Uchiha Itachi's Shock

To be safe, it would be best if he could personally go out and deliver the message, but opportunities like that were far too rare.

Akatsuki was essentially an organization made up of rogue ninja from various villages. What kind of people were rogue ninja? There was no need to ask—could they possibly be good people?

Akatsuki needed to use these people, yet also had to guard against them.

Every operation was carried out in pairs, with the two members keeping watch over each other, so even if someone wanted to do something, it was difficult.

In the end, although they were Inner Circle Members of Akatsuki, they were not truly one of their own at heart.

They were merely hired thugs recruited during Akatsuki's expansion, not true comrades capable of carrying Akatsuki's beliefs and will.

Suppressing those thoughts, Uchiha Itachi continued reading. Then, just like Uchiha Sasuke, he was stunned.

The Sharingan!

This Kitahara Kaede had awakened the Sharingan!

Unlike Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Itachi knew more. He also knew that there were many methods in the shinobi world to make Kekkei Genkai one's own.

For instance, the Sharingan could actually be plugged in and used immediately.

So he would not have found it strange if some Sharingan had been left outside. They were treasures of the Uchiha Clan, and even Uchiha Itachi did not know many of the secrets contained within them.

But a Sharingan implanted later in life was clearly entirely different from one awakened naturally.

That proved Kitahara Kaede had Uchiha Clan blood in his ancestry. While he could not swiftly pull Kitahara Kaede's records from Konoha's system like Hatake Kakashi, he could more or less infer the truth and reach the same conclusion as Hatake Kakashi.

Of course, even if he were beaten to death, he would never imagine that a system existed. In his eyes, this simply proved that Kitahara Kaede carried Uchiha Clan blood, and that was something worth celebrating for Uchiha Itachi.

To outsiders, he was the Filial Son, the criminal who had slaughtered his entire clan, but that did not mean his clansmen were worthless in his heart.

It was only that, in his heart, the village and Uchiha Sasuke were far more important than the rest of the clan.

After destroying the Uchiha Clan, how could he not have nights where he awoke from dreams, seeing each clansman weeping tears of blood as they questioned him? Why did he slaughter the entire clan? What had the children and elderly done to deserve it? He could only jolt awake from those nightmares.

If he had not needed to hold on until Sasuke grew up, until Sasuke became strong enough to kill him, establish himself in Konoha as a hero, and rebuild the Uchiha Clan, he might have stopped taking medicine and simply died.

Now that there was news of another clansman, he was delighted, even if Kitahara Kaede did not bear the Uchiha surname.

Of course, more importantly, he had always worried that it would be far too difficult for Uchiha Sasuke alone to revive the Uchiha Clan. With one more person, there would be much more hope.

Since he had already awakened the Sharingan, even if he did not bear the Uchiha surname, as long as he revealed the Sharingan in the future, no one would believe him even if he insisted he was not from the Uchiha Clan.

Moreover, he believed that the ancient surname of Uchiha, which bore the glory of a thousand years of the Warring States Period, held enough appeal to make Kitahara Kaede change his name.

How could Kitahara Kaede possibly sound as imposing as Uchiha Kaede?

Then Uchiha Itachi saw another new video. When he opened it, it was unexpectedly a video of his future self.

On some future day, Kisame Hoshigaki and he would travel to Konoha as partners, and they would encounter Hatake Kakashi along the way.

Everything was exactly as real. If he had previously held even the slightest doubts about the future recorded in the Diary, then after seeing this video, he believed it completely.

Because it involved his special Mangekyo Eye Technique, Tsukuyomi.

He had only used this ninjutsu a few times, and only a handful of ninja knew about it.

Was this truly the future?

Could this Kitahara Kaede really foresee the future?

If that was true, then he had to take everything recorded in this Diary seriously.

He watched what his future self said to Hatake Kakashi in the footage and noticed something.

His future self wanted to use some method to pass information to Konoha. The most critical information, of course, was that Akatsuki had set its sights on Uzumaki Naruto—or rather, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox within his body.

Uchiha Itachi continued reading. The information below grew increasingly abundant and dense.

Sunny Sasuke?

The last descendant of the Uchiha?

He quickly understood from the context that Sunny Sasuke was a nickname Kitahara Kaede had given Uchiha Sasuke. Itachi was probably himself, while Fifty-Fifty was Hatake Kakashi.

Once he figured that out, much of the information became clear at once.

Although he did not know what those nicknames meant, it was enough to know who they referred to.

The Fourth Shinobi World War?

The Diary mentioned the Fourth Shinobi World War again. Would the shinobi world continue fighting in the future?

He had not experienced the Third Shinobi World War. The one who had shone brilliantly in that war was the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

After the Third Shinobi World War, Minato Namikaze had risen to power and succeeded as the Fourth Hokage.

Now, the Fourth Shinobi World War had suddenly emerged, making his heart clench.

Because if there truly was a Fourth Shinobi World War that involved all the major shinobi villages, how could Konoha, in its current weakened state, stand against the other great villages?

He had slaughtered his clan to protect Konoha. If Konoha were destroyed in this Fourth Shinobi World War, then everything he had done would become a complete joke.

Not to mention, how could Sasuke possibly remain untouched by the Fourth Shinobi World War? When the time came, he would likely face tremendous danger as well.

At that thought, Uchiha Itachi's former desire to die was immediately rekindled. No, he still had to live. He could not die like this. For the village, or for Sasuke, he had to stay alive.

What followed was all about Uzumaki Naruto, and there were many parts he couldn't understand—for example, Asura. Did that represent some kind of identity Naruto possessed?

What truly made him pull himself together again was Danzo. Danzo had actually sent Root Squad to hunt down Kitahara Kaede. Though they had failed, it still made Uchiha Itachi frown deeply.

Because he suspected that Kitahara Kaede was surviving blood of the Uchiha Clan, Kitahara Kaede's place in Uchiha Itachi's heart immediately rose by quite a bit. Back when the Uchiha Clan had many members, losing one or two people had meant nothing.

But the current Uchiha Clan couldn't afford to keep losing people like this. If one died, the hope of passing on the Uchiha Clan's legacy would be cut by fifty percent.

They couldn't possibly leave the Uchiha Clan's inheritance to him, a sickly invalid, could they?

Danzo would rise to become Hokage in the future? The term "5.5th Hokage" sounded a little strange, but at the very least, he must have served as Hokage for some period of time. Then what about the Third Hokage?