"Aizen-senpai?"
"You, how are you here?"
Uchiha Itachi looked at the tall figure under the moonlight, his features unconsciously tensing, yet a smile unconsciously played on his lips, as if seeing him as usual. His expression was contradictory and complex.
He didn't even realize that his voice carried a hint of pleading.
Praying that the other party wouldn't speak the reality he was least able to face.
Even though he had already guessed it the moment he first saw him.
Aizen Sōsuke looked at his complex changes in expression, his demeanor still kind and gentle, but his tone remained flat:
"I should have written it in the letter."
"There's a small test that requires your cooperation."
He said, his gaze sweeping over the corpses of the Root Ninja scattered on the ground. His gentle expression, under the clear, cold moonlight, somehow appeared a little terrifying.
"Not bad."
Listening to his calm words, Uchiha Itachi's lips gradually drooped. The outcome had, after all, turned out to be the one he least wanted to see.
"..."
Uchiha Itachi lowered his head, scenes from his acquaintance with Aizen over the past few days swirling in his mind.
The straightforward and generous Aizen he first met in the Hokage's Office Building;
The Aizen who had no prejudice against him while eating grilled meat at the izakaya;
The Aizen who, when he was at a loss, offered meticulous advice like a father, as someone who had been through it before;
The Aizen who, even when he broke ties with Shisui, gave him the courage to believe that everyone in the Village and the Uchiha Clan could truly integrate... Although they had only known each other for a short time, it felt as if a long time had passed.
At this moment, all of the other party's facades shattered like a mirage in a fragile mirror.
Replaced by the gentle yet distant—
Aizen Sōsuke, standing under the cold moonlight.
When he finally looked up again, gazing at the man opposite him, Uchiha Itachi's eyes were already glowing with a ferocious crimson, his three tomoe spinning incessantly:
"So, you are also one of Root's people?"
"Everything that happened after I met you, was it all planned by you?"
"Approaching me, toying with me with a false face, is that your twisted pleasure?"
His voice grew louder with each sentence, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword trembling slightly. Every word was uttered through gritted teeth.
Uchiha Itachi had always been a child starved of love.
A distorted family upbringing sent him to the battlefield at the age of four; his extraordinary talent prevented him from finding a friend among his peers who could understand his thoughts; his noble status made him unable to trust the adults who approached him.
In his short life, the very few people he gave his all to were Sasuke and Shisui.
Just a tiny, insignificant bit of sincerity was enough to easily enter his heart.
Just like Hiruzen Sarutobi back then, or Uchiha Izumi later.
It was precisely because of this that Aizen's appearance made him cherish him so much, and also caused him so much pain.
Even when he was ambushed by Root and faced a life-or-death situation just now, he had never shown such a hysterical appearance.
Listening to the young man's words, Aizen Sōsuke's expression remained as calm as ever. He slowly walked towards him, his tone as gentle as always:
"The sky, you see, is actually colorless."
"It didn't deceive you; it was your eyes that deceived yourself."
"The conflict between the Village and the Clan made you yearn for companions, for answers to problems, and for a trustworthy confidant."
"Therefore, you readily entrusted your precious trust to a reliance named Aizen."
"That was actually just an illusory haven for the heavy and cowardly parts of your heart, wasn't it?"
"Itachi-kun."
Uchiha Itachi's body trembled.
Aizen's words were like a blade, easily cutting through his strong facade and piercing directly into the softest depths of his heart.
The self he dared not face.
Uchiha Itachi gritted his teeth, not daring to meet his soft questioning. Instead, he raised his voice, trying to suppress the turmoil in his heart:
"Sophistry!"
All of this was nothing but an endless lie.
The Aizen Sōsuke before him was no longer the Aizen-senpai he had admired.
He was merely one of Danzo's blades.
Here to kill me.
This strong belief and killing intent caused Uchiha Itachi's gradually wavering heart to settle. He slowly drew the short blade from his side.
If that was the case.
Then there was nothing more to say between them.
Aizen Sōsuke remained standing, quietly watching him.
The next moment.
Uchiha Itachi's figure shot out suddenly.
The charred, humus-rich soil beneath his feet, under the reactive force of a violent Chakra surge, erupted into large, sunken indentations.
His small figure, propelled by the immense thrust of the Body Flicker Technique, instantly transformed into a shadow imperceptible to the naked eye.
"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"
The suddenly erupting, ferocious dragon fire tore open a path of extreme heat, tens of meters long, through the dense forest in the silent night. Everything in its path, whether trees, rocks, or ferns, was incinerated by the super-high heat, pointing directly at the figure ahead.
Boom—
Like a tide crashing against a reef, a deafening, dull sound erupted.
Aizen Sōsuke stood in the sea of fire, but within a three-meter radius centered on him, not a single flame could intrude, forming a blank space at the center of the fiery flow.
Uchiha Itachi's figure flashed along the path of the dragon fire. As he twisted, his feet landed heavily on a thick tree trunk.
In his eye sockets, the crimson three-tomoe Sharingan spun at maximum speed.
All the surrounding scenes.
Whether it was the drifting ash, the flowing air, or the scorching flames, everything was completely captured by his almost static dynamic vision.
His hands gripped the short blade reversed at his side, his entire body like a coiled spring.
Until the most extreme moment.
He shot out.
At this instant, even with the Ninja World's strongest dynamic vision, all the surrounding scenes were compressed and stretched into streaks of colored lines.
Under the full-power surge of Chakra, Uchiha Itachi's small figure was enveloped in a faint, light blue aura, his entire body appearing subtly blurred, and a dull vibration in the air could even be faintly heard.
Like an arrow released from a bowstring, breaking the sound barrier.
At the center of his gaze, only that figure stood in the sea of fire.
"Hiss—"
In an instant, a cold light burst forth.
Amidst the hiss of the blade tearing through the air, a silver arc erupted from his waist. As his knuckles tensed, the blade bit into the moonlight, splitting the night into two trembling, fragmented paintings.
This was a full-power strike, a strike infused with all the killing intent of his life.
Goodbye.
Aizen-senpai.
Amidst the dull, rapid thumping of his heart, like a drum, Uchiha Itachi's mind gradually quieted, as if everything had already been decided.
Until the next moment.
"Clink."
A crisp clashing sound reached his ears.
The violent change from near-supersonic speed to an abrupt stop made Uchiha Itachi's entire body jerk, halting abruptly under immense inertia, his internal organs trembling.
In a daze, in his slightly blurred vision, a fair, slender finger gently rested on the tip of his blade, yet it blocked his strike like a pillar of heaven.
Unable to advance an inch.
At this moment, the entire world seemed to stand still.
At that moment, Uchiha Itachi even wondered if he had accidentally fallen under some genjutsu, his expression slowly shifting from calm to one of shock and bewilderment.
How was this possible?
A single finger?
Aizen's knuckles rested gently on the surface of his blade. The mere intersection of his thumb and index finger rendered Uchiha Itachi unable to move, no matter how much force he exerted.
His voice remained gentle and calm:
"Itachi-kun."
"This world, from its very beginning, contained no truth or falsehood, only the undeniable reality."
As he spoke, he unhurriedly raised his other hand and pointed at him.
Hadō #1: Shō.
Suddenly, a dull sound, as if eardrums were being crushed, abruptly expanded and burst from Uchiha Itachi's chest and abdomen.
The immense impact force, pushing forward, made him feel as if he had been hit head-on by a train. He spun uncontrollably, propelled at a speed three times faster than before.
Finally, he slammed into the center of a thick tree trunk, splintering countless wood fibers, and was deeply embedded.
For a moment, Uchiha Itachi even fainted. As soon as he hit the ground, he couldn't stop vomiting large mouthfuls of blood, as if trying to expel everything from his abdominal cavity.
How was this possible?
His mind was in chaos, even his pupils were somewhat unfocused.
How could a Ninja be this strong?
How could a powerful individual like him be manipulated by a rat like Danzo?
And why did he disguise himself as a research-oriented Ninja?
Countless questions flooded Uchiha Itachi's mind, but not a single one could be answered, ultimately leaving only a blank void.
He lay trembling on the ground, watching Aizen, who was holding the short blade, walk towards him step by step, his entire body seemingly devoid of strength.
"Aizen..."
"What exactly do you want to do?"
Aizen Sōsuke stood before him, looking down at the young man prostrate on the ground, his expression as warm and gentle as it had been from the start:
"Someone once asked me a similar question."
"My answer then was 'to change this Village.'"
"Now, naturally, nothing has changed."
"Rather, it's you, Itachi-kun."
Aizen Sōsuke said, his gaze behind the thick glasses soft, but the words he spoke were rational and cruel, piercing into the deepest part of Uchiha Itachi's heart:
"Do you truly have the resolve to change this Village, even if it means personally killing your closest relatives?"