The One Who Should Not Exist

The One Who Should Not Exist. Beneath the night sky, pale moonlight shone upon the face of the Uchiha Clan member who had captured him.

Combined with that wicked smile, he looked utterly sinister. Senju Itama, already timid by nature, could not stop trembling. With his mouth stuffed by something foreign, he could only let out muffled whimpers.

"Senju Kid, if I were you, I'd hurry up and eat while you still can."

The Uchiha "demon" before him spoke after rolling his Dead Fish Eyes.

Hearing that, Senju Itama instinctively licked the thing in his mouth, and his tongue was met with a salty, savory taste.

Then he bit down hard and found that it could be chewed. After chewing it a few times, he realized that his mouth had been stuffed with jerky.

Having gone two days without food or water, Senju Itama did not care whether the enemy's food was poisoned. He wolfed it down and quickly swallowed a large piece of jerky.

After finishing it, he smacked his lips and asked eagerly,

"Is there any more?"

Hearing such shameless words from his prisoner, a vein popped on Uchiha Gin's forehead. He gave the boy's black-and-white head a sharp flick.

"Kid, haven't you figured out the situation?"

"The Senju Clan will never be slaves! If you've got the guts, kill me! My father and brother will avenge me." Senju Itama remained unyielding.

Looking at the little boy's expression of fearless resolve, Uchiha Gin, who had wanted to tease him some more, suddenly found it all rather dull.

He had siblings in his previous life too. A boy Senju Itama's age would probably have spent his days watching cartoons, eating snacks, and enjoying a carefree, happy childhood. Yet in this era, children so young were already killing or being killed on the battlefield.

"What a hateful era."

Uchiha Gin spoke with a heavy heart.

After all, just a few days ago, he had still been a modern man with normal values. There was no way he could be assimilated into this era overnight. Wouldn't a protagonist who adapted to new rules the moment he transmigrated be far too strange? "Huh? What did you say? Let me tell you, I won't reveal a single word about my clan's information!"

Senju Itama, assuming that his captor wanted to interrogate him for information about the Senju Clan, continued speaking stubbornly. His young face carried a maturity that did not belong to his age.

"What a presumptuous little brat."

Uchiha Gin suddenly looked down at him, his gaze radiating a chilling aura. Senju Itama's scalp prickled beneath that stare, but the pride in his Senju bloodline made him stubbornly meet the Uchiha's eyes.

"Good eyes. We won't take your life for now, but don't even think about running away."

"..."

"And don't think about killing yourself either. If you die, we'll just go capture your brother instead."

"!!!"

Seeing the devouring look in the boy's eyes, Uchiha Gin slowly crouched down, leaned closer, and softly whispered into his ear, "Kid, you wouldn't want your brother to be captured because of you, would you?"

Like the whispers of an Old God, those words threw Senju Itama's mind into chaos. The will to resist that had just risen within him was instantly shattered.

"I hope you cooperate properly. The Uchiha Clan has always treated prisoners well. Maybe we'll even spare your life in the end," Uchiha Gin continued to coax him, having misspoken.

"Can you guarantee that?" After a moment of silence, Senju Itama raised his head, his little face full of determination.

"I swear upon the honor of the Uchiha ancestors." After all, Old Ancestor was currently hiding inside that brat Uchiha Madara's body, so Uchiha Gin felt no burden whatsoever about swearing on his name.

"Achoo." A spiky-haired boy practicing stone-skipping by the river suddenly felt a chill run down his back and sneezed violently.

Beside him, a mushroom-haired boy was teaching him how to throw a stone to the opposite bank. Seeing him suddenly sneeze, he asked with concern,

"Are you all right? Don't rush just because you can't throw it across. You need to find that feeling of pulling upward."

"It's all because you weird guy are standing behind me! I'm the kind of super-sensitive person who can't even pee when someone's standing behind me!"

"Sorry..."

The mushroom-haired boy, having been scolded, dejectedly sat down on the ground.

The entwined pair, their fated meeting—the age of ninja began to unfold from that moment onward.

Senju Itama compromised. The other side now had a hold over him, and being so young, he could not analyze whether the other party's words were true or false as well as his precocious second brother, Tobirama Senju.

If Uchiha Gin had said those words to Tobirama Senju, he probably would not have lived to see the next day's sun.

Since Senju Itama had willingly cooperated, Uchiha Gin removed the Iron Chain from him. After all, carrying the kid while traveling was already troublesome, and the chain weighing more than ten pounds was a burden as well.

Putting it back into a scroll greatly reduced his load. Afterward, he simply tied Senju Itama's hands with rope.

He definitely could not let the other side sleep in the tent, so Uchiha Gin marked out an open space behind it and drove in a wooden stake. He tied Senju Itama to it the same way Kakashi had tied Naruto up during Team 7's first test.

Having settled everything, Uchiha Gin felt somewhat tired. It was time to return to the tent and rest.

As he considered how to fool Uchiha Dairou into "fighting" him tomorrow so he could farm some Heart Energy from a Heartsteel Chest, he stretched lazily.

Just as he was about to circle around the open space behind the tent and head back inside, he suddenly felt the surrounding Aura freeze. He sensed someone watching him from behind.

He instinctively turned to glance at the stake where Senju Itama had been tied. In the pitch-black night, a figure stood silently atop the stake, while Senju Itama, who had been tied to it, had already vanished.

"Enemy attack!"

Uchiha Gin's pupils contracted violently. This Mysterious Person had appeared silently within their camp and had even escaped the notice of Uchiha FengHuo's Three Tomoe Sharingan.

His first instinct was to shout a warning and Call Out to the nearby Uchiha, but a beam of moonlight fell, revealing the other party's figure.

As the veil of darkness slowly lifted from the other person, the words Uchiha Gin had been about to shout caught in his throat.

The person before him left Uchiha Gin, who had barely been surprised since transmigrating here, feeling as though he had been struck by lightning. A chill rose from his heels to his scalp. As the moonlight fully passed through that Black Shadow, Uchiha Gin dryly revealed the newcomer's identity.

"Uchiha Itachi... Impossible. You shouldn't exist in this era. Could it be the Dragon Pulse?"

The black-haired young man in a Black-Red Cloud Outfit stood there silently with his eyes closed. His pale, handsome face bore two deep lines beside his nose, and upon his forehead was a Headband that did not belong to this era, its slash clearly visible.

Having followed Hokage for years in his previous life, Uchiha Gin recognized him at a glance. He was the indispensable man in the life of the original work's female protagonist, Uchiha Sasuke—Uchiha Itachi.

Even amid his shock, Uchiha Gin could not help but speculate. Could it be that Akatsuki had also discovered the Dragon Pulse deep within Rōran, and Uchiha Itachi had been sent to this era by it? Seeing that Uchiha Itachi neither spoke nor moved, Uchiha Gin was about to Call Out to Uchiha FengHuo and the others.

At that moment, the young man atop the stake slowly opened his eyes. A pair of Sharingan shaped like Shuriken emitted a faint glow.

Something bizarre happened around Uchiha Gin. The white moon in the sky seemed to vanish.

A scarlet Full Moon rose at the horizon, and the entire space around him became saturated with blood-red light. A suffocating aura rushed toward him.

In that instant of distraction, Uchiha Gin felt as though he had been hoisted high into the air. By the time he blinked again, he was bound to a Cross.

"Blood Moon, Cross... Could this be...?"

Having come back to his senses, Uchiha Gin was too shocked to speak. He had seen all of this in books, but this was the first time he had experienced it himself.

Genjutsu: Tsukuyomi

Uchiha Gin looked around. One Uchiha Itachi after another slowly appeared, each holding a Samurai Sword. One of them said expressionlessly,

"In the world of Tsukuyomi, space, time, and mass are all under my control. For the next seventy-two hours... I will keep stabbing you with a blade."

With one sound after another of blade tips piercing flesh, Uchiha Gin's helpless, miserable screams filled the entire Tsukuyomi Space.

Uchiha Gin, who in his previous life had made a huge fuss over even a scraped knee, was on the verge of collapse.

Even though he knew it was Genjutsu, every slash that landed on his body brought real pain. Each stab made his entire body tremble.

The nature of the Genjutsu Space prevented him from passing out from the pain. He could only watch helplessly as the bloody holes that had healed just moments ago were pierced by sharp blades again.

Uchiha Gin wept and sobbed from the agony, even losing control of his bowels and bladder. He did not know how long it had been when, just as he felt the time should be up, a ghostly voice sounded beside his ear:

"Seventy-one hours remain."

"Aaaaaaahhh!!!" Uchiha Gin's wails continued.