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One week later.
Neji swung a leg over the silver air-bike a sleek, low-profile fra with a pearly sheen and micro-etched channels hidden beneath a glass-smooth skin.
A tap on the console brought the HUD to life. Four vector nozzles whispered awake, lifting him a half-ter into a rock-steady hover.
"AI, open the exterior lane."
[Acknowledged, Boss.]
The wall in front of him irised apart with guiding beacons. Neji rolled his wrists, clean thrust, silent acceleration, and the bike slipped out over Wave’s cliffs like a streak of quicksilver.
A faint chakra feed blood into a thin, eggshell barrier; the roar of slipstream cut to nothing. Wind beca fuel; a nudge of chakra turned fuel into thunder. The air buckled with a muted pop as he pushed past the sound barrier.
In minutes he skimd above the Land of Fire, then leveled out over the Land of Earth. He let the bike settle inside a bank of cloud, peering down with those cool blue eyes.
Below, Itachi and Kisa stepped out from an Akatsuki hideout fresh off sealing the Four-Tails.
"Out they co," Neji murmured. "Which ans... Sasuke’s close."
A separate team ghosted across the rocks toward Akatsuki’s trail Karin in front, then Jūgo, Suigetsu, and Sasuke. Within monts, the two sides saw each other.
---
Itachi paused. Kisa cocked his head.
"What is it?"
"Trouble," Itachi said softly as mist, sure as rain.
That killing intent was obvious even to civilians. To n like them, it was the scent of blood in the water.
Kisa’s grin showed a line of shark-teeth. "Think they ca for , for you, or for the two-for-one special?"
His hand had already found Sahada’s hilt. The four newcors fanned out. Red hair, orange hair, two pale heads Kisa’s gaze slid past them and locked on the dark one.
"Looks like they’re here for you."
Itachi didn’t answer. His eyes were on Sasuke and, for the briefest beat, the mory of their mother flickered across his face.
"Leave the others to ," he told Kisa.
"Fine by ." Kisa hefted Sahada onto his shoulder and tilted his chin at Sasuke’s team. "Co on then. Your dance is over there."
Suigetsu glanced at Kimimaro. A tiny nod. They peeled off with Kisa, giving the brothers an empty stretch of stone.
Sasuke drew the Kusanagi, the blade flashing a line of cold light. The tip leveled at Itachi.
Neither of them moved.
Their eyes did.
Scarlet irises, spinning tomoe genjutsu slamd into genjutsu, silent and vicious. In the world outside, the air didn’t stir. Inside the shared illusion, knives sang, positions reversed, and truths lied with perfect clarity.
A beat later, motion returned steel, shuriken, a tight exchange, and then the world snapped back into scarlet quiet again.
Within the illusion, Sasuke pressed his palm to the Kusanagi’s spine and drove it through Itachi’s chest. The blade ca out red.
"One question," Sasuke said, voice level. "Answer it and you keep breathing. Who’s the third man the other Uchiha with Sharingan?"
Itachi glanced down at the sword lodged off-center. Blood traced his lips. "You avoided the vitals."
"Answer ."
"And why," Itachi asked, "do you want to know?"
"So that after I kill you, I can kill him too."
A shadow of surprise crossed Itachi’s eyes. Sasuke rembered every word from that night the way Itachi had said he’d left one alive.
"No matter how strong you are," Sasuke said, "you couldn’t wipe out the whole Police Force alone."
"You figured that out."
"Na him."
"Uchiha Madara."
Sasuke’s brow eased, then tightened. Naruto’s fox had once compared her eyes to Madara’s. Founder of the Leaf... first to awaken the Mangekyō...
"Founder?" Sasuke’s tone went cold. "He should be long dead. Don’t play with ."
Itachi’s gaze didn’t waver. "Madara doesn’t die so easily."
The illusion trembled like heat above stone.
High above the clouds, Neji watched without blinking.
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