Rain poured down, turning the dead forest into a muddy swamp.
Sasuke and Itachi faced each other from ten meters apart. Rain ran down Sasuke's black Power Armor, but the reactor's heat turned every drop that touched its surface into a puff of white steam.
Itachi looked at his younger brother encased in steel and smiled. "That looks pretty good. I'd like to try it myself sometime."
Sasuke said nothing. He only nodded.
"Then show me what it can do."
Itachi closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his Mangekyō Sharingan spun furiously.
Almost at the same instant, Sasuke's ocular power erupted.
"Susanoo!"
Their voices overlapped.
Boom!
Two utterly different chakra storms exploded through the forest. Orange-red chakra surged behind Itachi like molten rock, swiftly forming bones, then muscle, before donning Tengu Armor. Bearing the Yata Mirror and Totsuka Blade, his Susanoo looked like a god descending from legend.
Sasuke's purple chakra no longer flowed like flame. It formed strange geometric crystals that spread along the lines of his Power Armor, building a vast, angular exoskeleton around the steel. It was more than Susanoo; it looked like a giant mech driven by chakra.
The two giants collided in the downpour, each impact booming like a thunderclap. Itachi's orange-red Susanoo held the Yata Mirror like an immovable mountain of fire. Opposite it, Sasuke's purple Susanoo was denser, clad in chakra crystals resembling Power Armor plates. Instead of a conventional chakra sword, it gripped a giant Chainsword burning with Amaterasu's black flames.
Bzzzz!
The Blackflame Chainsword spun wildly against the Yata Mirror. Sparks and black fire sprayed everywhere, instantly evaporating the mud and rain around them.
Inside Susanoo's brow, Sasuke breathed hard. The Power Armor's internal circulation system blared alarms, and heat warnings washed his vision red.
His eyes hurt, too,