Chapter 61: Haki, Already Mastered
Vergo spun his bamboo cane, testing his recovered strength. His Haki had stabilized.
"I don't know what you are," he said, eyes fixed on Itachi, "but you're clearly some kind of enhanced human. No matter. You're still just a child playing games."
His legs bent.
Soru.
Itachi's Sharingan tracked the muscle movements—the precise tensing, the explosive release.
That technique again.
Vergo blurred forward.
Itachi raised Wind Forest Fire. The cane came down—light, impossibly fast, but carrying crushing force. One strike. Two. Three. Each impact drove Itachi's blade lower, forced him back.
Vergo pressed his advantage, stepping inside Itachi's guard. His fist shot forward—Itachi blocked with his blade's flat, but the force lifted him, sent him skidding meters backward.
Before he could recover, Vergo was there again.
They exchanged—Itachi's reactions keeping him alive, Vergo's overwhelming power driving him steadily toward defeat. Block. Dodge. Counter. Block again. Always retreating.
Monet laughed from her position, ice creeping along the walls.
"Your companion is so ordinary, Law. Vergo-sama eats children like him for breakfast."
Law, still bound in ice, watched with desperate intensity.
He's holding back. He won't use his techniques—afraid of hitting my heart.
Vergo's confidence grew with every exchange. His strikes came faster, harder. Itachi dodged his finger guns by millimeters, read his palm strikes before they landed, but couldn't stop them.
"Law's companions?" Vergo's cane slammed down. Itachi caught it—and was driven to one knee by the force. "A group of children playing pirate."
His leg rose. Itachi saw the kick coming, but couldn't rise fast enough—Vergo's foot connected with his chest.
BOOM.
Itachi flew, crashing beside Law's frozen form.
"ITACHI-SAN!" Law's voice cracked.
Itachi rose slowly, blood at the corner of his mouth. He didn't wipe it away. He simply charged again.
Vergo's smile was contemptuous.
"A stubborn mouse."
His cane rose—
Itachi's eyes changed.
Vergo froze—one second, two—then his Haki shattered the genjutsu.
But Itachi was already there, sword raised high.
CLANG!
Vergo blocked—then his free hand shot forward, gripping Itachi's throat.
Law's heart dropped from his grip. He caught it absently, focusing on crushing the life from this annoying insect.
"Did you think a moment's distraction would save you?"
His fingers tightened.
Itachi struggled—prying at Vergo's grip, but the man's strength was immense. Far beyond his own.
How... how is he this strong...
Vergo slammed him into the ground.
CRATER.
The stone cracked. Itachi's body went limp.
Vergo held him with one hand, Law's heart in the other.
"I'll say it again, Law."
His eyes, behind those sunglasses, were utterly dismissive.
"Your companions are children."
His finger extended. Darkened with Haki.
"Playtime's over."
SHIGAN.
The finger pierced Itachi's chest.
"ITACHI-SAN!!!"
Law's scream echoed—
And the body in Vergo's hand dissolved into smoke.
Vergo's eyes went wide.
Above, on the ventilation shaft, the real Itachi dropped.
"You spoke too soon."
Vergo's head snapped up—
Itachi's fist, already descending, already coated in dark purple Haki, connected with his face.
BOOM.
The impact launched Vergo. His body flew at a sickening angle, head scraping along the stone floor, carving a trench meters long before he crashed to a stop.
Silence.
Monet stared, frozen.
Law stared.
Vergo's face...
The Haki-coated cheekbone was shattered. A concave depression marked where Itachi's fist had landed.
"VERGO-SAMA!"
Law's eyes snapped to Itachi—and widened.
Itachi's fist. Coated in Haki.
"ITACHI-SAN! You said you didn't know Haki!"
Itachi's expression didn't change.
"I just learned it."
He glanced at Vergo's crumpled form.
"From him."
During those exchanges—the constant observation, the analysis of how Vergo flowed Haki through his body—Itachi's Sharingan had recorded everything. And once he understood, it was simply a matter of adapting techniques he already knew.
Chakra coating. Haki coating. The principles were similar. The source different.
Itachi flexed his hand. The Haki spread smoothly now—up his arm, across his shoulder.
I don't understand where this power comes from, but... I've mastered it.
Wind Forest Fire rose. Haki flowed into it effortlessly.
Vergo pushed himself up, spitting blood.
"Who... ARE you?!"
Itachi ignored him.
His hands moved through seals.
"KATON: HŌSENKA NO JUTSU!" — Fire Release: Phoenix Immortal Fire Technique!
Fireballs erupted from his lips, streaking toward Monet's snow.
Monet shrieked, dodging—she could logia-intangiblize, but the heat still hurt, still burned.
The fireballs landed around Law—precisely placed to melt his ice prison without touching him.
Law moved.
"ROOM—SHAMBLES!"
He swapped with a stone beneath Itachi's feet, appearing beside him.
Itachi handed him his heart.
"No more holding back."
Law reattached it to his chest—the gap sealing, the organ settling back into place.
He grinned.
Kikoku rose.
"Now then."
His eyes found Vergo.
"My turn."
(End of Chapter)
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