"That way!"
Kakashi Hatake heard the enormous explosion and imdiately rushed toward it at full speed.
Although he had long since fallen into darkness, losing all hope in life and becoming little more than a walking corpse carrying out missions, the mont he heard that his teacher's child was in danger, he couldn't stay still.
Three Anbu from his squad followed close behind.
What shocked him most, however, was the identity of the kidnapper.
Why was it Itachi Uchiha?
Itachi was one of the calst, most rational people he knew.
Why would he do sothing like this?
"Found him!"
Kakashi's Sharingan quickly picked up the trail on the ground.
Without hesitation, he accelerated.
Soon, he spotted a figure ahead and pushed himself even harder.
In the end, the figure stopped first, allowing Kakashi and his team to catch up.
"So it's Captain Kakashi."
Itachi spoke calmly.
With his left hand, he held the apparently unconscious Uzumaki Shuji by the waist. In his right hand, he gripped a standard Anbu short blade.
His appearance looked completely normal.
But the other Anbu on the scene remained tense, ready for Itachi to retaliate at any mont.
"Itachi, why are you doing this?"
"He's just a child. He has no grudge against you. Why kidnap him?"
This was what puzzled Kakashi the most.
He refused to believe Itachi was trying to abduct the Nine-Tails jinchūriki and sohow grabbed the wrong person.
That was too absurd.
And if this were an internal Uchiha operation, Itachi wouldn't be acting alone.
Which ant there was a high probability this was a mission ordered by Konoha's higher-ups.
In other words, Itachi was simply carrying out orders.
"That's classified."
"If you don't move aside, he dies."
Itachi replied coldly.
Truthfully, he hadn't figured out how to explain the situation.
The original plan never involved encountering these Anbu.
He was only supposed to et Root.
At most, he expected to confront the Uzumaki survivor hiding in the shadows.
This situation had not been part of the script.
"Hand the boy over to , and I'll let you go."
Kakashi answered without hesitation.
In this situation, he had no confidence he could fight Itachi and protect Uzumaki Shuji at the sa ti.
Between Itachi and Uzumaki Shuji, the latter was clearly more important.
"You think I'd believe that, Captain Kakashi?"
Itachi let out a cold laugh.
"Anbu are hardly known for playing fair. I'm not so rookie who just joined."
The mont he finished speaking, one of the Anbu in the surrounding trees collapsed silently and fell to the ground.
"Careful! Don't look into his Sharingan!"
Kakashi shouted.
At the sa ti, he knocked away the shuriken Itachi had thrown with a kunai of his own.
Then Itachi turned and fled once more.
"Don't let the boy get hurt!"
Kakashi called out as he pursued.
He slamd both palms to the ground.
"Earth Style: Earth Wall!"
A stone wall rose directly in Itachi's path.
Itachi was having a hard ti himself.
He needed to act convincingly without overdoing it, but also without making the performance look fake.
It was like his final battle with Sasuke Uchiha all over again—every movent had to be perfectly controlled.
The chase through the forest continued for more than ten minutes.
Finally, Itachi tossed Uzumaki Shuji into the air and hurled two kunai toward him.
For a mont, Uzumaki Shuji genuinely wondered if Itachi was trying to kill him.
Maybe he really should have used Uzumaki Shuji's Mangekyō Sharingan to brainwash him earlier.
Clang! Clang!
Kakashi leapt into the air, intercepting the kunai and catching Uzumaki Shuji safely.
When he landed, the last Anbu at his side collapsed as well.
And Itachi had vanished without a trace.
…
Not long after disengaging, Itachi was intercepted by Root operatives.
"Why did you hand the hostage over to the Anbu?"
Their tone was openly hostile.
Danzo had never trusted Itachi.
He also drilled the sa paranoia into his subordinates.
Never let your guard down around Itachi.
Always assu he could be a double agent.
"I couldn't escape while carrying the hostage."
"And that Uzumaki survivor was hiding in the shadows. He nearly caught ."
"If the Anbu hadn't appeared, I would have lost."
Itachi stood calmly in the center of the group.
There were around ten Root mbers surrounding him.
That was already a significant force.
After all, Uzumaki Shuji had slaughtered over forty of them during his previous attack.
Danzo had also diverted personnel to keep watch on Fugaku Uchiha.
The fact that they could still spare ten n was impressive.
"The enemy appeared?"
"Then why didn't you send the signal as planned?"
The Root squad leader pressed.
There were too many unanswered questions, and all they had to go on was Itachi's word.
Naturally, they were suspicious.
"That man was incredibly powerful. Go inspect the battlefield yourself. A huge area was completely destroyed."
"I had to protect the hostage and prevent him from being used against , so I had no ti to send a signal."
"This mission has failed. I have another assignnt to carry out."
"Move."
Itachi's tone turned icy.
He was not under these n's command.
He answered directly to Danzo and the Third Hokage.
"No."
"We'll wait until Lord Danzo arrives."
"Until then, you're staying here."
Root refused to back down.
The situation was unclear.
No one knew what had really happened.
And because of their ingrained distrust of the Uchiha, they instinctively made the sa choice Danzo would have made.
Just like dogs imitating their master.
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