A few hours later...
Within the Land of Fire.
The sun blazed overhead. It was summer now.
Cicadas chirped without pause.
And at this sweltering moment...
Something unusual was happening in this basin.
More than a dozen Mist Village Ninjas lay on the ground.
They had come to steal intelligence—or rather, they were enemies who had come to obtain intelligence from Kohinata Mukai.
Uchiha Shisui, Uchiha Itachi, and Kohinata Mukai stood there.
Those dozen or so Mist Village Ninjas had all been defeated by Itachi and Uchiha Shisui.
"Stop resisting and surrender already, Kohinata Mukai! The Hokage is quite lenient toward people who turn themselves in... He probably won't kill you."
Shisui, standing beside Itachi, spoke.
Three tomoe appeared in his Sharingan.
Kohinata seemed not to notice. He merely revealed a mocking smile.
"To have Konoha's genius young prodigy, Uchiha Itachi... and the famous 'Body Flicker Shisui' come to assassinate me—I'm truly honored... You know what I've done, right? So think about it yourself... If I turned myself in, would I really be released without punishment?"
Kohinata spoke as he took a drag from his cigarette.
Cigarettes with filters like this were a new product that had recently emerged in this world.
They were completely different from the old-fashioned tobacco pipe Hiruzen Sarutobi smoked.
The world was advancing, and technology was changing with each passing day.
But some things... remained unchanged throughout the ages.
"Can't be helped..."
Kohinata muttered.
His Chakra suddenly surged by half.
There was only one reason something like this could happen: Kohinata Mukai had released the Shadow Clone he had left hundreds of miles away.
A Shadow Clone's Chakra would flow back into the original body.
Just as Kohinata's Chakra rapidly increased,
Itachi also dispelled the Shadow Clone he had left at Konoha Hospital to monitor