Izanami! Impure World Reincarnation* Release!

The battle in the cave had been going on for who knew how long.

Sasuke leaned against the stone wall, breathing heavily like a leaky bellows. Several tears had been ripped into his clothes, exposing the bruises and dried blood beneath. He had already burned away more than half of the reanimated bodies—Amaterasu's black flames burned quietly in several corners of the cave, gradually consuming the undead remnants. But his Chakra was nearly depleted as well. The light in his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan had dimmed, and his vision was beginning to blur.

He gritted his teeth and poured his last bit of Chakra into his right eye, preparing to burn away the remaining reanimated bodies.

But his attention was drawn to the battle at the center of the platform.

Itachi stood there, covered in stone chips and scraps of paper, his right arm hanging limply at his side—it had been broken by Kabuto's snake tail, and the restoration speed of the Impure World Reincarnation could no longer keep up with the damage. His Sharingan still shone brightly, but something in those eyes had changed—it was no longer the sharpness of battle, but a deeper light, like an abyss.

Kabuto stood opposite him, his body in the second form of Sage Mode rising and falling slightly. A feral gleam flickered in his golden vertical pupils. A section of his white snake right hand had been burned away by Itachi's Amaterasu and was slowly regenerating, but the expenditure of Sage Art Chakra had already left him panting.

"What exactly are you waiting for?!" Irritation crept into Kabuto's voice. "Where are your jutsu? Your Tsukuyomi? Amaterasu? Susanoo? Why aren't you using them?!"

Itachi did not answer.

He merely watched Kabuto in silence, the light in his Sharingan growing deeper and calmer. That calm