Kotoamatsukami Control Released, Itachi Uchiha Taken Back to the Snake Den

"Give me Shisui Uchiha's eye."

A Luo watched Itachi Uchiha walk over and sit beside him, then held out his hand to Itachi once again.

"What do you want it for? To let Orochimaru use it in his experiments?"

Although Itachi knew that he had most likely been controlled and altered by Shisui's eye, that did not mean he would obey everything A Luo said.

He had recalled certain things from the past, and some of his thoughts had changed, but that did not mean he would hand Shisui's eye over to A Luo.

After all, the person A Luo trusted most right now was Orochimaru, and whether in the past or present, Itachi found Orochimaru's actions equally repulsive.

"I'll use that eye to remove Kotoamatsukami's control over you. Our family still has an old ancestor looking after Sasuke. If he sees you like this someday, I'm worried you'll anger him so badly he'll come back to life!"

A Luo turned to glare at Itachi, urging him to take out the eye.

As for the old Uchiha clan ancestor taking care of Sasuke, he had just made that up casually, lest Itachi get scared stupid if he ever went back and saw Sasuke.

"There's no need to remove it..."

Even though he had basically confirmed it, Itachi still had no intention of taking out that crow.

But just as he refused again, A Luo's soul emerged once more. His little hand passed directly through Itachi's body, grabbed his soul, and yanked it out.

"You talk so much nonsense. There's something wrong with your brain. I don't know whether Sasuke offended some immortal in a past life, or whether I did something like destroy the world in one of mine, but why did we end up with a brother like you? I can't kill you, can't hit you, and your body is so fragile it feels like you'll croak next year..."

A Luo suddenly flew into a rage, dragged out Itachi's soul, and began searching for the crow.

As he searched, he kept grumbling about how utterly maddening their whole family was when gathered together.

[Host, it sounds like everything you said was correct.]

The system watched the show and snacked on gossip, not forgetting to seize the chance to mock him. The more irritable its host became, the more he liked to tell the truth.

The problem was that once the truth came out, no one would believe it.

Don't screw me over. If we find the crow and it still can't remove the control, that'll be truly maddening.

Even though A Luo was putting on an act, what he really cared about was whether this Kotoamatsukami Mangekyō Sharingan would work.

The system had told him that, according to its scans, Itachi had already shown signs of breaking part of the control through his own spiritual power.

That was why they could follow the trail and determine that the Kotoamatsukami Sharingan could undo the previous control.

But A Luo definitely did not have enough chakra. Fortunately, the system had no interest in bullying its host. For only 100 points, it could let him perform a damage-free control-removal operation with the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Since A Luo had exploited a loophole last time and directly engraved the Flying Thunder God onto Sasuke's soul, the system had been especially meticulous this time. It clearly specified that, aside from using this eye to remove the control placed on Itachi, he should not even think about any other operations.

"Found it!"

A Luo held up a red-eyed crow and waved it in front of Itachi's soul.

Seeing the astonishment in Itachi's eyes, he casually stuffed Itachi's soul back into his body, then happily activated Shisui's eye.

As chakra flowed into it, the crow broke apart and vanished, leaving behind only a blood-red eye floating in A Luo's palm.

"A Luo!"

The instant Itachi's soul returned to his body and he woke up, he was met by the gaze of that eye.

Then everything went black, and he collapsed.

His body had already been in terrible condition. Earlier, he had gone mad using Tsukuyomi to examine his memories, and then A Luo had agitated him, pulled out his soul, and stuffed it back in.

After all that turmoil, both Itachi's mind and body gave out. He would not wake up for at least three to five days.

"Orochimaru-sensei, give me a hand. I can't drag him..."

The Sharingan in A Luo's palm disappeared after being used, though it had actually been stored in the system space.

Although he had bought the chakra from the system, tormenting Itachi just now had still drained him considerably.

After reaching out and tugging twice, he simply turned around and called toward the entrance of the base.

When there was something he could not do himself, naturally he would find someone capable of doing it!

"You can pull out any soul?"

Orochimaru had been observing from the side ever since A Luo came out, making sure his precious disciple would not be snatched away.

Then he watched with a heavy heart as his disciple independently comprehended what was clearly a Wood Release healing technique, pulled out Itachi's soul, and rummaged through it...

This brat had always liked causing trouble before, but it seemed he had still been holding back in the past.

Looking at Itachi's current state, Orochimaru inexplicably felt a little guilty.

And his teeth hurt...

Fortunately, when they first met, the first thing he had taken a liking to was A Luo's soul.

"At the very least, it only works when the other party is completely unguarded, has no wariness, and trusts me completely. Oh, right, Orochimaru-sensei, your situation is an exception. After all, this isn't your original body, so pulling it out is easy."

A Luo watched Orochimaru carry Itachi over his shoulder. He followed beside him, and only after they returned to the base did he explain the conditions required for him to pull out souls.

What he said was mostly true, but there was one most important condition: the other person's soul had to be weaker than his.

[Host, if you want to find someone in this world whose soul is stronger than yours, it would probably have to be the immortals of the Three Great Sage Regions. The Sage of Six Paths, Black Zetsu, and Kaguya Ōtsutsuki can barely count as well.]

The system popped up without giving him any face. While A Luo was giving his half-truthful explanation, it reminded him to have at least a little shame.

He had cultivated immortality before and even witnessed the war between immortals and demons. Did the host want a free test of his soul strength?

I'm talking about my current soul—the soul power I slowly cultivated in this world. I can't casually use what I had before. That's for if I ever need to escape for my life!

Naturally, A Luo understood that clearly. But he also understood that every world had its own rules.

That was also the fundamental reason the system had needed to prepare an identity for him in advance, adjust it, and let him recuperate for several years before allowing him to merge with it.

He came to these worlds to learn abilities, grow stronger, improve himself, and find people and things he might come to like.

From beginning to end, he had never intended to oppose the rules of the world. Even if the plot became twisted, he did not want to destroy the worlds he had passed through.

The previous cultivation world had been an exception. The identity used to send him there had happened to stand against the protagonist, so he had no choice at all. If he did not kill the protagonist, he could only wait for the protagonist to kill him before he could leave.

It was precisely because that identity had displeased him that he bought some materials and created a completely new identity that belonged solely to him.

Being sent over would create some blood ties and familial bonds, but such bonds only existed if they were nurtured. If he did not like them, he simply would not nurture them. He would be free and would not be pushed along by the original plot.

Although he was now part of the Uchiha clan, if it were not for Sasuke, he could have completely stepped outside the plotline, occasionally stirred up trouble, and watched the fun.

As for the possibility of Konoha hunting him down if he ran away...

He was not going to become a ninja, nor did he need to make a name for himself. He could buy props from the system; he would only need to change his identity. That truly was not difficult at all.