Chapter 29: "Aizen-senpai?"
Under the night sky, Uchiha Itachi walked slowly along the forest path by the river.
Fireflies drifted between swaying shadows.
Moonlight sifted through fern leaves into fragments of silver.
The whisper of insects brushed his ears—
yet none of it could soothe the chaos churning in his chest.
His thoughts were a tangled snarl.
In barely a few days, the fragile balance between the village and the clan had collapsed.
The Uchiha, already simmering with anger, were now like a powder keg—
Shisui's incident was merely the spark.
No one could predict when the explosion would come.
As the clan head's eldest son, his words carried little weight at home.
At clan meetings, no one listened.
Even before Shisui, his voice had been powerless.
And now, what terrified him the most—
Itachi himself no longer knew what he should do.
He knew who the enemy was,
yet he couldn't—
didn't dare—
make a move.
For the first time, he saw how ridiculous his past efforts had been.
Lost in this helplessness, a message arrived from Aizen-senpai, saying he needed help with some research.
Itachi didn't even understand why he had agreed.
How could he still care about such trivial matters right now?
Maybe… he simply wanted to escape.
Escape this suffocating environment.
Escape the impossible choices.
Find someone innocent of all this turmoil—someone he could confide in.
And more importantly—
it was Aizen-senpai.
A faint light flickered in Itachi's eyes.
If it's him… maybe he can tell me what I should do.
But the moment that hope appeared, his expression dimmed again.
He recalled Aizen-senpai's open, straightforward, almost naïve sincerity.
How cowardly of me.
Dragging an uninvolved friend into such a devastating affair—
that would be unforgivably despicable.
Just as he thought this,
Itachi suddenly stopped walking.
His head snapped toward the trees, eyes sharpening.
The forest had gone still.
The insects fell silent.
Only a suffocating quiet lingered—
a quiet born from danger.
His hand slid to his short blade.
His dark pupils turned scarlet, three tomoe blooming into place.
"Come out."
As the words fell, several silhouettes stepped from the depths of the forest.
Twelve figures in total.
Three full squads.
Encircling him completely.
Itachi, trained in ANBU and more than familiar with Root's formations, recognized them instantly.
Root.
His killing intent sharpened.
Danzo again?
The leading Root-nin stepped forward.
"Uchiha Itachi.
Danzo-sama requests your presence.
Come with us."
Itachi's lips curled into a cold laugh.
"Without an order from the Hokage, I'm not going anywhere."
If Shisui could lose an eye, then the Uchiha and Root no longer had even the illusion of trust.
The Root captain showed no surprise.
"Then there is nothing left to discuss."
He gave the signal.
Two Root shinobi behind Itachi flashed through hand seals.
In the next instant, a black swarm surged through the darkness—
the sky filled with kikaichū like a living tide.
Trailing behind them, a storm of shuriken rained down like steel blossoms.
From the flanks, the remaining squads charged in formation, sealing every escape route.
Their speed was ruthless.
Boom—
The swarm of insects surged forward, filling the forest with a deep, oppressive buzzing.
But the Uchiha trapped in the center suddenly burst into a flurry of black crows, scattering in all directions.
By the time his form reassembled, Itachi had already slipped out of the encirclement.
His hands flew through seals, chest expanding—
"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!"
A deafening roar.
A tidal wave of flame erupted from his mouth, a blazing sea driven by overwhelming chakra output, scorching the earth as it surged toward the Root squads.
Tree roots snapped.
Moisture evaporated into steam.
Wind pressure rippled.
The soil beneath their feet sizzled with a nauseating, burnt stench.
Experienced Root operatives immediately scattered into squads to avoid the massive blast.
The moment they split, their leader sensed danger and shouted:
"Be careful—"
Before he finished, his lifeless eyes met a pair of glowing crimson tomoe.
"Genjutsu—Sharingan."
His mental defenses shattered instantly.
A spike of agony tore through his mind.
"Ghh—!"
Before he could break free, a kunai pierced straight through his chest.
Using the Root captain's body as a foothold, Itachi kicked off, flipping away from a wave of kunai thrown from behind. His body twisted through the air.
At the same moment—
Shuriken and kunai shot from his hands, clashing midair with sharp metallic chimes before curving around a tree trunk and embedding into a Root shinobi's neck.
"Restrict his movement!"
With that order, a Root operative sprang forward with his blade, aiming to lock Itachi into close combat.
Another formed a seal.
"Mind Transfer Jutsu."
A sharp psychic pulse struck straight toward Itachi's consciousness—
a technique that physical defenses could not block.
He only needed a second.
If the jutsu landed, his teammates would sever Itachi's limbs in an instant.
But the moment the Yamanaka's spirit penetrated Itachi's mind—
He saw a crimson full moon.
The Root ninja froze mid-step.
An instant later, his own hand reached into his pouch, pulled out an explosive tag, and slapped it onto his forehead.
BOOM.
His head turned into a cloud of pink mist.
Itachi didn't even glance his way.
"Competing in yin-type jutsu with the Uchiha?"
He parried the frontal attacker with one blade, and with the other hand drove a kunai into the man's chest.
But the Root ninja only grinned beneath his mask—
a hand clamped onto Itachi's shoulder with crushing strength.
A buzzing crackle erupted from within the man's body.
Damn.
In a burst of motion, Itachi severed the man's arm with his blade and used Body Flicker to retreat.
BOOM!
Another explosion tore through the clearing.
Flames rolled outward, shockwaves slamming into Itachi and forcing a dull ache from his lungs.
Although he retreated quickly, stray flames grazed his skin, leaving charred marks.
The severed arm still clung to his shoulder until he tore it free.
Breathing heavily, Itachi pushed chakra through his coils, scanning his surroundings with icy calm.
From the Great Fire Annihilation to wiping out an entire Root squad, only a few seconds had passed.
At just twelve years old, his combat ability was already firmly in the upper ranks of jōnin.
But in that brief delay—
The two Root squads he had separated with his fire jutsu had regrouped and were now closing in to flank him.
Itachi watched the incoming assassins.
His Sharingan tomoe spun, deepening in color.
Good.
Come closer.
---
Five Minutes Later
The once-quiet forest had become scorched wasteland.
Bodies lay strewn across the blackened clearing in every possible state of mutilation—
severed limbs, torn flesh, the stink of iron and burnt meat saturating the air.
Itachi, covered in blood and smoke-stained cuts, stepped across corpses of insects and shinobi alike.
His aura had grown colder… darker.
But at least—
he had vented.
He had wanted to strike at Danzo's men for a long time.
Still…
Root's surveillance of the Uchiha has gotten this extreme?
He frowned.
He hadn't told anyone he was leaving.
No ordinary Root squad should've found his trail.
Before he could think further—
He stepped out of the burning grove.
At the end of the forest path stood a tall figure, silently waiting for him.
Moonlight poured over the man's shoulders, scattering into silver behind him, elongating his shadow like ink across the ground.
He watched Itachi with that familiar, gentle smile—warm as spring.
Itachi froze.
His pupils dilated in shock, voice trembling between disbelief and relief as he whispered:
"…Aizen… senpai?"