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In the depths of a mist-shrouded forest, a man stood silently atop a tree branch, his form cloaked in a black robe emblazoned with red clouds. A single swirling eye peered from a vortex-shaped mask.
Beneath him, the bodies of more than a dozen Kirigakure shinobi lay strewn across the forest floor—lifeless, cold, and all killed in a single instant.
Each one had been struck down with precision. The execution was flawless—clean, fast, and lethal.
A white figure stood not far from the masked man, emerging from the underbrush. It was White Zetsu, his tone unusually intrigued.
"He came, didn't he?" the masked man asked calmly, his voice unreadable—neither anger nor satisfaction coloring his tone.
White Zetsu glanced down at the corpses. "Yeah, no one else could've done this. Took out over a dozen elite jōnin like they were nothing. Fast, clean. Honestly? Pretty damn beautiful, if you ask me."
He reached into his cloak and pulled something out—a small section of vine.
It looked ordinary, but the masked man's lone eye narrowed the moment he saw it.
"That vine…" Zetsu said, twirling it between his fingers. "Doesn't look like much, right? But it's his. I know it."
A long exhale escaped the masked man as he stared down at the vine.
"Uchiha Haru," he muttered, each syllable like a blade against his tongue. "So it's finally come to this."
After learning that someone had uncovered his secret manipulation of the Fourth Mizukage, he'd wasted no time. He'd used his control over the Mizukage to mobilize a special unit—Team 2—to apprehend the infiltrator.
It was critical that this threat be neutralized before the information spread. If his identity was not so sensitive—if he could risk exposing himself—he would have handled the matter personally.
But it didn't matter. He hadn't been concerned.
He'd assessed the strength of the intruders and found them unimpressive. One had already been caught, and the other was being tailed by over a dozen elite jōnin. No way anything could go wrong.
And then…
Uchiha Haru appeared.
Now, the infiltrator who'd discovered the secret had no doubt fallen into Haru's hands.
And that meant...
That secret—his secret—was no longer safe.
If Uchiha Haru had learned what was truly going on behind the scenes, there was no way he'd sit idle in the Hidden Mist.
The masked man clenched his fists slowly.
Back when Akatsuki was still rising, the Hidden Mist Village had been crucial—an unwitting pawn on his chessboard. He couldn't afford to lose it.
So, when he'd learned that Haru had led a faction of Uchiha into Kirigakure, he'd immediately rushed to the Land of Water with his subordinates. He had to ensure nothing unexpected occurred.
And yet—here they were.
An unexpected disruption. An anomaly.
Ever since the day he chose this path, everything had gone according to plan. He moved in shadows, manipulated from behind the scenes. His success had been inevitable.
Until Uchiha Haru.
First, the Uchiha Massacre plan unraveled.
And now, his operation in the Hidden Mist was coming apart at the seams.
He exhaled slowly, suppressing the frustration curling in his chest.
"…Any word from Itachi?" he asked suddenly.
Sending those elite jōnin after Haru had been his first line of insurance.
His second was far more dangerous—Uchiha Itachi.
The masked man knew: no matter who learned the truth, if they wanted to expose him, they'd have to convince someone with authority.
The elder of the Hidden Mist—Elder Genji.
The old man wielded enormous influence, rivaling that of the Mizukage himself.
He'd predicted that the infiltrator would go to Genji with the information. That's why he'd dispatched Uchiha Itachi ahead of time—to intercept and eliminate.
"No word," White Zetsu replied. "But come on—it's Itachi. The guy doesn't fail. He's probably already handled it. You'll hear back soon."
The masked man nodded slightly.
Uchiha Itachi. A prodigy among prodigies.
He had never fully trusted Itachi, knowing his lingering ties to Konoha. But when it came to non-Konoha targets, there was no sharper tool in his arsenal.
The young man had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan early and wielded the terrifying Tsukuyomi—a genjutsu even the masked man hesitated to face directly.
Itachi was dangerous. And useful.
Which is why he couldn't fathom—
The masked man suddenly turned toward a dark patch of trees.
"Itachi," he said with quiet authority. "You're back."
From the shadows, Uchiha Itachi stepped forward. His posture was calm, but something was off.
"…Were you able to kill them?" the masked man asked.
Itachi was silent.
"You didn't intercept them?" the masked man's tone shifted, a note of surprise in his voice.
Had the infiltrator not gone to Elder Genji?
He narrowed his eye. "What happened?"
"…No," Itachi replied after a pause. "I… I "
"Cough… cough…"
A sudden wave of irritation in his lungs triggered the wound from earlier. Blood spilled from his lips as Uchiha Itachi covered his mouth with a hand.
The masked man's single eye behind the swirling orange mask gleamed coldly. "You're injured?" he asked, voice calm but sharpened with interest. "Who could possibly land a hit on you?"
Itachi didn't respond right away. He waved his hand slightly, dismissing further questions. "I encountered the person who uncovered our secret, but… I wasn't able to stop him."
"What?" the masked man's voice tightened slightly.
Even White Zetsu flinched with surprise. "You're saying… you let him get away?"
This wasn't just any shinobi. This was Uchiha Itachi—Kage-level strength, a Mangekyō Sharingan wielder with mastery over Tsukuyomi. He was one of the Akatsuki's sharpest blades.
In the Hidden Mist, among the bloody waters and shifting shadows, who could stand against Itachi?
Who could even wound him?
A silent understanding passed between the masked man and White Zetsu.
Uchiha Haru.
"Did you encounter Uchiha Haru?" the masked man asked.
"Yes." Itachi didn't bother hiding it. "But the one who injured me… wasn't him. It was Elder Genji of the Hidden Mist."
"Genji? That decrepit old man with one foot in the grave?" White Zetsu's voice twisted with disbelief. "That can't be right!"
Even the masked man's single eye narrowed.
Of course he knew of Elder Genji.
In order to manipulate the Hidden Mist from the shadows, he'd had to monitor every player of influence within the village. Genji's name always came up—respected, wise, but by all accounts, too old to pose a threat.
He had never considered Genji a direct obstacle.
But now? If even Itachi was saying the old man managed to injure him… something had clearly been miscalculated.
Still, the masked man remained analytical. It wasn't just about strength. He wasn't foolish enough to believe that a sixty-something year old man, whose prime had long passed, could defeat Uchiha Itachi in a frontal confrontation.
There had to be something more.
"Itachi," the masked man said, voice calm and unreadable, "what exactly happened?"
He wasn't angry. Not yet. If Haru was involved, this failure made sense.
He had seen Uchiha Haru with his own eyes.
The night the Uchiha clan was supposed to be wiped out, Haru faced five Kage-level shinobi and held his ground. If not for that anomaly, the plan would have succeeded.
And now, in the Hidden Mist… Haru had struck again.
If even he had been present, even if he had joined the fight personally, what could he have done? Would it have changed the outcome?
Unlikely.
Now the only thing they could do was analyze Haru's methods—and prepare.
Itachi exhaled, his breath steady despite the tightness in his chest. Then, in low, steady tones, he began to recount everything that had happened.
The masked man and White Zetsu listened in silence.
When Itachi finished, the masked man stood still for a long moment. Then he asked slowly, "So… Uchiha Haru has mastered two new jutsu. One of them… resembles Shisui's Flicker Technique. The other… you couldn't identify?"
"Yes," Itachi said, frowning faintly as the images replayed in his mind. "I didn't get to engage him fully—just saw him use them once each. The technique he used to dodge Elder Genji's shuriken… I'm certain it was the Flicker Style used by Uchiha Shisui."
"I was close with Shisui. I'd recognize that jutsu anywhere."
"As for the other… I couldn't comprehend it."
"He vanished. Instantly. No hand signs, no build-up. One moment he was standing across from me… the next, he was behind me. I couldn't defend against it at all."
Itachi's voice grew somber.
After arriving at Genji's residence, he had gone over dozens of counters in his head. Dissection of technique. Alternative patterns. Prediction models.
None of them worked.
He had no way to break through those two jutsu.
"Forbidden Techniques…" the masked man murmured.
His mind snapped back to the Uchiha extermination. After the failed operation, Konoha Village had entered secret negotiations with Haru. As part of that deal, they granted him two Forbidden Techniques from the village archives.
Now it made sense.
These were the techniques.
"Shisui's Flicker is one," White Zetsu said. "But the second one…?"
He turned to the masked man.
If anyone knew Konoha's hidden jutsu better than anyone else, it was this man.
The masked man slowly said, "The second technique… must be the Flying Thunder God."
White Zetsu blinked. "The one created by Senju Tobirama… and perfected by the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato?"
The masked man's eye glazed over slightly, lost in memory.
Of course he knew the Flying Thunder God.
How could he not?
Minato… was his sensei.
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Love the story and can't wait to see what happens next?
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