"Itachi…"
Seeing Uchiha Itachi again, Izumi's emotions tangled in her chest like a knot she couldn't untie. She had so much she wanted to say to him—words buried deep in her heart—but when their eyes finally met, her throat tightened and she couldn't get a single word out.
"Itachi."
Sasuke's feelings were no less complicated. Unlike Izumi, though, he didn't hold anything back. The instant he saw his brother alive and standing before him, the words burst out of him in a torrent.
"Why did you betray the village? Why did you abandon us?!"
Sasuke's voice cracked into a desperate roar. Everything Itachi had done—the betrayal, the massacre—was something he could neither accept nor understand.
Of course, when the Uchiha clan had plotted their coup, Sasuke had been no more than six or seven years old—too young, too innocent, and far removed from the truth. From his point of view, it was Itachi's ambition alone that had brought ruin down on them all.
Kakashi fell silent, watching the brothers clash.
Sakura, however, was completely bewildered. She had been observing carefully, and the resemblance between Itachi and Sasuke was unmistakable. Combined with the fact they both carried the Uchiha name…
Her eyes widened in shock. "Don't tell me… Itachi and Sasuke are… brothers?!"
Only now did she truly understand why Sasuke's hatred for Itachi ran so deep.
Among them, the calmest was Haruto. Not only did he already know the truth—he had, in fact, played a hand in shaping it from behind the scenes. While the others were consumed by emotion, Haruto's attention wasn't even on Itachi.
He was focused on completing his sign-in.
Congratulations, Host. You have reached the designated sign-in location.
Sign-in process initiated.
Premature exit will result in failure.
1%... 23%... 77%... 100%.
Congratulations, Host. Sign-in complete!
Reward obtained: Chakra of the Eight-Tails.
"More Tailed Beast chakra?" Haruto murmured inwardly, feeling the raw power of the Hachibi spread through his body.
The Eight-Tails' chakra wasn't quite as vast as the Nine-Tails', but it still dwarfed the combined chakra of the One-Tail, Two-Tails, and Three-Tails he already possessed.
"No wonder the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails could overwhelm the other beasts. Their chakra reserves are on a completely different scale."
"At this point, I'm only missing the chakra of the Four-Tails, Five-Tails, Six-Tails, and Seven-Tails."
"With the current pace of my sign-ins, just four more times and I should be able to become the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki."
Absorbing individual Tailed Beasts' chakra didn't give him a qualitative leap in strength. In most battles, Haruto hadn't even needed to burn through his chakra reserves—he crushed opponents outright. For him, these rewards had limited value in the short term.
But once he gathered them all… once he fused them into the power of the Ten-Tails—that would be a transformation beyond measure.
"You… you're Senju Haruto?!"
Killer B had recognized him the moment Haruto completed his sign-in.
The death of the Fourth Raikage—his elder brother—had been because of this man. Even secluded in the Thunder Gorge, B had seen Haruto's face in wanted posters and intelligence reports.
When he had first heard of his brother's death, his instinct had been to march straight to Konoha to take vengeance. But the Daimyō of the Land of Lightning and the elders of Kumogakure had forbidden it, insisting the time wasn't right.
Now, face to face with his brother's killer, all of that old grief and fury surged back.
Red chakra boiled out of Killer B, flooding the gorge, wrapping his body in a visible cloak of power.
The tense exchange between Itachi and Sasuke was cut short.
"What… incredible chakra," Sasuke whispered, swallowing hard. "It's like Naruto's—but no… even scarier…"
The truth was, the Nine-Tails possessed greater chakra reserves than the Eight-Tails, but Naruto's mastery was still incomplete. In this moment, B seemed far more terrifying—an almost perfect jinchūriki.
"Wait."
Kakashi suddenly realized something was wrong. Killer B's killing intent wasn't directed at Akatsuki's Itachi at all—but at them.
"We're shinobi of the Land of Fire! We came to support you. We received intelligence that Akatsuki was targeting the jinchūriki!" Kakashi quickly raised his voice, trying to reason with him.
But B wasn't listening.
Yes, Akatsuki wanted him—but that didn't mean Konoha shinobi were his allies. And among them stood the man who had killed his brother.
With a powerful stomp, B launched himself straight at Haruto, drawing his short swords in a blur of steel.
Clang!
At the last possible instant, Haruto raised a kunai, parrying the strike with reflexes born of countless battles.
He hadn't expected B to target him so suddenly. But that didn't mean he intended to retreat—or apologize.
War always meant casualties. Was the Fourth Raikage the only one who counted as human? What about the Konoha shinobi who had fallen—sons, husbands, fathers?
And besides, it had been the Raikage who had broken the alliance, who had chosen to provoke war. His death had been nothing but the price of his own arrogance.
"You dare—?!"
B's rage boiled over. Blinded by fury, he lost all restraint. His body shifted, skin fusing with searing crimson chakra as he entered Version Two. His power and speed skyrocketed.
Eight tails of raw energy lashed out at once, striking straight for Haruto.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Haruto met the assault without flinching. He slammed his palms together and unleashed Mokuton—the Wood Release—meeting the Eight-Tails' chakra head-on. The impact thundered through the gorge, each clash cracking the air with sonic booms.
The shockwaves spread outward in rippling waves, forcing Kakashi and the others to fall back.
By now, Kumogakure's elite chūnin had sensed the battle and were rushing toward the gorge. When they arrived, they were stunned by what they saw: Killer B fighting—and both Akatsuki and Konoha shinobi present.
"Konoha shinobi? Here?!"
"And those cloaks… Akatsuki…"
"What should we do?"
"Notify the Raikage immediately!" one chūnin barked, spinning to run.
But he never got the chance. An Itachi shadow clone materialized silently in his path. Before they could react, the clone swelled and detonated.
BOOM!
The explosion rocked the gorge, cutting off their retreat.