Gift, Then?

A subtle current of air swirled back and forth between the two of them. Just as even the birds in the trees and ants on the ground began to think the pair were about to start fighting the next second, Itachi suddenly spoke:

"What about my gift?"

Clang!

Aoba nearly toppled over backward. He had already prepared all sorts of skills, and this guy still had the nerve to shamelessly ask for a gift?

"No!"

He replied with two ill-tempered words.

"You said in your letter that if I found you, there would be a reward—a gift."

Aoba froze for a moment. Thinking about it carefully, it seemed he had indeed said something like that.

But since when did people ask for gifts outright?

Itachi, you've changed.

You're not the Itachi I know!

"What I said in the letter was that I might give you a gift. I never said there definitely would be one. Did you misunderstand something?"

Aoba stressed the point awkwardly.

He had originally planned to give Itachi the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan as a gift, but Orochimaru had been somewhat useless. Even after all this time, he still had not figured it out and remained stuck at the Mangekyō Sharingan stage.

On top of that, Aoba had not expected Itachi to be so stubborn. He had actually found him after four whole years.

As expected, everyone from the Uchiha Clan was mentally abnormal!

"Is that so? What a pity. I was actually looking forward to it."

Hey!

What was with that disappointed look?

Was he trying to make Aoba feel guilty?

The Itachi Aoba knew had never used so many tricks!

That's enough!

After ranting wildly in his mind, Aoba awkwardly looked away, scratched his nose, and said, "Fine, you win. But the gift isn't ready yet.