"What? Is this... Wood Release?"
Naruto had already leaped onto the crown of a towering tree. Looking at Itachi, he murmured, "So Wood Release ninjutsu of this level still isn't enough to restrain a second-stage Susanoo?"
"Why do you possess the First Hokage's kekkei genkai? Did Orochimaru experiment on you back then, too?"
As a former squad leader in Konoha's ANBU, Itachi knew about-and had investigated-the forbidden experiments Orochimaru had secretly conducted in the village before he was exposed.
Rather than answer Itachi's question, Naruto countered, "If this is the strength you're relying on to lecture me, I think you're still far short."
At those words, Itachi finally began to take Naruto seriously.
Had he not seen that Naruto had mastered Wood Release, Itachi might not have intended to kill him. After all, having spent so long undercover in the Akatsuki, he knew something of its leader's power. Yet even an organization like that had spent years making preparations to impose peace through overwhelming force.
Initially, he had only intended to use his utterly superior strength to crush Naruto's dangerous ideas and make him back down.
He believed that even a boy whose thinking surpassed that of a Hokage could not make much of a stir alone.
But once he discovered that Naruto possessed both intelligence and strength, he immediately felt that unless he intervened, Naruto really might ignite the Fourth Shinobi World War, bringing years of warfare once again.
"I thought your trump card was the power of a tailed beast. I never imagined you had mastered Wood Release. Naruto, if you keep going, you'll die." Itachi's voice was ice-cold.
Naruto sneered at that. "You make it sound like you can kill me whenever you please."
Naruto sensed Itachi's killing intent, but he was not surprised.
He could murder