When Uchiha Itachi Found the Diary

But this Diary was anything but ordinary. It had fallen from the sky, appearing out of nowhere right before him.

Uchiha Itachi was certain that this was not some space-time ninjutsu, nor could anyone have concealed themselves from his senses.

When Uchiha Itachi opened it, his vision immediately blurred. His eyesight had worsened again. Although he had been trying to restrain himself from using the Sharingan too often, it could not be completely avoided.

Within the Akatsuki, ordinary missions did not require them to act. Beyond Akatsuki's Outer Circle were even more peripheral organizations.

The missions that required their involvement were generally extremely troublesome. Sometimes, they even had to recruit Kage Level Rogue Ninja into the organization. That was hardly an easy task.

No matter how cautiously he used the Sharingan, the deterioration of his eyesight was unavoidable.

Thinking of this gave him a headache. He hurriedly found some medicine and swallowed it, suppressing the discomfort in his body.

No, he could not fall yet. Sasuke was still too young. He had only just graduated from the Ninja Academy.

He was still far from being able to protect himself. Without the support of the clan, no matter how talented Sasuke was, he could not possibly compare to what Itachi had been back then.

Before long, he had to find a way to return to Konoha.

For one thing, he needed to reveal as much of the intelligence he had gathered over the years as possible to Konoha's senior officials. At the same time, he needed to warn certain senior officials in Konoha so they would not lay a hand on Sasuke.

He loved Konoha deeply and had even been willing to slaughter his entire clan for it, but that did not mean he fully trusted Konoha's senior officials. He knew just how sinister a man named Danzo was, a man whose name could not be openly spoken.

Sasuke could not contend with him at all right now. He would have difficulty even protecting himself.

Kitahara Kaede!

Uchiha Itachi strained to make out the name.

The beginning of the Diary was entirely Kitahara Kaede's personal rambling. There seemed to be nothing special about its entries, but soon, he saw information that caught his interest.

Uzumaki Naruto!

Unlike Second Pillar, who knew absolutely nothing about the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox inside Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Itachi knew very clearly what Naruto carried within him.

One of Akatsuki's objectives was to gather the nine Tailed Beasts, and Uzumaki Naruto was the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, the strongest of the nine Tailed Beasts.

But Konoha had kept this information tightly sealed. At the very least, it was not something an ordinary Chunin should know.

There was something strange about this Kitahara Kaede.

Then he saw the crucial information: the Konoha Crush Plan.

Connecting it with the information before and after, he immediately reached a conclusion. Orochimaru was going to invade Konoha and carry out a Konoha Crush Plan.

He had fought Orochimaru before. More accurately, he had instantly defeated the man the moment they met, the man who had dared covet the Sharingan. Orochimaru had seemed completely helpless before him.

But Uchiha Itachi also understood something. He did not know exactly what was going on, but there was something very wrong with Orochimaru. Otherwise, if he had been a normal Kage Level ninja, Itachi could not possibly have defeated him in an instant.

He was not that powerful. Moreover, that had been with the enhancement of the Mangekyō Sharingan. If Orochimaru used ordinary ninjutsu, probably only the Third Hokage's family in all of Konoha could fight him.

Although he did not know the full extent of Orochimaru's plan, Orochimaru was definitely not someone who acted without purpose.

Since he had prepared this plan, he had clearly accounted for every possible circumstance.

No, he had to find a way to send the news back. He could not let Konoha be ambushed by Orochimaru without any preparation.

If he had been in the village, Orochimaru would not have been worth worrying about. Or rather, if Konoha were still in its prime, with all those powerful figures from that era still alive, Orochimaru would not have dared scheme up a Konoha Crush Plan even if he had ten times the courage.

To put it bluntly, Konoha was weak now.

Then he saw the video. He saw Hatake Kakashi confronting Orochimaru. That alone was nothing unusual.

But Sasuke was involved as well.

Orochimaru confidently declared that Second Pillar would come looking for him as an avenger.

Although he felt relieved that Kakashi had temporarily protected Sasuke, he soon realized the severity of the situation.

Orochimaru had set his sights on Second Pillar. There would definitely be a whole series of moves to follow.

He could even guess the reason. Back then, when he had defeated Orochimaru with a single pair of Sharingan, he had clearly left an extremely deep psychological scar on him. Now, aside from himself, Sasuke was the only one left in the entire Uchiha Clan with the Sharingan.

At that thought, his heart tightened. Orochimaru was not merely a tremendous threat to all of Konoha; he also posed an enormous threat to Sasuke.

Seeing this, Uchiha Itachi even felt the urge to immediately find Orochimaru and kill him, cutting off both of his objectives at once.

Yet he also knew that was impossible. Orochimaru had hidden himself too well. After he defected from Akatsuki, the organization had searched for him repeatedly, yet found nothing.

No, he suddenly recalled Orochimaru's headband when he had appeared before Kakashi. The symbol on it should have been the mark of some ninja village. He had simply never seen it before. It was probably some small ninja village, perhaps obscure or newly established. Such villages were far too common in the Shinobi World to amount to anything.

Perhaps he could start from that angle. But he quickly grew discouraged, because he was under Akatsuki's close surveillance.

That mysterious leader of Akatsuki seemed never to have truly trusted him. Although he had never said anything openly, Itachi could tell from subtle details. For example, he could not access some of Akatsuki's truly confidential information.

In terms of status, he was an official Inner Circle Member of Akatsuki, far above those Outer Circle Members. Yet he did not possess authority that matched his position.

That alone was enough to explain many things.

He knew nothing except that the organization's leader possessed a pair of mysterious Rinnegan like those of the legendary Sage of Six Paths. He did not even know what abilities the Rinnegan possessed, what made them special, or how they compared to the Mangekyō Sharingan.

That was why he had not dared act rashly these past years. In the Rain Country, every move he made was monitored. Whether he tried to release carrier pigeons or use any other means of communication, it was difficult to avoid surveillance.

From the endless rain over the Rain Country, he could even faintly sense fluctuations of chakra. What an immense amount of chakra that was. What a terrifying existence.

Having written this much, I could not help but say a few words about Uchiha Itachi. It was like the earlier arguments about the Third Hokage. Some people thought that merely writing about certain things the Third Hokage had done was whitewashing him. The same went for Uchiha Itachi. Humans were complex creatures. To the members of the Uchiha Clan, he was a beast, a demon, and a traitor. To the village, he was an unseen hero. To Second Pillar, his brother was both the demon who slaughtered his entire family and the hero who protected him so he could survive in Konoha. It depended on the perspective you stood from. Writing him as a complicated character did not mean approving of his slaughter of the entire clan or whitewashing him. His life could not be summed up simply by calling him a good person or a bad person.

The protagonist I wrote had a neutral stance. He did not stand with the village, nor did he stand with the Uchiha Clan. Both sides had their own arguments, but what did any of that have to do with the protagonist? He was not truly a member of the Uchiha Clan, and he did not have a particularly strong sense of belonging toward the village either. That was also my stance. I stood with neither side; I merely wrote out the complexity of the characters. He was not some straightforward, hot-blooded good guy, but neither was he the purebred demon some people claimed he was. He was a human who would become utterly ruthless for the things he insisted on. I hope everyone does not get too worked up.