Hey! I've been kidnapped!

Bubble, bubble...!

After those little black bubbles emerged, they gathered into a small black bat in midair. It fluttered its wings, about to fly away!

Tap!

Itachi jumped onto the roof, intending to chase it down and investigate!

Sasuke looked confused. "Big brother, where are you going?"

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Itachi leaped from building to building, but the little bat flew too fast, pulling farther and farther ahead!

Whoosh! Itachi jumped onto the tallest building, leaped with all his strength, and threw a Kunai!

Whoosh! The Kunai... passed straight through the little bat!

"What...?"

As Itachi fell, shock crossed his face!

But he immediately steadied himself, focusing his right eye on the little bat overhead. His eye grew bloodshot. Drip! A trail of blood ran from its corner!

"Then how about this..."

Amaterasu!!

Fwoosh!

Black flames ignited the little bat!

Itachi landed back on the roof, watching the flames from a distance. "Did it work...?"

Rustle...

The little bat burned apart into bubbles!

But a few seconds later, it re-formed and fired a sonic attack from its mouth at Itachi!

"What??"

Itachi was struck and fell off the roof!

The resentful thoughts of those three men from earlier echoed through his mind!

"That Itachi is utterly full of himself!"

"What he just said practically proves he isn't on the clan's side!"

"If the Clan Leader keeps protecting his own, there's no point staying in this Military Police Force!"

Itachi lay on the ground, watching the little bat disappear into the distance, his gaze inscrutable!

Tap, tap, tap! Sasuke ran over anxiously. "Big brother, are you all right?!"

"I'm fine..."

Itachi wiped the blood from the corner of his eye. The Mangekyō's tomoe faded from his eyes, and he sat up.

Sasuke said, "What happened to you just now, big brother? That was pretty scary..."

Itachi said, "I wasn't in a very good mood, so I just let off a little steam. It's all right. I feel much better now."

With a child's candor, Sasuke said, "I don't know what's been going on lately, but everyone's acting strange. Every night, Dad and Mom leave the house and don't come back until it's almost morning... Big brother, is everyone hiding something from me?"

Looking at his little brother's anxious face, Itachi felt a wrenching pain in his heart.

But all his face showed was a reassuring smile. "No, everyone's fine. Dad and Mom are just going out for walks. Everything's the same as before. Nobody's hiding anything from you, Sasuke..."

Like a puppy, Sasuke gazed at him pleadingly. "Really??"

Tap!

Itachi poked Sasuke's forehead and reassured him. "I promise everything's fine. Let's go home. I'll make your favorite tomato fried rice..."

"But the water pipe still isn't fixed. Stinky water keeps coming out..."

"It's all right. I can use Water Release to make clean water for rinsing the rice."

"Hehe, you're amazing, big brother! When I grow up, I want to be a ninja as strong as you!"

Sasuke's concerns were simple and easy to understand.

Itachi's, however, were as deep as the sea.

I can confirm that this is a phenomenon caused by a jutsu, one that only the Mangekyō Sharingan can observe.

It exists as a special chakra construct, unaffected by physical objects such as Kunai.

Amaterasu's attack can briefly return it to a state of dispersed bubbles, but cannot destroy it any further.

Its assembled form can identify whoever attacks it and retaliate with something similar to a bat's sonic waves. Of course... I can't rule out the possibility that the caster deliberately launched that attack!

Itachi's gaze darkened.

Most important of all were the resentful words I heard when the sonic wave struck me.

If I'm not mistaken, that jutsu's essence is to give tangible form to the resentment in people's hearts for the caster to use!

The caster possesses visual prowess at least equal to, if not greater than, the Mangekyō Sharingan!

The jutsu's characteristics also match the chakra medium needed to evade everyone in our clan's detection and transmit thoughts to Shisui from afar!

At this point, Itachi was all but certain.

Is the caster that Expert Shisui has been so eager to find?!

If... it indiscriminately collects resentment within a certain range, that phenomenon is bound to appear again!

I have to seize the opportunity myself!

Next time, I won't let it slip through my fingers!

Bzzzt!

Itachi's eyes transformed into the Mangekyō again!

To discover the Expert's true identity, he decided not to pass up a single chance to observe it!

The Resentment Bat flew up to Yu, circled a few times, then slipped into his sleeve.

Yu grinned. "Hehe, looks like the day I meet Itachi face-to-face isn't far off. I can't wait..."

On the route he had to take home, he ran into Mizuki again.

Yu stopped and greeted him with a smile. "Hey, Teacher Mizuki, what a coincidence, meeting you here again. You don't look too good. Are you sick?"

Mizuki said, "Ah, something like that. More importantly, I heard you beat Sasuke in today's Shuriken contest. That's quite impressive!"

Yu smiled. "Hehe, I just got lucky. But that's strange. You took the day off, didn't you? How did you know about the Shuriken contest?"

Mizuki approached him. "Don't worry about that. Could you come somewhere with me?"

Yu looked troubled. "But Dad said good children should go home on time..."

Mizuki smiled kindly. "Don't worry. I've already spoken to your dad. He won't scold you for coming home a little late."

Yu said "innocently," "Really? Then that's all right."

Mizuki turned around. "Good. Follow me."

Before Mizuki even made his move, Yu knew exactly what he was up to.

Hey, I've got nothing better to do anyway. I'll play along...

Ten minutes later, Yu asked "uneasily," "Teacher, aren't we there yet?"

"Almost. It's just up ahead."

"What is this place? It feels so remote..."

Mizuki said nothing, merely quickening his pace.

"We're here. This is the place."

Mizuki stopped. Before him stood the Abandoned Hut.

Yu asked, "Why did we come to a place like this?"

"Well..."

Mizuki quietly stepped behind Yu and struck the back of his neck with a knife-hand chop!

Thud!

Yu fell to the ground and lay motionless.

Mizuki said wickedly, "To use you as a hostage, of course. There's a companion of yours inside. Tonight, she'll die along with you. Hahaha! If you want to hate someone, hate that demon fox Naruto. It's his fault for treating you as a friend~~!!!"

He bound Yu tightly, tossed him into the dark little room, strapped a Fūma Shuriken to his back, and vanished from the spot!

"Waaaah..."

Inside the dark room, a girl was sobbing.

It was Sakura. Her hands and feet were tied, and she had cried until her eyes were red!

Earlier that day, Sasuke's rejection had left her so distraught that she ran away, all the way to Konoha's Riverbank, where she wiped away her tears alone!

Then Mizuki, who had followed her, kidnapped her and brought her here!

Beside her, Yu said, "Stop crying. Can you do anything besides blubber?"

Sakura said resentfully, "Waaah, it's all your fault! If you hadn't meddled, why would Sasuke-kun have come to hate me?! Nothing good has happened since you showed up!"

Yu said, "Are you talking about going bald?"

"Waaah, waaaaaah...!"

Sakura cried even harder.

"Say, Sakura, what exactly do you like about Sasuke?"

Yu's soul-searching question brought Sakura's sobbing to an abrupt halt!