Chapter 424: The Tampered Stone Tablet

Chapter 424: Chapter 424: The Tampered Stone Tablet

Under everyone’s strange gazes, Yamato followed Anko away, his face flushed red.

Hyuga Kagami could naturally tell that Yamato was deliberately getting Anko out of the way, so he instructed Shisui and Itachi beside him, "You two go on ahead. I’ll catch up in a bit."

Shisui and Itachi nodded and left first.

"Hm?"

Orochimaru’s gaze suddenly sharpened. A faint trace of suspicion flickered across his handsome yet sinister disguised face.

With his keen senses, he had just caught a seemingly insignificant detail.

The way Shisui and Itachi treated Hyuga Kagami was not simply how friends or colleagues would treat one another.

Or rather, it wasn’t only the attitude of friends and colleagues.

Mixed into it was a faint trace of respect—the kind normally shown by subordinates toward a superior.

And that was extremely strange.

According to the intelligence sent back by his spies hidden within Konoha, Orochimaru was absolutely certain that within Konoha’s ANBU, Hyuga Kagami and Shisui did not have a superior-subordinate relationship.

As for Itachi, the eldest son of the Uchiha Clan Head, he couldn’t even be considered Kagami’s colleague.

There was no reason for two proud Uchiha like Shisui and Itachi to show such respect toward Hyuga Kagami, a mere ANBU squad captain.

After all, aside from Hyuga Kagami and Shisui, Orochimaru was currently the only person in the shinobi world who knew that Itachi had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.

That was because Itachi had awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan while beating the hell out of him.

Because of that, Orochimaru knew better than anyone that Shisui and Itachi represented the Uchiha Clan’s highest combat power at present. Their presence was also one of the main reasons he didn’t dare cause trouble recklessly inside the village.

After watching Shisui and Itachi disappear into the distance, Orochimaru extended his tongue and licked his lips.

With an inquisitive look on his face, he asked,

"Kagami, I’m very curious. Just what kind of method did you use to win those two over?"

Hyuga Kagami had originally intended to brush him off with a casual response or two, but when his gaze swept over Kimimaro behind Orochimaru and caught the sharp hostility in the boy’s eyes, he suddenly changed his mind.

His expression shifted, and he said arrogantly,

"As long as I’m stronger than them, they’ll naturally listen to me."

"Is that so?"

Orochimaru didn’t believe that nonsense for a second.

In his eyes, aside from the leaders of the two mysterious organizations, Akatsuki and Kamigami, there should be no one in the shinobi world capable of defeating Shisui and Itachi if the two joined forces.

Hyuga Kagami then asked in a flippant tone,

"Lord Orochimaru, why are you still playing these childish games? What’s the point of dragging a bunch of deadweights around with you?"

Before Orochimaru could answer, a bone-chilling killing intent suddenly erupted from Kimimaro’s body, as though even the surrounding air had turned several degrees colder!

Hyuga Kagami chuckled inwardly.

"As expected, the best way to piss Kimimaro off is to insult Orochimaru!"

Orochimaru raised a hand to stop Kimimaro, then smiled unconcernedly.

"Kagami, have you forgotten? Weren’t you once just like them, following by my side and growing stronger along the way?"

"But I’m different from these pieces of trash."

After a brief pause, Hyuga Kagami deliberately showed a trace of impatience.

"I still have things to do, so I’ll take my leave."

With that, Hyuga Kagami didn’t even wait for Orochimaru to respond. He simply strode forward and walked straight past Orochimaru’s group.

Although he appeared indifferent on the surface, he was secretly observing the reactions of Orochimaru and the others.

Orochimaru remained completely unfazed. Evidently, a few casual provocations from Hyuga Kagami weren’t nearly enough to disturb his composure.

Kimimaro, on the other hand, grew even angrier. But with Orochimaru holding him back, he had no choice but to temporarily suppress his killing intent.

Yet something within his gaze had become even more resolute.

Haku kept his head lowered the entire time, seemingly unconcerned with whatever Hyuga Kagami and Orochimaru had been discussing.

Jūgo, meanwhile, had anger written across his face, but he restrained himself remarkably well. It seemed that he had already begun learning how to suppress his extreme emotions, preventing himself from going berserk whenever his emotions fluctuated too violently.

Only after Hyuga Kagami had walked far into the distance did Kimimaro turn to Orochimaru with a puzzled expression.

"Lord Orochimaru, he dared to disrespect you. Why didn’t you let me teach him a lesson?"

Staring at Hyuga Kagami’s retreating figure, Orochimaru fell into thought for a moment before smiling.

"Although I still don’t know why, I can tell that he was deliberately trying to provoke me. That brat’s actions are becoming harder and harder to see through."

......

Outside Naka Shrine.

"Kenji, how are things on your side?"

"Everything’s normal. What about yours?"

"Same here."

Two Uchiha clansmen who had just finished their patrol met beneath the torii gate.

The Uchiha clansman named Kenji leaned against one of the gate’s pillars. As he surveyed the surroundings, he said,

"Kazu, don’t you think the clan is making too big a deal out of this?"

The other Uchiha clansman, Kazu, replied solemnly,

"There’s nothing wrong with being cautious."

Uchiha Kenji curled his lips.

"Hmph, who would dare come to our Uchiha shrine looking for trouble? And the Clan Head, too. He already assigned the two of us to stand guard tonight, yet he still had Uncle Junichi stationed inside the inner hall. Isn’t he looking down on us?"

The instant those words left his mouth, Uchiha Kenji’s expression suddenly froze.

As though he had been possessed, he stood rooted to the spot.

Realizing something was wrong, Uchiha Kazu spun around sharply.

But before he could even make out the enemy’s figure, the light vanished from his eyes just like Kenji’s.

He stood there motionless, his gaze completely vacant.

Immediately afterward, three figures revealed themselves beneath the torii gate outside Naka Shrine.

They were none other than Hyuga Kagami, Shisui, and Itachi.

Looking at Kenji and Kazu, who had been effortlessly subdued by Itachi’s genjutsu, Shisui shook his head.

Although the ocular power of Kenji and Kazu’s two-tomoe Sharingan was nowhere near enough to resist the genjutsu of Itachi’s Mangekyō Sharingan, the two of them had still been somewhat lacking in vigilance.

At that moment, Itachi said,

"Senpai, the clan has also stationed a clansman with a three-tomoe Sharingan inside the inner hall."

Hyuga Kagami replied calmly,

"Go deal with him."

"Yes!"

With that response, Itachi vanished from the spot.

Hyuga Kagami and Shisui did not linger beneath the torii gate either, heading straight toward the shrine’s main hall.

A short while later, Hyuga Kagami made his way completely unhindered into the most secretive underground chamber beneath the Uchiha’s Naka Shrine, strolling through the place as casually as though he were wandering through his own backyard.

The chamber itself was not particularly large.

At the very heart of the chamber, against its innermost wall, stood a stone tablet roughly half the height of a person. Its surface was covered in countless twisted characters.

Looking at the stone tablet, Hyuga Kagami asked,

"So this is the stone tablet said to have been left behind by the Sage of Six Paths?"

This stone tablet, which had been tampered with by Black Zetsu, could be said to have marked the very beginning of the Uchiha Clan’s tragedy.

Itachi nodded.

"Yes. The contents engraved on the tablet can only be deciphered with the Sharingan. The higher the level of the Sharingan, the more of its contents can be read. Senpai, would you like me to translate it for you?"

Hyuga Kagami shook his head.

"No need."

As he spoke, the pure-white eyes in Hyuga Kagami’s sockets suddenly became as brilliant as the stars...