"At last, you looked over without any guard up."
The black, violent lightning kept shrinking within his chest, gradually weakening as if exhausted, slowly dissipating into the hole in his chest. With stiff movements, Blood Moon Silver Robe slowly straightened up and murmured as though relieved of a burden.
In truth, from the very beginning, Blood Moon Silver Robe—no, Uchiha Nobuhiko—had not been certain whether he could control the Hada Ichiba before him.
After all, among those Konoha had drawn into these Chunin Exams, this Hada Ichiba was the one most likely to be Taki Chiba.
Whether in combat strength, intelligence, or even personality, he was the closest to Taki Chiba.
Even though he acted as if he had no idea he was Taki Chiba, as though he were simply someone who resembled Taki Chiba somewhat.
But precisely because of that—because he presented himself as merely someone somewhat similar to Taki Chiba—it was all the more likely that he was Taki Chiba.
For Taki Chiba, who was accustomed to exploiting human psychology, this vague sense of resemblance and difference was more likely to lead people into making the wrong judgment.
Taki Chiba might even have deliberately made Hada Ichiba look exactly like his younger self. Beyond misleading people, there was probably an element of intimidation involved as well.
After all, among the memories of his countless centuries, the young Taki Chiba had been the only one to defeat him.
He had even been the first person to take power from him.
Hada Ichiba's identical appearance to the young Taki Chiba could confuse him, but it could also influence him through that face and make him pay excessive attention to Hada Ichiba.
However, he was no longer the person he had once been. Over the past dozen years, he had sorted