja who had brushed past her.
Tobi then, in the instant she turned her head, distorted space-time and came up behind her, appearing in her blind spot.
"It's over," he said, placing his hand on the girl's wrist.
Suck in...
Kamui!
The power of the Mangekyo bloomed in this instant.
The girl's flesh and blood were being pulled into Tobi's pocket dimension.
His vision blurred, and the girl's figure had already disappeared.
Not far away, Sakura reappeared in a sorry state next to a piece of ice shuriken, stumbling and falling to the ground.
Tobi was startled and looked over.
The girl had quickly flipped over and stood up. Her wrist was a bloody, mangled mess.
That place had only a thin layer of skin to begin with. After her flesh and blood had been torn apart by Tobi's ninjutsu, her pale white wrist bone was exposed.
It looked especially terrifying.
However, for a ninja, such a wound, as long as it did not damage the bone and muscle, was only a minor injury and did not hinder combat.
What's more...
Tobi watched as a faint blue fluorescence appeared on the girl's hand, covering her wrist.
"Medical ninjutsu..." he said, coldly watching as the ferocious wound healed in just two short seconds, and the girl's exquisite and delicate wrist reappeared.
"...You are the second person to have dodged this move of mine," Tobi said faintly.
The girl's taijutsu just now was only ordinarily fast. But this Body Flicker, it reminded him of that person...
Namikaze Minato.
The Golden Flash's speed was a cut faster. If it had been him, even his wrist would not have been injured. But this girl's speed was already troublesome enough.
"Phasing, space-time travel, and sucking people you touch into a pocket dimension... is this the ability of your Mangekyo Sharingan?"
Haruno Sakura said faintly, having healed the wound on her wrist.
Crack, crack. Sakura put her index and middle fingers together. Her chakra quietly spread, and an ice layer grew close to her body, covering it.
Can the Frost Armor stop him from touching me?
Probably not... but an extra layer of buffer can reduce some damage.
And, that's right, Itachi's Mangekyo ability is Amaterasu. With this ice layer, it can be of great use!
"Hmph... who knows?" Tobi said, unconcerned.
The moonlight once again shyly hid behind the clouds. The earth became dark again. The two dim candlelight lamps in front of the shrine provided a weak light, faintly outlining the three figures in the courtyard.
"To continue fighting with a ninja like you would be endless..." In the darkness, Tobi said faintly.
He suddenly turned his head and looked at Itachi.
Itachi understood what he meant.
He suddenly widened his eyes, and blood, so dark it was almost black, gushed from his eye sockets!
"Mangekyo Sharingan Secret Technique: Amaterasu!"
That pair of crimson eyes focused on the girl's body.
The black flames of Amaterasu instantly enveloped her!
"The black flames will burn endlessly, burning everything they touch to ashes," Tobi said faintly, looking at the girl who had been latched onto by Amaterasu.
But—
Unexpectedly, the girl did not let out the scream he had imagined.
Swish! The outer layer of her body, something came off and was casually thrown to the side. The flames of Amaterasu were attached to that thing, burning fiercely, and it was quickly burned up and extinguished by Itachi.
It was ice.
This was the first time that Haruno Sakura had gained an advantage in battle because she knew the plot!
Tobi finally saw it clearly. For the first time, he clearly realized the fact that the other party possessed the Ice Style Kekkei Genkai.
This ninja in front of him, she could not be treated as an ordinary girl. She was very strong!
It would not be possible to finish her off in a short while.
Tobi could only patiently ask, "Are you one of Danzo's people?"
"No, I belong to the Anbu directly under the Hokage..."
Although it's the "Fifth Hokage," not the "Third Hokage," that she's directly under.
"A person of the Hokage... are you trying to stop us?" Itachi asked.
"I just want to witness the truth of history. Apart from that..." She hesitated.
The time Sakura could stay in this world was very limited, probably to be counted in hours. There was not much she could do.
Stop them from annihilating the Uchiha clan? What if, after she drove them away, the Uchiha really did launch a coup?
They did not have enough military power to overthrow the Hokage. In the end, they would still be defeated, and the clan would be completely eradicated. In the end, it was still death. The only difference was whether they died at the hands of these two people or at the hands of the Hokage.
If it were the latter, even more people in Konoha would die... and even, due to the internal exhaustion and the great reduction in strength, it might even lead to the destruction of the country.
The reason for the Uchiha clan's annihilation, ever since her strength had reached this level, especially after she had killed Deidara, some secret files had gradually been opened to her.
Recently, Sakura had also read some materials.
The more she read, the more questions she had.
She had never felt that the Uchiha Itachi of that time had the ability to annihilate the clan on his own. And the Third and Danzo, what role had they played here?
And how had the Uchiha come to this point?
When she saw this masked ninja who possessed the Mangekyo, some questions seemed to have a new explanation.
"You are also an Anbu ninja. You should know that the Uchiha clan is planning to launch a coup tomorrow... In other words, we must annihilate them before dawn," Itachi said.
"Why must you do this... Is it because your clan's strength is not strong enough to easily overthrow the Hokage, yet not weak enough for the Hokage to easily extinguish your dissent?"
"The Uchiha clan has already rotted," Tobi said. "Arrogant, ignorant, degenerate, of low caliber, and narrow-minded. For such a clan to exist in the world will not do anyone, or themselves, any good... That is why we need to eradicate this cancer."
Haruno Sakura just looked at him coldly.
Tch. Such sanctimonious words.
❃❃❃
⤑ Show your support with Power Stones!
⤑ Unlock a Bonus Chapter every time we hit 400 Power Stones!
❃❃❃
♕ Get early access to 30+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
🔗 https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to open the link!)
💬 Enjoying the story? Drop a review!
Your support really helps the series grow—thank you!