Susanoo

Pfft!!!

Itachi suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. His face instantly turned pale, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins, and blood began to flow from them.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

He dropped to one knee, coughing violently!

At that moment, his mind was still somewhat muddled. The immense pain brought by the illusion left him unable to tell whether this was reality or another illusion, and his spirit had suffered some damage as well.

"Thank goodness... Izumi is still alive!"

However, when he saw Izumi lying quietly beside him, he could not help but feel a wave of relief.

"So? This is the pain you wanted to inflict on Sasuke. Now that you've experienced it firsthand, how does it feel?"

Sasuke's teasing voice drifted over.

"Tsukuyomi backlash? Truly terrifying. I nearly thought that illusion was reality."

Itachi covered his throbbing eyes and murmured softly before answering Sasuke's question.

"Yes! It seems my previous thoughts were too selfish! Sasuke should never have had to bear that kind of pain."

Itachi wore a self-mocking expression as he began reflecting on himself!

Thinking about it now, he had truly been an idiot. He had actually let others talk him into becoming an executioner. A man who could not even protect his own clan had no right to speak of protecting the village or protecting Konoha!

Then, Itachi looked at Sasuke, gratitude in his eyes as he said seriously:

"Although I don't know why you're pretending to be my little brother, thank you anyway. Thank you for waking me up!"

Since he had once possessed something beautiful, he was unwilling to give it up.

After experiencing that realistic illusion, Itachi had completely awakened.

Before this, he had always placed the village's interests before the clan's interests.

But now that he had fully understood, those so-called village interests were nothing more than the interests of Konoha's higher-ups!

He would simply protect the beauty in his heart. As for the village's interests? The Will of Fire?

Heh... to hell with them!

Watching Itachi's reaction, Sasuke felt a headache coming on. After taking an advanced version of Tsukuyomi, the guy had actually awakened. He had not expected that.

While it was a good thing that Itachi had completely shaken off Hiruzen Sarutobi's brainwashing control, what about Sasuke's mission? He still had to slap Itachi!

Now that Itachi had essentially abandoned darkness for the light, forcibly slapping him did not seem justifiable. Sasuke was a reasonable man.

Just as Sasuke was considering how to reasonably slap Itachi, the other man spoke.

"Although I'm grateful that you woke me up, you killed Izumi so many times in that illusion. You even killed my son and daughter. That is unforgivable!"

Hatred appeared on Itachi's face, and fury burned fiercely in his eyes as he shouted:

"I have to beat the hell out of you!!"

Uh... it seemed he had gone a little too far. Itachi had returned to reality, yet the hatred from the illusion still remained.

Sasuke was somewhat speechless, but this suited him perfectly. He had been worrying about not having an excuse to beat Itachi up!

The other guy had delivered himself right to his door, so Sasuke could not be blamed for being unreasonable!

A wicked smile suddenly appeared on Sasuke's lips.

"Hehe! Do you want to experience the feeling from that illusion in reality?"

"Hm? What do you mean by that?"

Itachi frowned.

"This... is what I mean!"

As Sasuke's words fell, Izumi, who had been unconscious beside Itachi, vanished without warning.

--Amenotejikara!

Behind his sunglasses, Sasuke activated his Six-Tomoe Rinnegan.

The next moment, Izumi appeared at Sasuke's feet, while an inconspicuous little stone lay where she had been.

Sasuke raised his foot, aimed it at Izumi Uchiha's head, and said in a teasing tone:

"Hey! Weren't you planning to kill her before? How about I do it for you now?"

Buzz!

The familiar scene made Itachi's mind go blank for a moment as painful memories flooded back.

"Bastard! Stop!"

Before his words had even finished, his body shot forward like an arrow released from a bow.

This was reality. If someone died here, they would truly be gone.

Moreover, the other man's identity was a mystery. He did not dare gamble on whether the man was joking or truly intended to do it.

If that foot really came down, then...

No!

He would never allow that to happen in reality!

"Too slow!"

Sasuke remained expressionless. With a slight tilt of his head, he dodged the incoming fist, then reached out and caught the kick that followed.

"Too weak. Looks like I haven't given you enough stimulation yet, Itachi!"

Boom!!!

Sasuke grabbed Itachi by the calf and flung him away. His body flew backward into an abandoned residential building, and the already unstable structure collapsed with a thunderous crash, sending thick clouds of dust rolling in every direction!

Whoosh!!

Itachi swiftly burst out of the dust cloud. Looking at Sasuke across from him and the pool of blood beside his feet, a terrible thought arose in his heart. His voice trembling, he asked:

"Izumi... Izumi! Where did you take her?"

"There! Isn't she right there?"

Sasuke calmly pointed at the pool of blood and the pile of minced flesh by his feet.

"You know, I'm very good at grinding people into meat paste!"

Had Sasuke truly crushed Izumi into minced meat?

Of course not. He had come here to save the girl. How could he possibly do something like that?

While he had flung Itachi away just now, he had already created a Shadow Clone and had it take Izumi away from this place.

As for the blood on the ground, Sasuke had naturally supplied it himself. With his powerful physique, losing a little blood was no big deal.

And the thing that looked like minced meat on the ground was a doll from his system inventory that had been sacrificed.

To enrage Itachi and force him to use his full strength, he had really paid quite a price!

As for why he wanted to enrage Itachi, one reason was naturally to warm up before battle. The other was to test whether his current body could stand shoulder to shoulder with Susanoo.

Boom!!!

A thunderous roar erupted in Itachi's mind.

"Ah!! I'll kill you! Bastard!"

A shrill roar rang through the night sky. A terrifying aura rose from Itachi's body, and his enormous chakra seemed to become tangible.

It did not merely seem that way. It had truly become tangible.

A red skeletal frame enveloped Itachi. Then, more and more bones appeared, connecting with one another to form a massive crimson skeleton.

Itachi's expression twisted in fury, blood streaming madly from his eyes. Yet he ignored it, still frantically squeezing chakra from his body and hysterically releasing the power of his eyes.

Then, veins and flesh began to grow over the red skeleton. In an instant, the skeletal frame was wrapped in a crimson cloak of chakra.

Itachi directly activated the third form of Susanoo.

"Die!"

The red Susanoo gripped a massive chakra sword and brought it down on Sasuke.

"Heh! Good timing!"

Sasuke looked excited and neither dodged nor retreated.

Rip!

His clothes tore apart as he transformed directly into Muscleman Form.

Muscles brimming with explosive power met the descending Susanoo greatsword with a single punch!

Boom!!!

Rubble flew everywhere, and even the ground trembled.

As the dust settled, a trench more than ten meters long and deep had appeared in the ground.

Sasuke stood atop the roof of an abandoned building, shaking his arm as blood continued to pour from it.

A savage wound ran through his entire right arm, nearly splitting it in half.

Had he not sensed something was wrong and used Amenotejikara in time to move himself away, he would probably have been a corpse cleaved in two by now.

Sure enough, he could not get too arrogant. His body still could not take on Susanoo head-on. He needed a few more bottles of "Super Soldier Serum" before he could fulfill his dream of fighting Susanoo with his body alone!