Chapter 932

"Sorry, I can't tell you anything." Though the voice was slightly distorted by the mask, Sona swore she had heard this tone before—could there really be someone among those she knew who was part of the Leaf Anbu?

"You actually know everything, don't you? *Cough*, fine, I get it—the Leaf Anbu confidentiality agreement. I understand." Clearly, the Leaf Anbu's evasiveness had stirred the squad leader's emotions, but he immediately waved his hand in acknowledgment and turned to follow his comrades, who were already escorting the troublemaker away.

The crowd gradually dispersed, everyone whispering among themselves, but Sona's entire focus was on the Leaf Anbu who gave her an inexplicable sense of familiarity; she felt intuitively that she must know him.

"If you don't leave right away, you'll be standing outside the classroom with a bucket of water as punishment in fifteen minutes." The Leaf Anbu picked something up from the ground and slipped it into his ninja tool pouch, speaking without turning around.

Though not explicitly addressed to anyone, when Sona looked around and realized she was the only child present, she immediately understood the Leaf Anbu was speaking to her.

She thought of Iruka-sensei's despairing face when she was late—"This can't be! An Uchiha prodigy is late for class? It's not her fault—it's because my lessons are too boring! I'm the greatest traitor in Konoha's history!"—and then thought that lingering here uselessly wouldn't make him reveal his identity.

So she abandoned probing the Leaf Anbu's true identity and rushed toward the Ninja Academy with swift steps.

Watching Sona's figure vanish around the street corner, Uchiha Itachi clenched his fist silently. Normally, he would have used his position to follow his sister all the way to the Ninja Academy before reporting to the Leaf Anbu.

But today, sensing something off when he left home, he had gone ahead to investigate and found a disturbance. Upon hearing the troublemaker's loud rant, Itachi couldn't pretend not to hear.

The troublemaker was surrounded by fellow clan members, and three ANBU guards were trying to calm him—but because of what he was saying, their demeanor was unexpectedly half-hearted, as if they were encouraging him to draw even more clan members to listen.

If this continued, Sona would inevitably arrive and overhear something terrible.

When the troublemaker turned his accusations toward Uchiha Fugaku, Uchiha Itachi acted.

Two shuriken connected by steel wires flew from his hand and completed their target without anyone noticing.

He bound the wildly gesturing troublemaker tightly.

The man froze in shock at being restrained, then prepared to shout again—when Uchiha Itachi had already used the Body Flicker Technique to appear before him.

Since the man was also a clan member, Itachi hesitated briefly before his Sharingan's tomoe began to slowly spin, casting a genjutsu on the man—choosing only to temporarily silence him.

Such precise control over the Sharingan was possible for only one person in the entire Uchiha clan today: Uchiha Itachi.

Troublemakers were inevitable; Uchiha Itachi knew this well, and he had handled many such incidents before. But today was different.

It seemed he couldn't accompany (good girl) his sister to school today. Though he hadn't heard much, Itachi felt he needed to speak with the Leaf Anbu who had been on duty last night.

The Uchiha clan's inherited pride and arrogance, even they themselves never denied—though no one spoke of it aloud, deep inside, they still felt an invisible divide between themselves and the village.

Especially after Uchiha Madara's rift with the First Hokage, as clan members.

After the Second Hokage took power, he allocated a remote corner of the village for them, enclosed by high walls.

Changes in the jurisdiction of the Security Forces during the Second Hokage's era, and the increased surveillance by the Leaf Anbu after the Nine-Tails Incident.