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 Shisuiās home.
After arriving at Shisuiās 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 himā¦
āInformation about the possible identities of the two Homusubi in exchange for returning Sasuke back?ā muttered Shisui with a thoughtful face, then asked, āWhat do you plan to do?ā Shisui asked so because he has no real say in the matter, after all, Sasukeās life is at stakeā¦ and they canāt take a risk here, as even a small mistake might lead to Sasukeās deathā¦
āI have thought about it, and I want to discuss this matter with Kuroto-san and ask for his opinionā¦ā 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 Kurotoās home.
There was a reason why they were being so cautious despite being in the Uchiha Clan district inside the Konoha Village, and itās 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 wouldnāt be able to take them by surprise when they are vigilant, but they didnāt want to risk it at this point, after all, currently, they are in a situation where even a little mistake might cause them dearlyā¦
So, in this way, Shisui and Itachi together arrived at Kurotoās 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, āKuroto-sanā¦ were you expecting some guests, or did you know that we are coming?ā
Kuroto answered, āOhā¦ 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 hereā¦ if I didnāt guess incorrectly, it should be related to the masked man of Akatsuki visiting Itachi, right?ā
Shisui was surprised and questioned, āKuroto-san, how do you know?ā
Kuroto answered with a smile, āBecause not long ago, he visited me tooā¦ and used my disciple Neji to blackmail meā¦ā
Obito can use Neji to blackmail Kuroto, so naturally, he will not miss the chance to use Sasuke and blackmail Itachi, this wasnāt something too difficult to guess, and Kuroto realized it even before he agreed to Obitoās so-called deal.
āAs I thoughtā¦ā Itachi nodded, he wasnāt too surprised either, and said, āThe 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 meā¦
At that time, because he never exited the intangible state so I couldnāt find the right opportunity to use Tsukuyomi on him. Even though I understood that he is probably making just empty promises, and doesnāt really intend to fulfil his end of the deal, I had no other option but to temporarily agree in order to ensure Sasukeās safetyā¦ā
At this time Shisui who was munching on the rice crackers suddenly thought something and questioned, āSay, Kuroto-san, that masked guy approached Itachi and asked him to investigate the identities of the two Homusubiās of Amatsukamiā¦ did he want you to do something similar?ā
Kuroto took a sip of green tea, and nodded, āYes, he ordered me to use my identity as an Anbu Squad Captain in order to investigate whatever intelligence Konoha has on Amatsukami.ā
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?
Itās 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 itās a pity that the masked man is dead wrongā¦ 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 Konohaā¦ 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 Amatsukamiā¦
Thinking so, Shisui looked at Kuroto and Itachi with a speechless expressionā¦
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 couldnāt help but pity the masked manā¦
At this time, Itachi asked, āKuroto-san, have you thought about what to do about this issue?ā
Kuroto put down the empty teacup and nodded, āYes, I have considered what we can doā¦ā stopping here, instead of directly answering he questioned back, āBut I want to ask you Itachi, what do you think we should do?ā
Itachi didnāt need to think too much, and replied, āAkatsuki Organization wants intelligence on Amatsukami, we can give them what they want, but only the parts we want them to knowā¦ā
Shisui added, āYes, 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 themā¦ā
Kuroto nodded, āMy thoughts are the sameā¦ but we will have to be patient, the Akatsuki Organization wonāt drop their guards against us so easilyā¦ā
Both Itachi and Shisui noddedā¦
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 Obitoās 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.
Kurotoās interest in the Nekomata Domain wasnāt too much as itās 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 userās soul, and can not be given away without damaging the soul.
Of course, Kuroto did feel a little regretful that he wouldnāt be able to use the two artefacts, but it couldnāt be helped so he didnāt bother about it.
At the same time, he also understood why Itachi in the Cannon never entrusted the two artefacts to Sasukeā¦
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 Mirrorā¦
Why did he not leave those two artefacts behind? This question always made Kuroto confusedā¦ Was it because Itachi did not want to give them to Sasuke? This is obviously impossible!
And after understanding Itachiās experience Kuroto finally understood, itās not that Itachi did not want to give the two artefacts to Sasuke, itās just that he couldnāt due to two specific reasonsā¦
The first reason is that once the two artefacts are bound to someoneās 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 soulā¦
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 toā¦ there is another reason for thisā¦ 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 oneās inner darkness, but can everyone accomplish such a feat? Defeating oneās 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 Sasukeās 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 didnāt want Sasuke to take such a big risk.