On the Heavenly Screen, Kabuto Yakushi's deranged voice echoed through the cave: "You don't understand at all! I've gathered data on every powerful fighter. My Senjutsu is flawless now!"
Itachi's Impure World Reincarnation body stood motionless, his dust-covered Akatsuki cloak stirring without wind. "But you don't understand the Uchiha's true power."
Sasuke's pupils contracted sharply as something occurred to him.
"The Uchiha Clan... possesses a Dōjutsu that can be cast without sight." Itachi's voice sounded as if it came from far away. "The price... is losing one's sight forever."
A Dōjutsu that didn't require sight?
Sasuke's thoughts flashed back to his battle to the death with Danzo—the Sharingan on the old man's arm that closed each time he neared death, that bizarre way he came back to life...
"Izanagi..." Sasuke blurted out.
The corners of Itachi's mouth rose slightly. "You know about Izanagi... but what I'm going to use is another forbidden technique that corresponds to it."
"Another one?" Sasuke saw his older brother form hand seals he had never seen before, three Shuriken arranged in a peculiar formation between his fingers.
An eerie silence suddenly descended on the cave. Even the sound of Kabuto's snake scales rubbing together vanished. Itachi's voice rang especially clear in the frozen space and time:
"Preparations complete... the ultimate Dōjutsu that controls fate."
"Izanami!"
"Sasuke, don't stray too far from me."
The two sides then began to fight.
Kabuto's voice cut off abruptly, his consciousness already plunged into an endlessly repeating Genjutsu—
The view on the Heavenly Screen suddenly zoomed in, Kabuto Yakushi's ferocious face filling the entire screen. His snake pupils contracted into slits, and Senjutsu Chakra formed a violent vortex around his body.
Itachi's calm voice pierced through the roar of Chakra. "Kabuto, you've always pursued power, but you've never truly seen what's in your own heart."
"Enough nonsense!" Kabuto's roar shook loose stones from the cave walls, but the next second, his movements suddenly froze. His Sage Mode body hung rigidly in midair in an attacking stance, as if someone had pressed a pause button.
(The Genjutsu begins)
Countless fragments of memory flashed past like a revolving lantern—
"What... is this?!" Kabuto's snake scales stood on end as he realized in horror that the horn on his forehead kept being cut off. The fight repeated with every loop, over and over again.
In the real world, Sasuke saw Kabuto suddenly begin to twitch, Chakra churning beneath his Sage Mode skin like boiling water. Most terrifying of all, Kabuto still held the same opening stance for his attack.
"Izanami..." With one eye turned white, Itachi explained softly, "is no ordinary Genjutsu. It's a technique that traps an opponent in a 'moment that decides their fate.'"
The Heavenly Screen deftly split the image: on the left was Kabuto standing rigid in the real world, and on the right was the scene repeating endlessly in his consciousness. Each loop ended on the same frozen moment: he reached for Orochimaru's retreating figure, only to grasp at empty air.
The air in the cave seemed to congeal. Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan flickered with its final light as he looked at the motionless Kabuto Yakushi before him.
Kabuto's arms rose beyond his control, his fingers stiffly forming hand seals. The movements were unnervingly precise—like a puppet pulled by strings, or a lost traveler guided by a god.
Sasuke's pupils contracted sharply. "Farewell."
"Impure World Reincarnation: Release!"
"Brother."
In an instant, countless glowing white specks rose from Itachi's body before him, like a river of stars flowing upstream.
"There's still time..." He reached out a hand and walked toward Sasuke.
"I can feel my consciousness gradually fading."
"Before we say goodbye, I'll tell you the answer you want to know."
"I have no reason to lie anymore."
"What I did on the night we parted was just as Tobi and Danzo said."
"Let me show you the whole truth."
He then pulled Sasuke into a Genjutsu.
Sasuke looked at Itachi and learned the whole truth.
"I was always lying to you, asking you to forgive me."
"I always pushed you far away with these hands. I didn't want to involve you."
"But now that I think about it, perhaps you once had the power to change Mom and Dad, to change the Uchiha."
"If I'd faced you honestly from the beginning and discussed the truth with you as an equal..."
"At this point, no matter how much a failure like me says to you, you won't listen. So this time, I at least want to let you know more of the truth..."
As he spoke, he placed a hand on the back of Sasuke's head.
"It's all right if you never forgive me. No matter what you become, I'll always love you."
As he spoke, their foreheads touched.
The image on the Heavenly Screen slowly began to darken.
The real Shinobi World...
As this installment came to an end, the Shinobi World beneath the Heavenly Screen fell into an uproar.
Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's pipe had long since gone out, and his aged fingers trembled slightly. He looked at Itachi turning into motes of light on the Heavenly Screen, tears welling in his cloudy eyes. "It was the village... that wronged you." Beside him, Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu remained silent.
A crack appeared in Obito Uchiha's Spiral Mask as he stared fixedly at the Heavenly Screen. "Even Izanami... Itachi, how many more trump cards are you hiding?" Black Zetsu emerged from the ground and said hoarsely, "It seems we need to be more careful of Itachi."
Orochimaru, disguised as the Kazekage, narrowed his golden vertical pupils to slits. "Hehe... my dear subordinate was actually defeated like that." His tongue unconsciously slid across his lips. "But what concerns me more is... Sasuke-kun seems to have learned something he shouldn't have."
Kisame Hoshigaki carried Samehada over his shoulder, a rare serious expression on his face. "Mr. Itachi... so you've been..."
Standing atop a tree, Itachi gazed quietly at the Heavenly Screen, his Akatsuki cloak flapping in the wind. His Mangekyō Sharingan reflected the image of himself telling Sasuke everything. "It seems... the future has changed completely," he murmured. What surprised him most wasn't his own end, but Sasuke calling him "brother" one last time, a word he hadn't heard in so long.
Somewhere unknown, Hidan was still yelling, "Hey, hey, why did that guy die such a holy death? Lord Jashin won't be happy!"
At the base, Danzo stared fixedly at the scene on the Heavenly Screen of Sasuke remembering how he killed him, veins bulging on his bandaged arm. "Absurd! How could that brat possibly...!" He suddenly began coughing violently, realizing that a major unforeseen complication might have arisen in his plans.
The Heavenly Screen's light gradually dimmed, but Sasuke remained where he stood, his fists clenched until his knuckles turned white. Those images—Itachi's gentle smile, the truth of Impure World Reincarnation, the brothers fighting side by side—stabbed into his heart like countless Kunai.
"What kind of joke is this...!"
He suddenly erupted into action, lightning bursting around him as the entire stone wall collapsed with a thunderous crash, dust rising around him.
Why show me only these fragments?
What really happened in the clan massacre?
That night... the real reason Itachi cried...
Fragments of memory churned in his mind: his parents lying in pools of blood, the feel of Itachi knocking him unconscious with the hilt of his blade, the slaughter repeated millions of times in the Tsukuyomi World... And now the Heavenly Screen was telling him that his demon-like older brother had been protecting him all along?
"Aaaagh!"
Chakra erupted beyond his control.
Why show the fight but not the truth? The Konoha High Command... Danzo... and that Masked Man...
"I see..." Sasuke's mouth twisted into a terrifying smile. "You were all putting on an act for me..."
Sasuke's eyes no longer held simple hatred, but something more terrifying: madness mingled with despair and obsession.
"Since the Heavenly Screen didn't show the truth..."
"Then I'll go and ask for myself—"
"And see everything clearly with these eyes!"
The Heavenly Screen suddenly flashed with light, and the dim image was replaced by a string of enormous numbers—
[30 days 00:00:00]
The numbers began counting backward, one second at a time, the countdown looming over the sky of the entire Shinobi World.
"This time... the new content won't play for another month?" Shikamaru tilted his head back and unconsciously began counting on his fingers. "That's a full ten times longer than the interval after the first showing..."
In Kumogakure in the Land of Lightning, Killer B stopped rapping for once, his eyes narrowing slightly behind his sunglasses. "Yo~ this wait~ makes me anxious~ you fool, you fool~"
Obito stood in the Kamui Dimension, looking at the Heavenly Screen in the sky outside.
Atop the tower in Amegakure, the countdown on the Heavenly Screen was reflected in Pain's Rinnegan. Fine threads of rain passed through his gaunt figure, gathering into little swirls at his feet.
"One month..." His voice was colder than the rain. "That's quite a long wait this time."
Konan's sheets of paper gathered beside him and took shape. "What are you worried about?"
Nagato did not answer immediately. He raised a bony hand and caught a falling paper flower. Its petals dissolved into specks of Chakra light in his palm—just like Itachi's soul ascending to the heavens on the Heavenly Screen.
"Notify all members." His fingers suddenly clenched. "Suspend all missions."
Lightning flashed outside the tower, its momentary light illuminating the intricate pattern in Nagato's eyes. "Especially Kisame and Itachi... tell them to stay put for now."
Amid the sound of paper butterflies beating their wings, Nagato looked toward a spot beyond the village.
"This Heavenly Screen..." Nagato's real body began coughing violently, blood seeping between his fingers. "It's changing everyone's fate..."
"Yahiko... if it were you..." Nagato's whisper faded into the sound of rain.
Meanwhile, Kisame received the message while on a mission, Samehada writhing in displeasure. "Oh my, Mr. Itachi, looks like we're taking a vacation?"
Itachi stood atop a tree, his Akatsuki cloak flapping in the wind. He looked at the changing numbers on the Heavenly Screen, the Tomoe in his Mangekyō rotating slowly. "Good timing... there are some things I need to confirm."
Deidara's clay bird had already turned around. "Hmm... looks like I have time to make a new work, hmm!"
Black Zetsu watched it all from the shadows as White Zetsu emerged from the ground. "Should we tell Obito?"
"No need."