Dreamcatcher
By Airyo
An Unexpected Reaction - 2
It rarely occurred to people that Itachi had more personality beyond the impassive visage he presented to the world.
One natural consequence of his genius was foresight. From any situation, Itachi was able to calculate the outcome with an accuracy that bordered on clairvoyance. It was inevitable that Uchiha Itachi was rarely surprised, and therefore his neutral expression changed very little.
But no one expected that missing-nin to sneak so easily past Konoha gates.
Itachi was off duty, and on his way to market to buy some fresh produce for Mikoto after an early morning training session. It took him mere seconds to notice that one of the farmers had the organized chakra of someone with training. While that wasn't unusual in of itself, the S-level genjutsu hiding his features was far more suspicious.
It was child's play to peel back the layers of chakra. Itachi recognized the man as one of the many faces in his bingo book.
The best strategy would be to monitor the missing-nin, and wait for a time when there weren't so many civilians around.
Unfortunately, the missing-nin seemed to recognize the features of the Uchiha, because he stiffened as soon as he saw Itachi, despite the cap he kept on his chakra. Killer intent pulsed through the marketplace.
The missing-nin charged for Itachi.
He was purposely freezing the helpless people around him, using them as hostages. And there were too many civilians. The missing-nin was just high level enough that Itachi couldn't protect them with an 100 percent certainty. The Uchiha thought quickly as he parried away the attacker's strikes.
He remembered seeing a Hyuuga, most likely a Branch member with little to no training. (He vaguely recalled her name as Hinata.) Nonetheless, a Hyuuga will have better chakra development. That was his best option.
He activated the Mangekyou and looked at her.
He nearly missed his landing when he felt something greedily yank on his chakra, soaking in the jutsu like desert terrain taking in water. He was suddenly pulled in along with his chakra, trapped by his own weapon.
And he was watching himself fight the missing-nin. Hinata's gaze searched for a weapon, jumping from some heavy barrels to linger on a set of enormous daikon radishes...of all things. He didn't have time to laugh or cry at her choice of produce as a weapon.
Itachi jerked her thoughts to the civilians.
Save them.
NOW.
Itachi had to forcibly retract himself, barely evaded a throat punch from the missing-nin in the process.
That was not be how genjutsu should have worked.
After that, dispatching the missing-nin became a mere afterthought, because Uchiha Itachi was intrigued.
He had found his puzzle.