“I don’t plan on being Danzo’s pawn forever.”
“He does not care about your desires. For him, the most important things are what he should do, and how he should be.”
“So, a stalemate.” Itachi looked up at Sugaru. “Then there’s only one way to resolve this.” His sharingan glittered.
“That sort of thing has no effect on me.”
“Not on you.” Itachi concentrated his chakra, and boosted his sharingan to the Mangekyo sharingan. He was conscious of the eyes of the insects in Sugaru’s body, too many to count.
He felt a dull pain in his right eye. It was because he had been overusing the sharingan ever since that night.
“You said that you’re always watching me. But you’re only one person. You eat and sleep. So who’s watching me, then?”
“No need to speak in such a roundabout manner … Oh … ”
“It seems you’ve noticed.”
Something seemed to be wrong with Sugaru, floating in space. It looked like he was desperately fighting something, his body jerking and twitching.
“Did you think I hadn’t noticed the insects watching over me?”
“Impossible … The Mangekyo sharingan on my kochu insects … ”
“By sharing your chakra, you assimilate what the insects have seen into your own experience. It’s a more effective method than Shadow Clones.”
The sound of wings disappeared from within Sugaru. At the same time, his body, suddenly gaining gravity, was sucked down to the surface of the earth. Unable to control his body, Sugaru plunged into the ground headfirst, incapable of even landing.
“Ngh. Unh unh unh.” Sugaru’s injured vocal cords emitted a real groan.
Itachi looked down on him coolly. “This is for Shisui.”
“W-wait … ”
“Amaterasu,” he murmured.
A black flame sprouted on Sugaru’s shoulder. The strange blaze spread, in the blink of an eye, to swallow his entire body. As if trying to abandon their burning host, the insects fled from every hole, but they were all caught up in the dark blaze.
“This fire will not go out until whatever I’m looking at has completely burned up. I won’t let even one of the insects nesting in you escape.”
Sugaru’s cries of agony rang out through the forest. Around him, insects buzzed and fluttered, shrouded in dark flames. They looked almost like black fireflies that bloomed in the daytime.
“I still can’t believe it,” her former teammate said, staring into the teacup in her hand; Shinko let out a sigh, turning a sympathetic gaze her way. “I mean, that that Itachi would do something like that.” A tear spilled out of Himuka’s eyes, and a small ripple rose up on the surface of the light green liquid in her cup.
“I can’t believe it, neither, but facts’re facts.”
“But, senpai!”
“I’m not yer senpai no more! Quit with calling me that already.”
“It’s just—”
“C’mon, have a dumpling and feel better.” Shinko offered Himuka one of the sweet bean dumplings set out on the bench.
“Thank you,” the other girl said, as she took a skewer of the tiny round treats, opened her tiny mouth as wide as she could, and stuffed a dumpling in. “It’s really good,” she said, smiling.
Shinko smiled back as she turned toward the road, and looked up at the sky. A single bird danced in the clear blue. It was a strange bird, carving out circles in the sky like a hawk or an eagle.
“So, like, I sorta kinda get it, ya know.”
“What’s that?” Himuka asked, popping another dumpling in her mouth.
“That kid mighta been six years younger ‘an me, but he was way more grownup,” Shinko answered, still looking up at the sky.
“I know what you mean. I mean, I’m older than him, but I just naturally ended up calling him ‘Master Itachi.’”
“An’ he had all kinds of annoying things he was carryin’ around, so I think maybe he just reached his limit, yeah? I mean, I heard he even killed that cute girl he brought here that one time. He’s not the sort of kid to do that. Not that Itachi.”
If they kept talking, she’d start crying, too. Shinko desperately pushed back the hot thing welling up in her chest.
“I suppose you’re right. So, he did have a girlfriend, after all,” Himuka murmured, head hanging.
As if to banish her tears, Shinko turned around forcefully. “So, like, that mean you fancied Itachi, then?”
“N-no, that’s—”
“Not gonna be straight with me, hm?” She sprang at Himuka, and poked her in the side.
Her former junior teammate began laughing.
Shinko murmured, too quietly to be heard, “It’s all right. I get it … ” She was casually wiping away the tears that leaked from her eyes once more, when she heard the voice of the owner calling from inside the shop.
Whatever happened, life still went on.
“Did you take care of that little annoyance?”
Itachi nodded silently at the man sitting on the enormous stump. They were on a rocky mountain near the border between nations. The trees around them were neatly felled, revealing the bare earth. The wind gusted ceaselessly across the desolate landscape. Withstanding these gusts that threatened to blow him away, Itachi stood facing the man in the mask.
“So, then, what will you do?” The mask covering the man’s face, patterned after a vortex, turned toward Itachi. The round hole in the area of the man’s right eye stared at him.
Uchiha Madara.
“I’m an S-rank criminal. No matter where I go, people will be after me.”
“Did you think about what we talked about before? I should think it would be quite convenient to protect a wanted man like you.”
“Right … ”
“I’ll introduce you to a truly interesting man,” Madara said, and turned his face toward empty space.
“Right. Call him.” He appeared to be talking with someone via chakra. “It’s been a while, hm? There’s just someone I want you to meet. Right. Oh, go through Pain, and send your chakra here. Align your chakra with Pain.”
Madara looked at Itachi once more. “He’s here.”
A rainbow-colored wave rose up in the nothingness next to the stump Madara was sitting on. It shimmered and shook fiercely for a while, but then gradually took on the shape of a human, until finally becoming the clear figure of a man. A man Itachi had seen before.