"Nee-san, there's been a rumour going around lately," said Nyoko. Her sister was busy preparing the lunch.
"What kind of rumour?" Eiko suddenly became worried. What if someone discovered about Itachi-san?
"My friends said there was a secret scroll hidden inside The Vault. Some said that the scroll was used to keep a very powerful weapon. Yesterday, all kids about my age went to The Vault and looking for the scroll. Then, the elders forced us to leave because we made quite a noise. Funny, right? Nee-san, have you heard the rumour as well? Is it true?" Nyoko asked, curious like any other child.
"Hahaha, that's also the same popular myth I heard when I was about your age. My friends and I did worse than what you did. We listed all the documents and catalogued them in ridiculous manner, making a terrible mess inside The Vault. We were punished severely by the elders at that time," Eiko glad that the rumour was not about her guest.
"Apparently, the rumour maybe was created to make sure the young children will be interested in learning the knowledge inside The Vault. Tell me, while searching for 'that' scroll, you came across a lot of new things as well, right?" Eiko guessed.
"You're right, Nee-san. There is a book that I found interesting. Phy- physi-, is it called physiognomy or something? Whatever. The contents of the book are filled with descriptions to read one's fate just by looking at the face. There's also drawings of some remarkable Shinobi's faces as well," Nyoko excitedly showed her interest in physiognomy.
From the living room, Itachi paid attention to the sisters' conversation seriously. He seemed to have a clue on something. After having lunch, Itachi waited for Nyoko to leave the house so that he could comfortably ask Eiko about it.
"Could you tell me more about the myth you're talking about earlier?" Itachi asked.
"You heard our conversation? Then, you know that it's just a rumour made by the people of this village," Eiko laughed at Itachi's question.
"Just tell me more about it," ordered Itachi in a very serious manner. Eiko was surprised by Itachi's sudden change in behaviour.
"Well, if you insist, Itachi-san. There's a lot version of this myth and I will tell you the version that most of us are familiar with. Urm, well, it's said that a long time ago, there was a Shinobi who created a very great weapon. The weapon was said to be so powerful that even the Shinobi himself didn't dare to wield it, fear of its dangerous power. The Shinobi, afraid that the weapon would fall into the wrong hands, bestowed it to our clan in the form of scroll. The Shinobi had faith in our clan since Pure Blood Clan were non-Shinobi and therefore, could not use the weapon in any kind of way. But we never found that kind of scroll inside The Vault. Besides that, every documents inside The Vault were listed and none of it is overlooked," explained Eiko.
Itachi seemed to figure out something. Eiko was quite surprised that Itachi would be interested in this children-like myth.
Could it be… The legendary Totsuka Blade?
That night, Itachi was not interested in reading any of the documents. He's determined to look for the hidden scroll as the myth said. He's very confident that he could find it somewhere in The Vault. However, he realised that he would never be able to look for it just by the naked eyes.
"Eiko, could you keep a watch outside? I heard several footsteps near here," Itachi lied.
"Uh, ok," Eiko walked outside of The Vault as requested without any suspicion.
Just then, Itachi activated his Sharingan and scanned his surroundings. He looked through every corner of The Vault. He also went to each floor of The Vault. He didn't overlook even a single spot of the building. He even made sure if there was any false wall that maybe led to a secret room. Well, actually, there's no such kind of room. It's a simple trick, actually, and by the time Itachi figured out about this, he also realized the same thing. Anyone who did this was genius. He really didn't want the sword to ever be found at all. Itachi smiled cynically, pleased that he had figured out the trick behind the secret of the weapon that was not supposed to be found.
While searching his surroundings with the Sharingan, he walked towards a nearby row of scrolls and carefully picked one of them. Then he went to other part of The Vault and chose another one. When he had picked four scrolls, all collected from different locations in The Vault, he carefully opened them one by one and laid them on the floor vertically. Among the small writings in those four scrolls, there was a large and bold letter written on each of it. Itachi arranged the scrolls so that the letters would make sense.
I found it! It appeared to be a vertical code. The large letters were correctly ordered and can be read as 'Sakegari no Tachi' literally meant Sakegari Longsword, which was the other name of the Totsuka Blade. Itachi, who already figured out what to do next, bit his thumb until it bled. He crossed all those four letters with his blood in one swift move. The letters then glowed and a stream of red light were flowing out of the letters, made its way into Itachi's hand. It looked as if Itachi absorbed all the light into his body. After a while, the stream of light disappeared as well as the letters on the scrolls.
Who could have guessed such great weapon would be in the hands of these helpless people? Sometimes, the safest place to keep something in secret is a place that no one would ever think of. Itachi now possessed one of the greatest weapons that ever existed in the Shinobi world. The Totsuka Blade, the weapon that Orochimaru was also keep on searching, but to no avail.