Uchiha Itachi finished packing his gear. After glancing once more at his still-noisy little brother, he finally turned and vanished into the night.
This was his first mission after becoming a chūnin. He took it extremely seriously—his enthusiasm was high across the board.
Even if his new teammates might not be thrilled by his pace, Itachi wanted nothing more than to complete the mission as soon as possible.
That way… I can come back earlier and spend time with Sasuke.
Moving swiftly, Itachi soon left the Uchiha compound behind.
To be honest, the Uchiha clan didn't feel quite right to him lately.
So many people kept talking about "the clan," "the family"—yet what he'd heard from the Hokage felt very different from that.
"…Huh?"
Suddenly, Itachi slowed.
He sensed something off.
"Who's there? Come out."
As he spoke, his eyes turned scarlet. His gaze locked onto the shadows around him.
Being targeted inside Konoha was rare—but almost immediately, a possibility surfaced in his mind.
After all, he had personally seen someone hunt down fellow Konoha ninja inside the village before.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!
His answer came in the form of several kunai screaming through the air toward him.
"Root…?"
The thought flashed through Itachi's mind as a kunai appeared in his hand. He dodged and deflected in one smooth motion.
But then—
"…!"
As one kunai brushed past him, his Sharingan caught something unusual.
There was a special tag attached.
And in that exact instant, he clearly sensed a masked figure appearing right beside him—
—
"What's going on…?"
Ren frowned, staring toward the distant shadow.
He was baffled.
For once, he'd decided to walk home instead of using the Flying Thunder God—hoping to think things through along the way—and this was what he ran into?
Normally, he would've gone to check it out.
But right now, he felt something that made him hesitate.
A strange, mobile Flying Thunder God marker had appeared.
And Ren knew very well what that meant.
If nothing unexpected had happened, that marker belonged to Uchiha Obito.
Flying Thunder God marks weren't easy to erase—and Obito, that lunatic, had once gone to Konoha fully expecting the Fourth Hokage to recognize him and "save" him.
The problem was—
Much like Uchiha Fugaku, Obito had never once considered whether he might be the problem.
He hid his face behind a mask, altered his voice on purpose, planted explosive tags on baby Naruto, and forcibly released the Nine-Tails from Kushina.
Someone openly trying to kill your wife and child—
No matter how kind Minato was, anyone would've snapped.
And Obito had snapped.
Otherwise, he wouldn't later mock Minato to his face for "failing to recognize him."
"What kind of deranged logic is that…?"
Ren pressed his lips together.
He simply couldn't empathize with someone like that.
In fact, he wholeheartedly agreed with the "evil Senju geezer," the Second Hokage Senju Tobirama's evaluation of the Sharingan.
The more the Uchiha awakened their eyes, the worse their mental state became.
And once the Mangekyō appeared?
Full-blown insanity.
With that thought, Ren decided to pretend he'd seen nothing.
He turned around and continued walking home without looking back.
—
"Black… he really doesn't care at all."
Hidden in the shadows, the pitcher-plant monster—White Zetsu's half—spoke helplessly.
Even Black Zetsu felt a little speechless.
This guy really didn't play by the rules.
Seeing a suspicious, unknown presence—Root or ANBU—shouldn't you at least go check?
You're a Konoha ninja, damn it.
Granted, the plan didn't require Ren to intervene—and Black Zetsu was already sick of Obito's so-called "plans."
But as the so-called Will of Uchiha Madara, he could only grit his teeth and support Obito properly.
If they were going to do this—
They might as well do it perfectly.
"Notify the one attached to Obito," Black Zetsu said flatly.
"See if the fight over there is finished."
"This kid can Flying Thunder God back anytime. Tell Obito to speed it up—and remember to bring Uchiha Itachi over."
"Oh, okay."
White Zetsu nodded. Thinking wasn't his job anyway.
—
After moving some distance away, Ren quietly glanced back.
"What the hell is going on…?"
A mysterious shadow.
Obito's Flying Thunder God marker.
All of it piled together in a way that made his skin crawl.
Then—
A possibility struck him.
"…Is it because Shisui and I are teammates? Is he trying to use that?"
Ren couldn't be sure.
But if he was right, then things had just gotten complicated.
"…Hm?"
As he walked, Ren suddenly sensed a strange fluctuation of power.
At the same time, the Flying Thunder God mark felt extremely close.
Then—gone.
As if nothing had happened.
Ren frowned, hesitated, then cautiously looked toward the corner ahead.
His pupils shrank.
Uchiha Itachi was lying there.
Covered in wounds.
Unconscious.
And in that instant, Ren finally understood what that bastard Obito was trying to do.
"So it really is Shisui… you bastard, you're framing me?"
At this point, Ren knew there was no point in leaving.
Leaving would only make it look worse.
Obito had Kamui. With a mask and some theatrics, it wouldn't be hard to make it seem like Flying Thunder God.
And Itachi wasn't dead.
Which meant the memories before he lost consciousness could easily have been—
Ren overwhelming him.
"…And I even said a few things on purpose to disgust Danzō."
Ren pressed his lips together.
Whether Obito had heard those words or not didn't matter.
With Black Zetsu and White Zetsu around, his background had already been thoroughly dug up.
Which meant—
"I can't cleanly get out of this at all, can I?"
Ren was from Root.
Everyone knew Danzō despised the Uchiha.
And Itachi had once defeated a Root ninja.
So wasn't it perfectly reasonable for Danzō's enforcer to do something to Uchiha Itachi?
Publicly, during the chūnin exams, he couldn't kill him—only humiliate him.
But in the shadows?
Beating him half to death again?
That didn't sound impossible at all.
And with Itachi near death, Shisui would inevitably grow dissatisfied with Konoha.
If that dissatisfaction turned into thoughts—
Who could say it was unreasonable?
"…Sigh."
Ren exhaled softly.
Then he calmly drew a kunai.
"Looks like there's no avoiding it."
A faint smile tugged at his lips.
"But now… let's see who's really the prey."
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