Back to Sasuke.
By now, more than half the roof had collapsed.
Sasuke stood on a section of broken eaves that had not yet fully caved in. The tiles beneath his feet were slowly sliding downward, and fragments of stone occasionally fell from the edges.
His breathing was heavier than before. Scorch marks on his clothes mingled with the water stains left by the rain, but his stance had not faltered.
The Kusanagi Sword lay across his body, its tip never wavering from Itachi.
Itachi stood on the edge of another section of roof some dozen steps away, one that had not yet completely broken apart. His long black hair was tossed by the wind, and blood between the fingers of his lowered left hand was being washed pale by the rain.
He was quieter than before, as though he had entered a state where he reduced his own expenditure to the absolute minimum.
He simply stood there watching Sasuke, in no hurry to attack.
He had already confirmed that Sasuke did pose a certain degree of threat, but not enough to determine the outcome.
He was waiting for an opportunity—not an opportunity to counterattack, but for Sasuke to exhaust himself. He intended to remove the threat Orochimaru posed within Sasuke's body!
Sasuke moved first.
His hands flashed through seals, compressing chakra within his chest into an intensely heated state before he expelled it from his mouth—Great Fireball Technique!
The fireball rapidly expanded in midair, carrying dark-purple curse mark chakra. Unstable ripples rolled over its surface as it swept toward the space directly in front of Itachi.
At that same instant, Itachi completed his own hand seals and expelled a flame of equal scale.
The two flames collided over the open space between them. Red and purple fire tore at,