When Uchiha Itachi Picked Up a Diary

But this Diary was far from ordinary. It had fallen from the sky, appearing out of thin air right in front of him.

Uchiha Itachi was certain that this was not some spacetime ninjutsu. No one could have concealed themselves from his senses.

When Uchiha Itachi opened it, his vision immediately blurred. His eyesight had worsened again. Although he had been doing his best to limit his use of the Sharingan, he could not avoid it entirely.

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

The missions that required their involvement were generally extremely troublesome. They were even expected to recruit Kage Level Rogue Ninja into the organization. That was hardly easy.

Even if he used the Sharingan with the utmost care, the deterioration of his eyesight was still unavoidable.

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

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

He was still far from capable of protecting himself. Without the support of the clan, no matter how talented Sasuke was, he could never compare to what Itachi had once been.

After some time, he had to find a way to return to Konoha.

On one hand, he needed to reveal as much of the intelligence he had gathered over the years as possible to Konoha's Higher-ups. On the other, he needed to intimidate certain people among Konoha's Higher-ups 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 Higher-ups. He knew exactly how sinister a certain man whose name could not be spoken—Danzo—was.

Sasuke was simply incapable of standing against him now. He would struggle even to protect himself.

Kitahara Kaede!

Uchiha Itachi strained to make out the name.

The beginning of the Diary was entirely Kitahara Kaede's personal rambling. There did not seem to be anything noteworthy in its entries at first, but before long, he saw information that caught his interest.

Uzumaki Naruto!

Unlike Uchiha Sasuke, who knew nothing about the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox inside Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Itachi knew very well what Naruto contained.

One of the Akatsuki's goals was to collect the nine Tailed Beasts, and Uzumaki Naruto was the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, the foremost among them.

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

There was something strange about this Kitahara Kaede.

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

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

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

But Uchiha Itachi also understood one thing. Though he did not know exactly what was going on, there was something very wrong with Orochimaru. Otherwise, if he had been a normal Kage Level fighter, Itachi could never have instantly defeated him in a single moment.

He was not strong enough for that, and that had been with the enhancement of the Mangekyō Sharingan. If Orochimaru used ninjutsu normally, the only ones in all of Konoha capable of fighting him were probably the Third Hokage's family.

Though he did not know what Orochimaru's overall plan was, Orochimaru was definitely not someone who acted without purpose.

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

No. He had to find a way to send the news back. He could not let Konoha be caught completely unprepared by Orochimaru's attack.

If he had been in the village, Orochimaru would not have been worth worrying about. Or rather, if Konoha were still at its peak, with all those powerful figures from its golden age still alive, Orochimaru would not have dared plan any Konoha Crush Plan even if he had been given ten times the courage.

To put it bluntly, Konoha was weak now.

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

But Sasuke was involved as well.

Orochimaru confidently declared that Uchiha Sasuke would come looking for him as a revenger.

Although he was relieved that Kakashi had temporarily protected Sasuke, he immediately realized the severity of the problem.

Orochimaru had set his sights on Uchiha Sasuke. There would definitely be a series of moves to follow.

He could even guess the reason. Back then, Itachi had instantly defeated Orochimaru with a pair of Sharingan, which had clearly left an extremely deep psychological scar on him. Now, aside from Itachi himself, Sasuke was the only remaining member of the Uchiha Clan with the Sharingan.

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

When Uchiha Itachi read this, he 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 the Akatsuki, the organization had searched for him repeatedly, yet found nothing.

No, he suddenly remembered Orochimaru's Headband when he had appeared before Kakashi. That symbol should have been the insignia of some ninja village. He had simply never seen it before. It was probably a Small Ninja Village, perhaps unknown or newly established. Such villages were far too common in the Shinobi World and hardly worth noting.

Perhaps he could begin from that angle. But he quickly lost heart, because he was under the Akatsuki's close surveillance.

That mysterious Akatsuki leader seemed never to have truly trusted him. Though nothing had been said openly, he could tell from minor details. For example, he had no access to some of the Akatsuki's true classified information.

Although he was officially an Inner Circle Member of the Akatsuki and ranked far above those Outer Circle Members, he did not possess authority commensurate with his status.

That alone was enough to explain many things.

In fact, aside from knowing that the organization's leader possessed a pair of mysterious Rinnegan like those rumored to belong to the Sage of Six Paths, he knew nothing else. 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 all these years. In the Rain Country, every move he made was monitored. Whether he tried sending carrier pigeons or using any other means of communication, it was difficult to avoid surveillance.

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

--

Having written this much, I cannot help saying a few words about Uchiha Itachi. Just like the earlier debate about the Third Hokage, some people think that merely writing about certain things the Third Hokage did is whitewashing him. The same goes for Uchiha Itachi. People are complicated creatures. To the Uchiha Clan, he was a beast, a demon, and a traitor. To the village, he was an unsung hero. To Uchiha Sasuke, his brother was both the demon who slaughtered his entire family and the hero who protected him so he could survive in Konoha. It depends on what position you stand from. Writing him as a complex character does not mean I approve of him slaughtering his entire clan or am trying to whitewash him. His life cannot be summed up so simply by calling him a good person or a bad person.

The Protagonist I wrote takes a neutral stance. He stands neither with the village nor with the Uchiha Clan. Both sides have their own arguments, but what does that have to do with the Protagonist? He is not truly a member of the Uchiha Clan, nor does he have a particularly strong sense of belonging toward the village. That is also my own stance: I stand with neither side and simply write out the characters' complexity. He is not some straightforward, hot-blooded good guy, but neither is he the purebred demon some people claim he is. He is a human who would become a ruthless wolf for the things he believes in. I hope everyone will not get too carried away.