The air in the private room completely solidified after Uchiha Shisui's remark about "another little brother."
The beef tallow broth bubbled and gurgled, its aroma permeating the air, yet unable to dispel the eerie silence.
The middle-aged Sasuke's body was rigid, like a stone statue weathered for a thousand years.
He stared at the Uchiha Shisui before him,that brilliant smile, those clear eyes,and his brain completely ceased to function.
An illusion.
This must be an illusion.
The most vicious hell that man has woven for me using some unknown dōjutsu.
"Oi, oi, Shisui, don't say things like that."
Akashi Sora's lazy voice broke the frozen air. He picked up the serving chopsticks, fished out a perfectly cooked slice of fatty beef from the pot, and placed it in his bowl.
"What do you mean, 'another little brother'? You make it sound like Itachi has a bunch of illegitimate brothers running around."
*The show has begun.*
*Look at these expressions, Itachi's shock, Sasuke's breakdown, Shisui's natural passive-aggressiveness... tsk tsk, even the Oscars aren't this entertaining.*
Itachi's gaze shifted back and forth between Shisui and the one-armed "Sasuke," his eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses filled with unprecedented confusion and wariness.
Shisui scratched his head, that sunny, cheerful expression still on his face, but his eyes had already sharpened. He scrutinized the middle-aged Sasuke carefully and tilted his head.
"No, really, Sora. This guy's chakra feels exactly like Sasuke-kun's. It's just... uh... gone sour."
Boruto, standing nearby, was completely lost, but he understood the word "sour" and immediately flared up.
"Who're you calling sour?! My Sasuke-oji isn't sour!"
"Alright, alright, everyone sit down."
Sora, like a qualified dinner host, gestured for the newly arrived Shisui to take a seat.
"Don't rush to argue. Let me introduce everyone."
He set down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and put on a genial smile, as if he were about to mention the most trivial matter.
"This gentleman here is Uchiha Sasuke from another parallel world."
He pointed at the rigid middle-aged Sasuke.
"And that loud little blondie next to him is the son of the Seventh Hokage of that world, Uzumaki Naruto. His name is Boruto."
One sentence. An explosion of information.
The smile vanished from Shisui's face, replaced by utter shock.
Itachi's pupils sharply contracted. His gaze behind the lenses locked onto the empty sleeve of the middle-aged Sasuke.
A parallel world?
Another... Sasuke?
"So that means..." Shisui quickly caught on. He sat down beside Itachi, his expression turning unprecedentedly grave. "In that world, things happened completely differently than they did here?"
"You could say that." Sora nodded, picking up another mouthful of enoki mushrooms.
"To put it simply, in their world, I didn't become Hokage. The Uchiha coup happened. Then you, to stop it all, died young. Itachi, to protect his brother, annihilated the entire clan and became a rogue ninja. Sasuke, for revenge, also became a rogue ninja..."
Sora summarized that other world's heavy, bloody history in a few casual dinner-table sentences.
In the private room, one could hear a pin drop.
The middle-aged Sasuke's body trembled violently.
Every single word was a poison-dipped blade, repeatedly carving into his soul.
The color drained entirely from Shisui and Itachi's faces.
They couldn't imagine,couldn't accept,that in another world, such a catastrophic tragedy had actually occurred.
"The reason they're here is to pursue an enemy who also crossed through spacetime. Their target is the Naruto of our world, specifically, the Nine-Tails inside Naruto."
Sora finally got to the main topic.
"So, after we finish this meal, there are a few tasks to assign."
He looked at Shisui, his tone as casual as if arranging afternoon tea.
"Shisui, starting today, take your squad and protect Naruto covertly, 24/7. Remember, covertly. Don't let that simple-minded idiot find out."
"If you spot any suspicious individuals, don't engage recklessly. Immediately send up a signal flare. I'll use Flying Raijin to get there."
"Yes!" Shisui immediately suppressed all emotion and responded solemnly.
Protecting the village, protecting his comrades, it was an instinct carved into his very bones.
*Good. Give Shisui a task. Keeps him from getting too bored and pulling another cringeworthy 'Protect the Uchiha's Smiles' stunt. Protecting Naruto is right up his alley.*
Sora's gaze then shifted to Itachi, who had remained silent since earlier.
He looked at Itachi's face, slightly pale from shock, and then at the middle-aged Sasuke beside him, who seemed to have had his soul extracted, leaving only an empty shell.
"Itachi."
Sora's voice softened a little.
"The Development and Reform Commission report can wait."
He gestured with his chin toward the middle-aged Sasuke.
"Spend some time with this... brother of yours from another world."
Itachi's body jolted.
He looked up through his glasses at that unfamiliar yet intimately familiar man.
That face was etched with pain, hatred, loneliness,a thing called "despair" that he had never seen on his own little brother's face.
The family card is the most effective.
A living, breathing brother straight from hell is worth more than ten thousand words from me. Let him see with his own eyes what Sasuke becomes... without him.
"I..." Itachi's throat felt dry. He wanted to say something, but found that any words would be utterly inadequate right now.
"Alright, let's eat, let's eat!"
Sora clapped his hands, rekindling the atmosphere.
"No matter how big the problem, it can wait until after you're full! Here, try this, top-grade wagyu I specially ordered from the Land of Lightning. It melts in your mouth!"
He enthusiastically placed a slice of meat in everyone's bowl, as if the worldview-shattering conversation from moments ago had never happened.
The meal was excruciating.
Boruto was the only one who ate happily. While wolfing down food, he curiously sized up this world's Itachi and Shisui.
Shisui quickly recovered, beginning to discuss the details of protecting Naruto with Sora.
Only Itachi and the middle-aged Sasuke sat opposite each other, silent.
Itachi looked at that face,identical to his little brother's,and felt a complex surge of emotions.
And the middle-aged Sasuke kept his head lowered the entire time. Black strands of hair concealed all expression. No one knew what he was thinking at that moment.
The dinner ended in a nearly solidified, bizarre atmosphere.
Sora let out a satisfied burp and wiped his mouth with a napkin.
"Alright. Well-fed and well-drunk. Time to get to work."
He stood, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.
Shisui immediately straightened, awaiting orders.
Itachi adjusted his glasses. His expression remained complicated, but he had regained his composure.
The middle-aged Sasuke remained motionless, like a soulless statue.
"Shisui, go carry out your mission."
Sora waved his hand, his tone relaxed.
"I have some things to take care of too."
He looked at Itachi, a mischievous smile forming on his face.
"Itachi, you're in charge of hosting our guests. They're Uchiha, after all. They'll be staying at your place tonight."
"I'm off."
Before his words finished echoing, his figure vanished without a trace in a subtle spatial distortion.
Left in the private room were the Uchihas, separated by spacetime, staring at each other in bewilderment.
Perfect offload of responsibility.
I'll leave this heartwarming family drama of brotherly love to you all. I won't meddle. Have a pleasant chat.
In the next second.
Akashi Sora's figure materialized in the living room of his own apartment.
He casually created a Shadow Clone.
"I leave this glorious task to you."
The main body's face had shed that commercial-grade smile, replaced by a cold, emotionless calm.
Use the Mind's Eye of the Kagura, copied from Karin, to monitor Uzumaki Naruto's every move, 24/7.
"Notify me immediately of any anomalies."
"Understood."
The Shadow Clone nodded and vanished instantly.
Enemies from the future. Though they seem insignificant now, they're still a variable.
A round-the-clock surveillance probe is necessary risk management.
Having done all this, Sora's main body stood in the center of the living room and slowly closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, those amber eyes had been replaced by a demonic crimson.
Three intersecting black sickle-blades slowly rotated at the bottom of his eyes.
Bzzzt!
His figure completely vanished from the physical world.
A familiar sea breeze, tinged with a salty, fishy smell, brushed against his face.
Beneath his feet was soft, cold sand.
Ugo no Mei · Banri Ikku.
The divine kingdom he had created with his eyes, belonging to him alone.
Sora spread his arms and took a deep breath.
Here, he didn't need to play any role.
Here, he was God.
How many years has it been?
He had already lost count of how many things he had devoured.
The Sharingan of the Uchiha clan.
The purest Wood Release source energy, copied and consumed from Tenzō.
The passive talents of the Uzumaki clan, painstakingly analyzed and extracted, thread by thread, from Naruto and Karin.
His chakra reserves had long since reached an inhuman, terrifying level.
His Dōjutsu, having devoured countless pairs of Sharingan, was powerful enough to make any Uchiha tremble.
Senju and Uchiha.
Indra and Asura.
The two major components that constituted the power of the Sage of Six Paths,he had long since gathered them, and reached an extremely high level.
But there was just that *one* missing piece.
That gate leading to the ultimate power,the gate of the Rinnegan,remained stubbornly shut to him.
As if he lacked one crucial key.
Until today.
Sora slowly raised his hand. In his consciousness, within the system space, a disc emanating a faint purple glow floated silently.
**[Uchiha Sasuke · Six-Tomoe Rinnegan]**
"Heh..."
A low, barely suppressed chuckle escaped Sora's lips.
How many years had it been since he had felt this kind of excitement?
It was the ecstasy,originating from the very depths of his soul,of a beast that had been starving for three days and three nights, finally laying eyes on the most succulent prey.
This is it.
When a warehouse packed to the brim with gunpowder has a top-grade, otherworldly detonator thrown into it... what happens?
Sora's lips stretched into a crazed, satisfied grin.
[System.]
[Devour it.]