"Long time no see!"
Uchiha Itachi nodded. His voice was as calm as ever, but his gaze settled on Yo's eyes.
"You've awakened the Three Tomoe Sharingan too. It seems you've been through a lot during the years I was away."
"No!"
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Yo shook his head. "I don't have much talent when it comes to the Sharingan!"
"Until recently, my Sharingan hadn't awakened at all!"
"This Three Tomoe Sharingan was only transplanted into me recently."
"Transplanted?"
Itachi furrowed his brows. "Where did you get the Sharingan?"
When the Uchiha's Sharingan ended up outside the clan and could be transplanted, it often meant something terrible had happened to one of their own.
"Root!"
Yo smiled faintly, his tone carrying a hint of amusement. "Elder Danzo accidentally offended me a while back!"
"To apologize, he specially 'gifted' me a few pairs of Sharingan as compensation. I thought they were pretty good, so I accepted them and forgave him!"
Itachi fell silent.
A gift from Danzo?
As compensation?
There was far too much information packed into those words, and something about it felt bizarre.
Given Danzo's ways and his greed for the Sharingan, how could he possibly give them away for nothing? As an apology, no less?
Danzo had offended Yo?
How had he done that?
Danzo had joined forces with Orochimaru to assassinate the Third Hokage before defecting... Could that incident have had something to do with his younger brother, too?
Itachi had never been able to see through this younger brother of his, even when they were children. Now he realized he understood him even less.
"A lot seems to have happened to you while I was away."
Itachi spoke slowly, testing him. "I wonder how strong you are now... How far have you come?"
After killing his parents and clansmen and bearing everything alone, Itachi had become a walking corpse.
His only reason for living was to wait for his two younger brothers to grow up, kill him, and become heroes of Konoha.
In the end, he would leave them his eyes, helping them obtain the Eternal Mangekyo that would never go blind.
Then he would finally be free!
Yo seemed to have expected him to ask. He looked eager to try. "Talking about it is no fun. Itachi, why don't we... make a bet?"
"What kind of bet?"
"It's simple!"
Yo smiled. "If I can defeat you, you'll give me Uchiha Shisui's left eye. How about it?"
The air froze instantly.
Itachi's pupils contracted sharply, and ripples stirred in his heart!
Shisui's left eye? How did Yo know about it?!
Had Danzo told him?
No, impossible. Even Danzo didn't know where Shisui's left eye was! How had Yo found out?!
Countless questions flooded his mind.
Itachi stared at Yo, trying to read something from his face, but all he saw was a calm, fathomless gaze.
After a long silence, Itachi drew a breath, suppressing his shock and doubts and regaining his outward calm.
He met Yo's eyes and clearly uttered a single word:
"Fine!"
Just then,
a green figure, swift as a whirlwind, suddenly appeared in the clearing.
"Kakashi! I'm late! Hm? What's this...?"
When Might Guy saw Uchiha Itachi and Kisame Hoshigaki opposite him, his thick brows drew together, and he immediately assumed a fighting stance.
At the same time, he lowered his head, avoiding Itachi's eyes and staring instead at the ground.
"Teacher Kai, you're just in time! Please look after Kakashi-sensei. I'll handle things here!"
Guy looked from Yo to Uchiha Itachi, then nodded firmly.
"Leave it to you, Yo! Show these two suspicious characters the fire of Konoha's youth!"
He carried Kakashi on his back and quickly led Asuma and Kurenai to a safe distance, keeping a wary eye on the fight.
Yo turned back to Uchiha Itachi and rolled his wrists.
"Now that the bystanders have cleared out, let's go, Itachi!"
"Let me see just how much stronger you've become after defecting from Konoha and roaming the world these past few years!"
Uchiha Itachi: "..."
Talk about getting things backward.
I'm the older brother who's been away from home for years. I'm supposed to be checking how you've grown, little brother.
How did it turn into you testing your older brother's strength?
Though he felt like making a sarcastic remark, Itachi's expression remained unchanged.
He said no more, simply raising his hand and flinging several shuriken.
Their trajectories were tricky, cutting off Yo's escape routes to either side.
If he was going to assess his younger brother's strength, he couldn't start with Tsukuyomi.
Taijutsu, basic ninja tools, ordinary ninjutsu, resistance to illusion techniques...
He needed to test them all one by one.
Seeing this, Yo threw several kunai as well, precisely striking Itachi's shuriken with a series of sharp clinks.
But Itachi's shuriken-throwing technique was clearly superior.
Deflected by the impact, the shuriken changed course slightly and continued flying toward Yo.
Yo didn't keep trading ninja tools. He knew he couldn't match Itachi at that kind of technical skill.
He blurred and vanished from where he stood, dodging every shuriken.
The next instant,
he appeared diagonally in front of Itachi and drove a punch toward his ribs.
Itachi seemed to have anticipated it. He sidestepped, blocked, and counterattacked in one smooth sequence, without a wasted motion.
Their figures crossed rapidly, the sound of fists and feet colliding ringing out without pause.
Yo's taijutsu was fierce and direct, simple, brutal, and powerful.
Itachi's was precise and efficient, every movement perfectly measured.
With the smallest possible motions and effort, he deflected each attack and returned one of his own.
In just a dozen seconds, the two had exchanged dozens of blows. On the surface, they seemed evenly matched, neither able to get the upper hand.
"His taijutsu fundamentals are solid, and his speed and strength are frightening. Yo clearly hasn't neglected his training!"
Itachi assessed him silently. "Then... let's try an illusion technique!"
His Sharingan flashed faintly.
Illusion Technique: Hanging Seal Technique!
An invisible wave of spiritual energy quietly swept toward Yo.
It was one of the Sharingan's basic illusion techniques, capable of restraining an opponent's mind and making them feel as though their body had been pinned in place by stakes.
But the Three Tomoe Sharingan in Yo's left eye began spinning rapidly as well.
"Pathetic trick!"
A red gleam blazed in Yo's eye.
The illusion that had invaded his mind struck an iron wall. The stronger ocular power directly swept it aside and dispelled it.
The transplanted Sharingan had also given him powerful resistance to ordinary illusion techniques and the ability to break them.
Of course,
an illusion on the level of Tsukuyomi was another matter.
"His resistance to illusion techniques is strong, too. It seems Yo has already learned to use the Sharingan, and is quite proficient with it!"
Itachi's eyes shifted slightly. He wasn't surprised. While Yo was breaking the illusion, his hands were already weaving signs at high speed.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!
A blazing fireball roared toward Yo.
Yo reacted swiftly. He began forming hand signs at the same time as Itachi.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!
BOOM!!!
The two enormous fireballs crashed into each other above the lake, erupting in a deafening roar.
Blinding flames soared into the sky, and scorching waves of heat swept out in every direction, raising clouds of white mist over the water.
When the flames finally subsided,
the brothers faced each other from a distance.
Itachi looked at Yo, whose expression remained calm in the firelight. At last, a trace of solemnity appeared in his eyes.
That Fire Release just now...
His speed in forming hand signs, chakra output, and the power of the technique were all far beyond what one would expect from a twelve-year-old boy.
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