"Be careful," Yagoromo said, turning his head slightly to warn Mirai and the other two.
Uchiha Itachi was indeed someone worth guarding against, even though Yagoromo could not be certain whether he was actually an enemy.
"Uchiha Itachi?"
Judging from his features, it was not strange that Mirai could identify him the instant she saw him, even though many years had passed and she had only glimpsed him from afar back then. First, Itachi's little portrait was still hanging on Konoha's S-rank missing-nin wanted list. Second, Yagoromo had specifically reminded her to pay close attention to this man.
For a very long time to come, he was the sort of shinobi she would be unable to defeat.
After seeing Yagoromo nod, Mirai began fumbling around in the ninja tool pouch behind her, pulling out scrolls in a flurry. After searching for quite a while through the whole pile of scrolls, she finally found the Fire Sealing Method.
No matter how one looked at it, Uchiha Itachi's most lethal method of attack was still Amaterasu. Although it did not look particularly good at burning people to death, in reality, it was very good at burning people to death. Otherwise, why would everyone risk their lives dodging that move?
But watching Mirai's frantic movements from the side made Yagoromo's eyelids twitch. At this child's speed, forget defending against Amaterasu; in the time it took her to pull out the scroll, Uchiha Itachi could have finished ten tables' worth of professionally grilled barbecue, crispy outside and tender inside.
Yagoromo gestured for everyone not to act rashly. Up to this point, he still had not figured out Itachi's true reason for appearing here.
Had he really come for a desperate fight to the death? Probably not.
But Uchiha Itachi seemed to have no intention of explaining. He simply approached Yagoromo one step at a time, neither hurried nor slow.
Twenty meters. Ten meters. Five meters.
Immediately afterward, Itachi's right eye closed in an instant, while a line of bloody tears silently slid down from his left eye.
Even the blood vessels in the white of his eye could be seen clearly. At that moment, Itachi released one of the ultimate genjutsu nurtured within the Sharingan…
Tsukuyomi.
However, Tsukuyomi ultimately could not compare to Kotoamatsukami. At the very least, when it was cast, the caster needed to meet the target's gaze, and its maximum casting range was only five meters.
When the enemy was already on guard, this technique was actually even harder to land than Amaterasu. Under normal circumstances, it would have been impossible for Yagoromo to be dragged into the mental space created by Tsukuyomi so easily.
But this time, he really did get caught, because in the instant before Itachi acted, he chose a strategy of nonresistance. Of course, this did not mean Yagoromo was seeking death. To put it nicely, this was called confidence born from true skill. To put it less nicely, he was showing off because he had enough backing to be fearless.
Was Yagoromo afraid of Tsukuyomi?
Afraid my ass. What he feared was the silent and undetectable Kotoamatsukami.
"So this is the rumored Tsukuyomi space?"
The moment his gaze met Uchiha Itachi's, Yagoromo felt the space in which he existed shift. Looking at the world before him, which resembled an overexposed black-and-white photographic negative, he muttered to himself.
To Yagoromo, being able to tour this sort of mental space was more like a rare experience.
The main reason Tsukuyomi was called an "unbreakable genjutsu" was that no matter how much time passed inside the Tsukuyomi space, only an instant would pass in reality. Even if the person caught in it possessed a method to break genjutsu, there would not be enough time to do so.
But Yagoromo was a little different.
First of all, his supercomputer-like brain could perform a number of calculations per second that was practically different from an ordinary person's on a species level. Second…
Was this a clash between techniques?
Wrong. This was a clash between cheats.
However, before he understood what Uchiha Itachi wanted to do, Yagoromo had no intention of temporarily showing off his own "dōjutsu."
At the very least, while he was currently inside this space, he had not suffered any bondage play.
"This is a genjutsu space created through the ocular power of the Sharingan. Within this space, all space, time, and mass are under my control…"
Uchiha Itachi's figure appeared before Yagoromo.
That sounded a bit like bragging. Control everything? Had he asked Yagoromo's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception about that? If Yagoromo were asked to erase the concepts of space and time in reality, he would not be able to do it. But no matter how powerful Tsukuyomi was, it was still only a genjutsu.
In other words, it belonged to the category of things that could be killed.
Moreover, this space was a world constructed from Uchiha Itachi's mind. With powerful enough information-manipulation ability, there would be no need to break the space at all. Injecting a massive amount of information into it would be enough to crush Itachi's mind. Tsukuyomi probably could not withstand a Trojan virus.
In that sense, because of this kind of risk, Tsukuyomi was not a technique that could be used frequently. In fact, if one interpreted its usage frequency literally…
One Tsukuyomi per month? No. Of course, this technique could not be used as often, or as harmlessly, as a monthly cycle. Even once a year would be too much.
"So? What exactly is your purpose in dragging me into this space where you can control everything?" Yagoromo asked.
"There are some things I need to tell you. First… even if you can defeat me, you should not continue pursuing them any deeper. Farther ahead, some of Akatsuki's members have already prepared to intercept you," Itachi said.
"With your current attitude, it seems we no longer have any need to fight."
With that single sentence, Itachi's stance had undoubtedly been revealed. If Yagoromo still held any hostility toward him, it would be a little unnecessary.
If this was being used to pass on intelligence, then there was no environment more secretive than this space. Neither Zetsu nor even Obito could monitor this place.
As for his suggestion to give up the pursuit? That was nothing. Yagoromo had never intended to destroy Akatsuki in one stroke to begin with. Otherwise, he would have acted long ago. Why wait for Nagato to gather the members one by one?
He did indeed want to kill everyone wearing that uniform, but absolutely not all at once. Doing that would not create a sense of suffocation.
Besides, from a practical standpoint, no matter how strong Yagoromo was, taking on ten people at once was basically singing with his life on the line. One careless mistake and it would become his swan song. He was not arrogant enough to shout at Akatsuki, "I'll take on ten of you!"
On top of that, there was also the illusory eleventh man hidden in the shadows, Uchiha Obito. Nagato plus Obito would absolutely not be easy to deal with.
Not to mention that the current Yagoromo had three little companions with him. He would not risk his life recklessly.
Enemies driven into a corner were capable of anything. A shinobi at the level of a certain pink-haired girl had still dared to punch world boss Mama Kaguya in the head after the two most important men in her life had been beaten like helpless mobs. If Akatsuki were pushed too hard, who knew what might happen?
Putting everything else aside, Deidara might go for self-detonation, Konan might start playing with paper bombs, and Nagato might start playing with Chibaku Tensei… Perhaps Akatsuki should adopt Deidara's artistic philosophy as their guiding ideology: when words fail, blow everything up.
So Yagoromo understood that he had to control the degree of force behind his actions.
"Now I have the most important intelligence to pass on to Konoha. First, the organization I am in, Akatsuki, currently has one primary objective: obtaining the tailed beasts. Furthermore, because of the shock caused by the Seven-Tails' death at your hands, the organization is demanding that its actions be accelerated."
"As for the reason and purpose behind capturing and sealing the tailed beasts, that is still unclear for now."
"Second, on the surface, Akatsuki currently has ten members in total, but there is a mastermind hidden behind them…"
Next, Itachi described Akatsuki's members, their identities, and the characteristics of their abilities in a very organized and concise manner.
Without Nagato and Obito knowing, a traitor had appeared in their group chat.
The intelligence Itachi revealed was meaningful even to Yagoromo. But at this moment, Yagoromo did not know what to say.
Uchiha Itachi—what exactly was he after?
Still, this allowed Yagoromo to understand, at least somewhat, why the Hokage had always emphasized the continuation of the Will of Fire. Were Yagoromo the Hokage, he would likewise hope that the village had a dozen shinobi like Uchiha Itachi.
This man's actions could practically be called those of Konoha's own Lei Feng: to live well was to do things meaningful to Konoha, and to do things meaningful to Konoha was to live well.
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