Ino couldn't help but feel a surge of sympathy—Sasuke was so attached to his brother, but his brother, Uchiha Itachi... regardless of whether there was an accident this time, he certainly wasn't coming back. She pressed her hand on Sasuke's shoulder and said, "Everything has established rules, but there are also ways to break them—keep at it, you can definitely do it..."
"Mm..." Little Sasuke nodded vigorously, determined to do whatever it took to see his brother's diary. He took Ino's words firmly to heart.
Something called "the self" awakened from the deathly silence as Uchiha Itachi opened his eyes, only to see a dim underground cavern.
His previous memories surged back like a tide, filling his mind... He had been escorting the nephew of the Daimyo of the Land of Hot Springs and had only left Konoha for about half a day. Not far from the Village, he was ambushed. A barrier of translucent purple flames rose on all sides, trapping him in the center. Within the barrier, a mass of pitch-black light suddenly began to spread and permeate, swallowing him from the bottom up!
He didn't recognize either of these two barrier ninjutsu—
One was the Four Violet Flames Formation, a barrier that used shaped, high-temperature flames to form walls, trapping someone inside or serving as a reverse defense.
It possessed the power to isolate Amaterasu and prevent various styles like Wood Release and Magnet Release from escaping—anything it touched would be vaporized by the purple flames, leaving no chance to even turn into liquid. This formation was essentially a type of Kekkei Tōta formed by four people working together, utilizing certain principles of Sealing Techniques.
However, because it required the cooperation of multiple people, it had the drawbacks of being difficult to move and requiring sufficient training and coordination.
This formation was a byproduct of the Second Hokage Senju Tobirama's research into Kekkei Tōta. Its extreme impracticality meant it could only be effective in specific environments—it was almost impossible to apply in actual combat on a battlefield, and sealing Ninjas were too valuable to waste in such intense combat zones. In a one-on-one fight, it was far too inflexible... but:
Once Uchiha Itachi accidentally stepped into it and the formation rose, this Kekkei Tōta formation—which rivaled or even surpassed the Third Tsuchikage's Dust Release—revealed its extremely powerful and overbearing side.
It restricted Uchiha Itachi within a square area six meters long and wide.
There was no way out—touching the barrier would instantly turn one to ash. Uchiha Itachi sacrificed a shuriken and understood this point immediately.
There was no way to dodge—the black light was capable of swallowing everything.
That was:
The Ura Shishin Fuuin!
This was a unique Sealing Technique mastered only by the Root within the ANBU—it involved placing a seal on the user's body, and its activation meant certain death:
The user's entire blood supply would serve as nourishment for the seal. Upon activation, the sprayed blood would form the seal, and the powerful Sealing Technique would seal away all people and objects in a large surrounding area. Once it reached its limit, it would begin to collapse into nothingness—an infinitely small point that lacked the concept of space yet possessed mass.
This was an unsolvable seal... Uchiha Itachi's legs, chest, and abdomen were cleanly swallowed by the black light, and then his vision went dark, and he knew no more... This was his "memory" from before.
"You're awake?" A cheerful, high-pitched voice suddenly rang out, followed by a pale, flat face leaning in close. "Wow... it really is a miracle! Quick, quick, go tell that guy Obito that the person he brought back is awake..."
Before long, a man wearing a swirling, one-eyed mask abruptly appeared before Uchiha Itachi... The Masked Man sized up Uchiha Itachi and nodded with satisfaction: "Very good, you woke up faster than I expected!"
A crimson Sharingan lit up in the darkness, its three Tomoe spinning slightly. Uchiha Itachi's voice was dry and raspy.
"Who... are you?"
..."You should have heard my name—Madara!" The Masked Man looked down from above, arrogant and imperious, as the red light of a Sharingan also lit up in his single eye.
But this eye was even redder, and within it was not the three-Tomoe pattern, but a far more eerie form!
It was the Mangekyo Sharingan!
Itachi had seen it in Shisui's eyes.
"Madara?"
Uchiha Itachi's voice held an unreadable quality; it was impossible to tell if he believed it or not.
He only felt that single eye possessed an inexplicable attraction, making it impossible for him to look away. Two men, three Sharingan, stared at each other.
The Masked Man claiming to be Madara said, "Uchiha Itachi, do you know why your tragedy happened? Was it because of the Village and the Uchiha? No..."
"All sorrow, all sin, is because of this world. And to change all this, one must change the world itself—do you understand? It is only because this world is wrong that you have suffered such sorrow..."
These were originally illogical words, but they possessed a magical power that was planted directly and deeply into Uchiha Itachi's heart.
It became Uchiha Itachi's most fundamental belief, stubbornly locking out all other possibilities—it was, in itself, a forcibly manufactured logic rather than a reasoned truth.
This was, in fact, a Dojutsu—
Kotoamatsukami.
Uchiha Shisui had entrusted one of his eyes to Uchiha Itachi, but Itachi never had the chance to use it before he died—it had then fallen into the Masked Man's hands and become the Masked Man's eye.
Thus, the Masked Man possessed the Dojutsu to change a person's will... Uchiha Itachi "naturally" agreed.
The Masked Man's only exposed eye shed blood tears, and his vision became somewhat blurred; everything he looked at was shrouded in a layer of black. In the dark cavern, he was nearly blind—yet he could still see and sense moving objects.
"Itachi—the genius of the Uchiha Clan's younger generation, truly impressive... A Dojutsu that takes twenty years to recover was well worth it."
The Masked Man looked at Uchiha Itachi with appreciation and offered a word of comfort: "Rest for now; you need to recover your health. Only then can you go and change the world."
Uchiha Itachi asked, "Why did you save me?"
The Masked Man said, "I simply happened upon a promising junior... and besides, I am already old and need a young successor."
"Ideals must always be passed on like a torch."
...At that same moment in Konoha, seeing that it was nearly noon, Ino bid farewell to Sasuke and Shikamaru and headed home with her two secretaries.
Halfway there, she saw a stranger, a non-Konoha Ninja wearing a headband from some unknown hidden Village, passing by... A foreign Ninja? What was going on? Ino tilted her head, her mind entering a brainstorm.
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