Hidden Stone Village, late at night.
The firewood crackled, the orange flames casting a warm light on the faces of the two people sitting around it.
Sasuke, propping his cheek up with his hand, looked at the Jinchuriki passed out next to him. His brow was still furrowed, as if he was muttering something.
To be fair, Itachi Uchiha's Tsukuyomi was really strong.
It could basically last until they got the Jinchuriki to the meeting place.
But since Hidan and Kakuzu were dead, they didn't know what the situation was now.
Anyway, they were all just workers; dying on the job wasn't uncommon.
It was very quiet around here. To prevent the Hidden Stone Village people from chasing them, they should hurry to the designated location to extract the Tailed Beast.
However, since Itachi Uchiha didn't seem to be feeling well, they had found a place to rest for a while.
This place was quite a distance from the Hidden Stone Village, but not quite to the next country.
At their current speed, they should be able to reach their destination by tomorrow afternoon.
It was very quiet here, with not even the faintest chirping of insects. Occasionally, they could hear the sound of birds flapping their wings.
Itachi Uchiha, covering his mouth, coughed quietly from time to time. Although he didn't seem very healthy, Itachi Uchiha had always been this way.
The first time he went to Konoha to see Sasuke, he left without even really fighting Jiraiya.
But back then, he didn't cough so often.
In this quiet, it felt strange to talk.
Sasuke awkwardly poked at the fire with a branch. It didn't seem right to bother Itachi Uchiha in his condition.
He could only poke at the fire, feeling bored.
"Caw!"
A shrill crow's cry suddenly broke the silence.
Then, the crow in mid-air flew straight towards Itachi Uchiha, followed by a "poof." With a soft sound, the crow turned into a puff of white smoke in mid-air.
Then, a piece of paper fluttered down.
Although he had seen this before, Sasuke was still startled by the crow.
"What's this about...?"
Itachi Uchiha had only been pretending to sleep with his eyes closed. After hearing the crow's cry, he opened his eyes and picked up the piece of paper that had fallen beside him.
"Is the meeting place changed?"
Sasuke leaned over, a little curious.
"No, it's something else..."
Itachi Uchiha paused for a moment and unfolded the paper. The arrogant handwriting made it clear that it was from Hatake Satoru.
Sasuke looked at the words written on it for a moment, not quite understanding.
"What...? What is this?"
"Did that guy give you a challenge...?"
Sasuke could recognize the handwriting. Although it wasn't very common, it had the feeling of "the writing reflects the person."
There was no signature. Although it was on letter paper, there were no polite words at all, as if it were a sticky note.
Sasuke was basically completely unaware of Hatake Satoru's actions. After all, he had almost no contact with Hatake Satoru.
Hatake Satoru had been silent for so long that he had almost forgotten about the guy, but seeing this handwriting reminded him of him.
Indeed, for a long time, they had either been capturing Tailed Beasts or doing missions elsewhere.
No one really noticed where Hatake Satoru was.
And the few times they encountered Naruto, Kakashi was with him, not Hatake Satoru.
From this piece of paper, it seemed that Itachi Uchiha and Hatake Satoru had some kind of connection.
But Sasuke knew nothing about it.
Now that he thought about it, it felt strange that Hatake Satoru had been so quiet for so long.
Although Itachi Uchiha certainly didn't mean to hide anything from him, Sasuke still felt a little annoyed that he didn't know anything.
Itachi Uchiha knew a lot about him, but he knew almost nothing about his brother.
Itachi Uchiha knew what Hatake Satoru was talking about, since he had written the previous letter.
No matter how many years passed, it was always the same answer...
Back during the coup, Hatake Satoru had said the same thing, refusing Itachi Uchiha's request to entrust Sasuke to him.
But back then, Hatake Satoru could turn the tide of the coup on his own.
Although it seemed incredible to them at the time, Hatake Satoru could do it.
But the situation was no longer the same....
Itachi Uchiha certainly knew his own body better than anyone. Hatake Satoru could deal with problems caused by people.
But this was about his death; Hatake Satoru didn't have the power to bring people back to life.
Itachi Uchiha sighed softly, not showing much disappointment.
Hatake Satoru's attitude was expected.
"It's not a challenge; it's something else."
But since Hatake Satoru wasn't willing, there was nothing he could do. After all, asking for help was just asking; if the other person refused, he couldn't say anything more.
After Itachi Uchiha finished speaking, he put the letter into the fire. The orange flames suddenly flared up, then subsided.
"Big brother always keeps things from me..."
Sasuke noticed a subtle change in the atmosphere and muttered quietly.
For some reason, their attitude reminded him of his childhood.
Whenever they were talking about something, if he went to get Itachi to come home, Hatake Satoru would look mysterious and wouldn't speak properly.
No matter how well he hid, he would be found out and targeted.
And Itachi Uchiha often kept things from him too, so Sasuke always felt that Hatake Satoru separated him and his brother whenever he appeared.
He didn't expect that this feeling had lasted from childhood to adulthood.
Sasuke couldn't help but feel a little strange inside.
"You'll know later."
"Don't be upset. After we take the Five-Tails back, we should have some time without missions."
"I'll give you a gift to make up for it then."
He couldn't tell him, "I'm going to die soon; spend as much time with your good brother as possible."
Itachi Uchiha couldn't bring himself to say that, and he still had some other plans.
He paused for a moment, then turned to Sasuke and gave him a gentle smile.
Sasuke sat up straight and opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, probably to complain that Itachi Uchiha was using that kind of talk to brush him off again.
Before Sasuke could say anything to object, Itachi Uchiha poked him on the forehead.
"Forgive me, Sasuke."
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