Chapter 550: The Domineering Ninja Way

This is... Hell!

Uchiha Itachi hung his head low as the surrounding crowd’s blatant pointing, whispering, and even open cursing constantly drifted into his ears.

Those words were like poisoned icicles, piercing one by one into the depths of his heart, which had long since gone numb but was not entirely without feeling.

The sunlight shone upon his body, yet he could not feel the slightest warmth, only a coldness that penetrated deep into his bones.

For the first time, so clearly and directly, he wavered in the path he had once firmly believed in and sacrificed everything for.

Is this...

...the people of the Village I risked everything for, even bearing the sin of patricide and clan annihilation, just to protect?

In Itachi’s mind, the faces of his clansmen lying in pools of blood uncontrollably surfaced.

His strict father, who would occasionally offer him a warm smile; his gentle and considerate mother; and those uncles, aunts, and children, some familiar, some strangers...

Their eyes held incomprehension, fear, despair, and curses.

Yet at this moment, the eyes of the surrounding Konoha villagers—filled with disgust, fear, disdain, and contempt...

...gradually overlapped with the faces of certain radical clansmen in his memory.

Protect? What did he protect?

Could it be... that he was truly wrong? So utterly, ridiculously wrong?

Just as Itachi’s heart was tottering under the impact of this unprecedented cold feedback, two figures blocked his path forward.

They were two boys who looked to be thirteen or fourteen years old, dressed ordinarily but behaving like ruffians, with expressions on their faces that mixed excitement, provocation, and a certain morbid hype.

Standing to his left and right, they blocked the path of Itachi and the escorting Anbu.

"Hey, hey! You’re that Uchiha Itachi, aren’t you?"

The boy on the left, with exaggerated purplish-red hair, shouted in an exaggerated tone with a crooked mouth.

The Anbu hesitated and stopped, but his hand was already on the hilt of his sword, warily keeping his eyes on Uchiha Itachi.

Although these two guys were courting death, his mission was to keep an eye on Uchiha Itachi and prevent him from harming the villagers.

"I’m Yusuke!"

The black-haired boy patted his chest, holding his head high.

"I’m Jiro!"

The other boy, who had a purplish-red spiky head and a shallow scar on his face, also shouted along, a look of eager anticipation gleaming in his eyes.

After finishing this pointless self-introduction, Yusuke wore a nasty grin, reached into his pocket to grope around, and then suddenly whipped something out, hurling it fiercely at Itachi’s face with lightning speed!

Splat!

A dull thud rang out, and an indescribable stench instantly diffused through the air.

It was a homemade item that struck Itachi’s forehead with pinpoint accuracy. The viscous, blackened liquid emitted a sickening odor, slowly trickling down Itachi’s cheeks and hair.

"Subarashii!"

Yusuke and Jiro growled in excitement almost simultaneously, their eyes shining and their bodies trembling slightly from extreme excitement and a warped sense of pleasure.

This was the feeling!

This feeling of trampling on the strong, humiliating "big shots", dragging high-and-mighty existences off their pedestals, and stomping them into the mud!

It was simply addictive!

Both of them simultaneously recalled that "glorious" period during their time at the Ninja Academy.

Back then, they led a group of lackeys to unscrupulously mock the orphan known as the "demon fox," Uzumaki Naruto.

Although they would always get beaten black and blue by Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, and the others after every bullying session, as Naruto’s status skyrocketed, a sense of satisfaction fermented and expanded in their hearts, turning into this twisted "glory" and "source of excitement" today.

After all, they were people who had used the will of bullying on the Sixth Hokage!

Now, Naruto was already the high-and-mighty Sixth Hokage. Their underlying logic of respecting and loving the Hokage had triumphed over the underlying logic of the will of bullying, but that didn’t stop them from feeling secretly thrilled when recalling the times they mocked Naruto.

After all, Naruto wasn’t the Hokage back in the Ninja Academy.

But what was this Uchiha Itachi in front of them?

An S-rank Rogue Ninja, a monster who slaughtered his entire clan, and a dangerous figure rumored to possess the Mangekyo Sharingan and have power comparable to a Kage!

Bullying a powerhouse like this, wouldn’t it be far more thrilling and exciting than picking on Naruto back then?!

Originally, they were somewhat disdainful of mocking a "street rat" of a Rogue Ninja face-to-face, feeling it was beneath them.

But after hearing that Uchiha Itachi was incredibly strong—a Kage-level powerhouse—they became excited instead!

So what if they died?

This thought grew wildly in their minds.

Although using the ’will of bullying’ on Uchiha Itachi might get them killed by this dangerous Rogue Ninja...

...but that was the thinking of the weak!

Yusuke and Jiro exchanged a glance, both seeing the same fanaticism and twisted conviction in each other’s eyes.

If they didn’t dare to exercise their ’will of bullying’ out of fear of being killed, what difference was there from being dead?

No mercy or sparing just because the opponent is weak, and no fear just because the opponent is strong!

This is the Domineering Ninja Way of us, Yusuke and Jiro!

They wrapped their despicable acts of bullying in a self-deceiving, twisted coat of "Ninja Way," as if doing so could bestow some kind of "noble" meaning upon their filthy pleasure.

The stench drifted through the air.

Itachi still kept his head lowered, neither wiping it away nor showing any reaction, as if he were a lifeless clay statue.

Only his slightly trembling eyelashes and his pupils, which suddenly contracted under the shadow of his long hair, showed that he was not entirely without awareness.

The surrounding chatter quieted for a moment because of the sudden action of these two ruffians, before exploding into an even greater uproar. Some frowned, feeling it was too much; others felt secretly pleased, finding it satisfying; but most people simply watched the spectacle as if it had nothing to do with them.

The escorting Anbu’s face turned grim.

Great, just great.

A guy like Uchiha Itachi would certainly not let these two kids off.

Should he execute Itachi right now?

However, Itachi shook his head ever so slightly.

The Anbu paused and looked at Itachi in confusion.

What did he mean?

Itachi slowly lifted his head.

The black slime covered half of his face, making him look even more wretched.

Yet, through the gaps of the liquid and his hair, his eyes looked calmly, even with a trace of hollow indifference, at the two boys trembling with excitement before him.

In those eyes, there was no anger, no killing intent, not even disdain. There was only a bone-deep exhaustion, and a faint, almost pitying... sense of absurdity.

Was this the "future" nurtured by the Village he protected?

Was this the "youth" growing under the "peace" he had bought with the blood of his entire clan?

Uchiha Itachi suddenly felt that the stickiness and stench of the rotten egg on his face were far less real, and far less... despairing, than the cold, absurd, and sickening feeling welling up in his heart at this moment.

Yusuke and Jiro felt a bit creeped out by Itachi’s eerily calm gaze, but they were immediately encouraged by the fanaticism of their "Domineering Ninja Way." Stiffening their necks, they tried hard to put on fiercer, more disdainful expressions.

The scroll of Hell seemed, at this moment, to have added an even more ironic and uglier stroke.

Itachi continued to walk forward. Yusuke and Jiro wanted to continue, but the Konoha villagers’ garbage was already being thrown over.

"We’re on the same side!"

"Chotto matte! Let us and the Anbu-sama leave first!"

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