Nagato's awakening seemed to be a signal. Soon after, Konoha Hospital delivered a second piece of news, Itachi was also showing signs of movement.
Unlike Nagato, who had shut himself off mentally, Itachi's condition was purely due to severe physical trauma.
His Sharingan had been pushed to its limits, completely draining his already fragile body, leaving him on the brink of collapse.
In essence, his coma was his body's way of protecting itself.
Even now, Konoha had not found a way to cure Itachi's genetic illness. They had only managed to prolong his life through external means, keeping him alive for the time being.
Itachi's illness wasn't a typical disease. It was more akin to his genetic potential being prematurely overdrawn, causing a breakdown in his bodily functions.
Solving this issue required extremely advanced and complex genetic knowledge. While Konoha's research had made some progress, a complete cure would still take considerable time.
Unlike Nagato, who was full of vitality upon waking, Itachi could barely move. After all, Nagato was an Uzumaki, and their resilience was exceptional.
Itachi, on the other hand, was an Uchiha, fragility was practically in his bloodline.
His eyes had been replaced with an ordinary pair, as Konoha currently had no spare Sharingan available for him. Even if they did, Aoba wouldn't have given them to him, at least not yet.
At this point, Uchiha Itachi had lost nearly all his combat ability. He was practically a cripple.
Ironically, the most conflicted person about this situation was Sasuke. He had wanted to kill Itachi with his own hands.
But now, seeing his brother in such a pitiful state, he felt strangely unsettled.
"Sensei, I don't know what to do. I want to kill him right now. I know that's what I should do. But for some reason, I just can't bring myself to do it. Does that make me weak?"
Itachi losing his Mangekyō Sharingan had actually caused Aoba some trouble. Sasuke had been a crucial part of his original plan.
Aoba had intended for Sasuke to awaken the Rinnegan on his own. But now, that possibility was nearly cut off entirely.
As a result, Aoba had no choice but to pursue the Rinnegan himself.
However, he was neither Indra's reincarnation nor an Uchiha. The odds of success were not in his favor.
Fortunately, he wasn't entirely without options.
During the process of merging his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, he had noticed that the more Tailed Beast chakra he incorporated, the faster the fusion progressed.
This led him to hypothesize that if he could gather and merge the chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts, he might be able to independently evolve his eyes into the Rinnegan.
And if that still wasn't enough, he could go a step further, merge all seven chakra natures and master the Truth-Seeking Orbs.
In the shinobi world, achieving these two feats represented the pinnacle of chakra control.
If quantity could push the threshold into quality, there had to be some kind of breakthrough.
However, achieving all this would take time, something Aoba was increasingly uncertain about.
Obito and Hashirama had once again vanished without a trace. The intelligence network of the Anbu couldn't track them.
At times, Aoba wished they would just attack Konoha already, at least then, they could have a direct confrontation.
Even if Konoha suffered some losses, he was confident that with their current strength, they could defeat both Obito and Hashirama in a head-on battle.
But no matter how long he waited, no attack came.
No ambush, no sabotage, nothing at all. It was as if the two had disappeared completely.
Konoha was advancing rapidly, but their opponents remained eerily silent.
Rather than putting him at ease, this silence only made Aoba feel more and more that something was seriously off.
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Currently on Chapter 348 - Sasuke vs. Hashirama