Chapter 10: The Person Who Shouldn't Exist

Under the cover of night, the pale moonlight shone upon the face of the Uchiha clansman who had captured him.

Coupled with his evil, charming smile, the scene appeared incredibly sinister, causing the already timid Senju Itama to tremble uncontrollably. His mouth, stuffed with a foreign object, could only emit muffled, mournful cries.

"Little brat of the Senju clan, if I were you, I’d eat up while I still can."

The Uchiha "demon" before him looked down, rolled his dead-fish eyes, and spoke.

Hearing this, Senju Itama subconsciously licked the object in his mouth, and his tongue was met with a salty, savory flavor.

He bit down hard and realized the object was chewable. After a few small bites, he discovered that what had been stuffed into his mouth was actually dried meat.

Having gone two days without food or water, Senju Itama didn't care whether the enemy had poisoned it or not; he chewed voraciously, swallowing the large piece of dried meat in a few quick gulps.

After finishing it, he smacked his lips and asked, still unsatisfied,

"Is there any more?"

Hearing this captive act so shamelessly, a vein popped on Uchiha Gin’s forehead, and he delivered a sharp flick to the boy's clear-headed skull.

"Kid, do you not understand your situation?"

"The Senju clan will never be slaves! If you have the guts, just kill me. My father and brother will avenge me!" Senju Itama was stubborn.

Looking at the boy’s expression of being ready to face death, Uchiha Gin, who had originally intended to tease him, suddenly felt bored.

In his past life, he also had siblings. A boy as young as Senju Itama would probably be watching cartoons, eating snacks, and living a carefree, happy childhood. But in this era, children this small were already killing or being killed on the battlefield.

"What a hateful era."

Uchiha Gin felt a sense of heaviness.

After all, he had been a modern person with normal values just a few days ago; it was impossible to be assimilated by this era so quickly. Those protagonists who could adapt to new rules the moment they transmigrated were just too strange!

"Ah, what are you saying? Let me tell you, I won't say a single word about my clan's intelligence!"

Assuming the other party had captured him to extract information about the Senju clan, Senju Itama spoke with continued defiance, his small face revealing a maturity that did not belong to his age.

"What a self-righteous little brat."

Uchiha Gin suddenly looked down at him from above, his eyes radiating a cold, sharp aura. Senju Itama felt a chill in his heart, but the pride inherent in the Senju bloodline made him stubbornly meet the Uchiha's gaze.

"A good look in your eyes. We won't take your life for now, but don't even think about escaping."

"..."

"And don't think about suicide either, because if you die, we'll just have to go and capture your brothers instead."

"!!!"

Watching the boy's murderous glare, Uchiha Gin slowly squatted down, closed the distance, and whispered softly in his ear,

"Kid, you wouldn't want your brother to be captured by us because of you, would you?"

Like the whisper of an ancient god, it left Senju Itama in a state of mental turmoil, and the resistance he had just mustered was instantly dismantled.

"I hope you cooperate well. The Uchiha clan has always treated captives well; perhaps we might even spare your life in the end." Uchiha Gin, having slipped up, continued to cajole him.

"Can you guarantee that?" After a moment of silence, Senju Itama looked up, his small face filled with determination.

"I swear on the honor of the Uchiha ancestors." Anyway, the ancestors were currently shriveled up inside that brat Uchiha Madara's body, so Uchiha Gin felt no burden using him to swear.

"Achoo." A spiky-haired boy practicing skipping stones by the river suddenly felt a chill down his back and let out a violent sneeze.

Beside him, a bowl-cut boy was teaching him how to throw stones to the other side. Seeing him sneeze, he asked with concern,

"Are you okay? Don't be anxious if you can't throw it across; you need to find that feeling of flicking upward..."

"It's all your fault for standing behind me, you weirdo! I have a super sensitive constitution where I can't even pee if someone is standing behind me!"

"I'm sorry..."

The scolded bowl-cut boy sat on the ground, dejected.

[Two entangled people, a fateful encounter, the era of ninjas thus begins its chapter.]

Senju Itama compromised. Now that the other party held his weakness, he was too young to analyze whether the other party's words were true or false, unlike his precocious second brother, Senju Tobirama.

If Uchiha Gin had said that to Senju Tobirama, he probably wouldn't have lived to see the next day.

Because Senju Itama cooperated voluntarily, Uchiha Gin removed the iron chains from his body. After all, carrying the boy while traveling was a burden, and the ten-plus pounds of chains were an extra weight.

Putting them back into the scroll was a huge relief, and he simply tied Senju Itama's hands with rope instead.

He certainly couldn't let the captive sleep in the tent, so Uchiha Gin cleared a space behind the tent, drove a wooden stake into the ground, and tied Senju Itama to it, much like how Hatake "Five-Five" Kakashi had tied up Naruto during the first test of Team 7.

Having settled everything, Uchiha Gin felt exhausted and went back to his tent to rest.

While pondering how to trick Uchiha Taro into a "battle" tomorrow to farm some Heart of Steel treasure chest energy, he stretched his back.

Just as he was about to walk out of the clearing behind the tent to return inside, he suddenly felt the surrounding atmosphere stagnate and sensed someone watching him from behind.

He subconsciously looked back at the stake where Senju Itama was tied. In the pitch-black night, a figure stood silently atop the stake, and Senju Itama, who had been tied to it, was nowhere to be seen.

"Enemy attack!"

Uchiha Gin’s pupils dilated in shock. This mysterious person had actually appeared in their camp without a sound, and without being detected by the three-tomoe Uchiha Fūka.

His first instinct was to shout a warning to the other Uchiha nearby, but as a ray of moonlight fell, the figure was revealed.

Watching the person slowly lift their veil in the darkness, the words Uchiha Gin wanted to shout stuck in his throat.

The person before him left Uchiha Gin, who hadn't been surprised by anything since his transmigration, feeling as if he had been struck by lightning. A cold current ran from his heels to his forehead. As the moonlight fully illuminated the shadow, Uchiha Gin dryly revealed the identity of the newcomer.

"Uchiha Itachi? Impossible, you shouldn't exist in this era. Could it be the Dragon Vein?"

The black-haired young man, dressed in a black cloak with red clouds, stood there quietly with his eyes closed. His pale, handsome face had two deep nasolabial folds, and he wore a forehead protector that didn't belong to this era, with a clear scratch across it.

Having read Naruto for many years, Uchiha Gin recognized at a glance that the person was the man indispensable to the life of the original protagonist, Sasuke—Uchiha Itachi.

While shocked, Uchiha Gin couldn't help but speculate: had the Akatsuki organization also discovered the Dragon Vein deep within Loulan, and was Uchiha Itachi sent to this era by it?

Seeing that Uchiha Itachi didn't speak or move, Uchiha Gin prepared to call for Uchiha Fūka and the others.

Just then, the young man on the stake slowly opened his eyes, and a pair of Sharingan, shaped like shuriken, emitted a faint glow.

A bizarre scene occurred around Uchiha Gin; the bright moon in the sky seemed to vanish.

A scarlet full moon rose in the sky, and then the entire space around him was filled with a blood-like red, and an oppressive aura rushed toward him.

In a moment of distraction, Uchiha Gin felt as if he had been hung high, and in the blink of an eye, he was bound to a cross.

"Blood moon, cross... could it be???"

Uchiha Gin, having regained his senses, was too shocked to speak. He had seen all of this in the book, but this was his first time experiencing it personally.

[Genjutsu: Tsukuyomi]

Uchiha Gin looked around as one Uchiha Itachi after another slowly appeared, each holding a katana. One of them said expressionlessly,

"In the world of Tsukuyomi, space, time, and mass are under my control. For the next seventy-two hours... I will keep stabbing you with this blade."

With the sound of blades piercing flesh, the entire Tsukuyomi space was filled with Uchiha Gin's helpless, miserable screams.

Uchiha Gin, who in his past life would make a huge fuss over even a small scratch, was on the verge of a breakdown.

Even knowing it was a genjutsu, the pain of each blade cutting into his body was real; every stab made his whole body tremble.

The nature of the genjutsu space prevented him from fainting from the pain, forcing him to watch as the blood holes that had just healed a second ago were pierced again by sharp blades.

Uchiha Gin cried until his face was covered in tears and snot, even losing control of his bowels. After an unknown amount of time, just when he felt the time was up, a ghostly voice whispered in his ear

"Seventy-one hours remaining..."

"Ahhhhhhhh!!!" Uchiha Gin's wailing continued.