"Huh... how..."
"Chief!!!"
Sora stared in anguish as Chiriku was struck down by the man in black and red cloud cloak who'd suddenly appeared to take him away.
Such a powerful chief, yet just before the other party attacked, he became as weak as if his soul had been instantly sucked out, sitting feebly on the ground, and then was severely wounded without any resistance.
Chiriku was the chief of the Fire Temple and also the guardian of the young boy, Sora.
Like Asuma, he'd served among the Twelve Guardian Ninja, possessing at least Jonin-level strength.
But in front of that man, he couldn't even mount a decent attack.
Seeing the chief he lived with day and night severely wounded and fallen, the despair and hatred in Sora's heart could no longer be controlled and surged out.
Immediately after, that red, ominous chakra covered the young monk's entire body, and along with it, the arm wrapped in bandages swelled and distorted, turning into a monstrous giant claw.
"Go to hell!"
At this moment, the guy who came with the black-haired man made his move.
"Haha!"
Kisame smashed Sora, who was pouncing towards Itachi, down from mid-air.
Not only that, the Samehada in his hand opened its large mouth and tore off the Nine-Tails' Chakra covering Sora's body, chewing it up greedily.
"Not bad! It's the Nine-Tails' Chakra! This way we can report success too, Itachi-san!"
Pulling the kunai out of Chiriku's chest, Itachi didn't even spare another glance for this former Guardian Ninja, turning directly to walk out of the temple.
None of the other monks surrounding them dared to step forward and stop him.
"Aya… Itachi-san seems to be in a bad mood, so I shouldn't delay too long either."
A ferocious smile appeared on the fish-like face of Kisame.
Roughly five or six minutes later, Kisame walked out carrying the unconscious Sora and looked towards Itachi, who was sitting in contemplation on a large tree.
"Itachi-san, let's go."
"Yeah."
Itachi didn't pay much attention to Kisame, silently walking ahead.
And Kisame didn't say much either, carrying the substitute Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki, his small bean-like eyes fixed intently on the back of the person in front.
Itachi was somewhat anxious.
Of course, it wasn't because Kisame, the mole, was watching him.
In fact, he had known for a long time that Kisame served someone higher up in the Akatsuki organization… now clearly that Uchiha Madara.
And Kisame?
He was also aware of Itachi's mole status. In fact, his assignment to the same team as Itachi was essentially because Obito wanted to monitor Itachi's movements.
The two of them tacitly cooperated with each other's performances.
But not long ago, this tacit agreement was broken.
Because the organization's current leader, Obito, who had just returned from Orochimaru's base and reunited with Zetsu, sent them a new order.
After collecting the Nine-Tails' Chakra's host hidden in the Fire Temple, they were to immediately return to another base of the organization.
Sasori and Deidara were even ordered to cancel all missions and return directly.
This sudden change made Itachi feel somewhat uneasy.
His years of experience as a mole told him that the masked man was planning a major move.
But he knew nothing about it.
He also didn't know if it would affect his own arrangements.
With this in mind, a thought appeared in Itachi's mind and grew increasingly stronger.
Silently, the direction of his travel began to deviate slightly.
But this deviation was perfectly concealed under the influence of his Genjutsu.
Until they ran into another group of people, Kisame's ever-smiling face finally began to stiffen.
...
Itachi had considered that there might be quite a few people around Sasuke now.
At least from known information, the Eight-Tails, Five-Tails, and Seven-Tails' Jinchuriki were all in their team.
But he truly never expected so many people to be gathered in one team like this.
Some of these people were building cooking fires, some were creating, and of course, some were still being educated, appearing quite harmonious.
"Uchiha Itachi!"
Jiraiya was the first to react, almost immediately assuming a combat stance.
Immediately after, Karin, B, Yugito, Roshi, Fu, and Gaara quickly put down what they were doing and prepared for battle.
Having been assembled for so many days, everyone in the team was already quite familiar with the information on the Akatsuki's members.
And Sasuke's ears, upon hearing the name Uchiha Itachi, instantly transmitted the signal to his brain.
Almost without any pause, his body became wrapped in blazing flames, and his legs transformed into a digitigrade form.
[Flame Step: Soru]
A line of fire quickly extended from the forest, charging straight towards Itachi, who stood in place.
'His speed has increased.'
Itachi's face showed surprise as he looked at his younger brother, whom he hadn't seen for some time.
"Itachi!!"
Sasuke let out a roar filled with killing intent, the claws covered in Armament Haki also sheathed in the lightning unique to Chidori.
The speed of this strike was extremely fast, even Kisame behind Itachi was somewhat caught off guard.
'This kid... last time we met he was pathetically weak, how is he now...'
Coming to his senses, Kisame immediately realized why they had directly run into Sasuke's current team.
The pairs of eyes looking over from the opposite side were full of pressure.
Apart from Sasuke charging towards Itachi, among the seven pairs of eyes watching, five belonged to Tailed Beast's Jinchuriki.
'-If only we could capture them all, Madara-san would be very happy, right?'
At this moment, Kisame actually had time for random thoughts.
The reason was simple.
Because he knew he had already fallen into Itachi's trap.
By voluntarily delivering themselves here this time, his life would most likely end here.
"So decisive, Itachi-san."
Kisame, trembling with excitement, said this while casually throwing the person on his shoulder to the ground, then stared fixedly at the man who walked out last from the forest, holding a little girl.
Uzumaki Naruto!
He had completely not forgotten the feeling of being utterly crushed by Naruto head-on, with absolute power, last time.
The feeling of having his neck casually twisted and thrown down still appeared in his mind from time to time.
"Nobody move. This is Sasuke's fight."
Naruto, who walked out of the forest, slowly said this, making everyone else in the team give up their intention of attacking Itachi.
Seriously-
Itachi almost got to enjoy the treatment of a combined Tailed Beast Bomb Barrage.
"Sasuke, is it okay?"
After saying this, he directly ignored Kisame, who had already drawn Samehada in front of him, and instead shouted towards Sasuke.
On the other side, Sasuke's lightning claw had already made contact with Itachi.
Zzzzt!!!
The lightning flashed, Itachi's pierced body slowly dissipated around Sasuke's arm, but Sasuke didn't seem surprised at all.
"Leave Uchiha Itachi to me."
He replied to Naruto, then fully transformed into his hybrid form, his pair of Mangekyo Sharingan spinning as he looked towards another, empty direction.
"It's time to repent, Itachi."