"Drop your bloodlust away Itsuho Uchiha. It is useless," Danzo slowly said, although he himself took a cautious stance, as if he had doubts about whether his own methods of restraint were enough to hold up this monster.
"Danzo!" The girl laughed out loud, but that was obviously a mirthless laugh, as it showed disgust at the person in front of her rather than amusement.
"First, you took my brother's eye and forced him to commit suicide. And now captured me and are using me as a lab rat of yours. Do you really think it will be over just because I am in your capture?"
She said nonchalantly in a relaxed tone, as she wasn't the one imprisoned there for others to experiment on.
"I know this isn't over yet. In fact, this is just the beginning. Now tell me where your mother's eyes are. It should be another pair of Mangekyou, according to the reports"
Danzo observed her reaction, but the girl just indifferently stayed like she didn't hear anything at all. "And when we recovered her body, her eyes were cleanly removed from her eye sockets and made it look like it had been damaged from an attack."
He waited for another few minutes for an answer. "Not answering?" He suddenly strangled her. Soon, the grip started to tighten as the already pale girl now looked whiter than paper.
"Huh!....I..... have.... no..... idea... what...are.... you..... talking.... about", she said with great difficulty, though there was still a laugh that escaped from her mouth as the whole situation was just an amusement to her.
Looking at her, Danzo squinted his eyes as he tried to gouge out the truth from her, but except for the mad laughter of the girl, the aftereffect of Izanagi, there was nothing he recognised as false.
"It seems your brother had them like we first thought. What a pity. Damn Uchiha! At least he's useful to the village!!"
He looked at her with disdain, though he could feel the murderous bloodlust under her almost charming smile that already put him on edge.
"Don't worry. I'll make good use of all the Mangekyou I got from your family. Now be obedient and make yourself useful to the village by letting us see the secret of both of your clans.
Hearing that, she started to laugh out loud as if possessed by some devil; maybe she is the devil, as her sinister smile can chill many Root members to the spine.
"Oh~ you want me to get dissected by your little pawns, I see! Go ahead, try it" Her tone is relaxed, as it isn't her body going to be tormented, but just pure challenge aimed at Danzo.
"Don't worry, we will, and we will make sure to greatly appreciate your sacrifice to the fullest extent", Danzo tried to say indifferently, but he failed, as even he couldn't keep his composure despite being an experienced kage himself.
"But you know what?...." She paused for a moment. "One day I'll make you run away from the Leaf Village and live like a dirty rat in the shinobi world, Danzo-chan!"
Seeing the girl's arrogant smile still hadn't faded when she mockingly declared something impossible, the old man's eyes filled with a cruel light.
"What confidence! As expected of a devil! But you know what? Even a devil is shackled by the village so easily just because of the so-called will of fire that you look so high up to! Such a naive devil can never be suitable to be a Hokage"
Sensing her silent indifference, his words became harsher.
"No matter what, you are just a devil who will never be able to have a good life. You damn cursed Uchiha are never able to have a good life with those cursed eyes you have!! In a week, your beloved clan is going to be exterminated by your own beloved younger brother you always took care of. How do you feel about that?"
"You took Sasuke as a hostage! You filthy shit!!" She connected the dots about what he said as the area around her dropped several points, and everyone near her started to shiver after getting stunned as they looked at her fearfully while almost retreating from the lab.
"Is that what you wanna hear from me, you ugly rat?!" Itsuho grinned like she saw the biggest joke in her life, but she lost consciousness as someone shot at her with an anesthetic gun.
"Evil Uchiha brat!" Danzo cursed as cold sweat dripped from him. "Torune, Fu, look after Itsuho Uchiha. Don't let her out of your sight even for a second and..." He paused.
"And don't ever be deceived by a devil's words. As a root shinobi, you have the greatest aptitude to resist the devil than any other people in this village who got deceived by her"
As he ordered the two young men behind him, Danzo got out of the lab with crutches while breathing heavily.
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The girl who was unconscious on the operating table was stuck in dreamland, trapping herself in it even knowing her body was being cut down inhumanely at the very same moment.
But she didn't wanna awake to save herself, as if she rejected her own reality. She roamed in her dreams like memories and dove deeper, as if she were forgetting the time around her.
"Big sister Itsuho!!" A child with faint stress lines on both cheeks looked at her with a begrudging look as he held an empty dango stick.
Beside him was another cute girl with brown hair who was a blushing mess now. It was obvious that it was due to the teasing of the older girl before them.
"Don't worry, I promise I won't joke about that cute moment of yours. Especially not those gooey, gooey eyes of yours, Izumi-chan" The pale girl with long, soft, spiky black hair grinned mischievously as she climbed down from the tree that she sat on a moment ago.
She let herself act like she didn't notice the dark aura around the boy while she kept chewing something; it was the evidence of a dango theft that belonged to the stick in the boy's hand.
"Itachi, by the way, your little girlfriend is really cute. Isn't that right, Shisui?" She looked at a branch of another tree. But to her surprise, or maybe not, she didn't see the figure she was expecting.
A mock look of betrayal appeared in her gestures as she exaggerated her movements. "Traitor!!"
But her hands moved in a weird motion as she pulled something towards her; soon, an eight-year-old boy that look little similar to her came in with unnatural movements, as if he were like some puppet controlled by the girl.
"Hey!!" The boy made a startled sound as he didn't expect his body to betray him. "Oh, Itachi, having fun?"
"Hello, brother Shisui", the little girl greeted him.
"Oh, hello, Izumi-chan. How have you been?"
"Why! You! idiot!" A throbbing vein appeared on her temple as the boy who was evidently her 'partner in crime' started to act totally innocent. But Itachi was surprised at the girl's actions as he kept watching them fascinatingly while semi-ignoring the older boy.
"Chakra threads!" Two younger kids were surprised. But it disappeared when they saw amusing dance moves that the raven-haired girl made Shisui do, as everyone started to laugh out loud.
"Little sister, please spare me!!! I am sorry! I am sorry," Poor but not so poor Shisui begged, but Itsuho just laughed it off like a witch as she totally enjoyed her brother's misery.
"Not that easily, heh!" She snorted and poked her tongue at him. "Didn't you try to run away without me?" She glared playfully at him with relaxed hand movements, easing her brother's movements despite her slightly evil yet mischievous look.
"I think you're focusing on the wrong point. It is all about how you stole Itachi's dango, not about how brother Shisui left you alone, sister Itsuho," The younger girl said, suppressing the laughter, seeing the rare exasperated look on Itachi's face.
"You have a point, Izumi-chan, but don't you think your brother Shisui is looking for a beating, leaving her sister alone here while having his fill without helping me even a bit?" The old girl pouted like a child as she started to sulk in a corner.
"Of course not. How can I do that to my cute little sister?" Shisui said innocently as he flailed his arms in the air as they moved at a weird angle. "I just feel a little hot and wanna get some air, alright, and happened to find an interesting branch from another tree"
"Oh really?" Her smile became more devious as her sulking expression from earlier was just an illusion. She grinned at her elder brother, and she took a step back to get a good view of her brother.
"Do you two realise you two were dealing with the aftermath of a theft in front of the victim?" Itachi, 'the victim', looked at them as he wanna spit a fireball at them while gripping the empty dango stick.
"You know, Itachi, he is the one who suggested peeking at you to get your dango? So you can do whatever you want to him. Oh bye Izumi-chan see ya around next time"
She ruffled the two kids' hair and used Body Flicker and disappeared from their sight as everyone was dumbfounded at how instant that happened.
"Sister!!!!" Shisui's agonised voice spread throughout the whole training ground as Itsuho looked at them with a soft smile from the top of a distant building for some moments before disappearing.