Deidara, as arrogant as ever, mocked Sasori and asked if the mere reputation of Konoha's shinobi had scared him stiff.
At that point, Kisame Hoshigaki, who had been unusually quiet until now, finally cut in. His tone was graver than anyone expected as he warned Deidara not to underestimate their enemy. That monster called Akira, he said, was absolutely no weaker than the legendary Jiraiya of the Sannin.
At the mention of Jiraiya's name, Pain's expression flickered for the briefest moment. That had once been his teacher, the man who had planted the seeds of the ideals and convictions that shaped him now.
Compared to the others' surprise, Kisame and Itachi Uchiha were clearly far more wary of Akira.
Kisame especially could still remember how badly he'd been beaten the last time they crossed paths. If Itachi hadn't made the call to retreat on the spot, the two of them might truly have died there.
That withdrawal had not been Itachi acting out of old sentiment. It had been cold calculation. The odds simply hadn't been in their favor.
Watching Kisame treat the matter like a looming disaster, Deidara let some of his mockery drop, though inwardly he still found it hard to understand why these proud, dangerous men were all so cautious around some teenager.
The other members, having never fought Akira themselves, mostly assumed it was just the usual rumor mill at work. The shinobi world exaggerated people's reputations all the time.
Pain thought for a moment, his gaze passing over the group as he asked who wanted to take the interception mission.
Itachi and Kisame volunteered almost at the same time.
Kisame bared his sharklike grin and glanced at his partner, teasing that Itachi must still be hung up on not having gotten a real fight with Akira last time.
But Itachi's reasoning ran deeper. He wanted to use the chance to test the waters for himself, to see where this rapidly rising young man truly stood, and what degree of power he actually possessed.
The intel that Akira had Kage-level strength was no secret anymore, but the gap between one Kage-class fighter and another could be enormous.
Suppressing a Tailed Beast was not, in itself, especially extraordinary to members of the Akatsuki. Most of them could pull that off under the right conditions.
But beating someone like Kisame, a man with absurd reserves of chakra, to the point where he had no answer at all, that was something else entirely.
If even Itachi, with the Mangekyo Sharingan, could not overpower Akira head-on, then the estimate of the boy's strength would need to be raised yet again.
Pain did not know Akira deeply, but if Kisame was willing to compare him to Jiraiya, then that level of threat had to be cut down before it grew any further.
As chakra was fed into the transformation vessels, the interception mission officially began.
At that moment, Zetsu added another detail. Besides Kakashi's team, another squad led by Might Guy was circling in from a different direction.
After a brief pause, Pain made the decision. Kisame would deal with Team Guy, while Itachi would handle Kakashi and the others.
Before leaving, Itachi gave Kisame one extra warning. That thick-browed Guy was anything but ordinary, and Kisame would do well to take him seriously.
Kisame looked a little surprised. It was the first time he'd ever heard Itachi speak so carefully about a taijutsu specialist who, at first glance, looked almost ridiculous.
Then the two of them vanished from the cave, their consciousnesses dropping into the distant sacrifice-bodies prepared for them.
On a narrow forest path, Itachi stood in the middle of the road, his black cloak patterned with red clouds fluttering in the wind. He looked like an immovable mountain planted directly in their way.
The instant Kakashi saw that familiar figure, his steps stopped cold. The lone eye visible beneath his headband sharpened with pure caution.
The memory of being trapped in Tsukuyomi three years ago, and spending more than a month bedridden afterward, still clung to him like a shadow.
He immediately shouted a warning, telling Sakura and Naruto not to meet the man's eyes under any circumstances.
The two younger shinobi didn't fully understand what was happening, but they trusted their teacher enough to obey. They shut their eyes and relied instead on hearing and instinct to read the situation.
Kakashi drew a deep breath and slowly lifted his forehead protector, revealing the crimson three-tomoe Sharingan beneath. He braced himself for battle.
Even though he had now reached the threshold of the Mangekyo, the strain it placed on someone without Uchiha blood still made it a last-resort trump card.
By contrast, Akira and Chiyo stood there with their eyes open as if none of Itachi's illusions concerned them in the slightest.
There was even a playful smile on Akira's face, as though he were greeting an old acquaintance rather than facing one of the most dangerous men alive. He joked that he was finally getting the chance to trade blows with Itachi.
Itachi's face remained expressionless. His scarlet eyes stayed locked on Akira as he calmly acknowledged the fame Akira had built for himself throughout the shinobi world.
Chiyo narrowed her eyes as she studied Itachi. Once she confirmed his Uchiha identity, she immediately began explaining her own special method for dealing with Sharingan users.
Akira's mouth twitched as he listened. Finally he cut in and told her bluntly that her old two-on-one tactics might work against ordinary Uchiha, but against the man in front of them, they would just get people killed.
Patiently, he explained how overwhelming the Mangekyo Sharingan truly was. It didn't require a full stare-down. Just making visual contact could be enough to shatter a person's mind, even kill them outright from the mental damage.
Chiyo listened in growing disbelief. In her day, Madara Uchiha's name had been legendary, but eyes like these had still remained more myth than reality to her. She had never seen such power in person.
Then Akira turned, his gaze sharp as a blade, and looked straight at Itachi.
Without hesitation, he exposed the truth of Itachi's current state.
He admitted that yes, he wanted to fight Itachi someday, but beating up a chakra-transferred proxy that couldn't even bring out the Mangekyo wasn't exactly something he'd take pride in.
That made Kakashi's heart lurch. He'd been so tense that he hadn't even noticed the slight mismatch in the amount of chakra this Itachi was carrying.
Akira casually told the others they could open their eyes. This fake had some skill, sure, but there was no way he could use the version of Tsukuyomi that left people drowning in despair.
Naruto and Sakura opened their eyes with visible relief and immediately looked curiously at the man who had put even Kakashi-sensei on edge.
Although Akira made it sound easy, he understood very well that even at thirty percent strength, Itachi's three-tomoe Sharingan genjutsu was still among the finest in the world, far beyond Kakashi's in refinement.
Kakashi gave a tight nod and gripped his kunai harder. This would be the first time he and Akira were truly fighting side by side.
At the edge of the group, Sakura clenched her fists, her eyes fixed on Itachi with a complicated expression. This was the man for whom Sasuke had been willing to throw himself into darkness for the sake of revenge.
Before anyone could say another word, Kakashi moved first.
His body exploded forward like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Lightning flashed in his hand, and the piercing cry of a thousand birds rang through the forest. It was his signature technique: Chidori.
But Itachi's hand seals blurred faster than the eye could follow. Almost the instant Kakashi launched, countless burning fireballs had already scattered through the air like phoenix flowers.
The precision of the fire release was horrifying. Every single flame sealed off one of Kakashi's approach routes.
With a series of explosions, the ground was blasted open into one blackened crater after another.
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