"Menma-sensei!"
Sasuke stood respectfully beside Menma.
He looked at the miserable Itachi with a flash of joy in his eyes.
If he was the one to land that punch, he would feel even better.
But Menma-sensei's taijutsu is so strong! He almost shattered Itachi's Susanoo with a single punch.
In terms of of physical prowess, he must be the best, right?
It was a pity that he himself didn't have any exceptional talent in taijutsu and couldn't master it either.
"Well, you did a good job!"
Menma nodded at Sasuke with an indifferent expression.
The fact that Sasuke forced Itachi to use Susanoo showed how strong he had become.
At the very least, an ordinary Elite Jōnin would never be able to push Itachi to use his Mangekyō Sharingan.
Kacha~!
Not far away, the red Susanoo cracked, and Itachi stood up from the ground, coughing.
Wiping the blood and tears from his face, he said, "Menma, are you going to meddle in the affairs between me and my brother?"
Menma coldly said, "Itachi, I don't care about the mess your clan left behind in Konoha. But don't forget my surname still carries some weight. And I don't like you—a "filial" son who buried his clan with his own hands!"
Hearing this, a trace of bitterness flickered in Itachi's eyes.
Over the years, he had thought about many things.
Deep down, he regretted killing his clan and even his own parents.
But it was too late for regrets.
The sins had already been committed, and the blood on his hands couldn't be washed away.
He was willing to bear everything, not for forgiveness, but to ensure his brother stays on the right path.
So he wouldn't end up like him.
But now, he watched helplessly as his younger brother stood by Menma's side.
To be honest, Itachi was worried.
If his brother had followed someone like Orochimaru, he wouldn't have been too concerned.
Orochimaru was easy to deal with.
Itachi could dispose of Orochimaru without breaking a sweat. So, there was no reason to fear Sasuke being led astray by him.
In contrast, Menma was different. He was uncontrollable.
His power far exceeded Itachi's. If he ever decides to push Sasuke down a dark path, not even Itachi will be able to stop him.
Itachi couldn't defeat Menma and he couldn't tell Sasuke the truth about the Uchiha massacre.
If he did, Sasuke would undoubtedly become Konoha's enemy. This was the last thing Itachi wanted.
'Should I use Shisui's eye now?' Itachi hesitated.
He had two options.
One was to use Shisui's Kotoamatsukami to control Menma's mind and ensure he would never pose a threat to Konoha.
That would solve the immediate problem.
But…
If Sasuke ever learned the truth about the massacre, how would he change Sasuke's heart?
Without Kotoamatsukami, Itachi simply couldn't do it.
And this technique had a long cooldown. He wouldn't survive long enough to use it again.
So, he could only choose one path.
Either use it on Sasuke later or use it on Menma now.
Standing still, Itachi weighed his choices and decided to wait.
Besides, everything he did was for his brother's sake.
Rather than forcefully controlling Menma, it was better to reserve Kotoamatsukami for a time when Sasuke truly strays from the right path.
With this in mind, Itachi abandoned the idea of using Kotoamatsukami for now.
Hold on!
Now wasn't the time.
"Sasuke, I hope you don't regret today's decision!"
Itachi cast a cold glance at his younger brother, then turned and walked toward the Akatsuki base.
Kisame, who had been watching the whole scene, followed immediately.
He said, "Itachi-san, are you alright?"
Itachi replied, "I'm fine."
The two figures gradually disappeared from view.
Itachi thanked Menma, "Menma-sensei, thank you for being here this time. Otherwise, Itachi definitely wouldn't have let me go."
Sasuke glared in the direction Itachi had vanished, then turned to Menma.
He truly owed his life to Menma-sensei.
Without Menma's guidance, he would never have learned the Lightning Style: Kirin.
And he wouldn't have been able to force Itachi to use his Mangekyō Sharingan.
Without Menma appearing at that crucial moment, Itachi might have killed him to eliminate any future threats.
Menma said, "Train hard. One day, you'll surpass him."
Menma patted Sasuke's shoulder, his expression unreadable.
He already knew the truth. Itachi would never kill Sasuke. That much was certain.
After all, for a brocon like Itachi, nothing is more important than his younger brother.
But Sasuke doesn't know these things, so it's normal for him to think otherwise.
Menma had clearly felt Itachi's malice towards him just now, but it had disappeared after only a moment.
Menma suspected that Itachi might have wanted to use Shisui's Kotoamatsukami on him at that time.
'Heh~! He always talks about what's best for his younger brother, but he wants to influence his choices, insisting on making him follow the path he arranges.'
Menma sneered coldly.
People like this, who say "I'm doing it for your own good" but act against your will, are the most annoying.
To put it bluntly, Itachi is too arrogant.
He believes that what he thinks is right and what everyone else thinks is wrong.
He tries to impose his ideas on others.
And the worst part is that he's so stubborn that he won't listen to anyone else's reasoning.
Even if you lay out the facts clearly and explain everything carefully, he will reject your perspective and remain convinced that he's right.
Now, he probably has some regrets about the massacre.
But he's not regretting because he realizes his thinking was wrong.
Deep down, Itachi is still the same.
He is still loyal to Konoha.
He considers himself a hero who saved both his clan and the village.
He thinks that he is a nameless hero, who is silently carrying the burden forward.
He's even deeply moved by his own sacrifice.
He feels that he's paid too much and lost too much.
Tch!
Unreasonable!
...
Konoha
Somewhere in Training Ground No. 1
Ryosuke was covered in lightning.
He was carrying an iron ball weighing hundreds of tons in both hands, and running laps around the field.
Two hours later
He stopped and put down the iron ball. There was a pit on the place where he was about to place it.
The ground had sunken from repeated use.
Boom!
The iron ball landed with a heavy thud.
Then, Ryosuke jumped into the river nearby to wash off the sweat and dirt on his body.
Lately, he had been completely focused on physical training.
He even left the task of leading Team 10 to his Wood Clone.
After half a month, under the stimulation of Lightning Release Chakra Mode, his physical strength had improved significantly.
The results were even more impressive than the progress he'd made over the past six months.
"Lightning Release Chakra Mode is really useful, but it'll be even better if I modify it into a technique purely for body training!"
Ryosuke had assigned this task to his Shadow Clones.
Improving and creating new techniques was the job of his clones.
Thanks to their help, Ryosuke could focus entirely on physical training without being distracted.
Splash~!
He emerged from the river.
As soon as he stepped onto the shore, Hanabi approached with a towel in her hand.
She helped him wipe the water droplets from his arms.
"Brother-in-law, let me clean it up for you."
With a serious look on her small face, Hanabi held a towel in both hands, carefully wiping his body.
But since she couldn't reach the higher spots, Ryosuke squatted down to cooperate.
"Alright!"
After a while, Hanabi finished and put down the towel with a satisfied smile.
"Brother-in-law, are you hungry?"
Ryosuke asked, "What, are you hungry?"
Ryosuke smiled as he looked at the little girl.
For the past half a month, Hanabi had been constantly hanging around him.
She showed up almost every day to watch him train.
At first, she was a little shy. But once she realized that Ryosuke didn't mind her presence, she became completely comfortable.
Now, she would often cling to him and ask for help with her training.
She would even make him accompany her for meals, or even drag him out to go shopping.
Still, Hanabi was smart enough to know when to stop.
Whenever Ryosuke was busy, she would quietly sit nearby and watch without interrupting him.
Only when he finished his training would she run over to him.
And honestly, Ryosuke couldn't do much about this clingy sister-in-law.
Besides, Hanabi was cute, polite, and she was Hinata's little sister, after all.
So, Ryosuke didn't mind the company of this affectionate little girl.
And!
Who could refuse a sister-in-law who calls you "Brother-in-law is amazing!" after every training session?
Anyway, Ryosuke genuinely liked Hanabi.
Ryosuke said, "Let's go eat."
Ryosuke put on his coat, and picked up Hanabi.
He let her sit on his shoulders as they left the training ground.
"Brother-in-law, what are we eating today?"
Hanabi asked cheerfully, swinging her little feet.
Ryosuke replied, "How about hot pot?"
Hanabi cheered, "Yay! I want hot pot!"
Hanabi clapped her hands happily.
...
Half a month later
"Failed again!"
Ryosuke sighed helplessly as he looked at the synthesis interface.
He had just used up all the experience points he'd accumulated over the past two weeks in an attempt to synthesize a god-level talent entry.
But despite spending every last experience point, the result was still the same.
Failure!
Without exception, every attempt had failed!
"God-level talent entries are ridiculously hard to synthesize."
Ryosuke sighed.
The difficulty was leagues beyond synthesizing gold talent entries.
The difference was like heaven and earth!
Of course, it was also possible that he had just been lucky last time.
After all, he had only synthesized a gold talent entry once. It wasn't exactly a reliable indicator of success rate.
But the truth was, creating a god-level talent entry was incredibly difficult.
By his calculations, Ryosuke had already spent over 10,000 experience points.
That was enough to upgrade a purple talent entry to a gold one.
He had tried a hundred times and failed every single time.
In fact, he had gotten a few gold talent entries with decent attributes along the way.
But Ryosuke wasn't satisfied with just gold. He wanted a god-level talent entry.
After all, a god-level entry would likely trigger another system upgrade, unlocking new functions and enhancing old ones.
'Is my only option to wait until these gold talent entries naturally upgrade after a year?' Ryosuke thought to himself.
Just as he was feeling frustrated, and wondering how to earn more experience points, a sudden, chilling sensation surged through his eyes.
His Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan activated automatically.
The Mangekyō patterns began to spin rapidly, as if they were about to merge.
"This is…"
"It's evolving?!"
Ryosuke's heart leaped with excitement.
He quickly grabbed a mirror and looked into his eyes.