The rain in the Land of Rain seemed as though it would never stop.
When White Zetsu rose from the soil, the Masked Man was standing at the edge of a ruined tower.
"Konoha has another piece of paper."
White Zetsu delivered the news with a grin.
The underage observation protection rule.
Redacted summaries.
Guardian witnessing.
Exclusions must be justified.
These terms sounded trivial. None could directly determine the outcome of a battle.
Yet the Sharingan behind the mask slowly grew colder.
"What about Itachi?"
"He's still reading those reports."
White Zetsu tilted his head.
"And he's making it even more troublesome than before. He doesn't rush to decide whether a lead is true or false. First, he asks who wants Konoha to make that judgment."
The Masked Man fell silent.
The Itachi he remembered should have been a blade growing ever sharper.
The sooner he saw the conflict between the village and his clan, the more he would believe a clash was inevitable.
The better he understood the cost of war, the more willing he would be to shoulder the cruelest choice alone.
As long as every path was narrowed down to the final two, Itachi would choose to sacrifice himself, along with whichever side he could not save.
That was the Uchiha Itachi he knew.
But now another Itachi had appeared in Konoha.
This Itachi no longer rushed to choose.
He first checked who had drawn the paths.
Behind him stood Shisui, Fugaku, Shikaku, and an ever-growing set of witnessing rules.
Even when he saw darkness, someone was there to remind him that understanding darkness did not mean he had to obey the answers it offered.
White Zetsu leaned a little closer.
"Should we kill him?"
The Masked Man shook his head.
Killing Itachi now would only prove