At the foot of Nanga Mountain, Uchiha Setsugetsu had been assigned to guard the entrance.
There was a certain element of taking out one’s frustration on him in the arrangement, but Setsugetsu didn’t mind. After all, he needed somewhere to calm down as well.
"A world without Lord Kei... even the wind is boring."
Leaning against the branches of a desolate tree in Nanga, Uchiha Setsugetsu looked out into the distance.
There was nothing here but trees.
What a beautiful stretch of untouched nature.
If this scenery were found in the highly prosperous Nanga of their world, they could open a real-estate development here and use the natural surroundings as a selling point to drive up property prices.
But here, Setsugetsu found the scenery irritating.
"As expected. I could have endured the darkness if I had never seen the light."
Setsugetsu had never felt so deeply attached to his homeland.
If they really couldn’t return, he didn’t even know who would end up getting his properties in Nanga.
Just as the young Setsugetsu was lamenting his circumstances, an arrogant-looking Itachi arrived.
"Stop!"
Setsugetsu, who had been acting sentimental in the tree, suddenly felt that things had become interesting when he saw the young Uchiha Itachi.
"What are you here for?"
Uchiha Setsugetsu deliberately asked a question to which he already knew the answer.
He was very interested in this melancholy young man.
In their world, Uchiha Itachi certainly had his troubles, but as the "Crown Prince of Konoha" and the young heir to the Uchiha Clan, the young Itachi had been filled with confidence and hope for the future.
But the Itachi standing before him was lifeless.
His entire body radiated gloom and despair.
That made Setsugetsu increasingly convinced of something.
"Only after experiencing enough injustice can a person truly understand and cherish someone’s greatness."
It was the same with the Uchiha of Nanga.
With Lord Kei around, they might have troubles, but they would never fall into despair.
Itachi stopped when his path was blocked and looked up at the man before him.
He wore a custom-made black kimono from head to toe. His fitted trousers reached his ankles, while the wide sleeves of his upper garment gave his movements an unusual sense of dynamism.
Over it was a white haori, leaving his arms exposed. The characters "Shinsengumi" were written across one arm.
A white belt wrapped around his waist, with a long sword hanging from it.
What an impressive outfit.
And expensive, too.
The clothing was clearly standardized rather than something made for personal use.
The group before him was organized, disciplined...
And wealthy.
Itachi easily reached that conclusion.
And that conclusion was obviously not good news.
"I want to see whoever is in charge of Nanga."
The words came from a young man who should have been at the brightest point of his life, yet there wasn’t the slightest warmth in his voice.
It was cold.
Itachi had suffered too many blows recently.
The confusion caused by personally witnessing his friend and mentor, Shisui Uchiha, being assassinated by Konoha’s higher-ups.
The fear caused by his clan’s increasingly public calls for rebellion.
The living hell of being assigned by his father to spy on the Hokage, only to then be ordered by the Hokage to return to the Uchiha and serve as a double agent.
None of these matters had been properly resolved.
And now another group of Uchiha with unknown intentions had suddenly appeared.
All of this left the conscientious young Uchiha heir deeply uneasy.
Meanwhile, Setsugetsu was lost in memories of Lord Kei.
He heard Itachi’s request but answered almost instinctively, without even thinking it through.
"Then I guess you’re out of luck."
What Setsugetsu meant was that if Itachi wanted to see Lord Kei, there was no chance.
This world had no Lord Kei.
Setsugetsu knew that.
The parasites on the mountain, however, still refused to accept that reality.
So when he heard that Itachi wanted to meet the person in charge, Setsugetsu naturally assumed that Itachi had no chance.
Because in Setsugetsu’s mind, the only true master of Nanga was the Lord who stood before them when they shouted, "Long live Lord Kei!" and answered them with, "Long live the Uchiha!"
As for the people currently arguing themselves red in the face on the mountain over what they should do next...
They were nothing more than a bunch of "worms."
They weren’t worthy of being called the people in charge.
But Setsugetsu’s declaration of loyalty sounded very different in Itachi’s ears.
So this group of Uchiha really had come with hostile intentions.
That much seemed inevitable now.
"You’re not even willing to talk?"
The young Itachi drew the short blade from his back.
His Three-Tomoe Sharingan activated.
He wanted to see just how strong this extravagantly dressed man really was.
Itachi was deeply dissatisfied with the attitude of the man before him.
They were all Uchiha.
Yet at the most difficult moment in the clan’s history, this man could still behave so arrogantly.
That would only push the Uchiha, already standing on the edge of a cliff, into an abyss.
"You rude bastard. You overestimate yourself."
Itachi was angry.
The pressure of his life finally became too much to contain.
He decided to teach this man a lesson and make him—and the people behind him—understand that this was Konoha, not a place where the Uchiha could act with impunity.
At the same time, Itachi wanted to use this battle to warn the clansmen who were still hesitating.
Konoha had no soil in which an Uchiha rebellion could take root.
Three tomoe against two.
As Uchiha, they should both understand how enormous the difference was.
"I am the son of Uchiha Fugaku, the clan head. I have come under the Hokage’s orders!"
When Setsugetsu saw Itachi become serious, he burst out laughing as though he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
"Oh, so you’re the clan heir? My apologies, my apologies."
His mouth was saying one thing, but his hands were doing another.
In the blink of an eye, Setsugetsu disappeared from where he stood and appeared directly before Itachi.
His powerful arms shot toward Itachi’s neck.
The movement was fully visible to the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
But the difference in physical ability made it impossible for Itachi to dodge.
Seeing something and being able to respond to it were two entirely different matters.
Horror appeared on the young Itachi’s face.
An arm with sharply defined muscles seized him by the neck.
Setsugetsu’s expression was playful and arrogant, like a cat playing with a mouse.
He successfully grabbed Itachi by the throat and lifted the young man into the air.
For the first time, pain appeared on Itachi’s normally expressionless face.
This made Setsugetsu even more arrogant.
"What are you kneeling before me for?"
"Begging me not to kill you?"
The elegantly dressed young man hated people who showed off in front of the people of Nanga.
Especially poor relatives who happened to share the Uchiha bloodline.
They didn’t understand the meaning of glory at all!
Setsugetsu’s arm began to exert force.
"Unfortunately, Lord Jūbei’s family alone has seven clan heirs like you."
"Anything that becomes too common stops being valuable."
He clenched his hand before Itachi could react.
Bang!
The young Itachi transformed into a flock of crows, scattering through Setsugetsu’s grasp.
A Crow Clone.
Setsugetsu clapped his hands.
He had never expected to defeat the legendary prodigy with a single attack.
Although Nanga had plenty of people who could be called geniuses, anyone who had earned the title still had some genuine ability.
Otherwise, Uchiha Kabuto and Uchiha Cha—those two troublemakers—would have made such undeserving "geniuses" look very foolish.
They had even slapped down several so-called geniuses promoted by Konoha’s clans through reputation alone.
And since Cha had acknowledged Itachi, the boy naturally possessed some genuine ability.
Just as Setsugetsu finished clapping, three kunai attacked from behind him at bizarre angles.
Itachi had used the Crow Clone to evade the previous attack and immediately launched a counterattack.
"Foolish Uchiha. Now you have earned the right to be killed by me."
Itachi used shuriken to seal off every avenue of escape before launching a direct assault with his short blade.
He wanted to test Setsugetsu in close combat.
Setsugetsu’s attack just now had been too fast.
So fast that Itachi suspected it wasn’t a speed and technique that a normal human body should possess.
The pride of a prodigy made Itachi want to discover how Setsugetsu had achieved it.
But Setsugetsu had no intention of continuing this little shinobi game.
This kind of conventional shinobi battle simply wasn’t Nanga’s style.
"Only those lacking true strength resort to clever tricks."
As Setsugetsu spoke, countless snakes emerged from the smoke.
They knocked the kunai from the air before surging toward Itachi.
"Ten Thousand Snakes Formation!"
Entangled by countless venomous snakes, Itachi was forced to abandon his attempt to fight at close range.
He began using the long blade in his hand to drive the snakes away.
At the same time, he couldn’t help becoming suspicious of the Uchiha who had used a snake-based technique.
Could they have some connection to Orochimaru, the missing-nin of Konoha?
Things are getting worse and worse.
Standing to one side, Setsugetsu watched Itachi struggle amid the sea of snakes.
His smile grew wider.
"As expected, Ryūchi Cave really is the most sensible of the Three Sacred Places."
Even after confirming that this was not his own world, his Summoning Technique still worked.
That indirectly demonstrated the attitude of Ryūchi Cave among the Three Sacred Places.
After thinking of this, Setsugetsu suddenly lost interest in Itachi.
"Uchiha without Lord Kei really are nothing but worms."
"They can’t even find a direction in which to move forward."
Setsugetsu had lost all interest in playing around with Itachi.
His mind was filled with resentment toward the incompetent leaders such as Gen’nosuke and Koshiro.
"If it weren’t for those two idiots thinking with their lower bodies, how would they have gotten all of us stranded in another world?"
His resentment toward the two men transformed into rage.
Setsugetsu was going all out.
"You’re both damnable!"
Whether those words were directed at Itachi or Gen’nosuke, even Setsugetsu himself probably wasn’t sure.
But Setsugetsu was a man who always followed through on his words.
As he released his power, his Igi Armor enveloped his body and took the form of a monstrous creature.
[Corpse Thief]
It was a malicious yokai.
It possessed no particularly overwhelming abilities, but it was exceptionally skilled at dismembering corpses.
It especially enjoyed taking apart the corpses of people’s loved ones and giving the pieces back to them.
Its twisted personality had quite a bit in common with Setsugetsu’s own love of tormenting people.
Seeing the tangible chakra monster moving effortlessly through the Ten Thousand Snakes Formation, Itachi became tense.
"How is this possible?"
"My father said that Susanoo could only be summoned by eyes above the Three-Tomoe Sharingan!"
But Setsugetsu didn’t think that was enough.
He wanted Itachi to experience despair.
His Zanpakutō left its sheath.
"Roar—Sōō Zabimaru!"
The drawn sword transformed into a segmented, double-edged serpentine blade.
When folded, Zabimaru consisted of six joints and seven sections of blade.
Halfway from the spine toward the edge, the blade was black, while the remaining portion was silver-white, with numerous protrusions along its length.
A similarly flexible blade appeared in the hands of the Corpse Thief.
It could extend and retract freely, possessing both flexibility and tremendous reach.
With Setsugetsu’s swing, the Corpse Thief’s weapon lashed toward Uchiha Itachi like a flexible whip.
Itachi, who was already struggling, found himself under even greater pressure.
But even that wasn’t enough.
Protected inside the barrier of the Igi Armor, Setsugetsu began chanting.
"Uchiha Shinobi Style—Secret Technique—Hadō #63: Raikōhō!"
"Scattered among the stars, the bones of beasts; spires, crimson crystals, wheels of steel; movement is wind, stillness is emptiness; the sound of spears clashing fills the empty fortress!"
As Uchiha Setsugetsu’s chant continued, the snakes within the formation became even more frenzied.
The corpses of snakes killed by Itachi began to explode.
Their bones transformed into spear-like projectiles and rejoined the battle.
Even the shattered snake bones exploded like explosive tags, except these explosions were accompanied by flashes of lightning.
Itachi could still deal with those attacks.
But the flexible blade that appeared from time to time was something his fragile human body could not afford to block.
Dodging was the only option.
Setsugetsu wanted to make Itachi, who relied on a pair of eyes to act with such arrogance, understand one thing:
True strength was an all-around improvement.
It wasn’t as simple as saying three tomoe were greater than two.
Under the comprehensive assault, Itachi had already begun suffering injuries.
It was only a matter of time before he was captured.
The reason Setsugetsu was so eager to subdue Itachi was that he had suddenly realized something.
He no longer wanted to waste time fighting.
That realization was simple.
"Since we know absolutely nothing about this world, why don’t we ask the White Snake Sage?"
"Isn’t the White Snake Sage capable of hearing every voice in the shinobi world?"
"Why waste our time guessing?"
At the dilapidated shrine in Nanga, the Uchiha were still arguing over what to do about this world.
The two Konoha prisoners, who had been hung from the rafters, had finally reached the interrogation stage.
Gen’nosuke and Koshiro stood beneath them, pointing at the two prisoners.
They had countless questions they wanted to ask.
The problem was that neither of them knew where to begin.
Izumo Kamizuki wore an expression of one prepared to die.
Kotetsu Hagane, meanwhile, was completely helpless.
He had suddenly begun to feel that this group of seemingly powerful Uchiha had something seriously wrong with their heads.
Don’t the Uchiha have the Sharingan?
Just use a genjutsu on me!
Then I’ll tell you everything.
Everyone wins.
If I’m lucky enough to return to Konoha alive, I’ll even have an explanation for the Hokage.
"It wasn’t that I wanted to talk. The Uchiha’s genjutsu was simply too powerful."
But instead of doing that, these people were standing around muttering to themselves and discussing something called...
"The Great Memory Restoration Technique."
What the hell is that supposed to be?!
Unfortunately, prisoners had no human rights here.
Nobody cared what Kotetsu thought.
Gen’nosuke secretly poked Koshiro in the ribs with his finger.
"You should ask the questions."
"Mr. Azusa is one of the Iga people, after all. His methods of interrogation are the best!"
That wasn’t entirely wrong.
Doctors were often the best interrogators.
They understood better than anyone how to inflict the greatest amount of pain without killing someone.
But what did that have to do with Koshiro?
Koshiro rolled his Red Eyes and scolded Gen’nosuke.
"Gen’nosuke, watch your position."
"There are some things that you have to do yourself!"
This conversation had already been going on for quite some time.
The two men continued pushing the responsibility for the interrogation onto each other.
It wasn’t because they were kind-hearted and unwilling to use torture.
People capable of massacring an entire country could hardly be called merciful.
No.
The questions they needed to ask concerned the life and death of their Lord.
They were afraid of hearing the answers.
In their minds, there were some things that, as long as they remained unknown, were as good as never having happened.
At this moment, the two men known throughout the Land of Rivers as the "Blood-Handed Shinobi Butchers" looked remarkably cowardly.
Their hesitation was tormenting the poor Kotetsu Hagane hanging from the rafters.
If Izumo Kamizuki hadn’t been beside him, he would have shouted out loud.
I really want to tell you!
Please, just give me a chance to speak!
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