[Warring States Susanoo] Uchiha Itachi

Inside the pitch-black cave, the weasel, using the few flickering flames on the crumbling walls as a guide, gazed at the Gunbai clan emblem, which had faded somewhat over the long years.

A hint of surprise flashed in Itachi's eyes.

He clearly hadn't expected to see this pattern, which he had been familiar with since childhood, in this remote mountainous region far from Konoha Uchiha Clan Compound.

But Itachi quickly suppressed his surprise, and his eyes regained their usual calm.

He reorganized his thoughts and tried to think about the current situation.

First and foremost, before them lay the tomb of an ancestor of the Uchiha Clan.

Aside from an initial moment of surprise, Itachi didn't find the fact that the tomb was located in a remote part of the Land of Lightning unacceptable.

After all, the Uchiha Clan originated in the Land of Lightning.

What truly concerned him was another problem brought about by the tomb in front of him.

"Why did Orochimaru lure us here...?"

Itachi murmured to himself, his brows furrowing slightly as he recalled the various strange things Orochimaru had done along the way.

Just as Itachi was lost in thought, a sound from ahead interrupted his thoughts.

He subconsciously looked up, and what came into view was a figure walking straight toward the wooden coffin in front of him.

The Kakkō danced on the Firebirth in his hands, casting a long shadow on the cave floor.

Itachi opened his mouth, almost instinctively wanting to speak up and stop him.

In such an eerie place, it would be unwise to approach the coffin rashly.

He remained silent for a moment, then swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue, sighed helplessly, and followed Kou's steps.

While this is highly likely Orochimaru's scheme, they currently have no other leads related to Orochimaru...

Listening to the footsteps approaching behind him, a very subtle smile curved his lips in the darkness where he was facing away from Itachi.

The two of them walked into the tomb, one after the other, into a place that had never been visited before.

The tomb chamber is not large, and its walls are all carved from rough mountain rocks without any superfluous decorations.

The only things that could attract attention were the Uchiha Clan Crest carved on the stone wall behind the wooden coffin, and the dense text on the walls on both sides of the tomb chamber, which looked as if it had been carved stroke by stroke with a sharp weapon.

The weasel approached the stone wall on the left and carefully examined the writing.

The inscriptions carved on the stone wall are still in relatively good condition. Judging from the wear and tear on the characters and the style of the carving, they are from about 300 years ago—the mid- Warring States Period.

He quickly analyzed the situation in his mind, but his eyes never stopped searching for Orochimaru's whereabouts in the tomb.

However, no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find even the slightest trace of Orochimaru.

After making his judgment, Itachi fell into deep thought:

Orochimaru went to great lengths to lure us into this Warring States Period tomb, yet he himself left no trace here.

Why did he do this? What... what was his purpose?

Just as Itachi was lost in thought, Koko walked straight to the wooden coffin.

His gaze fell on a line of words on the coffin lid, and his eyes narrowed slightly:

"The Tomb of the Uchiha Clan, the Twelfth Head of the Uchiha Itachi Clan."

Itachi, who had been standing in front of the stone wall deep in thought, suddenly had his thoughts interrupted the moment he heard the name.

He turned around almost instinctively, his gaze falling on the wooden coffin beside him. A hint of barely concealed shock flickered in his usually composed eyes.

"Uchiha Itachi... Is this the tomb of 'Sengoku Susanoo '?!"

Seeing Itachi's completely astonished expression, which he had expected, he deliberately used a sarcastic tone to mock him:

"Oh my, I didn't expect you, such a filial son, to actually remember the name of our Uchiha Clan's ancestor."

He struck an exaggerated pose and couldn't help but exclaim:

"After all these years, it's amazing that someone like you, a top-tier Uchiha in the Ninja World, still remembers his name... If that ancestor knew this in the afterlife, he would surely be very gratified."

Itachi did not respond to Koko's provocative words.

He simply looked at the wooden coffin beside him with a complicated expression, his eyes filled with deep sorrow.

Memories from many years ago uncontrollably surfaced in Itachi's mind.

On the Uchiha Clan Compound, beside a stream upstream of the Naka River, his father Uchiha Fugaku, held his hand and stood on that land belonging to the Uchiha Clan, telling him the story about his name...

"Itachi, do you know why I named you that?"

"In the history of our Uchiha Clan, there was a genius who is still revered by the clan members to this day."

Your name is derived from the pronunciation of that ancestor's name.

"Itachi, I hope you can become a great ninja, praised by the descendants of the Uchiha Clan, just like that ancestor..."

His father's words, full of expectation, still seem to echo in his ears.

But now, recalling those warm and cozy days, all that surged in Itachi's heart was a deep bitterness.

Itachi lowered his head even further, and involuntarily, the look in his father's eyes before he died by his blade resurfaced in his scarlet eyes...

There was not a trace of hatred in his eyes, only the tenderness that belonged to his father, a tenderness he had rarely seen on that stern face since he could remember...

He gazed at Itachi's face, which grew increasingly dark in the Kakkō, but there was no pity in his eyes.

"That makes sense, how could you not know that ancestor's name? Brother Fugaku should have mentioned it to you often..."

He looked at the itachi in front of him and continued coldly:

"That legendary figure from the mid -Warring States Period, who led the Uchiha Clan to migrate from the Land of Lightning to the Land of Fire, and nearly unified all the ninja clans of the Land of Fire first, ultimately suffering a narrow defeat in the Battle of Azure Wall against the combined forces of the Senju Clan and Hyuga Clan."

Kou slightly narrowed his eyes, taking in every subtle change in Itachi's expression, and continued slowly:

"Uchiha Itachi, the man once known as 'Sengoku Susanoo,' was the undisputed strongest member of the Uchiha Clan before the birth of Uchiha Madara."

He was also a direct ancestor of your and your brother Fugaku's bloodline.

He glanced at the wooden coffin with feigned regret and said coldly:

"If this ancestor who dedicated his life to the Uchiha Clan knew that one of his direct descendants was such a filial son as you."

I wonder what he must think...

"Totsuka Blade."

Itachi, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up, interrupting Koko's unfinished sarcastic words.

Upon hearing Itachi's words, the smile on Kotobukiya's lips instantly froze.

He slowly raised his head, his gaze instantly shifting from the wooden coffin to Itachi's face, which, at some point, had been pulled away from his memories.

Itachi seemed completely oblivious to the sudden deepening of Koko's gaze.

As if he had figured something out, he looked calmly at Kou and stated the answer he had just come up with in a firm tone:

Orochimaru's target—is the Totsuka Blade!

P. S.: Uchiha Itachi (pronounced "itachi" in Japanese) Itachi, just like Itachi.

Originally I wanted to use You, which sounded better, but after thinking about it, I felt it would be better to be more rigorous.