"A Crow?"
Almost as soon as Kakashi reached the depths of the Grove, the Crow flew toward him.
"That eye!"
Kakashi immediately noticed the strangely patterned Mangekyō Sharingan. Yet he did not close his eyes, instead quietly watching the Crow land in front of him.
Then dozens of black Crows flew out from all over the Grove, gathering before Kakashi to form Uchiha Itachi's figure.
"As expected of you, Kakashi. A Shadow Clone?"
"The Bird Clone Technique. So it really is you... Uchiha Itachi."
Kakashi's expression was conflicted.
But Itachi's very first question stunned him.
"Kakashi, have you met with him?"
Him?
For a moment, Kakashi did not realize whom Itachi meant.
His hesitation, however, told Itachi that Kakashi had not met the Fourth Hokage.
Why? Has he still not earned the Fourth Hokage's trust?
Is it because Kakashi is too close to the Third?
Itachi finished considering the matter, then spoke in a calm, somewhat stiff voice. "The Leader of the Akatsuki calls himself the 'Six Paths of Pain' and possesses the Rinnegan. Although he wears an Amegakure forehead protector, neither his abilities nor his origins can be confirmed."
"!!!? The Rinnegan?"
Hearing a name that had only ever appeared in myths and legends left Kakashi stunned.
Still, he did not know much about what those eyes actually represented, and what Itachi said next drew more of his attention.
"The Akatsuki's Leader said the organization's goal is to capture all the tailed beasts and use them to threaten the Five Great Nations into bringing peace to the shinobi world."
"The tailed beasts? Including the Nine-Tails?"
Kakashi had already learned this from the Fourth Mizukage. His main purpose in asking was to verify the intelligence and confirm whether Itachi was hiding anything.
"Yes, but the exact method is still unclear.