A Deal with the Devil

The killing intent radiating from Uchiha Itachi had nearly condensed into a solid core. His frigid chakra coated the riverbank grass with frost. Beneath his mask, his Sharingan was already active, its Three-Tomoe Sharingan slowly turning as it fixed on the clan youth before him, who had just said something astonishing.

"A third option?" Itachi's voice was frighteningly muffled, tinged with a hint of mockery and weariness. "Do you understand what you're saying? Do you understand what it would mean?"

"I do," Ling replied calmly, as if he couldn't feel the suffocating pressure. "It means suspicion from Konoha's High Command. It means keeping Danzo in check. It means confronting the Uchiha Clan's pride and stubbornness. And above all, it means you, Uchiha Itachi, caught in the middle, bearing alone a burden heavy enough to drive anyone mad."

He took a small step forward, his gaze burning. "Massacring your entire clan, bearing the name of a traitor, and working with those who would keep you under surveillance and lay an ambush—that's the only way you see to preserve peace in Konoha and protect your little brother Sasuke? A road to hell paved with the blood of your own kin?"

Every word was a sharp blade, striking precisely at the most painful, most unbearable corner of Itachi's soul. His breathing hitched, and his killing intent wavered for an instant. This Uchiha Ling knew far too much—enough to be terrifying.

"Who are you, really?" Itachi's voice turned rough.

"I told you, who I am doesn't matter." Ling cut him off, his tone resolute. "What matters is that I can change this outcome. We can secure Konoha's stability and Sasuke's safety without all those pointless sacrifices."

"How?" Itachi's voice remained cold, but his absolute killing intent seemed to recede slightly, replaced by intense scrutiny. "Danzo won't allow the Uchiha to survive, and the hardliners in the clan won't abandon their plan. This is a dead end."

"Then we break through it!" Ling's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable force. "No—we have to eliminate the problem completely. We need to clean house. Get rid of the most radical hardliners. As for the rest of the clan, most of whom know nothing or are still undecided, they can 'disappear' rather than be 'slaughtered.'"

Itachi's pupils contracted sharply.

Ling laid out his plan. "I may be able to provide a safe, hidden place with enough room for the clan members who 'don't deserve to die.' And what you need to do that night isn't kill everyone. You need to work with me to separate the hardliners doomed to destruction from the ordinary clan members who can still be saved. You—or my people—will eliminate the hardliners. Afterward, you can join that organization as planned, with the achievement of 'wiping out the Uchiha traitors' to your name. Sasuke will still see you as his enemy and gain the motivation he needs."

"That's impossible!" Itachi instinctively objected. "Danzo won't believe it, and there's no way to completely conceal what happens in the compound."

"I have my own way of making Danzo 'believe' me," Ling said, a cold glint in his eyes. "As for what happens in the compound—what if a sudden, enormous 'illusion' or 'barrier' covers the entire compound as a diversion? What if a hidden, fast-moving force helps with the relocation?"

He pointed to himself. "I, along with the organization I just founded, Dawn Wind, may be able to pull it off. We'll coordinate with you from inside and out, but you'll have to provide an accurate map of the compound's defenses, along with a precise list and the locations of the hardliners."

Itachi fell completely silent. He stared at Ling, trying to discern lies, madness, or sincerity in those calm black eyes. But all he saw was a confidence and sense of control bordering on the ruthless. The idea sounded absurd, but it was workable. It was like a thread suddenly lowered into the hopeless abyss he was trapped in, reaching from somewhere beyond.

"What's the price?" Itachi finally asked, his voice hoarse. "You've gone to all this trouble. What do you want? The Uchiha's Sharingan? Or me?"

"I told you, I need you," Ling said without hesitation. "But not as a subordinate. I need you as a fellow member of Dawn Wind, a companion who'll help me change this false Shinobi World. Your resolve and your intelligence are vital to me. As for the Sharingan..." He gave a dry laugh. "A power that can only be advanced through killing your own kin isn't the only path I'm pursuing."

He paused, then revealed the heart of his request. "Besides, I want one person: Uchiha Izumi. She has to live, and she has to join Dawn Wind."

An image of that gentle, compassionate young woman from his clan appeared in Itachi's mind. In his original plan, she was among those slated for elimination. If he could save her...

A tantalizing hope and an immense risk clashed fiercely within Itachi. Trusting this inscrutable Uchiha Ling meant staking the future of the entire Uchiha clan on a gamble with a stranger. But refusing him meant carrying out with his own hands the bloody massacre that haunted his every night.

"How can I trust you?" Itachi's voice wavered with a doubt he hadn't even noticed in himself.

Ling knew this was the crucial moment. He focused his thoughts. A faint but profoundly potent chakra, brimming with life and natural energy—the Senjutsu Chakra—circled his fingertips for a few moments, then vanished.

"Because I can approach you without you noticing. Because I know secrets no one should know. Because I have sealed within me a power derived from the same source as that 'Masked Man' you've fought—the Nine-Tails. And because I can offer you this seemingly impossible 'way out.'" Ling's voice was persuasive. "Trust is the foundation of cooperation, Itachi. Do you have another choice? Besides falling into that certain, unrelenting darkness?"

Silence settled over the riverbank, profound and still. The sun finally sank below the horizon, its last rays fading as night began to fall.

A long, long while passed.

Uchiha Itachi slowly raised his hand and removed his Anbu mask, revealing a handsome young face marked by exhaustion and tension. His eyes, dark red with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, looked especially sinister in the dusk.

"I'll leave the list and the map of the defenses beneath the seventh stone slab at Naka Shrine on the night before the massacre." His voice had regained its composure, but beneath that calm lay the resolve of someone who had made a difficult choice. "For now, I need you to create a disturbance for fifteen minutes and carry out a covert relocation. I'll take care of Fugaku and the other core elders."

He had agreed to the deal.

A weight lifted from Ling's heart. He knew he'd won the first step of the gamble.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Itachi." Ling nodded. "Here's to a new future."

Itachi gave Ling a long, searching look. It was impossible to read, carrying suspicion, warning, and a trace of barely perceptible hope. He said nothing more. In an instant, he vanished into the deepening night like a demon.

Ling stood where he was, feeling the chill of the night wind. He knew this was only the beginning of a deal with the devil. The next steps allowed no room for error.

He turned and looked toward Kimimaro, who was keeping watch from the shadows in the distance.

"Let's go. We're heading back." Ling's voice carried a note of fatigue, but more than that, a fierce resolve. "The real storm is coming. Dawn Wind must spread its wings."