Chapter 99: Itachi's Secret (3)

-The next day-

There are people gathering in one place. It seems that something bad happened, as many look at the scene with distressed expressions.

Among the crowd, Toru, Reishi and Kina appear. They watch this, but only Kina and Reishi react with confused expressions. Toru, on the other hand, tries to squint his eyes trying to focus on the scene.

In front of them are lifeless bodies nailed with tree branches to the walls of the place. This place is the Sendō clan's ascent. On the walls too, there was something written in blood.

[Looks of anguish will strike terror into your heart. Don't try to avoid your sins...]

Toru smiles at this, after all he is the author of this tragedy.

Kina and Reishi look at him and understand the situation. They look at each other and then grab Toru by the cloak and drag him away from the crowd. Toru was supposed to be escorting Reishi to the forest where the latter will get medicinal plants in order to prepare eye drops. And yes, Toru was the one who asked Reishi to sell him the eye drops, however he never told him the reason why.

Kina followed them on the sly because... well, he is Kina and he always does whatever he wants.

"Did you do that...?" Reishi asks. Toru affirms with a slight shake of his head.

Reishi touches his head and sighs. He wishes Kina hadn't seen that, but it was too late. Later Reishi will take it upon himself to pull Kina's ears back.

"After this message I left them, they shouldn't bother you for a good while."

"That's not the problem here. The police are going to suspect you because you came to our village yesterday."

"I can defend myself from the police if they start looking for me. I can destroy this whole place if I want to..."

'Haa~ he's definitely not right in the head. How many traumas has he had all his life?"

Reishi shakes his head and then tells Toru that they will continue with the medicine making, so the latter can leave the village and not be searched by the police.

***

Time passes normally. Four days have passed since Toru arrived at the Howling Wolf Village. He has been hiding in that old shrine of the Kodon clan all this time until the eye drops are ready.

Toru hasn't told Reishi why he asked for the drops. Even so, Reishi already suspects that Toru is going blind just like Itachi from the continued use of his eye abilities.

Reishi knows that Toru has Uchiha blood in his body. Itachi told him, but he has not told Toru this. Reishi assumes that Toru already knows this, which is why he thinks that those mystical eyes may be something like Sharingan and that it is affecting his eyes directly. A condition similar to Itachi's, only Toru's presented itself right away and not progressively.

***

The eye drops are ready. Toru is going to leave the Howling Wolf Village.

Toru gets along well with Kina and Reishi. So they are escorting him to the outskirts of the village to say goodbye. For the time being, Toru says he may return when the eye drops run out.

"I know why you asked me to make the drops, but I won't tell anyone. So don't worry and try to kill me. By the time you come back, I'll have more for you, but don't forget the side effects and directions on how to use them."

"I know..."

"So... Toru-san is leaving already, huh. Time went by so fast."

Kina walks beside Toru. The latter seems to admire him for what he did the first day he was here.

Toru tells Kina not to become like him or Itachi, because that will only make him suffer. This is something Kina understands, and it makes Reishi surprised. That's why Kina smiles and goes back to the store, so that no one will try to steal it. Thus leaving Reishi and Toru all alone on the ocean shore.

"I wonder how you're going to cross the ocean without a boat?" says Reishi. "I wouldn't be surprised if you run off in the water."

"I was planning to do that, but the time I was given for my research is running out, so I must hurry."

"I see. Then when you see Itachi, send him a greeting for me. That's if you don't try to kill him."

"I'm not going to kill him, I came up with something better."

"That sounds scary. I don't want to know. Still, I see you've managed to sort out your thoughts better. That's good... so your mental disorders won't affect me..."

Toru looks at Reishi.

"Oh...did I say that last thing out loud? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Leave it at that. I'm going."

A quick succession of hands and a large cloud of smoke was what Reishi is seeing. Immediately after, a fearsome and gigantic white furred wolf shows up in the cloud of smoke. It had the tips of its ears a black color, as well as the tip of its tail and the fur on its ankles.

"When did you get so big?"

Looking up, Toru notices that Okaminaru has grown.

"I don't know. I think I'm still the same, or did you get smaller?"

Reishi watches as the wolf and Toru interact so casually. So, he smiles awkwardly and tries to run away, but Toru stops him by saying something.

"You should tell your brother about that monster that is sealed inside him."

Reishi's eyes widen and quickly looks at Toru. At that moment he understood why Toru knows about Kina's special condition. Those eyes that allow his to look at the chakra of living beings. So, with a simple sigh, Reishi closes his eyes slightly and leaves.

"Come on, Okaminaru. I have something to do before I return to Amegakure. I have to run a diagnostic on a certain person..."

"I see. I understand what you mean, more or less."

Leaping up, Toru climbs onto Okaminaru's back, and Okaminaru puts his paws on the water. Thanks to Okaminaru's near perfect control over his chakra, walking on water was somewhat easy, so now he would have to run in the direction Toru dictates.

***

Two days passed quickly. Toru found himself stalking someone in the shadows. He had arrived at the port fourteen hours ago after a long journey on Okaminaru's back. And immediately, after setting foot in the harbor, Toru cancelled the summoning, sending Okaminaru back home and starting the last part of his investigation.

The person Toru is stalking is Itachi.

Itachi is standing next to Kisame. The two of them walk relaxedly without paying attention to their surroundings, but Toru is sure that the two of them have already noticed his presence, so it's stupid to keep hiding.

That's why, a shuriken flies in the direction of Itachi's face.

Itachi takes the shuriken between his fingers as if it were just a harmless piece of paper and immediately activates his Sharingan, seeing the person responsible for this.

At the same time, a shadow moved quickly all over the place. The shadow's eyes glow blue as the sky and red as blood. This is Toru's Kodō Shigan [Advanced Eyes of Death], which is holding his daggers tightly in his hands as he launches into an attack against Itachi.

Itachi notices this, pulls out a kunai from the sleeves of the cloak and blocks the blow from Toru's daggers.

"Toru..."

"Hello, Itachi."

Toru is smiling, only this time it was a disturbing smile from eyes that show no emotions. This made Itachi squint his eyes and jump backwards.

The two, Asahi and Uchiha met each other's eyes.

At the same time, Kisame was witnessing this with an amused smile. Watching this brat take on Itachi was interesting. Besides, he knew that Itachi could defeat Toru, so he just stood by and watched without doing anything about it.

'I'm surprised it took him this long to attack. He looks like he knows how to plan his moves, but Itachi doesn't take it seriously.'

Kisame looks at Toru, who at the same time looks at Itachi.

Clang!

The two disappeared like gunpowder in a hurricane, and reappeared clashing metal weapons. They used enough force to push their opponent back, but neither side gave in.

Toru frowns, his vision blurring again, but this one soon becomes clear again thanks to the eye drops Reishi sold him. And without taking any notice of this, while holding one of the daggers, he uses the other remaining one to strike Itachi.

The moment Itachi feels the sharp dagger approaching his face, the Sharingan gives a small twist, changing the shape of the three separate blades, to that of a propeller with three blades together. This is the Mangekyo Sharingan.

'Well done, Itachi. You're going right where I want you to go.

Toru thrusts the dagger and forces Itachi to jump backwards. He does the same, but...

"Uh?"

Toru lands, and as his feet touched the ground, the whole place changed. The clouds, no, the whole sky turned red like blood. The trees withered in a second, becoming dry, lifeless, a place where hundreds of crows landed and saw Toru with the eyes of suffering, the Mangekyo Sharingan.

He was in the middle of it, of this strange place resembling the eternal and endless sea of blood that he usually sees when death covers his hands.

In front of him is Itachi.

He looks at him with those bloody eyes of the Uchiha clan as the wind moves his cloak.

However...

"Hum..."

Toru sighs and the whole place instantly changes, this now being that endless sea of blood. The sky was completely black, cloudless and starless, like an eternal night whose blue and red moon shone brightly like a sun. At the same time, the sound of an antique clock echoes.

Itachi wonders to himself what this place is. Toru smiles and, as a giant skeletal shadow wraps its mysterious claws around him, says, "Your genjutsu won't work on me."

The whole place returns to normal after that.

Kisame had seen that Itachi and Toru looked at each other for a second, so he thought that Itachi did his own thing and put Toru in a genjutsu. In a way he wasn't wrong, since Itachi managed to make Toru fall into the Tsukuyomi, but this one in some strange way managed to break the genjutsu using only his mind, and what Itachi saw at the moment the Tsukuyomi was broken, was Toru's mind.

"You have become strong. But..."

Itachi disappears and punches Toru in the stomach using his elbow.

"I guess your hatred isn't as strong as Sasuke's."

Toru, hearing this, reacted late to the attack, so he's out of breath from the blow, but there's still a smile on his face. He approaches Itachi's ear while he is still being hit and, with a heavy voice, says: "Shimikomaseru..."

Itachi opens his eyes and realizes that Toru was about to stab him in the chest with the dagger that glowed bright yellow. So, with a quick succession of hands, he steps back and summons a fire jutsu.

"Katōn: Gōkakyū no Jutsu [Fire Style: Large Fireball]"

Taking advantage of the opponent deciding to take distance, Toru changes the jutsu he was going to use and in an almost immediate succession of hands that copies the jutsu Itachi prepared, he brings his hands together and brings them to his mouth.

"Katōn: Gōkakyū no Jutsu."

The two at the same time. Large flames launched against each other and collided causing a large explosion that left Kisame's cloak a bit scorched.

"What the hell? Hahaha."

The smoke rises and no one can be seen on the battlefield except for Kisame, who laughs a little at Toru and Itachi's display of power.

While the dust was still in the air, Toru hides in the leaves of the trees and Itachi returns to where he was after dodging the explosion.

Clang, click, clang!

A rain of shuriken started, piercing through the large amount of dust and smoke. Itachi, using the Mangekyo, counters the rain of shuriken using a kunai and, almost a second after that, Toru appears behind him raising his arm to strike a blow with the dagger.

Clang!

Itachi again blocks Toru's dagger with the kunai, but the latter inhales a large amount of air and then....

"Fūton: Shinkūha [Wind Style: Emptying Wave]."

Toru exhales a large amount of air as he begins to whirl around the entire battlefield. The air takes the form of a large blade that tries to cut Itachi, but the latter manages to dodge it by moving quickly around the place. In the process, a large part of the trees in the area are affected, being cut into pieces by Toru's jutsu.

At the end of Toru's jutsu, Itachi moves back a little, as fighting this boy at close range is very dangerous.

"Hate... Sasuke..."

Toru sighs and closes his eyes. He remembers the words Reishi said to him that night. He opens his eyes again and looks at the man with the crimson eyes, then turns and looks at Kisame, who was very entertained watching the fight. He touches his head painfully and his vision goes unfocused again. He blinks a couple of times and his vision becomes clear again.

At the same time, Itachi looks at Kisame and then waits for Toru's next attack, which came too fast, as a clone of Toru came out of the ground and kicked him, sending him flying into the trees, which obviously broke into pieces.

Itachi climbs out of the crater he left when he landed and looks at Toru, but a coughing fit prevents him from looking up. He covers his mouth with the sleeve of his cape and, when the coughing fit is over, the fabric of the cape is stained with blood.

Toru smiles.

'Tuberculosis, huh...'

Stowing the daggers in the sleeves of his clothes, Toru picks up the hat he had thrown away before the battle began and puts it on. He wipes the dust on his cloak and scarf, and makes sure his earring is still attached to his ear. After this, he looks at Kisame and Itachi one last time and smiles.

"That was good training. I got what I want, so it's time to go. You guys still have a Bijū to capture, so I'd better leave you two alone."

Without another word, Toru walked in some direction while holding his hat so that it wouldn't fly off in the wind. This also left Itachi confused, who didn't understand why Toru had attacked him.

He supposed Toru wanted revenge, but apparently that wasn't going to happen.

"I almost forgot..."

Toru's voice is heard in the distance once again.

"Reishi and Kina send their regards."

After that, Toru disappeared and Itachi is left looking at the horizon. Kisame sees him and smiles, as... Itachi was also smiling slightly.