A blood red moon covered the sky.
In the empty black space, crimson light seeped into everything, cold and suffocating, oppressive in a way words could not describe.
Two figures stood in the void. By that eerie moonlight, they exchanged intelligence, then lowered their heads and flipped through what they'd received.
Holding the thick stack of name lists in his hands, Aburame Ryūma felt his mind loosen slightly.
A small accident had happened, but the Raikō Mountain mission had finally reached its third phase.
Of the tasks Danzō had given him, blowing up the ore veins of Raikō Mountain was the most trivial.
The trade with Orochimaru and the Akatsuki intelligence from Uchiha Itachi were the true core of this operation.
A month earlier.
Itachi had used his unique chakra signature to leave a mark and a message in Root's intelligence network.
His identity could not be exposed.
He demanded to meet Danzō personally in the Land of Lightning, claiming he had obtained a key roster of Akatsuki members. He would only hand it over to Konoha if Sasuke's safety could be confirmed.
Danzō naturally refused.
He knew exactly how hated he was. With Itachi's Mangekyō motives unclear, how could he dare to step into danger himself?
Besides, Shisui still had one Kotoamatsukami unaccounted for. Most likely, it was in Itachi's hands.
If Danzō showed his face and Itachi opened with a zero delay Kotoamatsukami, everything would be over.
It just so happened Danzō needed to send Aburame Ryūma to complete a trade with Orochimaru. The agreed meeting point was at Raikō Mountain on the border of the Land of Lightning.
So Danzō decided to handle both matters at once.
He had someone inform Itachi to make contact near Raikō Mountain.
Since both were tied to the same location, Root's agents naturally went ahead to scout the area and identify a suitable meeting spot.
That was when they stumbled upon Kumogakure's secret mine.
Combined with the ore vein intel taken from a Kumogakure jōnin's mind, it birthed this absurdly complicated mission.
The correct flow should have been:
Arrive at Raikō Mountain by Orochimaru's appointed time.
Wipe out the Kumogakure shinobi.
Complete the trade, exchanging the arm for the Sharingan.
After the exchange, destroy the ore veins of Raikō Mountain.
Then wait at the designated location on the outskirts for Itachi to arrive.
Finally, secure the Akatsuki intelligence, protect the arm, and return safely to Konoha.
But now everything had gone sideways.
Itachi had come to the Land of Lightning to hunt Orochimaru.
The two missions collided, twisting the whole sequence.
Fortunately, the two of them corrected course in time.
They dragged Orochimaru and that troublesome blue skinned monster into a separate battlefield, then sent away the most sensitive variable, Konome Taketori, creating space for an exchange.
The ore veins hadn't been blown.
Orochimaru's trade wasn't finished.
Instead, Akatsuki intelligence reached Ryūma's hands first.
Flip.
Opening the black booklet, Ryūma saw his old partner on the very first page.
Orochimaru.
Codename: Kū.
Identity: Konoha S rank missing nin. Formerly one of the Legendary Sannin.
Status: Defected. Kill on sight.
That bastard had joined Akatsuki too?
And then betrayed them, hunted across the world?
That was Orochimaru's style all the way down.
Ryūma kept turning pages.
The more he read, the colder his blood became.
A mysterious masked man claiming to be Uchiha Madara.
The Deva Path, Pain, powerful like a god.
A blue haired angel.
An immortal cultist who worshiped an evil god.
A terrifying shinobi said to have once fought the First Hokage.
None of the entries were detailed, but even the scraps were enough to make his scalp prickle.
If Itachi's intelligence was true, Akatsuki already possessed the power to destroy any one of the Five Great Villages.
So such an organization had been hiding in the shinobi world all along.
Forcing down his shock, Ryūma memorized each page at speed.
For a shinobi who had worked intelligence for twenty years, this was the most basic discipline.
While Ryūma's lips moved in silent recitation, Itachi was flipping through Sasuke's photos.
There were three.
All taken from hidden angles. Almost none showed his face clearly.
In the first, Itachi recognized the Uchiha training grounds at a glance.
Sasuke had his hands in the Ram seal, spitting a Great Fireball. His body was hunched, exhaustion clinging to him.
Fire Release training.
Judging the size and power of the fireball, Itachi nodded. Sasuke's effort was real.
The next photo was inside the Academy.
Sasuke's eyes were red, staring at a silver haired girl whose face was unclear.
A single tomoe Sharingan, brimming with confidence.
He's already awakened it?
A faint joy flashed through Itachi's gaze before he continued.
In the last photo, Sasuke wore a smug half smile, hooking a finger at a blond boy as if taunting him into a spar.
In the background sat a blindfolded silver haired girl. Her hair color and build matched the second photo, likely the same person.
He'd heard Sasuke was popular with girls at school.
Looks like it was true.
Itachi's fingers loosened.
Fwoosh.
The photos drifted like fallen leaves through the void, then vanished into ash as if consumed by invisible fire.
His scarlet eyes locked onto Ryūma, who still had his head lowered.
Cold light slid through Itachi's gaze. The three tomoe turned, slowly linking together.
"What should I call you?"
"Rain Country base. Blue haired angel. Flight capability. Call me Ryūma."
Ryūma frowned.
"How long have you been in Root?"
"I don't know."
His voice was still icy, but impatience crept in.
The human brain was unreliable. The moment you were distracted, the memorization process could derail.
The thing Ryūma hated most was being interrupted while committing intelligence to memory.
"You have the right to know my identity. That means you're a high ranking Root member," Itachi's voice continued, pressing at him like a blade.
Ryūma sighed and raised his head.
"You…"
His voice cut off.
A terrifying Mangekyō spun in front of him, filling his vision.
Those violet eyes were like the blood moon in the sky, reflecting an eerie Mangekyō pattern.
Itachi watched the man go blank.
The shuriken like pattern in his eyes accelerated, Mangekyō power drilling into Ryūma's will.
As Ryūma's resistance thinned, Itachi's gaze deepened.
"State your identity within Root."
"I manage all Root affairs and carry out Lord Danzō's will."
Ryūma's eyes turned red. He spoke without awareness, voice still cold but now unnaturally flat.
He was clearly under hypnosis.
Itachi didn't rush.
He stood in silence, waiting.
When the genjutsu space showed no reaction at all, a cold curve lifted at the corner of his mouth.
This time, he had finally slipped past that cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
The blood moon hung high.
Red light pierced through Ryūma's body, making him look like a puppet standing under the heavens.
Handing over Akatsuki intelligence had always been a pretext.
If Itachi wanted to deliver Akatsuki intel to Konoha, there was no need to meet anyone. He could simply pass the roster to a Root intel shinobi and it would reach Konoha safely.
Why go through all this trouble?
Luring out Root's upper ranks was the real goal.
Akatsuki's assignment to hunt Orochimaru gave him a reason to move without Kisame watching his every breath.
Using Sasuke's status as a condition turned a one way transfer into a two way trade, creating a reasonable invitation for Danzō to leave the village.
But Danzō would never come.
Shisui's Kotoamatsukami was in Itachi's hands. Danzō couldn't risk stepping outside.
So Danzō would send a substitute.
Someone important.
This matter involved the Uchiha, Akatsuki, and Konoha at once. Absolute secrecy.
The person sent would almost certainly be a Root high rank, someone qualified to know Danzō's secrets.
That was Itachi's opening.
The perfect chance to pry Danzō apart.
And reality matched his expectation.
When he interrogated Bōrin down the mountain, he hadn't even asked about Danzō.
He merely mentioned the captain's abilities, and the Tongue Eradication Seal triggered instantly.
That meant the captain's secrecy level was extremely high.
Second only to Danzō himself.
Root high rank.
The plan could proceed.
Itachi left Orochimaru to Kisame.
He used Tsukuyomi to drag Ryūma's mind into this space, separating spirit from flesh.
Then, inside Tsukuyomi, he could interrogate freely and bypass the Tongue Eradication Seal's control.
Now.
It was time to harvest.
Itachi's mood eased slightly. He stared at the vacant Ryūma and poured in more ocular power, grinding down his will.
"Where is Shisui's Mangekyō?"
"Lo… Lord Danzō's right eye is it."
Information that should have triggered a curse seal came out without hesitation.
Even Uchiha Obito, a genjutsu amateur, could once control the Third Mizukage with Mangekyō hypnosis.
Against Itachi, Ryūma had no chance.
The answer was exactly what Itachi expected.
His face stayed cold as ice.
Danzō had forced the Uchiha toward rebellion, assassinated Shisui, all to obtain the Sharingan's power.
Implanting that precious Mangekyō into his own right eye was hardly surprising.
Just as no one would be surprised that Itachi wanted Danzō dead.
"Now tell me Danzō's abilities, intelligence, and his weaknesses."
Itachi finally showed the dagger after unfolding the map, his eyes red as if they might bleed.
"I… I don't know."
Ryūma's eyes were empty, genuinely confused, as if he had no knowledge at all.
Nothing?
Itachi's brow tightened.
His Mangekyō power continued to chew through Ryūma's mind. He sensed no resistance.
Ryūma hadn't broken free.
He truly didn't know.
"How many years have you followed Danzō?"
"A long… time. I… I don't remember."
Ryūma opened his mouth to answer, then realized he couldn't recall anything about Danzō.
He tried with all his strength.
The memories were blurred.
The information, the abilities, all blurred.
It felt like the truth was right on his tongue, yet hidden behind a thick layer of cloth.
Pain stabbed his brain. His body trembled on instinct.
"How can you not remember?" Itachi's voice sharpened.
Ryūma slammed his fist against his head again and again, eyes lost and desperate.
No matter how hard he forced himself, he couldn't find even a fragment.
Only a single lonely image remained.
A man with an indistinct face, smiling at him.
I shouldn't forget.
I can't forget that man.
"I… don't know."
Ryūma shook his head and repeated those words like a broken record, slipping toward something like a seizure.
Emotion and will collided violently.
Even the ocular power pinning him down began to loosen.
"I know," Itachi said quietly.
His Mangekyō turned.
He drove his Yin Release infused ocular power deeper into Ryūma's sea of consciousness.
A huge chunk of memory surfaced, purple black, rotten like dead flesh.
This was an ability he could only force open with Tsukuyomi's amplification.
"C… can you tell me?" Ryūma asked, hope shining through terror as he shook.
"Yes."
Even Itachi's voice dropped.
The dead memory was broken open by brute force.
Fragments poured out like a flood, like a Pandora's box cracking wide.
Then…
Itachi fell silent.
The entire space went dead with him.
Ryūma waited and waited, but no answer came.
He stared up at the blood moon, the Mangekyō spinning in his eyes.
Until…
Boom.
Countless memory fragments fell like snow.
The fog in his mind cleared, like a man with severe nearsightedness finally putting on the correct glasses.
Everything snapped into sharp focus.
Ryūma lifted his head, dazed.
In front of him was a boy with a smile bright as sunlight.
The boy was crouched on the ground, handsome brows and eyes softened, looking at him with gentle amusement.
Golden sunlight filtered through his hair, casting sharp shadows onto the earth.
"Why aren't you playing with the other kids?"
Kids?
Playing?
Ryūma lowered his head and found himself crouched on the ground too.
Small childish hands, fingers stained black. Damp soil in his palm, sticky and real.
Where… is this?
Above him, green branches swayed in a light breeze.
Far beyond, on the cliffside, only one massive Hokage Rock face stood visible.
The First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, watched silently.
"Hey. What are you looking at? I'm talking to you."
The spiky haired man put on an annoyed stare, but the smile at the corner of his mouth betrayed his true mood.
"I…"
Ryūma tried to speak, but realized he couldn't control this childish body.
This wasn't reality.
He was only a wandering spectator.
"They can't even notice me. I thought you'd be the same."
Young Ryūma muttered softly, digging through the soil with single minded focus, dragging out a hidden earthworm bit by bit.
"My name is Aburame Ryūma."
He pinched the wet earthworm between two fingers and held it up.
A tiny pair of sunglasses sat on his childish face as he looked at the man.
"And you?"
"Shimura Danzō."
The boy smiled as he said his name.
The cross shaped scar under his chin lifted proudly, but there was no cruelty in it.
Instead, it gave him a strange, hard to explain kind of charm.
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