As time passed, Uchiha Itachi arrived beneath a dead tree at a corner. His face was gloomy as he spoke, brimming with killing intent. "Come out. I know you're here!"
There was a moment of silence inside the dead tree, then wisps of chilling black fog seeped out. The two-meter-tall Buff Rabbit Head emerged from the trunk, looking sleepy. "Congratulations. Now that you've awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, you must have witnessed Uchiha Shisui's death with your own eyes, right?"
The corner of Uchiha Itachi's eye twitched. The Three-Tomoe in his eyes began spinning rapidly, forming Shuriken shapes. He glared at the High-ranking Dark Spirit and said coldly, "Tell me everything you know. Otherwise, I'll use my own methods to make you spill it all."
"Heh, are you taking your anger out on me?"
The High-ranking Dark Spirit sneered. "Last week, I already told you what would happen this week. Shisui died because you didn't take my words seriously. Judging by your expression, you saw the Uchiha ghost, didn't you?"
"Your methods to make me spill everything? Would you use Tsukuyomi to break my spirit, or Kotoamatsukami?"
The High-ranking Dark Spirit—or rather, Fuyuki, whose will had descended into the High-ranking Dark Elf's body—couldn't be bothered with Uchiha Itachi's threats. No matter what kind of genjutsu or ninjutsu Itachi used to attack him, Fuyuki could easily leave the High-ranking Dark Elf's body and let Itachi waste his effort.
Hearing the High-ranking Dark Elf's words, Uchiha Itachi froze and stared at him, murmuring, "Do you really have the ability to foresee the future?"
It had only been half a day since he awakened the Mangekyō. No one else had been there when he got Shisui's eyes, and he had never used the Mangekyō's abilities. Yet the High-ranking Dark Spirit had correctly named his technique.
And then there was the earlier prophecy. It was hard not to suspect that the High-ranking Dark Elf had peeked at the script!
"Is there really no hope for the Uchiha?" Itachi stopped glaring with his Mangekyō Sharingan. Since this Summoned Beast knew about his abilities and still dared to tease him, it probably had a way to counter Tsukuyomi.
"Sign this Summoning Contract, and I'll tell you the answers you want." Fuyuki reached into the shadows, pulled out a giant scroll, and tossed it to Itachi, who stood beneath the tree, shrouded in a dark, inscrutable aura.
Itachi had no other choice. No matter how he looked at it, this malicious Summoned Beast seemed like bad news. But he had no other options. His only choice was to learn what lay ahead from this wicked beast and prevent the impending catastrophe.
Itachi opened the scroll and stared in surprise. He'd never seen such a bizarre Summoning Scroll before.
The first page listed several rules.
1. The summoner bears the cost of the Summoned Beast's chakra!
2. The summoner promises to offer chakra every week!
3. The summoner is forbidden from investigating Elemental Dawn!
4. Before summoning the Summoned Beast, the summoner must negotiate terms with it!
5. Violators will be punished with an Eclipse Whip Lash!
What kind of absurd Summoning Contract was this? If this had been any other Summoned Beast, Itachi might've stuffed the scroll into its mouth and shown it who was boss!
It wasn't a Summoning Scroll from one of the Three Great Sage Regions. Where had all these stupid rules come from? What a nutjob, Itachi grumbled inwardly. Even so, he signed his name and tossed the scroll back to the High-ranking Dark Elf. "Tell me how to save the Uchiha Clan!"
Feeling the chakra Uchiha Itachi had sent over, Fuyuki, controlling the High-ranking Dark Elf, replied, "There's no way. The Uchiha were born asking for a beating. Konoha is too weak right now. There's no one capable of curing the Uchiha's chronic itch for a fight."
The Uchiha really did have an itch for a fight. Look at Madara, who Hashirama had beaten into submission. He'd lived peacefully for decades and behaved himself until awakening the Rinnegan.
Then look at Indra and Asura. Asura hadn't been able to beat Indra into submission, and that was why there'd been so much trouble. Their feud didn't end until Sasuke and Naruto's generation, when Naruto finally beat Sasuke into submission.
"..." Itachi silently activated his Mangekyō Sharingan.
Was he trying to say, "I can beat the Uchiha into submission," or was he expressing his dissatisfaction and asking the High-ranking Dark Elf to give him something useful?
"Glaring at me won't help. You should've heard from Konoha's Barrier Team that people have been sneaking into the Uchiha Clan's Naka Shrine lately, right?" The High-ranking Dark Elf folded his arms. "Unless you can kill him, no one can save the Uchiha Clan. I can tell you for certain that he has a Space-Time Mangekyō, and he's transplanted First Hokage Cells, so he can use Wood Release."
"Unless you deal with this Uchiha ghost, the Uchiha Clan will never know peace. By the way, you can use genjutsu to interrogate Uchiha Yashiro. He's one of the Uchiha ghost's spies planted inside the clan."
Fuyuki had a way to resolve the conflict between the Uchiha and Konoha, but it wouldn't help. The one who truly wanted to wipe out the Uchiha Clan was Uchiha Obito. Fuyuki wasn't afraid of the Six Paths of Pain, but this shameless, tenacious bastard gave him a headache. As long as Obito hid in his personal space-time dimension, Fuyuki would be at a loss.
"Mm."
Uchiha Itachi fell silent for a moment, then said, "Fine. Can you tell me the exact date of the massacre?"
In Itachi's eyes, this wicked beast could foresee the future, so it surely knew the exact date of the massacre. He wanted to take care of some personal matters while he still had time.
The High-ranking Dark Spirit—or rather, Fuyuki—was taken aback. He furrowed his brow and thought for a moment, trying to recall the original story. The Uchiha Clan Massacre had been recounted hundreds of times in the main story, and Fuyuki could practically recite the dialogue. There was just one thing he wasn't sure about.
That was the timing of the massacre. He remembered that Itachi and Obito had started the massacre not long after Shisui's death.
It was probably a month later, though some people said it was a year after Shisui's death.
"Hehehe, come on, bro, don't mess with me. I can't foresee the future." The High-ranking Dark Spirit waved a hand, and a pile of black bean sprouts tumbled from the thunderclouds around his lower body. "I just enjoy gathering information, analyzing it, and watching other people's tragedies unfold. It turns their misery into my happiness."
"Have you never heard the saying? Your own happiness is always built on other people's suffering!"
"..." Itachi said nothing, just stared at him like a cat staring at someone's crotch, making him shudder.
"One month. You have one month. The timing of the Uchiha Clan Massacre depends on when the Uchiha revolt."
"The Third Hokage plans to wipe out the entire Uchiha Clan on the day before the revolt, when they're all gathered in their compound, resting up!" As the High-ranking Dark Spirit spoke, his body stiffened noticeably. It was only a slight movement, but it didn't escape Uchiha Itachi's Mangekyō.
"Lonely orphan, why are you staring at me?"
The High-ranking Dark Spirit had regained control of his body and immediately struck at Uchiha Itachi's sore spot.
"Who was I talking to just now?" Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan had spotted a trace of Yin Release Chakra leaving the High-ranking Dark Spirit, so he'd deliberately asked.
After all, he'd signed the Summoning Scroll. Every week, he'd need to provide chakra equal to a portion of his total reserves as payment to the Summoned Beasts of Elemental Dawn. Surely he couldn't be left knowing nothing about them?
"Huh? Lord Moon Worm. He just went home to sleep. He won't pay any attention to you."
"It's the middle of the night. Could the subtext be, 'Lord Moon Worm is so adorable, he's driving Lonely Orphan wild with desire'?" the High-ranking Dark Spirit teased.
Uchiha Itachi said, "You talk too much. I'm the contractor of your Elemental Dawn Summoning Grounds. You should explain your summoning clan to me, shouldn't you?"
Thanks to Murphy for the hundred-unit donation for the joke.
Many thanks to Xingyue Gupi and Guxing Yue'er for their hundred-unit donation.
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