Run, Orochimaru!

In the dense forest, Itachi and Kou were speeding towards the southeast of the Cloud Thunder Mountain Range.

The dead leaves and dirt that had stuck to his body when he fell from the tree had been cleaned off.

However, his expression remained gloomy, clearly still reeling from Asuma's explosive words.

Itachi followed behind Koko, his gaze unconsciously falling on Koko's back.

His gaze was complex, and it was unclear what he was thinking.

"Boom--!!!"

A loud bang came from afar, startling the unknown birds in the forest into scattering and flying away in all directions.

Kou and Itachi stopped almost simultaneously upon hearing the loud noise, turning around to look in the direction from which the sound came.

That direction was the very battlefield they had just left.

At that moment, above that battlefield, hundreds of densely packed black dots were suspended in mid-air, almost obscuring half of the sky.

"That is..."

Itachi stared at the black dots in the distance, his pupils unconsciously contracting slightly.

"The Red Secret Technique: The Performance of a Hundred Puppets?"

Kou murmured softly, a strange crimson glint flashing in his deep black eyes.

With the powerful perception of the Three Tomoe Sharingan, Kotori clearly saw the outlines of each of the countless puppets, and also the silver-white figure that, supported by the wind field generated by Wind Release, was constantly weaving through the dense swarm of puppets...

Looking at the battle unfolding in the distance, which was exactly as expected, Kou couldn't help but smile faintly, gloating as he said:

"They actually used their trump card. Is Sasori under that much pressure?"

At the same time, Itachi also activated his Three Tomoe Sharingan and began to carefully observe the battle in the distance.

Seeing the calm expression on White Fang of Konoha's face, Itachi silently breathed a sigh of relief.

But then his gaze was drawn to the puppet army itself, which almost covered half the sky, and a deep sense of shock and doubt rose in his heart.

The highest level of puppetry is to control ten puppets at once.

This is the consensus in the Ninja World.

What appeared before him now was far beyond that limit: hundreds of puppets!

"How did Scorpion manage to do that?!"

"Sasori of the Red Sands."

Itachi murmured the name, his usually calm eyes now filled with deep apprehension.

Before this, his knowledge of Sasori was limited to that of an S-rank missing-nin had defected from Sand Village many years ago, a genius with extremely high attainments in the field of Puppet Technique.

But it wasn't until he witnessed this massive, overwhelming army of puppets that he truly understood how terrifying this man was.

If he were to appear on the battlefield, Scorpion alone would be a terrifying army capable of influencing the course of a battle!

Itachi pondered to himself, silently rejecting his earlier assumption that "Scorpion was a spy sent by Sand Village."

Even the most foolish high-ranking officials in Sand Village wouldn't make the decision to send out a terrifying being capable of single-handedly altering the course of a battlefield on an undercover mission.

Thinking of this, Itachi couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, Sasori of the Red Sands has already defected from Sand Village.

"Given Sasori's dominance on large-scale battlefields, if he were still in Sand Village, the threat he would pose to Konoha... would be unimaginable."

Itachi murmured to himself, his gaze instinctively falling on Kokoro, a thoughtful look flashing in his eyes:

"Did you expect to knock on him?"

"Did he already know Sasori's true nature and believe that White Fang and Mr. Asuma were capable of handling him, which is why he chose to leave without hesitation?"

He looked at Kou's calm profile, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes:

"Knock, what... exactly are you thinking?"

"Uchiha Chu! What are you dawdling about? Thinking about going to the Pure Land to cook for your parents who died at your hands?!"

Upon hearing Koko's aggressive words, Itachi instinctively paused.

He mechanically turned his head, and what came into view was a pair of eyes staring at him with disdain.

What surged in those Three Tomoe Sharingan was not killing intent, nor hostility, but a pure disdain that he found hard to resist:

"You're really getting worse as you get older, Uchiha Itachi."

Seeing the somewhat helpless look in Itachi's eyes, he curled his lips into a cold, mocking smile and said mercilessly:

"It seems that after getting those eyes, you not only ruined your own body, but also completely destroyed your already neurotic mind!"

As he spoke, he shifted his gaze from the weasel and looked warily at a shadowy spot in the dense forest not far away.

He quickly wiped the look of disgust off his face, put on a serious expression, and his voice became deep and somber:

"Looks like that stinky snake has already noticed us two 'uninvited guests'."

Hearing Kou's words, Itachi's expression remained unchanged.

He had naturally sensed the figure hidden in the shadows long before he even opened his mouth.

"... Since he has taken the initiative to contact us, it means that he currently has no intention of running away."

Itachi calmly gazed into the depths of the shadows and said with certainty:

"While this may sound a bit overconfident, I can say with certainty that Orochimaru will not dare to confront me directly for a considerable period of time."

"In that case, let's listen to what this guy has to say to us first."

As he gazed at the shadows, the information he had recently received about Danzo's defection flashed through his mind...

Thinking of this, Itachi's gaze towards the shadows grew heavier.

"Furthermore, I have a few questions I'd like to ask in person..."

"Ninja Art: Manda Formation!!"

Before Itachi could finish speaking, Orochimaru's Shadow Clone, hidden in the shadows of the dense forest, released a massive swarm of snakes towards Itachi and Koko, at Koko's command!

Hundreds and thousands of venomous snakes emerged simultaneously from the shadows of the forest, instantly engulfing the entire clearing around the weasel!

At the very instant Orochimaru Shadow Clone fled without hesitation into the depths of the dense forest!

Throughout the entire ordeal, Itachi never even saw Orochimaru's face.

Itachi watched Orochimaru's rapidly receding figure, opened his mouth, but before he could finish speaking, his words were completely drowned out by the hissing sound of the writhing snakes.

Recalling his confident words, a brief moment of confusion flashed in his eyes, and an extremely rare look of astonishment and embarrassment appeared on his usually calm and composed face.

Kou turned his head and looked at the complex expression on Itachi's face, a mixture of embarrassment and confusion, and a pleased smile crept onto his lips...

--

(P. S.: I was originally thinking of having Orochimaru and Kotori put on a show in front of Itachi, but then I suddenly remembered a very important foreshadowing—)

Orochimaru is controlled by the Mangekyo, which Itachi likely realized, hence the omission of that detail. This is currently the biggest foreshadowing in the book, and I expect to cover it in the next two chapters, which I'll reveal tonight.

(Almost finished coding, but I'm too tired to stay up any longer, so I can only do it during the morning...)