Uncle Itachi

"Loquat... Nagato?" Hearing that name, the little girl smiled like a thornless rose, nearly doubling over with laughter.

She pointed at her bright red dyed hair and said, "I thought you were pretty meticulous. Your clothes, forehead protector, Ninja boots, even your nail polish—they all looked just like his."

"This is what Nagato looks like!"

"But you didn't dye your hair red, and you still want to call yourself Nagato!"

Itachi suddenly understood. Right—the little girl was wearing an Akatsuki cloak and had dyed her hair red. She was pretending to be Nagato.

It was just that she was far too different from Nagato.

"Forget it, if you don't want to tell me your name, then never mind..." The little girl suddenly understood as well. Uchiha Itachi had used Nagato's name not because he was truly pretending to be Nagato, but because he was concealing his real name.

Yet she did not seem bothered by any of that. In her eyes, perhaps there were no bad people in this world—or perhaps, as she had said, no fan of the great writer Jiraiya could be a bad person.

She still tugged on Itachi's sleeve, wanting to take him to the premiere of Jiraiya's movie. With no other choice, Itachi nodded and followed her into a building crowded with people.

Inside, there were more and more people dressed in Akatsuki cloaks, until Uchiha Itachi's eyes began to blur.

Some of them were not even real literary workers, while Jiraiya was the very best among them. Back when Itachi had still worked in the Anbu, Jiraiya's works had already been immensely popular.

He seemed to spot several Nagatos, several Konans, and several Pains—or rather, Yahikos.

It was not until they checked tickets that Uchiha Itachi realized the girl had been stopped outside. It