In the shadowy forest, three Anbu ninja were sprinting at top speed. They wore Konoha headbands, clearly identifying them as ninjas from the Hidden Leaf Village.
The Hidden Leaf Village, the sole official ninja organization of the Land of Fire, was governed by its leader, the Hokage.
The three Anbu running through the forest didn't share the same objective. Uchiha Itachi, at the front, wanted to leave Konoha as quickly as possible, the very village he had been willing to sacrifice his life for.
Just moments ago, he had "perfectly" resolved his family issues. Actually, it wasn't a big deal; he had simply ended the lives of his parents, who had raised him, and beaten up his beloved "Ototo."
The main reason Uchiha Itachi had done this was due to a rather large conflict between his arrogant clan and his cherished village.
As a member of the proud Uchiha Clan yet aligned with the Hokage's faction, Uchiha Itachi, to solve this simple problem, had become an executioner and easily wiped out his entire clan.
His body was covered in blood at this moment, yet not a single drop belonged to Uchiha Itachi himself. This wasn't because his strength was such that he could defeat the entire clan single-handedly.
It was because the targets of his attacks were mostly ordinary people within the Uchiha Clan, who didn't have much fighting strength. Those more troublesome clan members were easily dealt with by the helper Uchiha Itachi had brought, "Uchiha Madara."
As the former strongest of the Uchiha Clan, it was simply too easy for "Uchiha Madara" to handle those younger clan members. Thus, with their division of labor, the Uchiha Clan was essentially wiped out.
Besides them, the renegade ninjas already hidden in the shadows, the only one remaining was Uchiha Sasuke, who was currently lying in a pool of blood, guarding his parents' corpses.
Boom! Red lightning exploded above the forest. Uchiha Itachi, who was advancing, glanced back at the two Root Anbu members pursuing him closely, his expression somewhat cold.
Strictly speaking, they were the Root, a branch of the Anbu within the Hidden Leaf Village. The Hidden Leaf Village's Anbu was divided into two parts; one was the Anbu controlled by the Hokage.
The other part was the Root, nominally the Anbu reserve. Of course, this was only in name. Ever since the Root was established, they possessed even more terrifying execution capabilities.
The mission to wipe out the Uchiha Clan was issued by Shimura Danzo, with the Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, assisting. Uchiha Itachi was originally one of his subordinates, but now he was just a renegade ninja.
This was the agreement Uchiha Itachi had just reached with the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. He would join Uchiha Madara's organization, secretly providing information for the Hidden Leaf Village, becoming a spy for that organization.
Originally, no one was supposed to know Uchiha Itachi's whereabouts, but the problem now was that he had two Root lackeys tailing him.
These two were once Uchiha Itachi's subordinates, having followed him on many dangerous missions. It seemed that their former boss, Shimura Danzo, didn't want Uchiha Itachi to leave peacefully.
"What are you doing?"
Uchiha Itachi, still moving at high speed, asked coldly.
"As a Konoha S-rank missing-nin, Captain, we still need to put on a show!"
One of the Anbu behind Uchiha Itachi replied indifferently, continuing to follow him at an unhurried pace.
"Heh... You two don't seem like..."
Uchiha Itachi sneered at the Anbu's words, but at that moment, a golden lightning bolt directly struck the Anbu's longsword behind him.
Golden lightning surged along Uchiha Itachi's longsword, spreading to his entire body. In a mere instant, Uchiha Itachi collapsed to the ground.
Boom!
The sound of thunder finally reached them. The two Anbu members, who had been preparing to attack, stared at the fallen Uchiha Itachi with disbelief.
"Is this karma?"
The Anbu member standing near Uchiha Itachi looked blankly at his teammate, his expression one of shock.
"Perhaps the spirits of the Uchiha couldn't bear to watch!"
The other Anbu ninja nodded subconsciously, then flipped Uchiha Itachi over, intending to take his prized Sharingan.
This was their mission: to retrieve Uchiha Itachi's Sharingan. They had once been Uchiha Itachi's subordinates, the Anbu members closest to him.
This was the reason they were assigned to the mission. Generally, ninjas wouldn't be overly guarded against their own subordinates.
This was their hope for success.
The Root operative's hand slowly moved towards Uchiha Itachi's eyes, preparing to take the Mangekyo Sharingan and thus complete the mission directly.
Just as his hand neared Itachi's eyelids, the seemingly lifeless Uchiha Itachi suddenly opened his eyes.
Itachi's sudden awakening caused the Root operatives, who had been about to act, to instinctively create distance from him. They knew clearly how terrifying Uchiha Itachi was.
"Attack!"
Realizing Itachi was conscious, the operative immediately signaled his teammates to attack.
The two swiftly drew their blades, appearing before and behind Uchiha Itachi. Two gleaming longswords pierced directly through Itachi's chest. Well… in their own eyes, they had indeed successfully pierced through Uchiha Itachi's chest.
However, the actual situation was that they had each pierced through the other's chest, taking each other's lives.
"Genjutsu?"
"When?"
The two Anbu, already on their last legs, asked this rather serious question. However, Uchiha Itachi was currently looking around with a bewildered expression.
A dark, secluded forest, a crimson moon, and a stench-filled wind.
"Woah, what the hell?! Where is this?"
Uchiha Itachi, slumped to the side, looked around in a daze.
This wasn't like Uchiha Itachi at all, and the two dying Anbu were stunned. They really wanted to know what was going on with Uchiha Itachi, but the loss of life force made it impossible for them to speak.
A few seconds later, the two Anbu died where they were. Uchiha Itachi's expression also became somewhat bewildered.
"Where am I?"
[Kill Root ninja Hikawa Kouhan, gain 500 gold]
[Kill Root ninja Kojima Tarou, gain 600 gold]
Two blue screens suddenly appeared in Uchiha Itachi's field of vision while he was still in a daze.
"No way! Game prompts can pop up during a nightmare?"
Qin Yu, who thought he was dreaming, looked at the blue screen that appeared directly in front of him, his expression a little stiff.
"Hiss... It hurts!"
Qin Yu, who had just gotten ready to stand up, gradually became stiff. As everyone knows, you don't feel pain when you're dreaming, but just now Qin Yu felt a piercing pain.
"It must be an illusion!"
Qin Yu, having calmed down slightly, prepared to stand up again.
"Hiss..."
Please collect (づ●─●)づ
(End of chapter)