CH 581

After returning back to the Uchiha Clan District, Itachi did not directly go to his home, he just sent a Shadow Clone to his home to mask his actions and then went to Shisui’s home.

After arriving at Shisui’s place, Itachi told him about what happened a while ago, and that the masked man of the Akatsuki Organization came to him to make a so-called deal with him…

“Information about the possible identities of the two Homusubi in exchange for returning Sasuke back?” muttered Shisui with a thoughtful face, then asked, “What do you plan to do?” Shisui asked so because he has no real say in the matter, after all, Sasuke’s life is at stake… and they can’t take a risk here, as even a small mistake might lead to Sasuke’s death…

“I have thought about it, and I want to discuss this matter with Kuroto-san and ask for his opinion…” said Itachi to which Shisui agreed.

Shisui created a Shadow Clone to act as his cover, then together with Itachi he secretly sneaked out of the Uchiha Clan, and then the two went in the direction of Kuroto’s home.

There was a reason why they were being so cautious despite being in the Uchiha Clan district inside the Konoha Village, and it’s the possibility that the masked man may have left something behind to spy on them and monitor all their actions.

Of course, both Shisui and Itachi had the confidence that the masked man wouldn’t be able to take them by surprise when they are vigilant, but they didn’t want to risk it at this point, after all, currently, they are in a situation where even a little mistake might cause them dearly…

So, in this way, Shisui and Itachi together arrived at Kuroto’s home, who seemed to have already expected their arrival and welcomed them inside his home with a smile.

After getting seated around the Kotatsu that already had tea and snacks prepared for the three of them, Shisui and Itachi looked at each other and asked, “Kuroto-san… were you expecting some guests, or did you know that we are coming?”

Kuroto answered, “Oh… I expected that the two of you would be coming here soon enough, so I had tea and snacks prepared, anyway, that aside, the reason why the two of you came here… if I didn’t guess incorrectly, it should be related to the masked man of Akatsuki visiting Itachi, right?”

Shisui was surprised and questioned, “Kuroto-san, how do you know?”

Kuroto answered with a smile, “Because not long ago, he visited me too… and used my disciple Neji to blackmail me…”

Obito can use Neji to blackmail Kuroto, so naturally, he will not miss the chance to use Sasuke and blackmail Itachi, this wasn’t something too difficult to guess, and Kuroto realized it even before he agreed to Obito’s so-called deal.

“As I thought…” Itachi nodded, he wasn’t too surprised either, and said, “The mysterious masked Uchiha of the Akatsuki Organization approached me when I was alone at the training grounds near the Uchiha Clan district and said that he wanted to make a deal with me…

At that time, because he never exited the intangible state so I couldn’t find the right opportunity to use Tsukuyomi on him. Even though I understood that he is probably making just empty promises, and doesn’t really intend to fulfil his end of the deal, I had no other option but to temporarily agree in order to ensure Sasuke’s safety…”

At this time Shisui who was munching on the rice crackers suddenly thought something and questioned, “Say, Kuroto-san, that masked guy approached Itachi and asked him to investigate the identities of the two Homusubi’s of Amatsukami… did he want you to do something similar?”

Kuroto took a sip of green tea, and nodded, “Yes, he ordered me to use my identity as an Anbu Squad Captain in order to investigate whatever intelligence Konoha has on Amatsukami.”

Obito thinks that as the squad captain of the Team-Ro, Kuroto might be able to investigate and relay to him all the intelligence that Konoha has about the Amatsukami.

As for the reason why he believes that Konoha will have intelligence on Amatsukami?

It’s simply because the masked man and the majority of the populace of Konoha and other Shinobi Villages believe that Amatsukami and Konoha are more than likely to be in some sort of cooperative relationship, so, Konoha is bound to have some important intelligence about Amatsukami that might prove to be useful for the Akatsuki if they want to defeat Amatsukami.

But it’s a pity that the masked man is dead wrong… there is no such thing, and only four people including Sandaime Hokage, Utatane Koharu, the Anbu Commander, and Kuroto are aware of what kind of cooperation Amatsukami has with Konoha… The cooperative relationship between Amatsukami and Konoha is just a verbal agreement, and even that verbal agreement is currently only limited to the commission that Sandaime issued to Homusubi with the hope that Amatsukami can help Konoha in rescuing the four children.

As such, the information that Konoha has about Amatsukami is not more than the information that Akatsuki already has about the Amatsukami…

Thinking so, Shisui looked at Kuroto and Itachi with a speechless expression…

Both the informants/spy that the masked man of the Akatsuki Organization tried to develop inside Konoha in order to investigate intelligence about Amatsukami happens to be a member or leader of the said organization, this made Shisui feel funny, and he couldn’t help but pity the masked man…

At this time, Itachi asked, “Kuroto-san, have you thought about what to do about this issue?”

Kuroto put down the empty teacup and nodded, “Yes, I have considered what we can do…” stopping here, instead of directly answering he questioned back, “But I want to ask you Itachi, what do you think we should do?”

Itachi didn’t need to think too much, and replied, “Akatsuki Organization wants intelligence on Amatsukami, we can give them what they want, but only the parts we want them to know…”

Shisui added, “Yes, and using this advantage we have over them in terms of intelligence, we might even be able to ambush them by surprise and possibly eliminate all of them…”

Kuroto nodded, “My thoughts are the same… but we will have to be patient, the Akatsuki Organization won’t drop their guards against us so easily…”

Both Itachi and Shisui nodded…

Akatsuki and the masked man in specific have suffered repeated defeats at the hands of Amatsukami, so it is inevitable that they will be very vigilant at the start, but once they confirm that Kuroto and Itachi are not threatening them, they might slowly relax their vigilance, which will allow Kuroto to take advantage of that negligence of theirs and lead them in the palm of his hands and possibly even eliminate both Obito and Nagato.

When thinking of this Kuroto glanced at Itachi with his Tenseigan.

At present, the only person who can effectively neutralize Obito’s threat is Itachi who has the Sword of Totsuka, so his presence is very important.

After the events of that night, when Kuruto got free, he asked Itachi and Shisui about the ins and outs of the cause of their disappearance and also gained all the information he could about their experience.

Itachi explained how he managed to get the Sword of Totsuka and Yata Mirror and Shisui explained how he accidentally ventured into the Nekomata Domain and learned Senjutsu to come out of that Domain.

Kuroto’s interest in the Nekomata Domain wasn’t too much as it’s not strange for more than three Sacred places to exist where one can practice Senjutsu, and he, himself is in contact with one of those, so, his attention was mostly focused on the Sword of Totsuka as well as the Yama Mirror that Itachi managed to obtain.

After learning all the information about the two artefacts, Kuroto understood that they are bound to the user’s soul, and can not be given away without damaging the soul.

Of course, Kuroto did feel a little regretful that he wouldn’t be able to use the two artefacts, but it couldn’t be helped so he didn’t bother about it.

At the same time, he also understood why Itachi in the Cannon never entrusted the two artefacts to Sasuke…

It is well known that Itachi in the cannon left behind almost everything he could to Sasuke before his death, even his Mangekyou Sharingan pair was meant to be transplanted to Sasuke after he becomes blind.

The only two things Itachi did not leave behind for Sasuke included his Sword of Totsuka and the Yata Mirror…

Why did he not leave those two artefacts behind? This question always made Kuroto confused… Was it because Itachi did not want to give them to Sasuke? This is obviously impossible!

And after understanding Itachi’s experience Kuroto finally understood, it’s not that Itachi did not want to give the two artefacts to Sasuke, it’s just that he couldn’t due to two specific reasons…

The first reason is that once the two artefacts are bound to someone’s soul, they will not detach him unless the soul of the said person is completely destroyed, which means even if the said person died, the two artefacts will remain attached to his soul…

So if Itachi were to give the two artefacts to Sasuke, the first thing he needed to do was to destroy his soul, of course, knowing Itachi he would have done so without any hesitation, yet he chose not to… there is another reason for this… And this is the second reason, even if the soul of the said person is destroyed, and the artefacts are detached from him, neither can they be manually given to the next person, nor will they go to the next best candidate, instead, they will just return to the place from where they were obtained.

This means if the next user wants to obtain the two artefacts, then they must pass the trial from scratch.

The trial is related to defeating one’s inner darkness, but can everyone accomplish such a feat? Defeating one’s inner darkness may sound easy, but it is much more than it may seem on the surface, the possibility of failure was very high, and failure would mean that the said person would forever be trapped inside the Gourd, while the inner darkness will take over.

Itachi who understood Sasuke’s character and the hatred in his heart knew very well that Sasuke might not be able to defeat his inner darkness at that point, so he didn’t want Sasuke to take such a big risk.