"You're... Itachi!" Orochimaru's eyes filled with disbelief.
He never would have imagined that Sasuke standing before him was actually Itachi in disguise.
"How is that possible? You should have been with Akatsuki, gathering intelligence on the tailed beasts. How could you have returned to Konoha?" Orochimaru saw that he was bound to a cross, unable to move a muscle.
Orochimaru knew he had fallen under Itachi's Genjutsu, and everything he saw now was an illusion.
His mind knew the Genjutsu was fake, but his body stubbornly believed it was real. As a result, Orochimaru could no longer control his own movements.
Orochimaru was the fish on the chopping block, while Itachi held the knife.
"You've certainly gone to great lengths for my foolish little brother." Itachi slowly approached the cross. Looking at Orochimaru bound upon it, he somehow produced a longsword.
"Urgh..." A resentful groan escaped Orochimaru's throat.
Itachi remained expressionless, his emotions unreadable, as he gently drove the longsword in his hand into Orochimaru's body.
"Heh." Unwilling to yield, Orochimaru said in a low voice, "This little pain is nothing compared to the damage inflicted by the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi."
"Oh, is that so?" As soon as Itachi finished speaking, countless Itachis and countless Orochimarus bound to crosses appeared in the Genjutsu world.
At that moment, Itachi resembled a child holding a sharp tool as he tortured a tiny insect to death.
Stab after stab, he kept using his sword to punch holes through Orochimaru's body.
Orochimaru forced himself to endure it. He thought he only needed to bear with it for a while, but time passed exceptionally slowly in the Genjutsu world.
Itachi said flatly, "Everything in the Genjutsu world is under my control, including time. One second in reality is equivalent to a full seventy-two hours