Tsukuyomi

Itachi's Tsukuyomi World is the same as in the manga.

The world has lost its color; all the scenes are just inverted black and white, as if the whole world has been imprinted on the film of an old-fashioned camera.

The instant Tsukuyomi was activated, Sakura Haruno felt a momentary dizziness, her vision went dark, and when she came to her senses, she was already deeply trapped in the Tsukuyomi Genjutsu: she was tied to a cross, and when she subconsciously tried to move her hands and feet, she found that she could not move at all.

Standing before me were Itachi and his clones, a dense, imposing mass of them, each holding a drawn sword. The sheer number of heads and their somber, silent aura created immense psychological pressure.

However, Sakura Haruno showed no sign of panic at being at the mercy of others.

"Is this... the Tsukuyomi World?" she asked with great interest.

Uchiha Itachi found himself increasingly unable to understand the girl in front of him. How could she still laugh when she was in such a desperate situation? It was as if she wasn't tied to the cross of the Tsukuyomi World, but sitting on her own sofa.

This is not the reaction a battle-hardened ninja should have when facing a predicament. Even if he wasn't panicked, his expression should have been solemn and serious; not calm and looking around with a probing gaze.

Itachi looked at the girl, his brows furrowing slightly.

Either she's the kind of single-minded, thick-skinned ninja, or she has something to rely on, which is why she's so fearless.

However, the former is more like the style of Sasuke's other teammate Naruto Uzumaki...

"That's right, this is my Tsukuyomi World..." Uchiha Itachi explained calmly.

"In this world, time, space, and everything else are under my control."

As he spoke, he raised the sharp long knife in his hand and slowly stabbed it into the girl's heart.

The thief's movements were extremely slow, filled with a suppressed sense of rhythm.

The blade was extremely sharp. The tip pressed against his chest, and with a slight push, it tore through his clothes, revealing his pure black skin, a color that was inverted. Itachi's eyes remained fixed on Sakura Haruno's face. When a person is powerless to resist and watches themselves being harmed, they suffer greater psychological pressure and more pain, but Sakura's expression remained unchanged. From the moment the long sword cleaved through her skin, sliced through her fat, and pierced her heart, to the moment the tip of the blade emerged from her back, she calmly looked back at him.

The Tsukuyomi World is not the real world; everything that happens here is essentially a mental attack. That's why Sakura Haruno didn't die even though her heart was pierced; it's just that her reaction was too calm.

There were no screams, no gasps, only a calm gaze back at him.

Strangeness.

Uchiha Itachi frowned even more deeply.

This wasn't the first time Tsukuyomi had used the Tsukuyomi technique. The pain of being struck by a sharp blade might be bearable for some resolute ninjas, but at least they would break out in a cold sweat, clench their teeth, groan, or even scream. But this was the first time Itachi had encountered someone as nonchalant as Sakura Haruno, who barely even flinched!

"Are you thinking...?" Sakura Haruno seemed to see through his doubts and asked, "Why am I not reacting at all?"

Itachi seemed not to hear, silently drawing his sword and stabbing it into her abdomen.

White blood gushed from the wound, flowing across the pure black skin, creating a strange and grotesque atmosphere.

Accompanying the wounds is the excruciating pain of being severely injured. Although the body is not truly injured in this spiritual world, the pain is vividly reflected on the spiritual level, and every cut can pierce the heart.

However, Sakura Haruno's expression remained unchanged. There was no shrill scream, no distorted face. Instead, it was as if she had long been used to this feeling, and even a trace of nostalgia appeared on her face.

He stabbed her several times.

In the Tsukuyomi World controlled by Itachi, every time the sword is drawn, the enemy's wounds disappear and heal completely, but the mental anguish remains, accumulating again and again until the enemy's spirit is completely broken.

However, this was the first time Itachi had encountered a ninja as unmoved as Sakura Haruno.

Sakura Haruno is proficient in Medical Ninjutsu. In the real world, she could easily shield herself from pain by severing the connection between the pain nerves and the brain, which would not be surprising. However, in his Tsukuyomi World, Sakura Haruno's body is essentially just a projection of her spirit. Pain does not need to be transmitted through nerves. Even people who are born without the ability to feel pain will feel pain!

"You want to ask why it doesn't hurt, right?" The girl's voice remained calm and indifferent as the tenth stab pierced her thigh.

The sword in Itachi's hand stopped.

After a moment of silence, he looked up and asked, "Why?"

"Hehehe..." The girl chuckled softly, a hint of disdain in her voice. "Pain, of course it hurts to be stabbed like that."

"However, compared to the pain I've experienced, this pain is nothing more than child's play!"

This pain is nothing compared to the agony she felt when she dissected her own Ice Clone! (Chapter 95) The pain of being stabbed by swords was something she had long since become accustomed to when she was developing Ninjutsu...

Even the pain of having one's bone scraped to remove poison, like Lord Guan's bone-scraping surgery, seemed insignificant to her!

Has anyone ever experienced the pain of shattered meridians and torn muscle fibers throughout the body? It's a feeling worse than death. When she was developing Hokuto Shinken, she had to experience this kind of pain every time she failed!

Has anyone ever experienced the agony of being burned from the inside out by electric current, with every nerve in their body burned through? It feels like every part of your body is being crushed; the hellish pain can even kill you. Last year, when she was at the Land of Snow base, she experienced it many times on a clone!

People are forced to their limits. The young man who used to be so easily hurt by even a small cut in his past life is now so resolute that he can ignore such pain!

After experiencing that kind of extreme pain repeatedly, what is the pain of being stabbed compared to that?

Go ahead and poke me, I'm not a hero if I don't even flinch!

Itachi's Tsukuyomi can compress three periods of time into one second, and then use those seventy-two hours to tear Sakura Haruno pieces; Sakura Haruno can also endure all the pain without changing her expression, tough it out until the Tsukuyomi ends, and return to the real world even more energetic than Itachi!

Because of her transmigration and the unique characteristics of Sakura's body, her mental strength was already far beyond that of ordinary people. After experiencing a great deal of unimaginable pain and tempering, it was refined to be extremely pure and resilient, shining like a diamond.

In fact, Sakura Haruno's greatest gain during her training in the Land of Snow last year wasn't any breakthrough in Ninjutsu development or how much energy the Yin Seal stored, but rather the leap in her spirit after enduring repeated trials that pushed her limits!

This is why Sakura Haruno has been able to gradually integrate the power of Yin Release into Ice Release over this period of time; it's not because she's particularly skilled in Yin-Yang Release—with that vague information, she really couldn't have made any progress in one or two years—but because she has enough resources and extremely strong mental power, and she achieved results through brute force!

In this respect, Sakura has learned some of Naruto's style.

In short, her spiritual strength, both in quality and quantity, far exceeded the limits of ordinary people!

In the end, the so-called Tsukuyomi is nothing more than a spiritual confrontation.

(One more chapter to come)