Encountering Bounty Hunters

"Kid, not bad cooking."

Juzo wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth and spoke with some feeling.

"It was alright. Mostly because I was hungry—anything tastes good when you're hungry..."

Itachi slowly finished his last bite of meat, satisfiedly rubbed his stomach, and leaned against a large tree.

After resting for half an hour, the two continued on their journey.

"Trouble's coming."

Toward evening, the two stopped and exchanged a glance.

Juzo spoke softly.

"As expected..."

Hearing Juzo's words, Itachi looked at the Executioner's Blade on Juzo's back with an indescribable expression.

But that thing was Juzo's lifeblood. He couldn't exactly ask him to take off that huge blade.

"What do you think is coming?"

The two stood openly in the middle of the road, with no intention of hiding.

Juzo casually struck up a conversation with Itachi.

"I don't know who's coming. But I know they're definitely here to cause trouble for you."

Itachi spoke blandly, glancing at Juzo's coquettishly painted nails.

He had those too, but he had never painted them...

"Fine..."

Juzo did not refute Itachi's words. This sort of thing had happened to him plenty of times, but the Executioner's Blade was his faith. He could never part with it.

"We've been exposed. Get ready."

A ninja hidden in the shadows slowly stepped out and spoke calmly.

Then three more people gradually emerged from the darkness. They wore ninja headbands tied around their heads or arms, but they were not from the same country.

"What can we do for you?"

Facing the four aggressive men, Juzo asked contemptuously.

As the owner of the Executioner's Blade and one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, he naturally had confidence in his strength.

"Juzo, huh? Your bounty's worth quite a bit. Since when did you start bringing a little brat around?"

The first ninja to step out spoke frivolously, though a trace of gravity flashed deep in his eyes.

This prey was a little troublesome.

"So you really are here for me. Then tell me—eyes, throat, heart, waist... where would you like to be attacked?"

Hearing how arrogant the other party sounded,

Juzo calmly formed hand seals, his cold voice drifting from his mouth.

As Juzo finished speaking, thick mist rose all around them.

The white fog was incredibly dense. Before long, everyone's visibility had dropped to less than a meter.

Itachi was initially startled, then quickly understood.

He realized that although the white mist was thick, it was not particularly potent.

Then he figured it out. The Mist Transformation Technique required water.

There was no body of water nearby, so the Mist Transformation Technique had been forcibly created entirely through Juzo's chakra.

Watching Juzo's figure vanish into the mist, Itachi activated his Sharingan and looked around.

Under Itachi's Sharingan, the mist became somewhat thinner, but he still could not see through it.

Itachi finally understood why Kakashi had needed to use summoned beasts when facing Zabuza.

Even with a complete pair of Sharingan, he could only grope around blindly. Kakashi had only one Sharingan.

Seeing this Mist Transformation Technique reminded Itachi of a ninjutsu called Bringer of Darkness, which also countered the Sharingan.

He felt something then. Everything in the world had something that countered it.

But he was not afraid. Those techniques could only target the Sharingan, while he possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan. There was nothing to worry about.

After all, with Susanoo in hand, the world was his.

"Aah!"

A scream rang out through the mist.

"Don't be afraid! He's alone! Go capture that little brat!"

Juzo's swift methods turned the four bounty hunters into three.

The remaining three saw Juzo kill one of their companions before disappearing again. Sensing that things were going badly, they hurriedly shouted.

Though fear filled their hearts, anyone in this line of work lived with their head on the line.

So they did not lose their minds.

They prepared to turn their attention toward the small Itachi.

Hearing that these three nobodies actually wanted to target him, four kunai appeared in Itachi's hand. Without hesitation, he hurled them toward the source of the voice.

Then, to Juzo's astonishment, the bounty hunter who had shouted and charged forward was riddled like a beehive. Every kunai had pierced a fatal point.

The moment Itachi made his move, it was clear what he was capable of.

Just from hearing the other man's voice, he could determine his location and weaknesses.

That was not something an ordinary person could do.

Of course, the one who had spoken happened to be the first person to step forward. Itachi remembered his voice and build, and after a brief instinctive analysis, he effortlessly struck his vital points without hesitation.

Watching their companion, who had just been giving orders and charging ahead, turn into a beehive in the blink of an eye,

the two remaining bounty hunters broke down.

Before they could kneel and beg for mercy, however, Juzo easily took their heads.

The thick mist quickly dispersed, and Juzo stood quietly before their corpses.

"Kid, you've got some skill..."

Juzo looked at Itachi Uchiha with a hint of approval.

But Itachi ignored him and walked toward Juzo. He crouched beside the bounty hunter Juzo had killed, pulled out the kunai he had thrown earlier, wiped them on the corpse's clothes, and put them back into his ninja tool pouch.

Then he began feeling around the body...

"Damn, kid..."

Seeing Itachi's practiced movements, Juzo cut himself off halfway through his sentence and quickly crouched down to search the corpse.

He had three trophies to loot. He needed to see whether they had anything valuable before Itachi, that shameless bastard, got there first...

Under Juzo's somewhat wary gaze, Itachi casually pulled out a ninja tool pouch. After looking through it, he found several hundred ryo, along with a few kunai and shuriken.

Itachi happily took them and put them into his own ninja tool pouch.

Then he stood up. He had no intention of competing with Juzo, who looked vicious on the surface but was actually a childish, money-grubbing fool, for the spoils.

Seeing that Itachi had stood up without any intention of taking his loot, Juzo secretly breathed a sigh of relief before freezing slightly.

He had never had a habit of searching corpses before...

Damn kid, he's led me astray... But this actually feels pretty good? This strange sense of satisfaction?

Juzo grumbled inwardly.

"Are you done? You're taking forever..."

Watching Juzo search a single corpse for ages, Itachi felt a little irritated.

What was with that ugly face and that strange smile...

Juzo paid no attention to Itachi's voice.

Instead, he carefully searched the corpse as if looking for treasure.

"How about you do it while it's still warm? I'll keep watch for you?"

Seeing Juzo acting strangely,

Itachi asked seriously.

Juzo was stunned by Itachi's words, not quite understanding.

Seeing Juzo's puzzled expression, Itachi knew he had overthought things, and his old face reddened slightly.

"Nothing. Keep going..."

Beneath his conical hat, Itachi remained utterly composed as the sudden flush quickly faded.