Chapter 309: Amaterasu and Orochimaru

Chapter 309: Chapter 309: Amaterasu and Orochimaru

Standing in the corridor, Itachi asked Fugaku, "Father, did you need something from me?"

Fugaku stood with his arms crossed and looked at Itachi. "Itachi, we owe you for what happened earlier. If it hadn’t been for you, your little brother Sasuke might have fallen victim to those people from the Akatsuki."

After learning that members of the Akatsuki had taken advantage of the chaos that night to infiltrate the Uchiha clan compound and abduct Sasuke, Fugaku had been both shocked and furious.

First, Uchiha Hiiragi had disappeared. Then Sasuke had been abducted.

The mighty Uchiha clan, one of the most prestigious clans in the shinobi world, had somehow become like a marketplace where the enemy could come and go as they pleased. As the head of the clan, Fugaku found this utterly infuriating.

Itachi gently shook his head. "Protecting Sasuke is my responsibility as his older brother."

"As expected of my son!"

Fugaku, who normally wore a stern expression, revealed a rare smile.

He had seen Itachi’s talent with his own eyes. As long as nothing unexpected happened, Itachi would inevitably grow into another powerful Uchiha who was no weaker than Shisui.

And as the powerful shinobi of the Uchiha’s younger generation matured one after another, the clan’s standing within the village would inevitably rise along with them. Even if the Hokage faction wanted to stop it, there was probably little they could do.

After all, among the Hokage faction’s younger generation, the only one truly worth mentioning was Kakashi, the Fourth Hokage’s student.

In fact, by this point, Fugaku’s thoughts of rebellion had already faded considerably.

The reason was simple: the pressure from outside the clan had become far too great. In particular, after it was revealed that Hiruko had successfully developed a forbidden technique capable of stealing other people’s Kekkei Genkai, Fugaku had come to regard Hiruko as their number-one enemy.

If Hiruko’s forbidden technique were to spread, then every shinobi in the shinobi world who possessed a Kekkei Genkai would likely have to live in constant fear.

Of course, Fugaku had no idea that his worries were actually unnecessary.

Hiruko’s Kekkei Genkai fusion ritual required the perfect convergence of numerous factors—the right time, the right place, and the right circumstances—for there to even be a chance of success. It was by no means something that could simply be replicated.

Even Hiruko himself had only survived the ritual by the skin of his teeth!

Fugaku then asked, "Where are you going?"

Itachi replied, "I’m going to visit Shisui."

Fugaku nodded, then reminded him, "The area around the village is already under lockdown. Don’t go wandering around for the next few days!"

At Shisui’s home.

After listening to Shisui recount everything that had happened that night from beginning to end, then combining it with the information he had gotten from Rei and everything he himself had witnessed that night, Hyuga Kagami had already formed a rough picture of what had happened.

There was no doubt about it.

Obito’s target had never been Naruto from the very beginning.

The reason Naruto had been abducted was merely to lure ANBU Team 11 away—or more precisely, to lure Shisui, who was part of Team 11, out of the village. Hiruko would then disguise himself as Shisui and assassinate the Third Hokage, plunging Konoha into internal conflict.

If Obito’s scheme had succeeded, Konoha would inevitably have suffered a devastating blow.

Orochimaru’s motive was equally clear.

The Sharingan.

He had probably learned about Hiruko’s attack plan through Shinno and decided to take advantage of the chaos, striking at the Uchiha clan when its defenses were at their weakest.

Shinno was likely thinking along the same lines as Orochimaru. He wanted to take advantage of the chaos engulfing Konoha to secretly devour Shion, who possessed the Priestess’s power, and achieve yet another massive leap in strength.

As for Danzo, Kagami didn’t even need to guess why he had attacked Shisui.

Fortunately, every single one of these people had been pursuing their own agenda.

Otherwise, Konoha really might not have made it through that night.

Shisui stared at Kagami and asked, "Senpai, what should we do next?"

Kagami glanced at Shisui. Seeing that his face was deathly pale, without the slightest trace of color, he said, "Don’t worry about anything else right now. Focus on recovering from your injuries first. We can talk about everything else later."

Shisui hurriedly said, "Senpai, my injuries really aren’t that serious!"

Kagami shook his head. "We can’t afford even the slightest carelessness when dealing with the Akatsuki. So recover first. Once your injuries have completely healed, we’ll discuss what to do next."

Shisui could only nod. "All right!"

Kagami had just stepped out of Shisui’s house when he ran into Itachi, who had come to visit Shisui.

Upon seeing Kagami, Itachi hurried forward and bowed. "Kagami-senpai."

Kagami smiled and nodded. "As expected of Uchiha Itachi!"

Kagami had just heard from Shisui about how Itachi had rescued the abducted Sasuke from the hands of an Akatsuki "peripheral member."

What Shisui didn’t know, however, was that the young woman accompanying Shinno was no mere peripheral member of the Akatsuki.

She was Orochimaru—one of the legendary Three Sannin, whose name resounded throughout the shinobi world.

In the original timeline, Itachi had indeed once defeated Orochimaru in an instant. But at that time, Itachi had already been thirteen years old and possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Yet the Itachi standing here was only eleven.

He hadn’t even awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, and yet he had still managed to rescue Sasuke from Orochimaru’s hands.

That alone was an extraordinary feat.

Itachi glanced around before lowering his voice. "Senpai, there’s something I need to tell you."

Kagami said, "Follow me!"

Before long, the two arrived in a secluded grove.

Kagami surveyed their surroundings with his Byakugan. After confirming that no one was nearby, he said, "Go ahead."

Itachi didn’t answer.

Instead, he directly activated his Sharingan.

In an instant, his dark eyes turned scarlet.

The three tomoe within them began spinning rapidly before suddenly converging together, transforming into the shape of a three-bladed shuriken.

Kagami froze for a moment. "You... you awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan?!"

Itachi quickly deactivated his Mangekyo Sharingan and nodded. "Yes. The enemy that night was incredibly powerful. I nearly died at her hands. At the critical moment, I awakened these eyes!"

What Itachi himself didn’t know was that he had actually awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan the very instant Orochimaru abducted Sasuke—the moment he brushed past Shinno.

He had awakened it a full year earlier than in the original timeline.

After recovering from his surprise, Kagami asked, "You killed her?"

Itachi nodded.

"Orochimaru got taken out just like that?!"

The thought flashed through Kagami’s mind, and for a moment, he genuinely didn’t know what to say.

After pondering it for quite a while, he finally asked, "Are you sure she’s completely dead?"

Itachi hesitated slightly before explaining, "I used one of my Mangekyo Sharingan’s ocular abilities. It’s called ’Amaterasu.’ Its flames can burn anything to ashes. I personally watched her burn to ashes under Amaterasu. Unless she possessed some kind of special means of escape, she must be dead!"

"Amaterasu, huh..."

Kagami thought it over carefully and concluded that Orochimaru was probably still alive.

After all, if Amaterasu could kill Orochimaru that easily, then in the original timeline, Itachi wouldn’t have needed the Totsuka Sword to seal him away.

With Orochimaru’s Orochimaru-Style Body Replacement Technique, combined with the extraordinary modifications he had made to his own body, ordinary methods were extremely unlikely to kill him.

Outside of sealing techniques, putting Orochimaru down for good was no easy feat...