Cloud Envoys Visit Konoha

When Itachi Uchiha opened his eyes again, they had already become Mangekyō Sharingan.

And within those Mangekyō eyes lay a sinner who had endured countless hardships.

At that moment, Itachi seemed to have suddenly become a different person, growing extraordinarily mature.

"Itachi, are you still fully aware of your surroundings?"

"After awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, extreme emotions can easily cause drastic changes. You need to stay calm."

Ensei Uchiha reminded him, while also preparing for battle.

After opening his eyes, Itachi seemed to have fallen into a daze. Even Ensei's warning drew no response.

Just as Ensei began to wonder whether the experiment had gone wrong, Itachi suddenly spoke. "We were conducting an experiment to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan just now, right?"

"Uchiha... Sorry, my memories are a little jumbled. You're... Ensei?"

As he spoke, Itachi shook his head hard.

The expressions on Fugaku Uchiha and Shisui Uchiha's faces had shifted from delight to worry, but they didn't dare say anything, afraid they might affect Itachi.

"Father... Shisui..."

"You're both alive. Thank goodness!"

"This time... I'll definitely..."

With that, Itachi collapsed to the ground, completely unresponsive.

Fugaku was startled and hurried over.

Though the distance was less than two meters, Fugaku used the Body Flicker Technique. It showed just how anxious he was.

"Don't worry. His mind is simply exhausted."

"In the short dozen or so minutes just now, Itachi experienced more than a decade in the illusion. It's lucky that the enormous flood of information didn't burst his brain."

Ensei stepped forward and examined him. He then removed a tiny bit of flesh from Itachi's eyeball and discovered some traces of unusual Chakra, which he extracted as well.

While he was at it, Ensei injected some of the cell virus he had developed—the same kind he had previously injected into Kakashi's eye, only this was an upgraded version.

Since he'd made the Mangekyō Sharingan himself, it was better to keep it under his control. It would be rather ridiculous if he got hurt by something he'd created himself.

"All right. He'll probably be unconscious for a long time—days, perhaps even a couple of weeks—but he'll definitely wake up within a month."

"As for what will happen after he wakes, I can't say."

"You know that most people who awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan undergo a drastic change in personality. For someone like Itachi, who awakened it through a special method, it's even harder to predict."

"So you'll need to keep a close eye on your eldest son."

After offering a few perfunctory explanations, Ensei sent the three of them away. He needed to get to work studying the unusual Chakra from the brain—the very Chakra that could awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Time slipped quietly by, and before long, the day of the Kumogakure envoys' visit had arrived.

Since they had come to sign an alliance treaty with Konoha, the people Kumogakure had sent were all strong, with most of them at the level of jōnin.

Hiruzen had already guessed from Ensei that Kumogakure's delegation had come with bad intentions, but he still acted warmly toward them. The envoys did the same.

The two sides had been enemies for a long time, yet at that moment, they acted as if all their old grudges had vanished.

The village was bustling, too. Ordinary villagers lived far removed from the world of shinobi and knew little of the grudges between them. They were simply looking forward to peace.

In truth, war had the least impact on ordinary people in Konoha, but that didn't stop them from celebrating the peace that was soon to come.

As for the shinobi who had died in the war...

No one cared—not even the shinobi of Konoha. To shinobi, death was an everyday occurrence.

After a full day of grandiloquent speeches, Ensei returned home, thoroughly fed up.

He'd wasted an entire day like that and almost regretted agreeing to Hiruzen's request.

The next two days passed uneventfully. The people from Kumogakure and Hiruzen spent a long time arguing over the terms of the treaty.

Then, on the third night, Zero-Two Model's hostile-presence detection picked up two Kumogakure shinobi leaving the residence where the delegation was staying.

Judging by their routes, one was clearly planning to sneak into the Uchiha Clan compound, while the other was heading for the Hyuga Clan compound.

The Kumogakure shinobi who tried to sneak into the Uchiha Clan was quickly discovered and captured on the spot by a Uchiha patrol.

For his own safety, Ensei kept Zero-Two Model's hostile-presence detection active at all times. He had also placed a barrier around the Uchiha Clan compound and arranged for several Three Tomoe jōnin to patrol every day.

In those circumstances, forget the shinobi of Kumogakure—even the Fourth Raikage himself couldn't sneak in.

The Uchiha side was fine, but the Hyuga Clan was another matter.

By rights, the Byakugan was better suited than the Sharingan for surveillance, so the Hyuga Clan should have had tighter security.

But in reality, the Hyuga rarely activated the Byakugan inside Konoha. They had even explicitly forbidden its use within their compound, especially at night.

Why? Of course, because the Byakugan was far too good at peeping.

Ensei had assumed that the Hyuga Clan would be cautious after Hiruzen warned them, but he hadn't expected the intruder to find an opportunity on his very first attempt.

Watching the little red dot on the screen as it began moving toward the village outskirts, Ensei smiled.

He'd thought he'd have to wait for an opportunity. Who knew it would go this smoothly?

He made a Shadow Clone, took several Cell Collection Devices, and headed in one direction.

Since the Uchiha Clan compound was already on the outskirts of Konoha, the Kumogakure shinobi had managed to get some distance, but Ensei still blocked his path without any trouble.

"Get out of the way, or I'll strangle her."

"I've already looked into her. She's from the Hyuga—"

Before the Kumogakure shinobi could finish, a genjutsu locked his body in place.

"With skills like yours, what made you so confident?"

Ensei took Hinata from the man's arms and saw that she was unconscious. Without hesitation, he began collecting her cells.

It didn't take long for Ensei to collect all the samples he needed.

Losing that small amount of cells had no effect on Hinata. The human body contained an enormous number of cells.

Looking at the Kumogakure shinobi under the Sharingan's control, Ensei thought for a moment, then grabbed him by the neck and dragged him toward the Kumogakure delegation's residence.

Scrape... scrape...

The sound of the Kumogakure shinobi's body dragging along the ground rang out sharply in Konoha's quiet streets.