Just a Passerby

In the afternoon, Itachi quietly waited by the river for Kabuto.

Today was a holiday, so he should have a day off at Academy. They both had previously agreed to train together during the holidays.

"Hello, why are you sitting here in a daze?" A girl wearing a long-sleeve, high-collared purple shirt saw Itachi sitting alone by the river, so she decided to walk up and ask him out of curiosity.

Itachi vaguely glanced at the purple-clothed girl, then gazed back at the calm river.

He was not very good at talking to strangers, especially people around his age.

Izumi Uchiha was stunned. The boy actually ignored her.

She walked up to Itachi because Itachi was wearing clothes with Uchiha Clan's emblem.

"What's your name? My name is Izumi Uchiha. I'm also an Uchiha." Izumi Uchiha said with a smile, refusing to give up.

She thought that Itachi must be lonely. No one wanted to play with him, so he sat alone by the river because he was so bored.

She was quite interested in Itachi (partly because of how good-looking he was), so she wanted to help this lonely child and play with him.

Itachi was a little surprise and turned at Izumi Uchiha. He did not expect to meet a fellow clansman here. After a while, Itachi said, "Uchiha Itachi."

"Itachi? Why does that name sound a little familiar?"

Izumi Uchiha had a feeling that he had heard the name Itachi Uchiha from somewhere before, but he could not remember where.

"By the way, Itachi, why did you go to the river alone? Let's go back to the Clan together and play Shinobi with other kids."

Izumi Uchiha really couldn't remember, so she simply stopped thinking about it and invited Itachi.

"I want to train..." Itachi said after being silent for a moment.

He was silent for a moment just now because he was wondering what kind of game play Shinobi was. Could it be that they dressed up as Shinobi and fought?

"Huh?" Izumi Uchiha looked at Itachi in surprise. It was obvious that she was shocked by his answer.

This was the first time she had been rejected by an excuse like "I want to train".

"What kind of training? Are you actually a very powerful person, Itachi?" Izumi Uchiha asked.

"Ninjutsu, Shuriken..." Itachi replied.

She felt that this boy named Itachi was a little different from the other young Uchiha she usually stumbled into.

"Ninjutsu? Itachi -- You already know how to use Ninjutsu?" Izumi Uchiha's eyes widened slightly. She was even more surprised than before.

Did she just encounter a genius from the Clan?

Itachi nodded but didn't say anything.

"Wow, Itachi, you're so awesome." Izumi Uchiha praised.

Itachi's expression remained unchanged. A compliment from a stranger didn't really make him happy.

Izumi Uchiha looked up at the sky and then waved at Itachi. "Itachi – I got to go. I'll play with you next time."

She already had the plan to play with someone else today. If she didn't hurry, she would be late. At first, she wanted to take Itachi with her, but since Itachi didn't want to go, she couldn't force him.

Itachi also politely waved his hand.

It just happened that Kabuto saw that as he walked toward Itachi.

Looking at Izumi Uchiha, whose back got farther and farther, Kabuto asked, "Is she your friend?"

Itachi shook his head and said, "No, it's she's just a strange passerby."

Itachi's words reminded Kabuto reminded him of Hanayo Hyuga. She was also quite strange as she always said some strange things.

However, Kabuto could feel that Hanayo Hyuga was kind and had good intentions even though she tended to underestimate him and was also a little silly sometimes.

Kabuto and Itachi briefly talked about Kabuto's interesting stories in the Academy before they began training.

....................

....................

Tsubasa, who was wearing a mask, walked into Anbu's base.

He was now an ordinary member of Anbu, not Root, so he naturally could enter Anbu's base without raising any suspicion.

In Anbu's base, the Third Hokage's Anbu occupied about three-fourths of the base while the remaining quarter was used by the Fourth Hokage's Anbu.

From the overall layout, the Fourth Hokage's Anbu was located southwest of Anbu's base.

However, because the Fourth Hokage's Anbu might be expanding recently, Tsubasa heard a rumor that the Fourth Hokage Anbu might be given their own base instead of having a joint base with the Third Hokage's Anbu.

This made Tsubasa a little anxious. If the Fourth Hokage's Anbu had their own base, it would be much more difficult to steal information about the Six Powers.

So he decided to make a move today and test things out. After all, once the Fourth Hokage's Anbu left, his mission basically had failed.

There was no wall that separated the Third Hokage Anbu's area and the Fourth Hokage Anbu's area, and because it was at night, the Anbu Base was quite deserted. Knowing that, Tsubasa walked into the Fourth Hokage Anbu's part openly and easily fooled the Fourth Hokage's Anbu he met on patrol.

After all, no one would have thought that the Third Hokage's Anbu would have any ill intent for the Fourth Hokage Anbu.

The Fourth Hokage Anbu's area did not have any secret information room. Only the Third Hokage Anbu's area had that kind of room.

As he went deeper and deeper, Tsubasa became more cautious.

He knew very little about the training team. He only knew that their Six Powers was very practical.

Finally, Tsubasa saw the door with Commander Office written on it.

Tsubasa quietly pushed open the door and saw Nagasawa looking at him.

The two of them looked at each other for a second, and Tsubasa immediately racked his brain to think of a way to fool Nagasawa.

Nagasawa also looked at the Third Hokage's Anbu in front of him wonderingly.

Nagasawa that sat there was a shadow clone.

In order to prevent unexpected situations, Nagasawa usually left a shadow clone in two places.

One was at his office, and the other was at Tsunade's place.

However, he no longer left a Shadow Clone at Tsunade's place after she became the person in charge of Medical-nin's plan, but he always left a Shadow Clone in his office.

He had memorized all the masks that the Fourth Hokage's Anbu wore, and since he didn't recognize the pattern of the mask this Anbu in front of him wore, he concluded that this must be the Third Hokage's Anbu.

"Nagasawa-sama, Third-sama sent me here to retrieve the latest mission information." Tsubasa quickly explained.

"Heh, collecting information? But is there a need to be so careful if you're just retrieving information? Not to mention in such a late hour. The Third is truly amazing. Did he guess that I would work overtime?" Nagasawa joked.

Nagasawa immediately saw through this excuse.

Tsubasa quickly took out Kunai, which was already smeared with poison from his backpack, and ready to cut his own neck with it.

Since he was discovered, he definitely could not escape.

This was deep into the Fourth Hokage Anbu's area, and there were many Fourth Hokage's Anbu outside. It was impossible to escape.

Even if there was no one outside, he wasn't confident he could run away from Nagasawa.

The Commander of the training team was equivalent to the leader of Root.

Therefore, without the hope of escape and victory, Tsubasa chose to commit suicide to avoid spilling the information.