If he wanted absolute safety, the best option was to deliver the message himself. But chances like that were almost nonexistent.
Akatsuki was, at its core, an organization built from missing-nin. And missing-nin were exactly what the name suggested. They weren't good people. Akatsuki needed them, but also had to keep them on a tight leash.
Every mission was assigned in pairs to ensure mutual surveillance. Even if he did want to pass a message along, slipping away unnoticed was nearly impossible.
In the end, no matter their rank within Akatsuki, none of them were true insiders. They were hired blades brought in during the group's expansion, not people who carried its ideology or will.
Itachi forced those thoughts down and kept reading. A moment later, he felt the same jolt of shock Sasuke had.
The Sharingan.
Kaede Kitahara had awakened the Sharingan.
Unlike Sasuke, Itachi knew much more about how the ninja world worked. He knew there were many ways for a Kekkei Genkai to end up in someone's hands. The Sharingan, for instance, could be transplanted and used instantly.
So if a few Sharingan eyes were circulating out in the world, he wouldn't be surprised. The clan's eyes contained countless secrets, even ones he himself didn't fully understand.
But someone awakening their own Sharingan was another matter entirely.
It meant Kaede Kitahara had Uchiha blood.
Itachi couldn't pull his records from Konoha the way Hatake Kakashi could, but he could still make a solid deduction and reach nearly the same conclusion.
Of course, he could never imagine something like a diary system existed. From his perspective, this was solid evidence that Kaede carried the bloodline of the Uchiha Clan.
And for Itachi, that was worth celebrating.
To outsiders he was the traitor, the sinner who wiped out his clan. But that didn't mean the clan was worthless to him.
In quiet moments, he still saw their faces in his dreams. Blood-soaked eyes. Voices asking why. Why he had slaughtered everyone, including innocent children and elders.
He always woke in a cold sweat.
If not for Sasuke—if not for needing to live long enough for Sasuke to grow strong enough to kill him and rebuild the clan in glory—Itachi might have already given up on life. He might have let the illness take him.
So discovering another survivor of Uchiha blood made something inside him lighten. Even if Kaede's surname wasn't Uchiha.
More importantly, Itachi had always feared Sasuke wouldn't be enough on his own to revive the clan. One person was too little. One spark couldn't grow a forest.
But now there was someone else. Someone with awakened Sharingan. Even without the Uchiha name, if the eyes were shown to the world, no one would believe he wasn't part of the clan.
And Itachi believed the ancient Uchiha name, carrying centuries of glory, would attract Kaede eventually. Kaede Kitahara was nothing compared to Uchiha Kaede.
Then another video appeared. Itachi tapped it open.
It was him. A future him.
He and Hoshigaki Kisame were traveling to Konoha. On the way, they would encounter Hatake Kakashi.
Everything was accurate. The moment he saw it, all lingering doubt vanished.
Because the footage showed his Mangekyo Sharingan. And Tsukuyomi.
He had only used Tsukuyomi a handful of times in his life. Very few people even knew it existed.
This truly was the future.
Kaede Kitahara could see what was to come.
If that was true, then every entry in this diary demanded his full attention.
He watched the him in the video speak to Kakashi and noticed something. His future self was trying to pass a covert warning to Konoha. The most important piece, of course, was that Akatsuki had set its sights on Uzumaki Naruto, or rather, the Nine-Tails inside him.
Itachi read on. The information grew denser.
Sunny Sasuke?
The last descendant of the Uchiha?
After piecing together the context, he understood. Sunny Sasuke was Kaede's nickname for Sasuke. And Itachi being called One Hits Seven wasn't flattering, but he could guess who it referred to. Five-Five Split had to be Kakashi.
With that clarified, everything became easier to understand.
The Fourth Great Ninja War?
The diary mentioned another world war. The future ninja world would be plunged into conflict again?
Itachi had never lived through the Third Great Ninja War. The hero of that battle had been the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato. After the war, Minato took the mantle of the Fourth Hokage.
And now there was supposedly a fourth war coming. His stomach tightened.
If the world went to war again, with Konoha already this weak, how could the village defend itself?
He had killed the clan to protect Konoha. If the village fell in the Fourth Great Ninja War, then everything he had done would be a joke. A meaningless tragedy.
And Sasuke… Sasuke would be dragged into it and face deadly danger again.
The thought made something inside him flare back to life. He couldn't die yet. Not like this. Not while Konoha was this fragile. Not while Sasuke was still so vulnerable.
He had to live.
He kept reading. Much of it was about Uzumaki Naruto, including parts he didn't quite understand. Asura? Some identity Naruto supposedly carried?
But what made him tense again was Danzo.
Danzo had sent a Root squad to kill Kaede Kitahara. They failed, but Itachi's expression darkened.
If Kaede was truly a Uchiha descendant, then his importance rose sharply. When the clan still lived, losing one or two members was nothing.
Now the Uchiha Clan couldn't afford to lose anyone.
If one of the last two died, half of their future died with him.
He couldn't leave the clan's survival in the hands of an ailing man like himself.
And then another detail.
Danzo would someday rise to become Hokage? Even if it was only "five and a half," that still meant he'd held power at some point.
Then what happened to the Third Hokage…?