Excellent acting

After leaving Konoha,

Toji and Uchiha Itachi walked side by side on a muddy road.

There was jungle on both sides of the trail.

The roads in the Naruto world are rough. Even though the Land of Fire is one of the richest nations, they've never put much effort into building proper roads. The trip from Konoha to Toji's destination wasn't particularly short or long.

Since there were no cars, and they didn't rent horses either, it wasn't going to be an easy trip.

It would take them at least half a day to get there.

For Uchiha Itachi, this was nothing—he was used to it.

But for Toji, a regular guy who had lived his whole life in the village, walking this far was exhausting.

Almost every hour, he needed to stop and take a break.

Right now, they were resting by the side of the road.

Toji sat on a big rock, rubbing his legs and said with an embarrassed smile, "Sorry to slow us down. I've never left Konoha before, so I've never had to walk this much. If I'd known it would be like this, I'd have rented a cart or something for us."

Toji was still keeping up the act—just a normal villager.

But the fatigue? That was very real, shit he was still so weak right now.

Itachi smiled politely, "It's okay. It's easier for me to protect you this way. If we'd taken a cart, that might've actually made things more difficult."

Wanting to make Shisui proud of him, Itachi made an effort to stay kind and composed.

After all, Toji was a client from Konoha.

even though they were ninjas and didn't care much about their clients they had to protect them fiercely and keep an act, if word got around that a Konoha ninja had been rude or careless, it would reflect badly on missions and mission requests.

So, the two of them, both hiding who they really were, made small talk as they walked.

After a while, Itachi, clearly struggling to keep the conversation going, suddenly asked, "By the way… Konoha's not bad. Why are you leaving?"

"Ah…" Toji let out a long sigh, then started talking about his 'parents.'

He said he just wanted to leave the place filled with painful memories and see more of the world.

It was the first time Itachi had ever talked this deeply with an average citizen of the village. If Toji hadn't opened up like this, he wouldn't have realized how hard life could be for regular people in Konoha.

He was stunned.

A bit shaken inside.

He'd never thought that, to common people, the village wasn't exactly a safe haven.

There was a long silence.

Then Itachi blurted out, "What's the meaning of life?"

Toji blinked, caught off guard.

He hadn't expected that kind of question from Itachi, not here, not now, not ever.

He remembered that in the original story, Itachi had asked this same question to several people—Shisui, Kakashi, even Orochimaru.

And their answers ended up influencing which side Itachi chose later on.

In other words, if Toji wanted to change the Uchiha clan's fate, this was one of those moments he could use.

But he shook the thought off.

Because in his plan, the Uchiha clan's downfall was a necessary part of Naruto's darker transformation.

Changing that outcome now would ruin everything he'd prepared.

"Heh… You're asking some pretty deep stuff all of a sudden. I honestly don't know how to answer that," Toji said, scratching his head, trying to dodge the question.

Itachi came back to himself with a faint smile.

He hadn't really expected Toji to give him an answer anyway.

In his mind, Toji was just a civilian. How could he understand what a ninja goes through?

He'd only said it out loud because he was moved by Toji's story.

It was more of a thought spoken aloud than a real question.

"It's alright. It's getting late. Let's keep moving," Itachi said with a smile.

"Oh! Yeah, yeah. I've rested enough. Let's go."

Just as they were about to continue walking, Itachi suddenly stopped in his tracks. His eyes narrowed and he turned toward the northwest, "Who are you?! Show yourself!"

He whipped out two kunai and threw them into the brush with pinpoint precision.

There was a metallic clang! as the kunai were knocked aside.

Then, two masked ninjas stepped out from the shadows between the trees. "As expected of the Uchiha prodigy—caught us quick."

Itachi tensed. "Root? What are you doing here?"

"Nothing much. Lord Danzo thinks the man behind you is suspicious—possibly a spy from another village. Hand him over and your mission's done. No need for you to get involved," one of the Root agents said flatly and emotionlessly.

Toji's heart sank.

So, Danzo didn't even trust a regular villager like him, really dude?

Thank goodness he had the foresight to hire Itachi himself. If he'd let the village assign someone, the ninja might've bailed the moment things got sketchy.

And then he would've had to spend more of his hidden resources to escape.

Still, he had to play the part. Toji's face turned pale, and he backed up slowly. "No! There must be some mistake! I was born and raised in Konoha! I've never even left the village before!"

He didn't want to expose his true identity unless he absolutely had to. At the same time, he wanted to see if any senior ninja were tailing Itachi on this mission.

If things really got bad, he'd be forced to dip into his last resort.

The Root ninja just kept looking into his eyes with no emotion.

Whether Toji was a spy or not didn't matter to them.

Itachi's eyes narrowed. From Toji's reaction, he was even more sure this man was innocent.

He shifted into a fighting stance.

His Sharingan spun to life, glowing red with two tomoe.

He drew the short blade from his back and said firmly, "You've got to be kidding. I don't think my client's a spy. You'll have to go back."

"Tch. The Uchiha have always been so stubborn."

Then, in a flash, both Root ninjas vanished!

Clashing metal rang out around Toji.

He couldn't see anything—just the sounds of steel-on-steel echoing in his ears.

In the middle of the chaos, Itachi shouted back at him: "Get out of here!"