Chapter 216 Confront

Meanwhile, Naruto also left the village along with Jiraiya in order to find the tsunade to bring her back to the village as the Fifth Hokage.

…

A few weeks passed.

Just as Tsunade came into power,

Two figures appeared in Konoha Village, wearing a dark uniform with a red cloud, sitting inside the ramen shop.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the land of fire, Aoi is standing in an unknown hidden valley, somewhere in the middle of a forest, looking at the waterfall in front of him.

Karin appeared behind him and asked hesitatingly, "Aoi kun, what are we going to do next?"

"Well, next I will train you as a sealing and formation master." Aoi replied calmly, turned, and glanced at her, while he sensed that Zetsu had disappeared after hearing his words.

'It seems soon someone will visit this valley; if you want to ask me, then I would say it's Itachi. That sneaky guy Obito will definitely send someone to test my strength.' Aoi thought to himself, then smiled in his heart, feeling their future expression would be extremely intriguing.

…

Meanwhile, Inside the Konoha village,

Itachi glanced at Kakashi and said that after activating his mangekyō and putting Kakashi in his Tsukuyomi, he tortured him for three days, and one second passed outside.

After a collision for a while, upon the guy's arrival, both Itachi and his companion retreated.

Then they visited the residence building Naruto was living in; they failed to take Naruto because of Sasuke and Jiraiya's interruption.

Still seriously injuring the Sasuke and breaking the toad prison with Amaterasu flame, Itachi escaped with his companion Kisame.

...

Outside the Konoha village,

Itachi and Kisame are walking through a path. 

"Why did we retreat?" Kisame asked intriguingly,

"That was one of the Sannin; it seems our mission failed." Itachi replied, then walked forward. He felt extreme pain in his left eye and body. He halted a little, then walked forward again.

Kisame raised his eyebrow intriguingly, then followed. He wanted to see how far a genius like Itachi could go, and he was also appointed by Obito to keep an eye on him.

Soon, both reached the valley of death. Itachi and Kisame both halted, looking at Obito standing far away wearing Akatsuki clothes similar to theirs.

"Why are you here?" Itachi asked puzzlingly,

"I am here to tell you that the person behind Danzo's death is not Orochimaru." Obito spoke without turning his head, then gave the address of an unknown valley. 

"Go to this place, and you will find the answer. Also, you can invite him to the Akatsuki."

Obito spoke, then disappeared into a spiral, leaving both Itachi and Kisame in a daze.

"I didn't expect someone other than Orochimaru to be strong enough to kill that old geezer. I am excited to meet this new guy," Kisame said playfully, looking at the deep expression on Itachi's face.

'Is it him?' Itachi thought of Aoi's immature face and careless expression, then took a deep breath, calmed down, and walked forward.

…

A few days passed.

Upon Sasuke's recovery, a Naruto-Sasuke collision happened, and Sasuke defected. 

Tsunade, sitting in the Hokage office, felt a headache. She just joined the office, and she already has to deal with the rebellion of the remaining Uchiha.

But upon Naruto's plea, she postponed the Sasuke defection announcement, allowed Naruto to chase him, and also sent other Genin in the village to bring Sasuke back. 

While Konoha was dealing with its own trouble,

...

Inside an unknown valley,

Aoi stood in an open area, deflecting the single adamantine chain using his sheathed sword, while pointing out her weakness in attack and also guiding Karin in controlling the extension, contraction, and toughness of her adamantine seal chain.

"Well, you can stop now; retract it." Aoi then said calmly, looking at her,

Karin nodded, retracted the chain, sighed in relief, then sat down on a boulder to restore her chakra.

While Aoi turned and glanced at the direction of the forest, sensing three figures moving toward his direction from a few kilometers away, 'As expected, it's Itachi and Kisame, and also that sneaky guy following them on tree branches like a monkey, does he really think he is hidden?' 

"Karin, go inside the house; don't come out before I tell you to." Aoi then glanced at Karin and said calmly,

Karin nodded, stood up, and then walked toward the wooden house near the river stream far away. 

Aoi then sat down on the boulder, crossed-legged, waiting for Itachi and others to arrive.

After a while, 

Aoi opened his eyes and glanced at Itachi and Kisame standing in front of him at a little distance, then said with a smile, "Welcome; I was expecting your arrival."

"Do you want to ask me something?" Itachi suddenly said, then, waiting for his reply while looking at Aoi deeply, without any hassle, 

Aoi glanced at him, then shook his head and said, "Well, I don't want to ask you anything; it seems you want to ask me about something, Itachi."

"Is he the Uchiha survivor beside your little brother? Didn't they say he was blind and an ice blood limit user?" Kisame asked intriguingly, looking at the immature, handsome face of Aoi.

Itachi ignored him. Looking at Aoi, he nodded and asked, "I just want to ask, do you resent me for killing the Uchiha clan?"

Aoi glanced at him, becoming thoughtful, then shook his head. "Well, I don't care about Uchiha's annihilation; I abandoned them when I was three." 

Itachi and Kisame eyes widened, looking at him in shock; even Obito was shocked, looking at the calm expression of Aoi as if he were not lying. 

"Did he say at the age of three? Is he joking?" Kisame asked with a strange, disbelieving smile on his face,

Itachi fell silent and glanced at Aoi; he also felt something wrong with his brain, then shook his head and wanted to say something.

"Believe it or not, it doesn't matter; if I had feelings for the Uchiha clan, I would have destroyed the Sarutobi and Shimura clans instead of allowing you both to massacre the Uchiha clan." Aoi then added, without waiting for Itachi to say anything,