Thud! Thud! Thud...
The crisp sound of shuriken hitting the wooden target one after another echoed rhythmically through the courtyard.
"Big brother, teach us how to throw shuriken today too."
"I want to learn too."
Two small figures surrounded young Itachi, chirping excitedly.
A gentle smile, both helpless and doting, appeared on Itachi's face as he raised his hand and flicked his wrist, the shuriken in his palm drawing a graceful arc.
Thud!
The shuriken was pinned precisely to the bullseye of the target on the courtyard wall.
"Sasuke, you try first." Itachi said encouragingly, turning around to hand a practice shuriken to Sasuke.
"Yes!"
Sasuke excitedly took the shuriken and threw it with all his might, mimicking the form. A small arc flashed by, and the shuriken stuck firmly into the target. Although one was a bit far from the center, it was commendable for a child of his age.
"Sasuke, you've improved." Itachi praised, patting Sasuke's head gently.
"The arc I threw is even bigger than mom's." Sasuke rubbed his nose proudly, while kid Mamoru chuckled beside him, his eyes curving into crescents.
"Then, how about this move?"
Before Itachi could finish, four shuriken were already gripped between the fingers of each hand. With a slight turn of his body, his arms blurred, and eight flashes of cold light shot out almost simultaneously.
Thud... Thud...
After a series of rapid impacts, all the shuriken were deeply embedded in the target, evenly distributed.
But he wasn't done yet, he took out two more shuriken, his gaze narrowing with a touch more focus. Then, with a cross-swipe of his arms, the two shuriken flew out one after the other in a peculiar trajectory.
Thud!
A particularly loud impact echoed.
At the bullseye, the tip of the second shuriken, which had caught up from behind, pierced perfectly into the ring at the end of the first one. The two shuriken were cleverly linked together.
"Wow! So cool!"
"Big brother is amazing!"
Kid Mamoru's eyes lit up as he watched, and he couldn't help but tug at Itachi's sleeve.
Young Itachi looked down and asked softly, "What is it? Does Mamoru want to try this?"
"Yeah!" Mamoru nodded vigorously.
Beside them, Sasuke shook his head and said like a little adult, "It's impossible, Mamoru. This is still too early for us."
At that moment, Mamoru, sitting on the porch as an observer, watched this warm scene from his memories. A faint, imperceptible smile touched his lips as he whispered to himself, "That's not necessarily true."
Young Itachi smiled and handed over two shuriken.
Kid Mamoru looked down at his chubby little hands and gripped one shuriken in each. Taking a deep breath, he fixed his gaze on the distant target. His small arms crossed clumsily in front of his chest, and his youthful face tensed with effort.
The next second, he threw the two shuriken with all his strength.
Thud!
One shuriken hit the bullseye, while the other used the ring at its end to dangle precariously from the tip of the first one.
"How is that possible!" Sasuke's eyes widened, and he exclaimed in disbelief.
"Sigh... I didn't expect you to actually succeed." Young Itachi's eyes flashed with surprise, which soon turned into a deeper tenderness.
He ruffled Mamoru's hair. "Very impressive, Mamoru."
"Hehe..." Kid Mamoru rubbed his head, still wearing that silly grin.
"That's so unfair, Mamoru!" Sasuke shouted indignantly, lunging forward to pinch Mamoru's soft cheeks.
"It... hurts..."
"Haha, don't bully Mamoru too much." Young Itachi laughed and stopped their play-fighting, comforting them, "Sasuke, you'll catch up soon. After all, we're brothers."
Mamoru, standing on the porch, was not at all surprised by this scene. This body's talent in throwing techniques was nearly on par with Itachi's.
Since transmigrating, he had hardly put any effort into practicing throwing techniques, yet he could still perform various tricks with ease.
However, at that warm moment, young Itachi, who had been doting on his younger brothers, suddenly turned his head and looked directly at the Mamoru on the porch. His black pupils instantly turned crimson, with complex patterns spinning within—the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Everything around them suddenly came to a standstill. The wind stopped, fallen leaves froze in mid-air, the chirping of cicadas and birds ceased abruptly, and the scene of Sasuke and kid Mamoru playing froze in place.
"How are you manipulating the Tsukuyomi world?" Itachi's voice echoed in the void, carrying a hint of coldness.
"I don't have the ability to manipulate Tsukuyomi." Mamoru said frankly, his blue eyes looking calmly at the sky.
"I simply used my own eyes to crack this Genjutsu, temporarily borrowed this world, and then saw some interesting things. That's all."
The 'Technique Discernment' ability of his Six Eyes was equally effective against Tsukuyomi. Although it required more mental effort, this was the source of Mamoru's confidence in daring to look directly into the Mangekyo Sharingan.
To put it simply, he had analyzed the underlying code of this Genjutsu world and casually loaded a segment of his own program to see how this virtual world would run.
Suddenly, the entire space let out a crisp sound like glass shattering. The world cracked into countless fine lines like a mirror, and with the noise of the surface splintering, the space instantly shattered.
In the blink of an eye, Mamoru returned to reality. He was still standing in the same spot, not having moved an inch, and Hinata, leaning behind him, was safe and sound.
Everything around him seemed no different from the moment he was pulled into the Tsukuyomi world.
Only Mamoru and Itachi knew exactly what had just happened.
Despite the long time spent in the Tsukuyomi world, only a few seconds might have passed in reality.
Mamoru frowned as waves of needle-like pain shot through his brain, causing him to reflexively close one eye.
He forced a smile. "It seems your Tsukuyomi isn't very effective against me."
Despite his words, the stinging pain in his brain continued to assault him. Fortunately, it was still within his range of endurance.
This was the price for forcibly 'cracking' Tsukuyomi.
Without Reverse Cursed Technique to provide a fresh brain, he couldn't sustain the full operation of the Six Eyes for long. To this day, he still had no clue how to apply the Reverse Cursed Technique. The concept of 'two negatives make a positive' didn't seem to apply to natural energy like Chakra at all.
He quickly gathered his thoughts and turned his gaze toward Itachi, who had also closed one eye.
He knew that the use of the Mangekyo Sharingan's ocular power was affecting Itachi. But even so, Itachi remained as composed as ever, standing there with a calm expression that made it impossible to glimpse even a fraction of his inner thoughts.
Kisame caught some interesting information from Mamoru's words and grinned, laughing with a hint of mockery. "Itachi-san, it seems your little brother isn't afraid of your genjutsu."
Itachi didn't respond, simply standing there in silence.