Uchiha Itachi vs Danzo

In the silent forest, Uchiha Itachi, who had been walking slowly, came to a halt.

Rustling sounds came from the bushes, and moments later, a group of masked ninjas had surrounded him.

At the forefront of those masked ninjas, Shimura Danzō's cold and sinister figure slowly emerged.

"You've finally come, Shimura Danzō!"

Uchiha Itachi spoke calmly, and Shimura Danzō showed no surprise:

"So, Uchiha Itachi, you deliberately lured me here. Do you want my life, to avenge Uchiha Shisui?"

The cards were nearly on the table between them, so when he sensed Root ninjas tailing him, Uchiha Itachi had intentionally walked into this remote forest, aiming to draw out both the Root ninjas and Danzō.

Danzō naturally saw through Uchiha Itachi's intent, but just as Itachi didn't want to alert Konoha, Danzō didn't want to alert the Uchiha Clan. Both tacitly agreed to settle all grudges here.

After a moment of silence, Uchiha Itachi spoke coldly:

"Hand over Shisui's Mangekyo, and I'll spare your life!"

Shimura Danzō snorted coldly:

"I'll return those words to you. Hand over your two Mangekyo, and I'll let you go!"

Of course, Uchiha Itachi genuinely only wanted to reclaim Uchiha Shisui's Mangekyo, but Danzō would never keep his word. If Itachi actually handed over his Mangekyo, Danzō would immediately strike to kill.

But neither trusted the other, and both regarded the other's words as nothing but hot air. In short, it was just posturing before the battle began.

"In that case, let strength decide!"

Uchiha Itachi snorted, saying nothing more. His Three Tomoe Sharingan spun and instantly transformed into the Mangekyo form.

The next second, Shimura Danzō's figure flickered, immediately escaping Uchiha Itachi's line of sight. Ever since learning of Shisui's Kotoamatsukami Mangekyo, Danzō had become sensitive to anything involving Mangekyo. Facing an unknown Mangekyo ability, his first instinct was to dodge whenever possible.

With a boom, black flames erupted. Danzō had dodged, but the Root ninjas behind him hadn't. In an instant, screams rang out as a large number of Root ninjas were burned to ashes.

Although Amaterasu, like the Great Fireball Technique, had few actual achievements in the original story, that was only because its opponents were too overpowered and because of later intelligence leaks.

In truth, this black flame, hailed as the strongest material attack, was among the top-tier secret techniques across the entire ninja world. Ordinary Jonin would die on contact.

Root ninjas were only called elites; they lacked truly outstanding geniuses. Facing the black flames of Amaterasu, they could only be burned to nothing.

"Black flames... released by focusing the gaze? Water release can't extinguish it. Truly a bizarre Mangekyo technique..."

Shimura Danzō silently analyzed the intelligence, while Uchiha Itachi's expression showed slight pain as tears of blood slowly trickled down his face.

Though Uchiha Itachi looked mature, he was actually only thirteen or fourteen years old. Awakening the Mangekyo wasn't better the earlier it happened. In the original story, Itachi's early death was closely related to awakening the Mangekyo so young.

His body couldn't bear the strain, so using the Mangekyo came at a greater cost. Fortunately, Itachi had just awakened his Mangekyo, and these eyes had never been used before, so the side effects weren't too severe.

Wiping away the blood tears, Uchiha Itachi's gaze shifted. The black flames instantly engulfed all the remaining Root ninjas. This wasn't like the original story where Itachi went easy on his brother. With his gaze moving, the black flames moved at unimaginable speed, leaving ordinary ninjas almost no chance to dodge.

"Not good... I'm about to be caught. Looks like I have to use Kotoamatsukami!"

Shimura Danzō, who had originally wanted to conserve Kotoamatsukami's power, was horrified to see his subordinates burned clean in an instant. He no longer dared to hold back his trump card and tore off the bandage on his face.

"Is he going to use Shisui's Mangekyo? I wonder what Shisui's Mangekyo ability actually is?"

Uchiha Itachi also heightened his alertness. Mangekyo abilities were varied and unpredictable; there was no ruling out extremely overpowered ones that could instantly kill him.

"Kotoamatsukami!"

At that moment, Shimura Danzō activated Kotoamatsukami. Uchiha Itachi's body stiffened slightly, feeling a strange force in his mind constantly twisting his thoughts.

"It's... genjutsu, a genjutsu that permanently alters thoughts!"

"Not good!"

In fact, because Shimura Danzō himself lacked Uchiha bloodline, the power of Kotoamatsukami was already diminished when he used it. Additionally, since one of the Kotoamatsukami eyes was missing, its hypnotic power was greatly reduced.

Moreover, just as Obito's two Kamui Mangekyo, though using the same technique, had different forms of execution, Uchiha Shisui's Kotoamatsukami also had variations.

The Kotoamatsukami Uchiha Shūichi obtained had a longer cooldown but greater power, while the one Shimura Danzō obtained had a shorter cooldown but reduced power.

Because of this, Danzō's Kotoamatsukami, after several reductions in power, couldn't instantly control Uchiha Itachi, giving him a few seconds to struggle.

"Use Izanagi? No, I'm already caught in the genjutsu. There's no time to set it..."

Izanagi was said to reverse time, turning all negative states into dreams while preserving only what was beneficial to the user. But this genjutsu had a major flaw: it had to be set at a predetermined point in time.

In other words, you had to set Izanagi before you were injured or died; you couldn't use it to reverse time when you were on the verge of death.

Because even if Izanagi reversed time, it would only use your current state as the baseline. If you were already dying, reversing time would only let you live a few more seconds.

Now that Uchiha Itachi was caught in Kotoamatsukami, even if he reversed time with Izanagi, his final state would still be the current one under Kotoamatsukami.

So Izanagi was a secret technique that truly tested battle intelligence. Using it at the wrong time would waste a Sharingan, but using it too slowly would render Izanagi powerless even if activated.

Though Uchiha Itachi had high battle intelligence, he didn't know the ability of Uchiha Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan. This time, he was thoroughly caught off guard by a first-encounter kill.