Chapter 237: Homura Appears

Chapter 237: Chapter 237: Homura Appears

Hearing Shisui tease him, Sasuke pouted, his face full of displeasure.

Unlike the Sasuke of the original timeline, whose entire clan had been slaughtered and who had fallen into loneliness and hatred, Sasuke at this point was nothing more than a little brat who loved clinging to Itachi.

Itachi rubbed Sasuke’s head and smiled.

"Brother Shisui is just teasing you."

By now, Sasuke’s attention had already shifted to the targets placed around the small courtyard, his face brimming with eagerness to give it a try.

Seeing through Sasuke’s thoughts, Shisui handed him a shuriken and said, "Give it a shot. When Itachi was your age, he could already hit the bullseye with ease."

Taking the shuriken, Sasuke turned toward his older brother, his eyes practically sparkling.

"Big Brother, you could already hit the bullseye when you were my age?"

Itachi smiled gently, tacitly confirming it.

In truth, by the age of four, Itachi had even been on the battlefield and had personally killed a ninja from an enemy nation—something Sasuke, who had grown up during an era of peace, could hardly imagine.

"If Big Brother could do it, then I can do it too!"

With that, the utterly confident Sasuke took aim at a target directly in front of him and hurled the shuriken with all his strength.

Whoosh...

With a sharp whistle through the air, the shuriken sailed straight out of the courtyard and disappeared from sight.

Immediately afterward, an angry shout came from outside.

"Who the hell is throwing shuriken around?!"

Sasuke shrank his neck, his face filled with dejection.

Shisui was somewhat surprised as well. Over the past year or two, he had been constantly occupied with matters concerning ANBU Team 11 and hadn’t had much time to pay attention to Sasuke.

Only today did he realize that, compared to Itachi, Sasuke’s talent seemed to fall quite a bit short.

Just then, the messenger crow Shisui had sent out that morning returned and landed on his shoulder.

After removing the message tube tied to the crow’s leg, Shisui made no attempt to hide it from Itachi and Sasuke. He opened the secret message directly and discovered that only a time and location were written on it.

Noticing the change in Shisui’s expression, Itachi stepped forward and asked, "What’s wrong?"

Shisui put away the secret message and shook his head, offering Itachi no detailed explanation.

Although he had confessed to Itachi that he was Homura of Kamigami, deep down, he still didn’t want Itachi getting involved in such dark affairs...

...

Within the Land of Fire, on a remote trail.

Uchiha Hiiragi and Uchiha Yuto were carrying out their routine patrol.

Although this trail was remote and difficult to traverse, it was a shortcut connecting the Land of Fire to the Land of Hot Water, making it a route frequently used by bounty ninjas and rogue ninjas.

Uchiha Yuto said, "Did you hear? Mount Haruki, the one not too far from the village, suddenly collapsed last night!"

Uchiha Hiiragi nodded. "Yeah. I heard members of Kamigami fought someone there, and Mount Haruki was caught in the aftermath."

Uchiha Yuto secretly clicked his tongue in astonishment. "Just what kind of people are these Kamigami members? How come we’d never even heard of them before?"

Glancing at Yuto, Uchiha Hiiragi snorted lightly. "What? You’re scared?"

Uchiha Yuto gave an awkward smile. "Don’t tell me you’re not scared at all? Even Ryota was captured by them. If we run into them, I’m afraid we won’t escape unscathed either."

The moment those words left his mouth, Uchiha Yuto abruptly froze in his tracks.

Uchiha Hiiragi, who had been lost in thought, turned around and asked, "What’s wrong?"

Trembling, Uchiha Yuto pointed into the distance.

"Th-Those two... they couldn’t be members of Kamigami, could they?"

Following the direction of Uchiha Yuto’s finger, Uchiha Hiiragi looked over.

In the distance, two figures were slowly walking toward them.

Both wore Kamigami’s black cloaks trimmed in gold. One had a mask bearing a flame pattern, while the other wore a mask bearing the pattern of raging winds.

"They really are from Kamigami!"

Startled inwardly, Uchiha Hiiragi cried out in his mind, "Damn it, I actually ran into them! What am I supposed to do now?!"

Following the village’s large-scale encirclement operation, Kamigami’s battle record had already spread throughout Konoha to the point that practically everyone had heard about it.

Among those feats, Kawa had held off the Third Hokage one-on-one for quite some time before, with Homura’s support, successfully shaking off the pursuit of the Third Hokage and a large contingent of ANBU.

As for Homura, he had defeated Shisui, who possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan, as well as Ryota and Hideki, two jōnin of the Uchiha Clan. He had even managed to escape unscathed while surrounded by a large force of Uchiha elites personally led by the clan head.

Those few accomplishments alone were enough to demonstrate just how terrifying Kamigami was.

And of the two Kamigami members approaching them, one was clearly Homura, the one who had previously defeated Shisui and abducted Ryota and Hideki.

As for the other Kamigami member walking shoulder to shoulder with Homura, the one wearing the mask bearing a raging wind pattern, there had been no mention of him in the intelligence reports.

But anyone capable of walking alongside Homura as an equal was undoubtedly no ordinary shinobi.

Uchiha Yuto stammered, "W-What do we do?"

Uchiha Hiiragi took a deep breath.

"Fire the signal flare!"

"What...!?"

Uchiha Yuto was startled before hurriedly saying, "Wouldn’t that mean we’re definitely dead?! Why don’t... why don’t we run while we still can?"

Pulling a signal launcher from the ninja pouch at his waist, Uchiha Hiiragi gave a bitter smile.

"Don’t be stupid. Do you really think we can still escape now?"

With that, Uchiha Hiiragi resolutely fired the signal flare.

Whoosh...

Bang!

Watching the signal flare bloom high in the sky, Uchiha Hiiragi breathed a sigh of relief.

Although it was daytime, so the flare wasn’t nearly as conspicuous as it would have been at night, this operation was a carpet-search of the entire area, meaning there were plenty of Konoha shinobi nearby.

Because of that, Uchiha Hiiragi wasn’t particularly worried that the others would fail to notice the signal flare.

At that moment, the two Kamigami members also noticed the signal flare in the sky, as well as Uchiha Hiiragi and Uchiha Yuto, who had fired it.

Watching the two Kamigami members approaching head-on, Uchiha Hiiragi and Uchiha Yuto reacted as though facing their greatest enemies. One drew the longsword he habitually used, while the other pulled out two kunai and gripped them tightly in his hands.

Uchiha Hiiragi shouted, "Even if our chances of winning are slim, as proud Uchiha, we must never retreat!"

Uchiha Yuto could only steel himself and nod.

"Yeah! We’ll fight them with everything we’ve got!"

But the moment the two finished shouting, the two Kamigami members simply walked past them like ordinary travelers passing by.

They brushed right past the pair, who had already assumed their stances and prepared themselves for a battle to the death.

From beginning to end, neither Kamigami member even spared them a glance.

"Uh..."

Uchiha Yuto was both stunned and secretly relieved.

Uchiha Hiiragi felt relieved as well.

But immediately afterward, an indescribable sense of humiliation surged into his heart.

"Damn you! How dare you ignore me, Uchiha Hiiragi!"

With a furious roar, Uchiha Hiiragi swung the longsword in his hand and slashed toward Kamigami’s Homura!

At that moment, Kamigami’s Homura suddenly turned his head.

With nothing more than a single glare, Uchiha Hiiragi’s attack came to an abrupt halt.

Homura didn’t linger. Together with the other Kamigami member, he simply continued walking away at an unhurried pace.

Only after the two Kamigami members had disappeared into the distance did Uchiha Yuto approach Uchiha Hiiragi and give him a push.

"Y-You... what’s wrong? Did you get caught in a genjutsu?"

Uchiha Hiiragi was still standing frozen in place, his sword raised in midair.

Then, as though all the strength had suddenly drained from his body, he slumped.

His lips trembled as he murmured,

"The Mangekyo Sharingan! He... he really has the Mangekyo Sharingan!"