Chapter 028: The Sky Has Cleared, the Rain Has Stopped, and the Weasel Is on the Move Again

“What, seven years old?!” Itachi couldn’t help but shout in disbelief.

The performance of those steam weapons in Naruto’s hands was nothing like Itachi had expected. Naruto’s belt transformed into four mechanical arms, each gripping a steam weapon. The young boy showed no intention of stopping his torrent of fire; as he moved at high speed, he would suddenly fire an arrow, leaving Itachi no time to observe the battlefield or analyze the situation.

Forced into a corner, Itachi had to activate his Sharingan, keeping his gaze fixed on Naruto’s every move. He had no room to use the Sharingan’s hypnotic or illusion abilities, let alone mimic Naruto’s actions. Naruto never stopped moving, darting across the battlefield like a phantom. Just using the Sharingan’s extraordinary dynamic vision was exhausting.

It couldn’t go on like this. The situation had to change!

Pulling out several shuriken, Itachi quickly formed hand seals. Just then, he felt a chill rush up the back of his neck. He had to stop forming seals and immediately move away.

Boom—bang!

A thunderous explosion left a deep crater in the ground. Naruto’s steam crossbow was aimed right at Itachi.

“Did you think I’d give you the chance to use your jutsu?” Naruto said. “You wanted to experience the power of the steam crossbow and asked me to use my full strength. Well, I’ll show you. I strike faster than you, so you can forget about hitting me! This is how the steam crossbow should be used!”

“You think I can’t hit you? Is that so? Don’t be so sure!” Itachi’s fighting spirit ignited. He made a hand seal, and his figure blurred, splitting into four or five copies.

Shadow Clone Jutsu!

All five Itachis began forming seals simultaneously. Itachi’s hand speed was astonishing; even Naruto, quick as he was, managed to destroy only three clones. The remaining two completed their jutsu and unleashed them.

“Wind Release: Gale Palm!”

“Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson!”

Empowered by chakra, several shuriken wrapped in flames hurtled toward Naruto like blazing comets.

Yet as the jutsu closed in, Naruto didn’t move at all. He stood motionless, as if stunned, watching the shuriken pass straight through his body.

The fire comets shattered Naruto’s form—it was merely a phantom!

The three crossbow bolts fired earlier hadn’t come from the real Naruto, but from a steam crossbow mechanism he’d left behind, controlled by his spirit machinery to launch the bolts!

Itachi instantly deduced Naruto’s ploy. Though he couldn’t figure out how Naruto’s spirit machinery worked, he realized the steam crossbow had been used as a trap. He couldn’t even comprehend that weapons could be employed in such a way!

A cold sensation crept up behind him. Itachi sensed something was wrong and turned quickly with his shadow clones.

There was Naruto, standing on a branch behind them, two mechanical arms raised high—one gripping an oddly shaped spirit energy short sword, the other a steam crossbow.

“You didn’t get to try the spirit energy short sword’s effect earlier, so now I’ll show you,” Naruto said and fired a bolt, then swung the short sword down.

In that instant, the Sharingan’s heightened dynamic vision caught the fleeting change on the short sword: the runes etched into its blade weren’t mere decoration—energy flowed through them. Flecks of light swept across several characters, forming what seemed like a phrase. The blade’s brightness surged, and a fierce wind burst forth from its edge.

Fire erupted on the bolt as it met the wind from the blade, transforming instantly into a flaming slash.

Itachi’s soul nearly fled his body. He wanted to dodge, but the fiery slash was so fast he couldn’t react.

Luckily, the attack wasn’t aimed at his true self, but grazed past him and struck a shadow clone. The clone didn’t vanish instantly; it was dragged dozens of meters through the forest by the fiery slash before exploding and disappearing.

That single strike reduced hundreds of square meters of forest to ash.

The information relayed by the shadow clone told Itachi the power of that blow rivaled his full-force Grand Fireball Jutsu.

“This is the effect of the spirit energy short sword,” Naruto explained. “It can store a certain amount of energy, which can be of any type—spirit machinery energy or chakra. I sealed my Wind Release chakra inside and let it flow through the runes carved into the blade, creating the Wind Release: Great Breakthrough technique, which amplified the power of the flaming explosive bolt. The spirit energy short sword is a weapon I’m quite fond of, though it can only be used once per stored charge. It needs improvement…”

By this point, Itachi could no longer hear Naruto’s words. He, like Sasuke beside him, stared in silence at the vast scorched mark on the ground.

Sasuke was simple—he merely marveled at the great power of the spirit energy short sword.

But Itachi’s thoughts were far deeper.

He thought of his clansmen teetering on the brink of conflict, of Naruto’s status as a jinchuriki, of the meaning he represented. To Itachi, Naruto was a representative of the Hokage faction, pressuring—even threatening—the Uchiha clan, telling them to surrender or die in vain.

Truthfully, Itachi cared little for the other clansmen; only his own family mattered to him. He imagined his parents dying, imagined young Sasuke dying too, and his heart was torn to shreds. He had even considered, rather than letting his parents die at the hands of the Hokage faction, taking their lives himself to ensure Sasuke’s survival.

Now, faced with Naruto’s “pressure” and “demonstration,” all of Itachi’s calculations crumbled. The immense psychological blow engulfed him, plunging him into an abyss.

Suddenly, a sharp pain tore through Itachi’s mind. He felt as if there were channels around his eyes, some substance violently flowing inside. That substance was squeezed from deep within his skull, leaving unbearable agony in its wake.

“Brother! You’re bleeding!” Sasuke cried. “Your eyes are bleeding!”

Itachi wanted to answer Sasuke, but he couldn’t. He was in agony, but he neither wished to scream nor to weep.

A strange sensation surged in his throat, and suddenly Itachi began to tremble.

“Heh heh heh, hmm hmm hmm…”

Itachi started to laugh.

Soon, his quiet laughter erupted into wild, triumphant laughter. His eyes blazed, his face twisted with a manic grin.

The sky was clear, the rain had stopped—Uchiha Itachi was himself once more!

Explosive power flooded his body; Itachi felt his world open up, nothing could hinder him now.

“Hahahahahaha—! This is power! This is the greatness of Uchiha Itachi!!”

He laughed madly, slowly rising to his feet.

Everyone could see Itachi’s face clearly now.

His eyes had undergone a dramatic transformation.

Where once the scarlet pupils of the Sharingan bore three spinning tomoe, symbols of divine might, now both his eyes had become triple-bladed pinwheels.

“Mangekyō Sharingan!”