"That was Lady Tsunade's Monstrous Strength just now, wasn't it? Are you her disciple now?" Uchiha Itachi asked as he looked at Rokuro after reforming his body.
Rokuro glanced at him and snorted coldly. "What, are you scared?"
Uchiha Itachi studied him for a moment in silence before speaking.
"You are indeed formidable—a rare genius. But don't think that being a genius gives you the right to act so recklessly. There are many people in this world stronger than you. I hope you'll be more cautious in the future."
Even if the other party was "God Itachi" [fan nickname implying overwhelming strength], Rokuro had no intention of admitting defeat so easily.
He looked Itachi up and down, then let out a cold snort.
"From the looks of it, you must be Uchiha Itachi, right? Pretty impressive. What—did you come to avenge your Uchiha clansmen?"
Now that his identity had been exposed, Uchiha Itachi no longer bothered to hide it.
He removed his mask, looked at Rokuro, and said calmly, "I have no interest in that. They are them, and I am me."
Rokuro curled his lip.
"You expect me to believe that? You're all from the same clan. I'm an outsider—it's only natural for you to gang up on me."
Uchiha Itachi shook his head.
"You're overthinking it. The Uchiha aren't as bad as you imagine. If you didn't keep playing tricks on them, they wouldn't come looking for trouble with you."
Rokuro complained inwardly.
This Uchiha Itachi really was naive.
Still too young, it seemed.
Having lived a previous life—and even worked in sales—Rokuro understood human nature all too well.
But some things, even if he explained them, Itachi wouldn't understand.
So he couldn't be bothered to argue further. He simply snorted.
"Enough talk. Are we fighting or not? If not, I'm heading back to Konoha to sleep."
Uchiha Itachi fell silent.
Rokuro's strength was astonishing. To defeat him, Itachi would have to use his newly awakened abilities… but if he did, the clan would find out.
And when that happened, he would end up like Shisui—forced by the clan to choose between Konoha and his family.
Now wasn't the time to reveal those powers.
After thinking it over, Itachi said,
"Since you've become Lady Tsunade's disciple, the Uchiha clan won't trouble you anymore. I hope you also won't provoke them."
Rokuro curled his lip.
That was part of his mission—he didn't even want to mess with the Uchiha in the first place.
If another mission came up, he'd still have to do it. Agreeing to Itachi was impossible.
Seeing his reaction, Itachi sighed.
"It seems I can't reason with you. Then at least, when you play your tricks in the future, don't go too far. Otherwise, you'll still run into trouble."
Rokuro shot him a glance and scoffed.
"You think I'm afraid of you?"
Itachi had no reply.
Given Rokuro's strength, there truly weren't many within the Uchiha clan who could handle him. And those who could wouldn't be allowed to leave the village freely by the Hokage anyway.
He really wanted to use Tsukuyomi to teach this brat a lesson—make him behave and stop provoking the clan.
Unfortunately, Tsukuyomi couldn't be used carelessly right now.
Itachi shook his head, turned, and began walking back toward Konoha.
"Do as you wish. I need to report back to the Hokage. Go do whatever you want."
Watching Itachi leave, Rokuro finally let out a breath of relief.
He was still deeply wary of Itachi's Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu.
He had no idea whether he could withstand such a terrifying Genjutsu—or that mysterious black flame.
Fortunately, Itachi didn't seem willing to use them.
Otherwise, today could have ended very badly for him.
As he watched Itachi's figure disappear, Rokuro shook his head.
The Sharingan…
Looks like he wouldn't be getting it after all.
It seemed Hiruzen had already received the news in advance and sent Itachi to withdraw the others.
Long-distance communication ninjutsu definitely existed in the ninja world.
Most likely, Tsunade and Kuro had transmitted a message back to Hiruzen.
Troublesome.
If he wanted to act independently in the future, he'd have to account for situations like this.
Otherwise, it would end up like today—he arrives, and the target is already gone. Completely pointless.
After thinking it over for a while, Rokuro began heading back toward Konoha Village.
He planned to get a good night's sleep.
Tomorrow, he'd go see Hiruzen and pick up some new missions to grind experience [game-like leveling concept].
This time—
He wanted B-rank missions or higher.
He had no interest in C-rank ones anymore.
Of course, if there were easy C-rank missions, he wouldn't mind taking them and using Shadow Clones to handle them.
But unfortunately—
C-rank missions were usually more troublesome anyway—either time-consuming or unexpectedly dangerous.
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