Over at the brothers' battle.
After Sasuke Uchiha broke Itachi Uchiha's genjutsu, the fight began to intensify.
At the edge of the battlefield, behind a crumbling stone wall, Zetsu and Tobi had already arrived in silence.
Their position was neither too high nor too low, precisely situated in a blind spot along the outskirts of the ruins.
Zetsu's black-and-white torso was embedded among the rubble, with only his upper body exposed. His face was turned toward the battlefield, his yellow vertical pupils narrowed to slits as he watched everything unfolding within the hall.
Tobi stood slightly behind him, neither crouching nor leaning.
His mask faced the shattered doorway of the hall. The exposed Sharingan did not turn, merely remaining quietly open, as though he were watching a scene he had long known would happen but had never personally confirmed.
The atmosphere inside had already been drawn taut to its limit.
After a moment of stalemate, Itachi moved first.
There was no wasted motion in the way he moved. As his body tilted forward, his feet had already left the ground, leaving only a faint afterimage in the air. A kunai slid from his sleeve into his palm, its point aimed straight at Sasuke's throat.
Sasuke did not retreat. The Kusanagi Sword lay across his body, its flat side blocking the kunai's path. Fine sparks burst from the instant the blades met, flashing and vanishing in the dark chamber.
The kunai was knocked aside, but Itachi's second strike followed at once—not with a kunai, but with the edge of his other hand cutting toward Sasuke's wrist joint.
Sasuke sidestepped, swinging the Kusanagi Sword from horizontal to diagonal as he slashed upward at Itachi's ribs.
Itachi drew back half an inch before the arc reached him. The sword tip brushed his clothes