Chapter 103: Obito’s Judgment: Reiji Will Go Blind Sooner or Later

The Land of Rain.

Inside one of the Akatsuki’s secret bases.

At this point, the Akatsuki had yet to eliminate Hanzo of the Salamander. It was still a mercenary ninja organization secretly developing its power within the Land of Rain.

Uchiha Itachi had just returned from a mission. With an expressionless face, he walked into the base.

During the night of the clan massacre, Uchiha Reiji had controlled him with genjutsu and ordered him to exterminate the Sarutobi clan.

Originally, Uchiha Reiji had commanded him to commit suicide after wiping out the Sarutobi clan.

However, at the final moment, the masked man who was suspected to be Uchiha Madara suddenly appeared and rescued him just as he was preparing to kill himself.

After that, since he could no longer return to Konoha, he had no choice but to join the Akatsuki.

Every day, he carried out various mercenary missions for the Akatsuki while trying to gather information about the organization.

He lived like a walking corpse.

To Uchiha Itachi, it would have been better if he had simply died on the night of the clan massacre.

The scenes of him slaughtering the Sarutobi clan still remained vividly in his mind.

Women, old people, children...

The screams, wails, and pleas for mercy from all of them constantly echoed in his ears.

Ever since that day, those images had replayed in his mind every single day.

That bastard Uchiha Reiji—what had driven him to such madness?!

It would have been one thing if he had wanted to lead his clan in a coup d’état, but why had he also exterminated the Sarutobi clan?

And why had he controlled him with genjutsu and used his hands to carry out the massacre?!

So many innocent people had died by his hands!

After killing so many people, didn’t Uchiha Reiji ever have nightmares?!

"Itachi, we meet again."

A hoarse, low voice rang out.

Orochimaru, his body covered in blood and his skin deathly pale, walked out of one of the laboratories inside the base.

Looking at Uchiha Itachi, Orochimaru’s expression carried a hint of amusement.

He had already taken notice of Uchiha Itachi before defecting from Konoha.

Once, he and Uchiha Reiji had been known as the twin geniuses of the Uchiha clan.

However, their fates had now become completely different.

One had successfully launched a coup, killing his teacher, the Third Hokage.

The other had been controlled into exterminating the Sarutobi clan, leaving him with no choice but to abandon Konoha and join an organization of rogue ninjas like the Akatsuki.

"Orochimaru."

Uchiha Itachi’s expression turned cold, and he immediately became vigilant, constantly prepared to activate his Sharingan.

After being brought into the Akatsuki by that mysterious man, he had been shocked to discover that this seemingly insignificant organization in the shinobi world had actually gathered so many dangerous rogue ninjas.

Sasori of the Red Sand, an S-rank missing-nin from the Hidden Sand Village.

Kakuzu, an S-rank missing-nin from the Hidden Waterfall Village.

Orochimaru, an S-rank missing-nin.

And even his own teammate, Jūzō Biwa, was one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. He had now defected from the Hidden Mist Village and joined the Akatsuki as well.

An organization of mercenary ninjas had gathered so many dangerous rogue ninjas.

It was obviously harboring a tremendous ambition.

As for the Akatsuki’s leader, Pain, he even possessed the legendary Rinnegan.

Moreover, that masked man who was suspected to be Uchiha Madara was very likely the true mastermind behind the Akatsuki!

With so many dangerous individuals gathered together, they would definitely pose a threat to peace throughout the shinobi world!

"Don’t be nervous. I merely came to tell you something."

Orochimaru chuckled twice before saying,

"You should know that the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Stone Villages have invaded the Land of Fire, right? And the one leading Konoha’s shinobi to intercept the Hidden Cloud forces is Uchiha Reiji."

Uchiha Itachi’s eyes sharpened.

Of course, he knew about the invasion by the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Stone Villages.

In his opinion, there was no doubt that the reason the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Stone had launched their invasion was because of Uchiha Reiji!

If Uchiha Reiji had not launched his coup, brazenly killed the Third Hokage, and completely exterminated the Sarutobi clan, the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Stone Villages would never have started a war!

The hard-won peace of the shinobi world would not have been destroyed either!

After learning that the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Stone had gone to war, the hatred Uchiha Itachi already held for Uchiha Reiji deepened even further.

War.

It was the very thing he hated most!

"Heh, but you probably don’t know about the latest news yet."

"The war with the Hidden Cloud is already over. Uchiha Reiji killed the Fourth Raikage, completely annihilated the Hidden Cloud army that invaded the Land of Fire, and captured the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki, Killer B."

"After that, Uchiha Reiji even brought the Eight-Tails to the Hidden Cloud Village and intimidated them. He directly blew up the Raikage Building in the Hidden Cloud Village."

Orochimaru spoke with a trace of apprehension in his eyes.

When he had defected from Konoha back then, Uchiha Reiji had been only eight years old, yet he had managed to hold him back for several minutes and nearly prevented his escape!

Orochimaru was very familiar with Uchiha Reiji.

Several years had passed, and he had never expected Uchiha Reiji to have grown to such a level.

He had killed his teacher, the Third Hokage.

He had killed the Fourth Raikage.

He had single-handedly annihilated the Hidden Cloud army!

In Orochimaru’s estimation, even if he used every forbidden technique at his disposal, he might not necessarily be capable of accomplishing such feats.

Uchiha Itachi was completely stunned.

He had annihilated the entire Hidden Cloud army?

And he had killed the Raikage and captured the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki?!

What was Uchiha Reiji trying to do?!

"...I understand. If there’s nothing else, I’ll go rest first."

Uchiha Itachi lowered his eyes, revealing nothing of what he was thinking.

He returned to his own room.

Before long, Uchiha Obito’s figure slowly emerged and drifted inside.

"You don’t seem to be in a very good mood. What, are you feeling discouraged because the gap between your strength and Uchiha Reiji’s is too great?"

Uchiha Itachi said coldly,

"You promised me that you would deal with Uchiha Reiji. That was my condition for joining the Akatsuki."

If the other party had not promised him this, then even if he had nowhere else to go, he would never have joined an organization of rogue ninjas like the Akatsuki!

Uchiha Reiji had to be eliminated!

In his eyes, Uchiha Reiji was far too selfish. He completely disregarded the interests of the village and ignored peace throughout the shinobi world.

And now, all of that had already—

been proven.

Because Uchiha Reiji had launched a coup, war had broken out between Konoha and the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Stone Villages.

The Hidden Cloud army had been completely annihilated, leaving countless casualties in its wake.

This also proved Uchiha Reiji’s brutality, just as he had demonstrated when he controlled Itachi into exterminating the Sarutobi clan.

"There is no need to worry about him."

Obito chuckled lightly.

"Let me tell you something about the Sharingan. The Mangekyō Sharingan will gradually cause its user to lose their eyesight the more it is used."

"I also investigated Uchiha Reiji’s previous battle. He combined his own power with that of the Eight-Tails."

"The reason he did that was probably because he had already realized that the loss of his ocular power could no longer be replenished."

Obito now also knew the details of the night of the clan massacre.

Uchiha Reiji had activated his Susanoo and recklessly pursued Sarutobi Hiruzen throughout Konoha.

He had enjoyed using his Susanoo back then, but the more he used it, the closer he came to blindness!

Once Uchiha Reiji eventually lost his eyesight, wouldn’t he be at Obito’s mercy?

More importantly!

A blind Uchiha Reiji would not even be worth Obito’s attention.

What concerned Obito more was exactly how Uchiha Reiji had learned information about his ocular technique!

He even suspected that Black Zetsu had betrayed him.

After all, aside from the already-dead Uchiha Madara, only Black Zetsu knew the details of his Kamui.

Unfortunately, he had no evidence, nor could he figure out why Black Zetsu would betray him. For now, it could only remain a suspicion.

"He’ll go blind?"

A glimmer appeared in Uchiha Itachi’s eyes.

If that was true, then once Uchiha Reiji’s strength declined, perhaps Itachi would be able to personally take revenge!

Uchiha Reiji, who had controlled him into exterminating the Sarutobi clan, was the enemy Itachi hated most in the entire world. There was no one else who came close!

Suddenly remembering something, Uchiha Itachi frowned.

"If the Mangekyō Sharingan causes blindness, then why can you still use yours?"

"People are different. That’s also why I value you so highly."

"There is a way to solve the problem of blindness, but Uchiha Reiji doesn’t have the necessary conditions. You do."

Obito spoke in a relaxed tone.

There were two ways to solve the problem of blindness.

One was to transplant a sibling’s eyes.

The other was to transplant the cells of the First Hokage.

As for the former, Uchiha Reiji had no siblings, so he did not meet the requirements.

As for the latter, setting aside the fact that Uchiha Reiji did not know about this method, even if he did, successfully transplanting the First Hokage’s cells and surviving the procedure would not be easy!

Therefore, in Obito’s eyes, Uchiha Reiji becoming blind in the future was already a foregone conclusion.

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