This Child Must Not Be Allowed to Live!

A few minutes later, Uchiha Izumi left the courtyard carrying an empty basket and returned to her own home next door.

Shazo burped and looked toward the shade in the corner of the courtyard.

With undisguised distaste, he said, "You're the first person to enter my courtyard without permission."

"Uchiha Itachi, you really are a rude little brat."

Thirteen-year-old Uchiha Itachi emerged from the shadows. Yet even after stepping into the sunlight, he continued to exude an icy, deathly aura, as though he himself were a shadow.

Fourteen-year-old Shazo sat beneath the tree, still looking directly at Uchiha Itachi. His eyes were filled with disgust, as if he were looking at a pile of trash.

Uchiha Itachi was rather surprised that he had not received the fear he expected.

For some reason, he suddenly asked, "What should I do to save the Uchiha Clan?"

Shazo was stunned. "Huh? You're asking me?"

This bastard had definitely followed Uchiha Izumi to find his house. That basically made him a stalker, a hundred times worse than any blond, ghost-faced brat!

If there hadn't been ninja following this guy, Shazo would have loved to get up and beat him to death right now.

Following someone was disgusting enough, yet he had actually shown himself openly and then asked, for no reason at all, how to save the Uchiha Clan.

Looking at Uchiha Itachi, Shazo felt that the boy was completely incomprehensible, like his brain had been flooded.

Uchiha Itachi was troubled and distracted, failing to notice the fleeting killing intent in Shazo's eyes.

He was also an extreme caste supremacist, always focusing only on those above him while ignoring those beneath him. He did not care in the slightest about Shazo's disgust and displeasure.

Uchiha Itachi continued on his own, "Izumi always says you're the smartest person in Konoha, so I came to ask you. Maybe you really have an answer?"

Shazo sneered. "What a rude child. I hate you. Please leave my home."

He would not answer any of Uchiha Itachi's questions. With that freakish way of thinking, even the most correct answer could be twisted into something else, and then the blame would be placed on the person who answered.

A flicker of anger surfaced in Uchiha Itachi's eyes, but it was immediately suppressed.

Lowering his head, he apologized without any emotional fluctuation. "Sorry, I was presumptuous. I'll leave now."

Shazo felt his skin crawl, his heart filled with disgust and irritation.

This was Shazo's first direct encounter with Uchiha Itachi, and it shocked him deeply.

The clingy weirdo he had learned about through Izumi, the godlike Itachi he had learned about through anime, the genius his classmates and teachers spoke of—all those images crumbled apart.

In the end, those fragments of impression came together, forming a lost and mad monster that could pose a fatal threat to him and everyone he cared about at any time.

The killing intent in Shazo's heart gradually thickened. Uchiha Itachi was only thirteen, yet he could suppress his emotions so completely. It was clear that his mind was as deep as an abyss.

Then Shazo thought of the terrifying slaughter Itachi was about to carry out, and of his two years of constant harassment and pursuit of Uchiha Izumi. A thought took shape in his heart.

This child absolutely cannot be allowed to live!

After the Uchiha Clan massacre, I'll intercept and kill him.

Having made his decision, Shazo closed his eyes and continued studying the transformation into a Death God, as well as the various kinds of soul knowledge taught by the Central Spirit Arts Academy.

Although this knowledge differed greatly from the rules of the Ninja World, it still opened a door for Shazo, allowing him to glimpse the mysteries of the human heart and soul.

As he absorbed the knowledge of Death Gods, Shazo increasingly found his hands itching, eager to put it into practice.

That night, rather than training Wood Release or Swift Style, Shazo quietly made his way to the civilian residential district.

To his surprise, the Anbu ninja monitoring Naruto Uzumaki had increased in number tonight. There were two full squads, six Anbu ninja in total.

Moreover, the auras of these six Anbu ninja were steady and profound. The weakest among them was actually a Special Jonin, far stronger than the Anbu ninja previously assigned to surveillance.

Their concealment techniques were also more sophisticated. If Shazo had not been especially familiar with the environment here and systematically checked the locations suitable for surveillance, he would surely have been noticed the moment he discovered them.

Clearly, the Third Hokage had learned his lesson from Nine-Tails Night and was taking precautions against the Uchiha Clan targeting the Jinchuriki, using the Sharingan to hypnotize the Nine-Tails and turn it into a weapon.

Shazo clicked his tongue, knowing he would not be able to make direct contact with Naruto today.

However, he did not care much. His purpose today was to test a Death God's abilities. Physical distance did not hinder closeness between souls.

Unless one of these six Anbu ninja had cultivated the Soul Transformation Technique, they would not notice anything he did.

Shazo chose an apartment building, climbed to the top floor, and hid in a resident's attic.

Lying down in the attic, Shazo closed his eyes and focused completely as he controlled his chakra to flow slowly, forming strange runes that placed layer upon layer of restraints upon his soul.

More and more runes appeared, gradually gathering into a black Shinigami uniform that covered Shazo's manifested, solidified soul body, temporarily transforming his soul into a Death God.

There were now two apartment buildings between Shazo and Naruto Uzumaki, but the straight-line distance was only eighty meters, well within the range of the Spirit of the Shinigami.

After entering the Spirit of the Shinigami state, walls and other matter became translucent in Shazo's eyes, while the souls of living people appeared in his vision like tiny lamps.

The Spirit of the Shinigami immediately found Naruto Uzumaki amid the densely packed flames of souls.

His soul flame was enormous, three to four times larger than an ordinary person's. Even the Jonin and Special Jonin of the Anbu monitoring him were less than half his size.

Naruto Uzumaki's soul flame not only burned intensely, but also shone with a sunlike golden color, radiating a warm, infectious glow.

The Spirit of the Shinigami took a step forward and arrived beside Naruto's soul flame.

Upon examining it more closely from nearby, Shazo discovered several more illusory soul flames surrounding Naruto's soul. At its core was an imprisoned orange soul flame.

That orange soul flame was bound by dense chains of runes, yet it still extended eight illusory tentacles into an unseen void.

The Nine-Tails. Kurama.

Shazo nodded and controlled the Spirit of the Shinigami to extend his right hand, gently tapping Naruto Uzumaki's soul flame and projecting his consciousness into the soul.

According to the shared memories of Shinigami Xiazhuo, Shazo did not enter Naruto's mind directly. Instead, he entered his dream and guided it into turbulence.

Only when the turbulence in the dream overlapped with a moment within his heart did Shazo use the dream as a springboard to enter Naruto Uzumaki's inner world.

This was the standard procedure for probing the mind, developed by Death Gods over thousands of years to minimize the danger to both sides.

The standard procedure avoided direct contact between minds. Not only could it prevent the target's soul from collapsing, but it could also prevent the investigator from being killed in return by dangers lurking within the other person's mind.

The mind was the strangest, most magnificent, and most indescribable thing in existence. Even an ordinary person might harbor terrifying mental monsters within their heart.

Before this standard procedure was developed, countless living people and Living Souls had died during Death God investigations, and innumerable Death Gods had fallen within the minds of mortals.