"That damned Itachi!" the Third Hokage roared, his face twisted with rage. "These so-called geniuses are nothing but disappointments! With such talent, why did he have to get involved with Naraku—a malignant tumor threatening our village?!"
"Just like Shisui. Just like all of the Uchiha. They don't care about what Konoha has done for them!"
The Hokage's office trembled with the sound of his anger.
"Lord Hokage, is everything alright?" asked a masked ANBU stationed outside, having heard something break within the room.
"Do not come in! Guard the door—and let no one enter!" the Third barked.
The ANBU didn't dare question the command and stepped aside.
Inside the office, Hiruzen gritted his teeth, suppressing the fury boiling inside him. He couldn't afford to lose control.
All of the Sarutobi-controlled ANBU had already been deployed.
The ones stationed outside were "outsiders" in his eyes. He couldn't allow them to know the truth of what was unfolding.
"They've been discontent for a while now. Maybe it's best we exposed them early," Mitokado Homura suggested coldly.
"Even if they win this battle, what about the next ten? The next hundred?" Danzo scoffed.
If Shisui, Itachi, and Naraku all died today, the problem would be buried forever.
By the Naka River
The charred remains of a Sarutobi ninja lay smoldering on the ground, his body covered in horrific burns.
Shock was visible on the faces of the shinobi from the Mitokado and Koharu clans.They had clearly underestimated the boy standing in front of them.
"Khh... khh..." the burned Sarutobi ninja coughed, barely conscious, staring up at Itachi with bitterness.
"What are you waiting for?! Kill him! Kill that brat! I want him dead!!"
Spurred by his cries, the remaining ninjas charged forward.
But Itachi's expression remained calm, unmoved. With a light flick of his fingers, thin steel wires rose from the ground like a trap waiting to spring.
"What? When did he set that up?" one of the shinobi gasped.
They hadn't noticed a thing.
"So weak..." Itachi thought to himself. "I hid the wires using the fireball jutsu... and they didn't even realize?"
"They're not worthy of the battlefield."
"Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique!"
As soon as his hand seals were complete, several fiery dragons flew along the steel wires, slamming into the enemy formation.
Screams echoed across the riverbank as the shinobi were engulfed by flames.
When the smoke cleared, the once-confident group from the Mitokado and Koharu clans lay broken and burned on the ground.
Itachi stared blankly.
"I actually won..." he muttered in disbelief. "How did they survive this long? Were they even on the battlefield during the war?"
Clutching his kunai, he walked toward a slightly conscious ninja who tried to get up.
"You're just a kid!" the injured man growled and lunged.
But Itachi shifted effortlessly and struck his stomach with his foot, knocking the wind from his lungs.
"Were any of you actually on the battlefield?" Itachi asked coldly.
The man glared back, his face twisted.
They hadn't been. During the war, most of them had stayed within the Land of Fire, far from the real front lines.
How could they hope to match Itachi, who had seen blood and death since the age of four?
"It doesn't matter anymore." Itachi shook his head, then slit the man's throat without hesitation.
"They deserve this." he reminded himself, over and over.
One by one, he moved through the battlefield, ending the lives of each shinobi who had attacked him.
Finally, he stood before the burned Sarutobi ninja.
Terror filled the man's eyes.
"Don't kill me! Please! I won't tell the Hokage! I swear—I won't say a word! Just let me go—please—"
His begging was cut short. Itachi's blade had already sliced his throat.
In death, the man's final expression was twisted in confusion and hatred—as if he couldn't understand why a child would dare to kill him.
Shisui landed silently beside Itachi.
He had been fighting two Root members and a Shimura shinobi. Though they were far stronger and more coordinated than those who attacked Itachi, Shisui had won.
Barely.
All three enemies were still alive—but on the ground, groaning in pain.
"They must die," Itachi said quietly, his voice still that of a child, but filled with frightening resolve.
"If we let them live, they'll say we attacked them during patrol."
Shisui didn't respond for a moment.
He felt the same sting in his chest—it was still hard to kill comrades from the same village.
But they had no other option.
Eventually, he nodded.
Back in the Hokage's Office
All four advisors stared in shocked silence.
They had just watched Shisui execute the remaining three attackers without hesitation.
"These brats are demons!" the Third Hokage shouted, his voice tight with suppressed rage.
Homura and Koharu fumed, their eyes burning with hatred.
They had watched their clan members fall like flies—slaughtered by Itachi as if he were plucking weeds from a garden.
Only Danzo remained calm.
For him, the mission mattered more than clan or sentiment.
It was a failure, but not a tragedy.
"Something's wrong," Danzo suddenly muttered.
"Why weren't there reinforcements?"
Even if the attackers around Shisui and Itachi failed, there were still dozens more. Where were they?
Why had no backup arrived?
A sinking feeling washed over all of them.
"Hiruzen—change the angle! Show the other battlefield!" Koharu snapped.
The Third Hokage adjusted the view in the crystal ball.
A new image appeared—
Naraku.
They had assumed he'd already been killed by the squad led by Shinnosuke, overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
But the image in the orb shocked them all.
Naraku wasn't a moth charging toward the flame.
He was a wolf, hidden among sheep.
The blade of his Kusanagi sword danced through the air—each swing taking a life.Dozens of shinobi had already fallen.
They watched in stunned silence as the supposed "victim" tore through their forces with precise, merciless efficiency.
The situation was nothing like they had imagined.