[Konoha, Hokage's Office]
The room was unusually quiet. Papers were stacked on Tsunade's desk, but her eyes weren't on them. She sat upright in her chair, fingers interlocked, her expression sharp and heavy.
Before her stood four shinobi—Naruto, Haruto, Sai, and Sakura—waiting for whatever mission had dragged them into the Hokage's office this early.
Tsunade's gaze lingered on each of them for a moment before she finally spoke.
"According to our intel…" She flicked a scroll across the desk.
Haruto reached out and caught it midair with practiced ease. He broke the seal, unrolling it in silence, the faint rustle of parchment filling the room. His eyes scanned the words, and then his voice cut through the stillness.
"…Sasuke Uchiha has killed Orochimaru.."
The words seemed to echo, hanging in the office longer than they should have. For a heartbeat, no one moved.
"Meh...knew it" as soon as haruto stammered a yellow burst out
"Ehh?!" Naruto burst out first, his jaw nearly hitting the floor.
Sakura's eyes widened, shock freezing her in place, while Sai only tilted his head in quiet curiosity.
Haruto lowered the scroll slightly, continuing in a steady tone. "He was last spotted in the Land of Waves… and the most recent report places him at an inn in the Village of Hot Water."
Naruto whipped his head toward Tsunade, disbelief painted all over his face. "Wait—are you saying he's just walking around freely?"
Before Tsunade could answer, Haruto's eyes narrowed"then what? Should we take turns assassinating sasuke, dumbas"
Haruto rolled the scroll back up and slipped it into his cloak.
"Okay now team 7," he said firmly, "we're moving out."
---
Shizune leaned against the wall,arms folded as she watched the group disappear down the hallway. A sigh escaped her lips.
"Honestly… sometimes I feel like you lose all your authority as Hokage whenever Haruto is around."
Tsunade pinched the bridge of her nose, her shoulders sinking. "Tell me something I don't know…"
---
Twenty minutes later, the team gathered at Konoha's massive front gate. The village behind them buzzed with the usual life of merchants and children, but none of it touched the mood of the four shinobi. Their focus was already beyond the horizon.
Without delay, they departed, their figures soon swallowed by the trees.
The journey toward the Village of Hot Water should have been simple, yet Haruto led them off the main road. His Rinnegan glowed faintly as he darted through the branches ahead, movements sharp and purposeful.
Sakura, keeping pace, noticed his sudden halt. She landed softly on the branch beside him, panting lightly. "What's wrong?"
Haruto didn't answer immediately. His eyes swept the forest, scanning every flicker of movement, every shift in chakra.
Naruto dropped down to the ground, fists clenched. His voice rang out across the quiet woods.
"Kakashi-sensei! It's no use hiding! Dattebayo!"
A silence followed. Then, from the shadows of the trees, Kakashi emerged casually, one hand raised in greeting as if nothing were out of the ordinary.
"Well, well… I was just passing by," he said, his usual eye-crease smile in place.
Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, Sai's gaze sharp as he inspected their teacher from head to toe.
But Naruto wasn't satisfied. His head whipped left and right, frowning.
"Wait… where's Haruto?"
---
The Uchiha Hideout
The dim light of the stone chamber flickered faintly, the air heavy with an unspoken tension. Sasuke stepped inside, each footstep echoing against the walls.
At the far end sat Itachi, calm and unmoving, his Mangekyō Sharingan concealed for now beneath lowered eyelids.
"You came…" Itachi's voice was quiet, almost unreadable.
Sasuke's expression was cold, but his eyes burned with the Sharingan's scarlet glow.
"Of course. I told you I'd kill you with my own hands."
Itachi's gaze lifted, the deep black tomoe of his Sharingan spinning slowly. "your eye..but how much can it really see?"
In an instant, their eyes locked — and the world twisted. The dim hideout dissolved into a stark, red-tinged void. Heavy stakes rose from the ground, impaling a motionless Sasuke.
"Tsukuyomi," Itachi's voice echoed all around him. "For the next seventy-two hours, you will endure pain beyond—"
CRACK!
The illusion shattered like glass. Sasuke stood in the real hideout again, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on Itachi.
"I've already told you," Sasuke said coldly, his Sharingan spinning faster, "your genjutsu doesn't work on me anymore. I've seen through it."
Itachi's eyes narrowed slightly.
Sasuke smirked faintly, his voice low. "More than you realize...I've grown to a level where I can kill you!."
The tension snapped — steel rang out as both drew shuriken, the sound of metal slicing the air filling the chamber. Shuriken clashed mid-flight, sparks scattering, and the brothers moved in perfect synchronization, their projectiles weaving patterns that seemed impossible for anyone but the Uchiha.
The chamber echoed with the constant clang-clang of steel on steel. Sasuke's hands moved in a blur, launching shuriken in curved arcs while his fingers subtly flicked thin wires hidden in the dark.
Itachi mirrored the movements perfectly, his own projectiles intercepting Sasuke's mid-air. Sparks rained down in brief flashes of light, illuminating their faces — identical in precision, yet worlds apart in intent.
With a swift movement, Sasuke tugged his wires, pulling shuriken back toward Itachi from behind. Without turning, Itachi spun a kunai and deflected them as though he had predicted the trick before Sasuke even began.
Their eyes never left each other. Every flick of the wrist, every shift in stance was read and countered instantly.
A clone of Sasuke appeared behind Itachi, kunai aimed at his neck — but Itachi's form dissolved into a cloud of crows.
The flock circled, their wings slicing through the air, before they reformed into Itachi once more. "Your eyes see well," he said calmly, "but can they see through everything?"
Sasuke's expression remained unshaken. "You're the one who can't see it, Itachi. You've already lost."
Lightning sparked suddenly along Sasuke's arm, illuminating the chamber in a white-blue flash. The Chidori Senbon shot forward, piercing through the air toward Itachi — but once again, his body scattered into crows.
This time, however, Sasuke's eyes narrowed sharply. "Got you."
The ceiling above burst open as another Sasuke — the real one — dropped down with a blade wreathed in lightning.
"You've grown," Itachi said calmly, even as Sasuke had him pinned to the ground by the throat.
Slowly, he raised two fingers and rotated them toward the throne at the center of the chamber.
There—another Itachi sat, composed and unshaken. His eyes locked onto Sasuke as he spoke with quiet certainty:
in the next instance the Itachi sasuke hold turned into crows scattering around
"You were already under my genjutsu..."
The seated Itachi rose effortlessly and advanced toward Sasuke, his movement sharp...
...
I'm fastening the events from this moment on...thanks