Naruto: Naruto's Uchiha girlfriend is too arrogant

Chapter 555 Kaleidoscope vs. 9 Tomoyama Rings

The kaleidoscope's illusion had no effect.

This fact prompted Itachi Uchiha to take action, and his figure slowly emerged amidst the flapping of wings.

The black crows gathered from all directions, one after another, overlapping and coalescing in the air, eventually transforming into a tall figure wearing a black robe with red clouds.

"Sasuke."

Itachi Uchiha spoke, his deliberate calmness evident as his crimson Sharingan silently gazed at the boy before him.

"So you've finally gotten eyes like mine. Is that what gives you the confidence to come before me again?"

His gaze fell on Zuo Yue's eyes, which had already changed shape. How long had he waited for this? What price had he paid to force out this?

It was the result he finally received after he personally slaughtered his entire clan, exterminated all his relatives, and paved this road with his parents' blood on that night.

"Just how far can your Sharingan see?"

Satsuki, with the face that belonged to young Sasuke and those disguised Mangekyou Sharingan, looked at the man in front of her who looked very much like her older sister from that world.

Her expression was cold and aloof, mimicking the attitude Sasuke should have when facing Itachi at that age, but what was hidden beneath that coldness was something Itachi could never fathom.

"I don't need these eyes to deal with you. Uchiha Itachi, I have a question for you."

Itachi Uchiha's brow twitched almost imperceptibly.

"Not using these eyes? The Mangekyou Sharingan is the supreme eye technique of the Uchiha clan, a power that can only be awakened by experiencing the deepest pain. It is the confidence and capital that this boy has when he stands in front of me now—and yet he says that he doesn't need it to deal with me?"

Such words coming from the mouth of a young Uchiha who has just awakened his Mangekyou Sharingan are either the arrogant ignorance of the undeserving, or he truly possesses some kind of reliance that he is unaware of.

"...Is that so? As for why I spared your life? That probably goes back to the past..."

This was a line he had prepared, the "truth" he had long ago decided to tell Sasuke one day—a carefully edited version that only kept the necessary parts and removed all the content that should not be known.

He wanted to use this story to lead Sasuke down the path he had designed, so that Sasuke would follow his script step by step.

"No."

However, Sasuke's voice cut him off crisply.

"I'm not interested in that kind of question."

Itachi Uchiha almost lost his composure for a moment, and then Sasuke spoke, saying something that nearly shattered the mask Itachi had managed to maintain.

"Itachi, what I want to ask is—if killing everyone around me could guarantee my safety, would you do it?"

These words lingered in the air between the two people, among the slowly falling black feathers, so quiet it was as if the whole world had stopped breathing.

He found out.

The thought exploded in Itachi Uchiha's mind, leaving him completely blank.

He knew? What did Sasuke know? How much did he know? How did he find out? Who told him? This barrage of questions overwhelmed his reason, making his heart pound violently in his chest.

He knew the truth about the extermination of his clan? He knew everything that happened that night? He knew that he hadn't slaughtered the entire clan out of sheer madness and bloodlust, but to protect him?

No. Now is not the time to think about these things.

Itachi took a deep breath, which lingered in his chest for a moment before he slowly exhaled.

He did his best to maintain the expressionless mask on his face, to keep his eyes cold and distant, and to make his voice sound completely flat.

Who told Sasuke? There are very few people who know the truth about the Uchiha clan massacre—the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo Shimura, and that man who called himself Madara Uchiha.

The Third Hokage is dead. After Danzo Shimura told Sasuke, it was impossible for Sasuke to leave safely. As for Madara Uchiha…

"...Don't you want to talk about it?"

Satsuki's voice rang out again, "Then let me teach you a lesson first. Why did you agree to Shimura Danzo's proposal back then?"

The next moment, in Itachi's sight, a blinding blue-white light suddenly appeared on Sasuke's palm. The light pulsed violently, emitting a sharp sound like thousands of birds chirping at the same time.

Thousand Birds.

"Whoosh—!"

Sasuke's figure shot out in that instant, his hand holding Chidori stabbing straight towards Itachi's chest!

Just as the hand holding Chidori was about to touch his chest, Itachi Uchiha had a precise hand grabbing Satsuki's wrist, the force so great that the hand holding Chidori stopped abruptly in mid-air.

"boom--!!!"

The power of Chidori missed Itachi, instead striking the large tree behind him. The tree exploded in the middle from the impact of the lightning release, sending wood chips and broken branches flying everywhere.

The rumble of falling trees echoed through the woods, startling flocks of birds in the distance.

Itachi Uchiha held Sasuke's wrist with one hand, puzzled as to why Sasuke wasn't using his Mangekyou Sharingan.

While Chidori is undoubtedly a powerful Lightning Release ninjutsu, using it against oneself is incredibly naive. Against the Mangekyou Sharingan, such an attack is utterly ineffective.

What is Sasuke thinking? What is he testing? Or is it...?

"Bang--!"

Uchiha Itachi gave Sasuke no chance to struggle. He tightened his grip on Sasuke's wrist and slammed Sasuke's entire body against the surviving tree trunk next to him.

Then Itachi grabbed Sasuke by the neck with one hand and lifted him up.

"My foolish brother...hasn't he grasped reality yet?"

He slowly raised his other hand, his fingers reaching towards Sasuke's eye socket. The movement was unhurried, with the calm and cruelty of a cat catching a mouse.

"I'll accept these Sharingan eyes..."

He was serious. He was truly prepared to remove Sasuke's Sharingan.

It wasn't a threat, it wasn't intimidation, it wasn't just for show—he really wanted to gouge those eyes out of Sasuke's eye sockets.

Anyway, he was already planning to use his own eyes to awaken Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, so transplantation would be about the same thing.

His fingers touched the edge of Sasuke's eye socket, and his fingertips felt the temperature of the skin and the curvature of the eyeball.

Then--

"Pfft."

That was the sound of flesh being ripped out; Itachi Uchiha's fingers removed something from Sasuke's eye socket.

A Sharingan. The black tomoe slowly rotated against the scarlet background, as beautiful as some kind of forbidden work of art.

Uchiha Itachi lowered his head, looking at the eye he had just removed from his palm. That should be enough. Sasuke should believe that the truth he knew was false. Next, all he had to do was... no.

He suddenly raised his head.

There was no scream. The boy, who was being held up in mid-air by the neck, did not scream, did not struggle in pain, and did not have any violent instinctive reaction due to the loss of his eyes.

He was held there quietly, as if nothing had happened.

Itachi Uchiha's gaze fell on Sasuke's face.

Those eyes—completely intact. Both eyes remained perfectly in their sockets, those eerie Mangekyou Sharingan eyes still turning, coldly watching him.

That's impossible. He just plucked one of Sasuke's eyes out of his own hand, and that eye is still in his palm!

What exactly is this in my palm...?

Is it an illusion?

Uchiha Itachi was horrified to discover that one of his eyes had suddenly lost its sight, and the Sharingan in his hand—he looked down at his palm—was clearly his own!

As a master of illusion, he had always used illusion to manipulate others. But now, he was dragged into an illusion without even realizing it, and he didn't even know when he fell into it.

Uchiha Itachi gasped for breath as the scene before him began to peel away piece by piece, like shattered mirror.

When his vision refocused, he found himself still standing in the same spot. Sasuke hadn't used Chidori at all, and the large tree stood intact in the distance. His fingers touched his eye sockets—his eyes were still there, both of them.

The fear of losing sight and the sensation of holding my own eyeball in my palm were all hallucinations.

"Sasuke...you've gotten stronger."

"Itachi Uchiha said in a low, hoarse voice. He had to admit that Sasuke's newly formed Mangekyou Sharingan was far more powerful than he had imagined—but what he didn't know was that the Mangekyou Sharingan before him was just an illusion created by Sasuke using the Rinne Sharingan with nine tomoe. He simply couldn't fathom the true extent of the power these eyes possessed."

"Hmm, can you answer my question now?" Zuo Yue stood still. "Is this your method of protection? If killing everyone around me would protect me, would you do it?"

Uchiha Itachi fell silent, and the facade of coldness and cruelty on his face finally crumbled.

"It seems you really do know the truth," he spoke, his voice low and slow. "But you can't accept my path, that I killed my parents?"

He laid his cards on the table.

Now that Sasuke knows the truth, and since his genjutsu and lies can no longer be maintained, there is no need to continue the act.

But he had to do one thing—use Kotoamatsukami. He had to completely change Sasuke's will, prevent Sasuke from seeking revenge against Konoha, and ensure that he could return to Konoha and live safely.

This is the result of his sacrifice, and we cannot let it all go to waste at this crucial moment.

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(The previous text has been corrected. Kotoamatsukami was indeed introduced during Naruto's time in Shippuden. Thanks for the reminder.)