Chapter 526: Hyuga Kagami Is Your Sensei?

Chapter 526: Chapter 526: Hyuga Kagami Is Your Sensei?

In a dim, cramped room.

Sasuke, who had been bound tightly, shifted his body and asked Neji, who was similarly tied up beside him, "Hey, why aren’t you moving at all? Aren’t your arms going numb?"

Neji glanced at him without answering.

"Tch!" Sasuke curled his lips and continued on his own. "Well, that makes sense. They probably tied you up more loosely. I’m different, after all. I’ve already awakened the Sharingan."

Neji said coldly, "So what if you’ve awakened the Sharingan? It’s not like it’s anything special. Aren’t you tied up here just like me?"

"You..."

Sasuke was momentarily at a loss for words and fell silent.

Neji said nothing more either.

The room immediately sank into an awkward silence, so quiet that they could even hear each other’s breathing and heartbeats.

After a long while, Sasuke broke the silence.

"Don’t be scared. My father and brother will definitely come rescue me. When they do, you’ll be safe too!"

Neji opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end, only two words came out.

"Thank you."

Although the two youngsters regarded each other as fierce rivals back in the village, now that they were trapped in such a predicament, neither had forgotten that they were comrades.

Talking was the best way to relieve stress and fear. At this moment, Sasuke was nowhere near as strong as he was pretending to be, so he kept the conversation going.

"Judging by your expression, you seem to be worried about something?"

Neji said quietly, "I’m worried about Lady Hinata."

"Oh, so you’re worried about your little sister!" After a brief pause, Sasuke continued, "She’s with Naruto. That guy might be a complete idiot, but he’ll definitely protect your sister. Besides, your sister is the eldest daughter of the Hyuga main family. Your clan will definitely do everything they can to rescue her. There’s really nothing to worry about."

Neji nodded in agreement, but his expression grew somewhat forlorn.

He knew perfectly well that, between him and Hinata, the clan would undoubtedly prioritize rescuing Hinata. Even his father, Hizashi, would be no exception.

And there was nothing unreasonable about that. After all, the branch family existed to protect the main family.

Deep down, he also hoped that his little sister Hinata would be safe and sound. Nevertheless, the disparity in how they would be treated still left him feeling somewhat bitter.

Noticing something amiss, Sasuke whispered, "Uh... Don’t tell me there’s no one coming to rescue you?"

Neji stubbornly replied, "I still have my sensei!"

Sasuke grew curious. "You already have a sensei? Who is he? Is he strong?"

"Of course he’s strong! My sensei is Hyuga Kagami, an exceptionally capable jonin!"

Hizashi had once spoken highly of Kagami in front of Neji, calling him the strongest among the younger generation of the Hyuga clan. Thus, Neji had considerable confidence in Kagami’s strength.

However, he also knew that no matter how powerful his teacher was, he probably wouldn’t be able to rescue him from his current predicament.

After all, Neji knew exactly who had captured him.

It was Akatsuki—the very organization whose name struck fear throughout the shinobi world!

"Hyuga Kagami is your sensei?"

Suddenly, a voice came from the shadows of the room.

Both Sasuke and Neji were startled.

The room they were being held in was already quite small, and they had been keeping a close eye on the door the entire time.

Neither had imagined that someone could enter the room without making the slightest sound!

Turning toward the voice, Sasuke and Neji saw a mysterious figure dressed in Akatsuki’s red-cloud cloak, his face concealed behind a spiral-patterned mask.

The unexpected visitor was none other than Obito.

He had originally come here on a whim, curious to see Sasuke, the boy Kakuzu had kidnapped and brought back to the base.

He had heard that Sasuke had recently awakened his Sharingan despite being not even nine years old. Obito, by comparison, had only barely awakened his own Sharingan at thirteen, during a life-or-death struggle on the battlefield.

Within the Uchiha clan, the age at which one awakened the Sharingan was generally considered a measure of one’s natural talent. Sasuke’s early awakening alone was enough to earn him a place on Obito’s radar.

Yet something entirely unexpected had caught his attention.

The Hyuga branch family child captured alongside Sasuke was actually the disciple of Hyuga Kagami, Obito’s former classmate!

Neji watched the masked man cautiously.

"Do you know my sensei?"

Rather than respond, Obito studied Neji.

After all, he was presenting himself to the outside world as Uchiha Madara. He naturally couldn’t admit outright that he knew Kagami.

Nevertheless, discovering that this Hyuga branch family child was Kagami’s disciple had given him an idea.

Following their previous battle, Akatsuki had grown increasingly conscious of the danger Kamigami posed. Every member, including their leader Nagato, now regarded Kamigami as their greatest threat.

Their leader, Yama, was particularly troublesome. He appeared to possess virtually no weaknesses and had already defeated Nagato, despite his Rinnegan, in two direct confrontations.

The other members, including Furin and the two Homuras, were formidable opponents in their own right.

And nobody had experienced that fact more painfully than Obito himself.

He had been killed once by the female Homura, killed again by Furin, and sealed away once by the male Homura.

His list of defeats had grown so embarrassingly long that he could scarcely bear to mention it.

In fact, among Kamigami’s current members, only its leader Yama and Kawa, the representative of Water Release, had yet to claim the achievement of ’Killing Obito.’

Every other member had already unlocked it at his expense!

For precisely this reason, Obito was more desperate than anyone to obtain intelligence on Kamigami.

Unfortunately, Kamigami was simply too mysterious. No matter how hard Akatsuki tried to gather information, they couldn’t uncover even the slightest trace of the organization.

However, after the recent battle, Obito had come up with a new approach.

Judging by how events had unfolded that night, Kamigami had intervened almost immediately after Akatsuki made its move. This undoubtedly suggested that Kamigami had reached some kind of agreement with Konoha behind the scenes.

In other words, Konoha must possess a considerable amount of intelligence on Kamigami.

If gathering intelligence through other channels proved impossible, then approaching the matter through Konoha might be a worthwhile strategy.

Kagami was an ANBU directly subordinate to the Hokage. Moreover, he was an ANBU squad captain, placing him among the Hokage’s most trusted subordinates.

Obito believed that if Konoha possessed intelligence on Kamigami, then Kagami, as one of the Hokage’s trusted men, would surely know at least something about the organization.

"If I use his disciple to threaten him, will he comply?"

With that thought, Obito sank into his memories.

Back at the Ninja Academy, perhaps because their rankings had been so close, Obito and Kagami had gotten along reasonably well.

Although they couldn’t exactly be called close friends, they could at least be considered friends.

Or perhaps fellow brothers in misfortune would be a more fitting description.

Thus, Obito still knew a thing or two about Kagami.

In his eyes, Kagami was a quiet, unremarkable dead-last who occasionally cracked a joke or two when he was in a good mood.

As he reminisced about their days at the Ninja Academy, Obito couldn’t help grumbling inwardly:

"Even a mediocre idiot like him can become an ANBU squad captain? The village really has fallen into decline!"