Chapter 09

The next day, the room was a complete mess.

Filled with a peculiar smell.

Tsunade woke up with a slight hangover.

She looked around and the man with whom she had spent an incredibly wild and crazy night was gone.

Sighing in frustration, she covered herself and headed towards the hot springs of the motel.

She wanted to relax and pretend that last night never happened.

...

On the other hand...

Uchiha Itachi walked through the recently famous Hidden Village of the Hot Springs.

He had spent the night here and decided that in the morning he would take a stroll around the village until the leader made a decision regarding the agreement.

Pleasantly surprised by the changes.

It had more than one commercial street, full of accessories, food, and ninja weapons for sale to the public.

The residents came and went with smiles on their faces.

Casually chatting.

Security at its highest point, Itachi counted more than twenty squads of ninja guards walking in their assigned territories.

While there were another 10 squads in the shadows.

For some reason, they exuded a chilling murderous intent towards him.

He knew that guests like him were not normally received like this, as if he had done something irreparable to them.

But he stopped paying attention to them, when they hadn't attacked, it's because they weren't allowed to, so it's useless to think about it.

Another thing that surprised him was that these ten squads in the shadows each had ten ninjas.

And among them, there were more than 25 Elite Jōnin and more than 40 Jōnin. The rest were experienced Chūnin.

Itachi never expected that this small country had such a powerful military force under the nose of the Fire Daimyo.

If this were to come to light, Konoha would be well within its rights to invade this place.

Suddenly, his mind went blank when he saw a picture of himself as a child in one of the many shops, along with a familiar yet unfamiliar phrase.

However, after a few seconds of thought, he completely ignored it and continued on his way.

.....

"You can come out now, I'm out of the public eye, if that's what you wanted." Itachi said in a subdued voice to nothingness.

"Yare-yare, I was wondering how far you were going to take me." Kenzo emerged from the top of a tree and fell heavily in front of Itachi.

"Uchiha Itachi!"

Kenzo said as he looked into the calm eyes of the much younger man.

"Have they made a decision?" Itachi simply asked.

"No need, naturally the answer was no. I just wanted you to see with your own eyes how wonderful this place is. I would like to recruit you," Kenzo removed his favorite bamboo hat and looked Itachi in the eyes.

"I have no intention of leaving my organization. I will only await your response and inform my leader, who will take the necessary measures in response to your refusal," Itachi calmly stated as he intended to leave.

However, he frowned and suddenly evaded hands attempting to grab him by the neck.

"Oh, not bad!" Kenzo applauded.

Itachi narrowed his eyes upon seeing this.

"This clone... is too abnormal."

Looking at the real Kenzo leaning against a tree and the clone that suddenly appeared and tried to attack him, Itachi activated his Sharingan.

Assessing a potential battle.

His speed increased significantly as he appeared in a blink of an eye in front of the clone and attempted to make it disappear with a kunai slash.

However, the clone caught his kunai with bare hands, a black cloak enveloping its entire arm.

"Hm?"

Itachi had no time to be surprised as he felt his stomach being struck by the clone.

A driving force sent him flying backward, crashing into the distance.

Itachi didn't react, he just looked at the clone in the distance with a serious gaze.

He was certain that it wasn't a Bunshin, let alone a Kage Bunshin.

Then what was it?

The only one capable of creating clones this strong and resilient was his friend Shisui, who was currently dead.

"Do you recognize this technique?"

Itachi turned his gaze towards the voice and was surprised to see Mangekyō Sharingan in the true Kenzo's eyes.

"Impossible, all the Uchihas were killed by my hands, we even waited for those who were outside the village on missions," Itachi murmured in surprise.

Surprise that was turning into annoyance.

"No, I am a survivor, and my goal is to hunt you down!" Kenzo said in a muted voice as three more clones descended from the treetops.

"This will be your grave, Uchiha Itachi!"

"Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku" (Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation)

Kendo amassed a large amount of chakra in his stomach and then transformed it into fire, expelling it in the form of an intense wall of flames towards Itachi.

Itachi had no choice but to use his Mangekyō Sharingan, as his possible escape routes were blocked by clones.

Using the first layer of his Susanoo, he managed to avoid being burned by this terrifying technique.

However, the Susanoo consumed a great deal of chakra and he was still not accustomed to it.

Not to mention the loss of vision.

At this point, Itachi could only use the Susanoo to defend himself, not to attack. It was too much of a burden on his eyes.

But this did not stop him from using his other technique.

"Amateratsu!"

However, Kenzo seemed to be expecting something like this, as the place where Itachi planned to burn him was covered with that same mysterious black cloak.

"It's useless, your amateratsu doesn't even tickle my haki armor."

Kenzo took a kunai and covered it with a layer of haki armor.

He appeared in front of Itachi in a blink and made a horizontal cut.

Itachi was confident in his Susanoo's armor, but his years of battle instinct told him to dodge that cut, otherwise he could lose his life.

And for good reason.

Kenzo saw a thin thread of blood coming from Itachi's neck.

Itachi's battle experience saved him at the last moment.

Itachi touched the thin cut on his neck as he gasped.

"If I hadn't reacted in time, this would really be my grave, this guy... is someone not to be underestimated," Itachi sang in his mind.

He had totally underestimated him, thinking that his Susanoo could easily stop that kunai.

But he did not expect that the black cloak not only served to defend himself, but also to attack.

It was too convenient, whatever it was.

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