Chapter 10

Itachi pulled himself away from the tree, stopping to admire over the beautiful scenery that resembled paradise... He got to his feet and started walking. Kisame had collected enough water for the journey ahead. Hana gathered all the necessary items and sorted them into a handy scroll. Ao also took a breath resting on the grass, also kneading the soles of his feet. Taking off his sandals to rest his feet, which were blistered. Then when all four had recovered, the travelers set out on their journey.

***

As they left the field, they found themselves back in the forest. Which led in the direction of Konoha. In doing so, cut to a short path, towards the village of mist. It was on their way and they continued walking together. As they came out of the forest, they noticed a poor village. It was located near Risa Country, as Kisame had pointed out. After their recent and long journey, it was starting to get dark, so they decided to stay there and spend the night, and say goodbye tomorrow. But before that, they went to the dining room to have dinner before going to bed, sitting down at a four-seater table that was near the window, Kisame began:

-You might want to tell us where you got your mangekyo Itachi-san," Kisame began, in his usual smiling manner.

-It's a long story... - Itachi replied calmly.

-But we're in no hurry. We still have an hour before we go to bed," Hana added with a smile.

-Okay," Itachi said with a small sigh. I'll make it short: two weeks ago, I was on a mission with Kakashi Hatake. We came across a renegade when I went to meet him to protect Kakashi from a critical sword strike. I stepped between them with both hands. And I even broke my left arm from his blow," Hana pointed out, now she realized exactly why his arm was broken. Back at the hospital that night. Itachi continued the story that Shisui had told," After he broke my arm and hit me in the head. I was concussed for a while, and then I saw Konoha burning. My best friend dying in it, jumping off a bridge. It was as if everything seemed real, and I woke up the mangekyo-sharingan to believe it.

-Lucky... - Ao added, "You awakened the mangekyo without seeing the real deaths of your loved ones. You saw only in the memories you created fleetingly, of the death of the village and all the clans.... You know, consider the worst of it behind you today. You were right to tell us," Ao finished with a smile.

-Should be left behind.... - Itachi's answer, thinking about what's to come in the second timeline. After all, about the fourth war, no one has not canceled yet. Unfortunately... - and everything must flow and go exactly as planned.

-I see you're Itachi-san is also a philosopher," Kisame said, deciding to join the conversation, "you never cease to amaze me," he finished with a smile.

-Really," Hana added, with her usual smile.

Itachi's POV

-By the way... Did you notice that guy at that table watching us?" Ao added. Everyone else looked at him too. Including me. The man had a brown hooded cloak, and he was wearing a hood, of course. I caught a glimpse of his blond hair, the following was even more interesting. At that moment when suddenly his eyes lit up, against a blood red background. In that red background, he had a bright red dot in the center. What kind of unusual kekkei genkai is that?

After I finished looking at him, I suddenly felt my head start to spin. Is it some kind of genjutsu or something? I realized without thinking that he was the cause of it. I activated my sharingan, and then it all seemed to go away. I looked to the side of that red-eyed man in the brown robe, and realized he was gone. Since he wasn't at the table where he was sitting earlier.... Then I noticed that my whole team was acting strange. Hana, Ao and Kisame got up from their chairs. Following that, they started introducing themselves strangely, as if they were puppets... Then all the people in the dining room were acting like them, too.

I, in turn, continued watching and sitting at the table near the window, analyzing the situation. When everyone got up from their seats and headed for the exit. Every single one of them started to leave the dining room. I also decided to get up from my chair, further started to follow my team, who did not react to anything. The whole village joined them..... Every man, woman and child began to introduce themselves accordingly like the others... As if they were puppets. Started coming out of their homes, this continued until all the people of this poor village, stood in the very center of the town.

It was a spacious place, like a park with benches. I watched all of them through the rooftops and saw them all stand up in a row, as if they were ANBU shinobi. And in front of them stepped the very same man, in a brown hooded robe. His special feature, were his own red eyes. As soon as he removed his hood. In appearance he was a tall man, well though a little shorter than 18 year old me. He also had long beige hair and the same color mustache. As I watched him pull out his sunglasses from his pocket, which were in a square shape. Moreover both sides of his eyes... After he put them on, I decided to jump off the roof and join the crowd. I got closer and closer until I got about 5 meters closer to him. He looked at all the people who were acting like puppets and started:

-Dear people of this village, let the battle between the shinobi begin. While I choose which of you is the strongest. And then I will collect you as my recruits," all the villagers nodded in unison like puppets, because they could not resist his genjutsu kekkei genkai. All the shinobi took a step forward. I probably realized what he wanted... Hire the strongest men to set up an arena. Shinobi fighting to the death, there's nothing fair about that... I have to stop him, I'm the only one in the village who hasn't succumbed to his blood-eye genjutsu.

-Who are you?" I asked in a calm voice, stepping out of the crowd. And those Shinobi froze in place as they stopped walking, so the blond one was distracted by me.

-How can that be? -How can that be? My Ketsuryugan didn't work on you? Then I'll say it again," after he answered, he looked at me and his eyes turned blood red again, with a bright red dot in the center of his vision. And he shouted loudly, "Ketsuryugan!

-I opened my eyes and activated my sharingan. I also noticed his surprised reaction, and he said:

-I didn't expect an Uchiha to be here. It's no wonder my kekkei genkai didn't work on you. Only the Uchiha can break genjutsu of this level," he said with a serious look. Since he was facing an Uchiha in an ANBU uniform, it was me.

-I repeat... - I say, looking at him with equanimity, "Who are you, and what is your purpose in this village? What do you want to do to these people?

-Who am I? It's not important, but I'll tell you my name. My name is Oyashiro En. And I've gathered all these people here to find the best of the best. To collect them in the arena I plan to create. It'll be world famous, I'll make a lot of money. I'll even be able to bribe some Kage to let me keep it going," he said with a crazy grin. He waved his fist in the air while waving his hand in different directions. Looking at me again, Oyashiro En added, "And I'm telling you this because you're going to die here anyway, Uchiha.

When I ran to his side and pulled a vakizashi from his back. He disappeared and was replaced by a log, a switch technique? I can see why he was calm and poised. Then three villagers ran towards me, slitting their veins on the way. Then instead of blood, strange purple vapors started coming out. Then they exploded like explosive seals. Could it be that his kekkei genkai was capable of making explosive weapons out of people? Pushing my thoughts aside, I immediately turned on my reflexes and the sharingan helped speed them up as well. I jumped backflip and overhead, to a safe distance. I realized that this is the ability of his kekkei genkai, at a touch he can do similar things. But, he's also weak against the sharingan, so only I can stop him....

I see that the other crowds of people are frozen in place, unable to move. But there was one who was walking calmly among them, it was Oyashiro En himself, there can be no mistake. It's his same brown hoodie, as soon as he stepped out of the crowd and tried to run, I abruptly went around all the villagers and caught up with him. Stopped when I was 5 meters away from him. Oyashiro En looked me in the eyes and with all the shouting said: "Ketsuryugan!" and I replied "Sharingan...", I tried to get into his mind to control him. But his kekkei-kenkai turned out to be stronger too, especially his genjutsu power. But his genjutsu wasn't as strong as Shisui's koto-amatsukami power, or rinnegan-level genjutsu. Our eye powers were equal, but I also added my willpower. Which as the Sage of the Six Paths said to me about me, "Itachi you have an infinite and indestructible will. But it's not as strong as your absolutely pure-black honor." Although I don't like being praised, I only want the order and purity of this world. But Sage doesn't say words like that for nothing. Maybe it was his last words of encouragement. After these thoughts, I felt myself becoming stronger. The bearer of the blood-red eye on the opposite side weakens, his eyes taking on a normal appearance once again. Oyashiro En falls to the ground, all the villagers woke up from his genjutsu. And my team came to their senses and ran towards me. And the villagers were confused for a while, but eventually came to their senses.

-I owe you one, Itachi-san," Kisame began, running over to me first, "when I was under his control, I could barely even move a finger.

-Itachi, there's no way we could resist his kekkei genkai," Hana entered the conversation, running in with Ao. She added sadly and gravely, "Only you can fight against him, because your sharingan is beyond his strength.

-All the residents must have been under the control of his genjutsu all day since he arrived here today," Ao added, "I wanted to hack his kekkei genkai, but it's very difficult with a single-eyed biakugan.

-I was just doing what anyone would do, no thanks," I said with a smile, as I didn't like the glory. After all, I'm not Sasuke, not even the opposite... His complete opposite...

-Itachi-san... You never cease to amaze me," Kisame said with a wide grin, then abruptly made a serious face and looked toward my back. Trailing behind, I turned around as well.

We see Oyashiro En getting up from the ground and wanting to use his ketsuryugan again. He activated his red-eye, and a bright red dot reappeared in the center, a color that looks like purple. He looked at everyone and my entire squad turned away from him while covering his eyes. I in turn looked him in the eye again with my sharingan. It was likely that my sharingan was a couple percent stronger than his kekkei genkai after all. Regardless, I didn't bother with it and activated it:

-Mangekyo-sharingan," With that level of my kekkei genkai, I was still able to get into his mind, controlling everything there. He couldn't resist me, because a technique of his level. It was useless against my mangekyo. I used tsukuyomi on him, we ended up in a world where everything was in a red sky. And where I attached him to the cross, and added," You know... I knew someone just like you, he was just as greedy, in his glory and selfishness. You wanted to use people to control them, open an arena to entertain screaming thugs. And all this for money? For that you will be punished-- You'll be in this world for 72 hours," and he couldn't answer because I controlled the world by taking his mouth. I pulled out my sword and continued to stab him, he screamed until he bled. He really reminded me of this man, because he and Orochimaru have more in common than he thinks.....

When I use tsukuyomi, it may take that long for my opponents. But for me, it only takes a minute to torture the opponent's pain points, thus making him feel uncomfortable. And after a minute, I get out of tsukuyomi. And before I come out, I make it repeat 72 hours for him in just one second. As soon as I get out of the tsukuyomi, I lose a lot of chakra and even my eyesight is damaged by a couple percent....

The team looked at me, Hana realized that I had used the technique. And her hands began to glow with a green chakra glow as I looked at her with a tired look. She touched my eyes with the palm of her hand and my eyesight and vision became clear again, although if you treat mangekyo on a fresh wound, there are no side effects from it, as if it had never been used at all.

-Oyashiro En starts yelling while falling to his knees. Probably 3 seconds later, the tsukuyomi has already passed, -I'm not done yet!!!! I was in your world for 40 hours until I tore it apart, with my kekkei genkai. The fight's just beginning! He tried to get up, but it didn't work the first time. The rest of my squad retreats back to the sidelines, I'm back to 1 on 1 against him.

-It's over Oyashiro En, you don't have much chakra left after my tsukuyomi. You might have been able to overcome the rest of my tsukuyomi, but you can't fight her in a straightforward, 1-on-1 kind of way. You better give up," he said, barely able to stay on his feet, then gritted his teeth. And suddenly looking to my left, I notice some blonde-haired girl, all tear-stained and hooded, running towards us. She throws a kunai at him, but Oyashiro En, pulling out his kunai, fends off her attack. The girl starts talking:

-You killed everyone! Yesterday, you killed our clan and my mom, you'll pay for it father!", after saying that emotionally, she runs straight to Oyashiro En. I don't interfere yet, but it's like Oyashiro En got a second wind. After fending off his daughter's first attack, he next grabbed her wrist, and started:

-Silly Chino. I wanted to just erase your memory and give you a normal life. As one of my collectible Shinobi, but now I'm just going to kill you," I look at him with dislike and disappointment, after his those words he took her hand. It looked like he was absorbing her chakra. Following by activating his kekkei genkai called ketsuryugan. And afterwards making a small cut on her arm. Chino literally explodes, afterward her blood doesn't scatter to bushes, trees, or the ground. He takes all of her blood and creates some sort of ball of blood, his dead daughter's blood..... And even the rest of her skin becomes blood too, when it has completely melted into a ball of blood that weighs in the air. From this ball of blood, something resembling Orochimaru's snake forms. But instead of a snake, there formed an eight-headed blood dragon. Oyashiro En himself, looking at me with an evil-happy look said," Now it's your turn, Uchiha.

Seeing all this, I decided not to use mangekyo for now. Because I decided to save chakra, the first dragon head came at me. I quickly bounced aside and activated my normal sharingan. Then the second and third were also coming my way, but I stepped back to a safe distance while creating a plan. And he looked at all of this and added:

-What's the matter, Uchiha? Are you scared? Don't worry, it'll all be over soon," he said with a smile, while throwing his brown robe into the blood to test her blood fever. And when the hoodie evaporated, he rejoiced.

-I haven't even started yet... - I replied with a smile as I formed a brilliant plan. But still... I had to act alone. I moved closer to the dragons, pulling out four shurikens as all eight heads came towards me. I quickly folded the seals and said, - Fire Element: Majestic Flame Destroyer, - it was the same fire style that Madara had once used, or rather applied... In the Fourth Great Shinobi War against the Alliance. The flames that flew towards those dragons turned blue.... Which destroyed all his blood dragons, turning them into air. But it also took a quarter of my chakra. Madara's katon is a very powerful technique, especially with blue flames. As soon as his dragons disappeared, Oyashiro En himself revealed himself to my sight. While he was confused, I threw four shurikens at him, two of them hitting him. The other two hit his legs, which paralyzed his entire body. He fell to his knees, watching all his chakra flow with his sharingan. I realized it wasn't necessary, since he was already out of chakra.

And when I looked around, I saw that the park was clear. Without a single blood, was my fire that powerful? Then I approached Oyashiro En, who was sitting on his knees paralyzed, I began:

-Now tell me. Why did you kill your clan? - I began, asking the question out of interest. I also sighed a little, and added, "Any last words to say?

-Because... I wanted to see who was strongest," I thought, his lips and demeanor making it sound like he was telling the truth. Or what if he can lie well? Because when I killed my clan, I could have said something like that. He continued," and when I found out I was the strongest, I decided to live my own way, to lead my own damn clan, to do what I wanted," I could understand him when I heard that. Maybe that's why he killed his clan, and even his daughter.... Destroying that blood. His tone made it sound like he wanted me to kill him, but then so be it....

-You used your daughter as a weapon and you reminded me of Orochimaru," I said with an indifferent look, he knelt paralyzed and looked at me. I guess he recognized the name, now I see why they have a lot in common, I also added," Your body and your eyes, as well as your blood is contagious. And very dangerous... I think you understand what I have to do now," he realized that I was going to burn him completely. He only nodded in response, I slit his throat and applied amaterasu as soon as I activated mangekyo. And after ten seconds there was nothing left of him....

And when I looked back, I saw the villagers starting to rejoice. As soon as they got there, Hana looked at me with anger and said, "I'm not going to be able to do anything about it:

-Itachi, I told you not to use that power. It's not good for your eyes, even if it's only a couple percent damage, but don't get too comfortable with it," Hana finished her speech and touched my forehead. And lowered herself to my eyes, activating the green glow, my couple percent of vision restored as if it had never happened. I was even glad that I could save my full vision for Sasuke with the rinnegan at the end. But that's a long way off for now, Hana removed her hands and I smiled at her and nodded.

All the people of this poor village, who had been watching all this time, came up to us. Thanked us for everything. When the head of the village came up, he said we were honored guests. For removing him from the genjutsu, including the rest of the villagers. And adding that everything was free for today, the rest of the villagers looked at the corpses of the three that Oyashiro En had blown up. There was a moment of silence, eight people stayed to bury them. And the rest of us went to our rooms to recover, once we went deep into the village, we were given the best deluxe hotel. Kisame naturally smiled when he discovered the huge shower room, baring his teeth. Hana started to roll around in her room as well, and I went to my room and fell asleep in no time.

***

The morning came. We packed up and left the living room, also some citizens of this poor village saw us off. poor not because bad, but because of a temporary crisis. Because of the poor supply of the Cloud Country. As soon as we were outside the village boundary, the villagers managed to wave us goodbye. We followed from the clearing towards the forest and Ao started a conversation:

-Who do you think it was? And what's a kekkei genkai? It's the first time I've seen one," Ao began, his face pensive.

-Maybe it was some kind of failed experiment? -Maybe it was some kind of failed experiment. And who escaped from some lab.... Because I don't think there are people with kekkei genkai like that," Hana suggested thoughtfully.

-You think his daughter is an experiment too?", Ao asked Hana.

-Maybe they were human, and then they became human," Hana replied.

-Actually, I think I have a pretty good idea who Oyashiro En and his daughter Chino are," Kisame said confidently. I turned my gaze to him, as did the rest of the team. Oyashiro En, when you told me that name yesterday at the inn, I thought for a long time where I heard it from. Then I remembered that when I was in Cloud Village. There were some rumors about him being from the Chinoike clan. He wiped out his relatives after his wife was killed in a feud. He then left these places with his daughter, he must have used some kind of genjutsu on her as if it was a while ago. She tore it up and went after him to kill him, that's when you two met in the battlefield, albeit briefly.... And it's said that this clan could only be opposed by one clan. And that's the Uchiha clan of Konoha. Which sent them to a lifeless valley, rumored that this valley if found, immediately put in order from the corpses of his clan, which was called Chinoike, or even populate this place - finished speech Kisame, I realized that my theory was true.

-That explains a lot," I said, making a neutral serious face, "they weren't experiments after all, they were living people, but with enhanced genomes. Oyashiro En played a role in this, and now I'm sure that all of his memories have been erased as well, so I don't think he'll be in the next life with blood like that.

-If they were Uchiha, maybe things would be different," Hana said sadly.

-No... - I answered quietly. Hana and the others were surprised, listening to me, -My clan is not like Chinoike, because we have completely different DNA. But the cold-bloodedness and cruelty of our clan, sometimes even worse, they say that there are those who succumb to the curse of the Uchiha clan. It makes people selfish, arrogant, and even vindictive... And that only happens to those who have weak wills, those who give in to their emotions, my clan is cursed in a way.... - I said the last phrase, a little sadly, lowering my head down.

-I don't think of Itachi that way," Ao answered me. I turned to him, listening, "This is the first time I've seen someone like you. I've seen you risk your life without hesitation for those in the Wind Country, even managed to save them all from the One-Tailed Shukaku. Without a single destruction or death.... And even strengthened our relationship with their village and ours," he said already smiling. Hana and Kisame, too, began to smile. I, in turn, added a slight smile with my left lip. Ao continued, "I used to think that Shisui was the strongest Uchiha, but now I doubt that very much.

-You're right about that. I felt it, even the first time we met, Itachi-san," Kisame backed up.

-That's right, we all knew that before. It doesn't matter what your clan is, or her blood.... It's what you are," Hana said with a smile.

-Thank you guys for your words, it really brings me closer, to the confidence towards my goal.... - I answered honestly, lowering my eyes with a smile.

-Ei!, what shall we call this assignment? Itachi-san," Kisame suggested.

-It wasn't a mission, because no one hired us. We did it ourselves, I guess you could call it that," I said. All three of them paid attention to me. I added, -An unofficial mission.... Successfully accomplished.

After that phrase, everyone smiled. It was already noon, and we were already closer to the forest that led to Konoha.

The end of Itachi's POV