Battle Against Uchiha Itachi

"Uchiha Itachi, what are you doing? As the Clan Head's son and the Uchiha Clan's Young Clan Head, you're slaughtering your own Clan Members. Are you worthy of the Uchiha Clan that gave birth to you and raised you?"

As the fire dragon vanished, Minagawa Uchiha, who had just arrived, came into view. His Three Tomoe Sharingan blazed with fury as he shouted his accusations, an intimidating aura radiating from his body.

"You're... Minagawa Uchiha? How is that possible?"

Even Uchiha Itachi, hailed as a genius ninja, showed obvious surprise as he asked uncertainly.

Minagawa Uchiha had displayed remarkable talent early on and earned a reputation as a genius, so Uchiha Itachi naturally knew him.

But as far as he knew, Minagawa Uchiha was merely an ordinary genius. Even if he matured, he would at most become an Elite Jonin—unless he had a chance to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Yet now, he saw with his own eyes that Minagawa Uchiha had Not Only awakened the Three Tomoe Sharingan, but also possessed such powerful chakra.

Thus, Uchiha Itachi could not help being surprised. Minagawa Uchiha was still attending the Ninja Academy and was only eleven years old, yet his talent was so formidable that he was hardly much weaker than Itachi himself.

But why had he kept such a low profile, only revealing his strength now? There might be some other scheme behind this.

With that thought, Uchiha Itachi released a burst of killing intent.

Ignoring Uchiha Itachi's surprise, Minagawa Uchiha locked his gaze firmly onto him and questioned him again.

"What did they ever do to offend you that you would kill your own Clan Members? Answer me."

"There are even helpless children and elderly people among them. How could they possibly hinder you? And these civilians who do not even possess chakra—you could bring yourself to kill them too? Who gave you the right to disregard human life?"

Although Minagawa Uchiha had long prepared himself for the fact that casualties could not be avoided, seeing the children, elderly people, and defenseless civilians lying on the ground still filled him with burning rage.

When Uchiha Itachi still did not respond and continued to watch him with an indifferent expression, without even sparing an extra glance for the Clan Members he had killed, Minagawa Uchiha grew even angrier and stopped pretending to be civil.

"Was it the Third Hokage? Or that laughable Will of Fire of yours? Did your Will of Fire teach you to murder civilians? To treat other people's lives like a joke? Or are you simply a heartless, ungrateful bastard? Where did your strength come from? How did you survive to this age? You ate the Uchiha Clan's food and went to be Sarutobi Hiruzen's dog—no one stopped you. But then you turned around and bit the Clan Members who gave birth to you and raised you. You're worse than a pig or a dog!"

After venting all the pent-up anger in his heart in one breath, Minagawa Uchiha felt even more enraged. He desperately wanted to cut open Uchiha Itachi and Obito Uchiha's chests to see whether their hearts were black, for them to commit such utterly deranged acts.

Even when Nezha committed a crime and hated Li Jing, he still knew to return his bones to his father and his flesh to his mother. These two bastards took all the kindness they had received for granted. That was simply unacceptable.

Seeing this, the surrounding Uchiha Clan Members joined in condemning them.

"That's right, Uchiha Itachi! You madman, why don't you just die? As the Young Clan Head, you peacefully enjoyed everything here, and this is how you treat the Clan Members who raised you to this point? Are you even human?"

"And this Masked Man—didn't your Sharingan come from the Uchiha Clan? Did you crawl out of a rock? Without the Uchiha Clan, where would you be today? You're utterly worse than pigs and dogs."

"Ah! Uchiha Itachi, you killed My Son! He was only three years old! What did he do wrong? He didn't understand anything yet! How could you be so cruel? Do you have any conscience at all?"

"..."

Faced with the condemnation of the surrounding Clan Members, Uchiha Itachi wavered slightly. But soon, a sharp glint flashed in his eyes, and his expression hardened as cold words left his lips.

"I'm sorry. In order to keep the Uchiha Clan from bearing the name of rebellion, for Konoha's stability, and for peace in the Ninja World, I must do this. Rest in peace."

The moment he finished speaking, Uchiha Itachi appeared before Minagawa Uchiha in an instant. The blade in his hand swept across the young Uchiha genius's neck at extreme speed.

"Hm? What happened?"

Feeling the sensation through his blade, the dynamic vision of his Mangekyō Sharingan immediately confirmed that he had indeed struck his opponent's neck. Yet the weightless sensation told him that the attack had been ineffective.

As doubt rose in his heart, Uchiha Itachi caught sight of Minagawa Uchiha's fist from the corner of his eye. It was already right before him.

Too late!

Uchiha Itachi only had time to form a hand seal.

Bang!

The next instant, the sound of flesh being struck heavily reached everyone's ears. Uchiha Itachi's body slammed rapidly into the wall behind him, only to burst apart into a sky full of crows that scattered in every direction.

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!

Seeing this, Minagawa Uchiha knew it was Uchiha Itachi's signature Crow Substitution. Those crows would soon gather again to form Uchiha Itachi, so he directly spat out an enormous Great Fireball that engulfed every crow in sight.

In an instant, before they could even cry out, large numbers of crows were scorched black, their corpses littering the ground. Yet Uchiha Itachi was nowhere to be seen. Just as Minagawa Uchiha searched for his trace—

Boom!

The ground beneath Minagawa Uchiha exploded, and flames shot skyward. Although he had not reacted in time, his Intangibility had remained active, leaving him unharmed. He immediately used Body Flicker to leave the spot, then turned back to look at the now-injured Uchiha Itachi.

"Hmph, Uchiha Itachi, is that all the strength you have? You want to Destroy the Uchiha Clan? What a foolish dream!"

Having steadied himself again, Minagawa Uchiha sneered and directly exposed their objective, hoping to disrupt Uchiha Itachi's state and create an opening to attack.

But to Minagawa Uchiha's speechlessness, Uchiha Itachi showed no emotional fluctuation such as distraction. Instead, he bent lower and became even more vigilant.

"So that's it. You already knew the purpose of our operation? And with this kind of strength, along with the method you used to evade my earlier attack... though it seems unbelievable, if we discard every impossibility, then you must be the Masked Man who has been impersonating Uchiha Madara and causing chaos throughout Konoha."

"I never expected that you, who usually never drew attention to yourself, had already awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. Even so, you remained in the Ninja Academy without any intention of exposing your strength. So you are the one who has hidden himself most deeply within the Uchiha Clan. In that case, you must be plotting something enormous. I will end your scheme here."

From the moment he discovered Minagawa Uchiha's Three Tomoe Sharingan and powerful chakra, Uchiha Itachi had been suspicious. His sudden sneak attack afterward had indeed struck a Ninja Academy student who lacked real combat experience, yet his opponent had evaded it with something like Space-Time Ninjutsu. Combined with Minagawa Uchiha exposing the purpose of their operation in a single sentence, Uchiha Itachi had confirmed his identity.