Fierce Battle with Nagato, Nine-Tails Chakra Mode

Just then, a voice came from the side, hoarse and calm.

"Amaterasu."

Black flames suddenly ignited on Nagato's right shoulder. They were no ordinary flames, but inextinguishable black fire that could consume everything. Nagato's body stiffened sharply, and the pull of Banshō Ten'in was interrupted in an instant. Naruto broke free from that force, flipped through the air, and landed steadily beside Killer B.

The black flames spread across Nagato's right shoulder, burning from his arm to his chest. His dark red robe curled and blackened in the flames, turning to ash. Yet Nagato made no sound and did not even move. He merely turned his head and looked into the distance with those Rinnegan.

Itachi stood where he was, his right hand outstretched. The three tomoe within his scarlet Mangekyō Sharingan slowly turned as blood seeped from his eye sockets and ran down his ash-white cheeks. That blood was red—not the color an Impure World Reincarnation body should have, but the warm, bright red blood of a living person. Itachi's face showed no expression, yet something in those Mangekyō Sharingan had changed—they were no longer hollow, but filled with an alert light that no one could decipher.

"Itachi." Nagato called his name, his voice calm enough to be unsettling. "What are you doing?"

Itachi did not answer. He lowered his right hand. The three tomoe in his Mangekyō Sharingan slowly spun as blood dripped from his eye sockets, blooming into scarlet flowers on the rocks beneath his feet.

Itachi lowered his head and looked at his hands—those ash-white hands covered in the cracks of Impure World Reincarnation. He clenched them, then released them, as though confirming that control of this body had truly returned to him. Then he raised his head, his gaze passing over Nagato and settling on