Itachi Uchiha at the End of His Rope

Rumble!

Two rapidly approaching figures collided, kunai striking blade and spraying sparks.

The giant dragonfly descended from the sky, its six hands attacking Kawasuke.

Another hawk circled overhead, ready to strike at any moment.

This gave Kawasuke a terrible headache.

The summoned beasts the enemy had called forth all seemed like battle-hardened veterans, possessing extensive combat experience.

Every attack he wanted to make was predicted in advance, or else disrupted by the other hawk swooping down from above at the perfect moment.

His Taijutsu was suffering immensely because of it.

Moreover, the one directing them was no slouch either. He used Genjutsu, Taijutsu, and Wind Release in the most underhanded ways.

By this point in the battle, Kawasuke had already suffered greatly.

Especially from the Genjutsu. After falling for it, he had eaten something that tasted worse than shit.

He had no idea what it was supposed to taste like. It had a hint of beans, but not much.

If Kumogakure ninja had not always ranked among the best in physical constitution and willpower, he would have long since been finished off by the other man's Genjutsu.

Clang! Clang!

Bang!

Tobitake Tonbo stepped back, his eyes flicking toward the space behind Kawasuke as his hands formed seals.

Kawasuke, who had been watching Tobitake Tonbo closely, immediately grew wary when he saw the hand seals and prepared to dispel any Genjutsu at any moment.

He had suffered badly earlier because he had let his guard down.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura."

As Tobitake Tonbo completed his seals, countless cherry blossoms suddenly drifted down from the sky.

The pink blossoms looked exceptionally gorgeous amid the battle.

Tobitake Tonbo pointed, and innumerable blossoms surged wildly toward his enemy.

Several leaves fell into the path of the blossoms.

Crash!

Leaves, bark, trees...

Anything that touched the cherry blossoms was instantly sliced apart. Every petal was like a divine weapon.

Kawasuke naturally noticed this. Lightning stimulated his cells, and he retreated at high speed.

With his sharp senses, he had already realized this was a Wind Release ninjutsu.

If he used Lightning Release to block it, he would be falling into the enemy's trap.

And the attack was also laced with Genjutsu. Once he was hit, there would be no turning back.

His years of battlefield experience made him retreat swiftly, intending to attack from another direction or use a more suitable technique.

Whoosh!

"Fast, but..."

Tobitake Tonbo smiled faintly at the sight.

Boom!

Just over a dozen meters behind Kawasuke, a pangolin burst from the ground and clamped its jaws around his waist.

Riiip!

From the moment Tobitake Tonbo laid the groundwork with Genjutsu, used Wind Release as bait, and had the pangolin emerge from underground... it had all happened in the blink of an eye.

Kawasuke had already been bitten cleanly in half at the waist.

"Damn it."

Kawasuke was unwilling to accept it. He had actually been outplayed.

Looking at Tobitake Tonbo in the distance, he thought, Even if I can't kill you, I'll kill one of your summoned beasts.

Crackle!

The two severed halves of his body suddenly erupted with violent lightning, filling the area several meters around him with electric radiance.

The pangolin had no time to evade and was charred black by the electricity.

Just before Kawasuke's final consciousness faded, he saw it... the pangolin turning into a broken bamboo weave.

"In this dangerous Shinobi World, you really have to be careful. Everyone has a special trick up their sleeve!"

Sensing that the enemy's chakra had completely vanished, Tobitake Tonbo finally let out a sigh of relief.

A Jōnin was still a Jōnin. Without intelligence, even he could not take one down quickly.

And that final move had probably been a trump-card ninjutsu meant to take them both down together.

Fortunately, his senses were sharp and he had many methods at his disposal.

"Kumogakure's willpower and methods really counter my Genjutsu!"

Tobitake Tonbo had not expected to need so many methods just now.

Genjutsu had been countered so badly by a Kumogakure Jōnin.

Genjutsu such as fear, disgust, pain, and the like could all be suppressed through the opponent's tenacious will, and then broken.

It seemed his Genjutsu still had plenty of room for improvement.

Even his method that could make people subconsciously cast Genjutsu upon themselves again and again had been broken through repeatedly by the enemy.

Every time it formed, it was broken once.

It could only briefly throw off the opponent's rhythm and increase his consumption.

It lacked the ability to decide the battle in a single strike.

That made him realize that his Genjutsu still had flaws. It had left him able to use it only as support.

Fortunately, he possessed a wide variety of methods and was not limited to Genjutsu.

But having such a major flaw in his greatest advantage would not do.

If every ninja with willpower equal to that Jōnin's could stubbornly endure his Genjutsu, then his advantage as a sensory ninja would be wasted for nothing.

Tobitake Tonbo was not weak in other areas, but compared with his Genjutsu, the gap was still rather large.

"Genjutsu needs to develop toward concealment, subtlety, and irreversibility,

"or outward, like the Eye-Painting Hand."

Those were all his ideas.

Concealment and subtlety meant controlling the five senses, form, shape, texture, and weight without the target noticing the adjustments, causing the enemy to misjudge tiny details such as distance and timing.

The Visual Distance Misalignment he had used earlier was developing in that direction and had already made some small progress.

The irreversible direction was memory implantation.

Using the Mind Reading Technique in reverse, the ultimate method would be Inserting History. However, during its development, he discovered it was unsuitable for use in battle.

The enemy's resistance would greatly weaken the technique. It had to invade step by step and could not be completed in a short time. There had not been much progress so far.

As for the Eye-Painting Hand's ability to turn illusion into reality,

he already had inspiration for it. Genjutsu controlling heaven and earth—just thinking about it was exhilarating.

Just like Yakumo Kurama from the original work, whose Genjutsu controlled the weather itself. Perfect.

All these thoughts flashed through Tobitake Tonbo's mind in an instant.

Clang! Clang!

The battle continued in the distance. He formed seals and extended his senses.

He discovered that his captain's enemy was gradually weakening in chakra. Judging by the situation, victory was assured.

As for Itachi Uchiha and Anko...

"It looks like they're having a hard time!

"But that makes sense. The enemy has more than ten people. The two of them have held on until now,

"which is already impressive."

Tobitake Tonbo smiled after sensing the situation.

Whoosh!

Then he hurried over to support them.

Huff... huff...

Anko and Itachi stood back to back, their clothes already tattered.

Their hands and bodies were covered in blood, and both were breathing heavily.

The small Itachi still wore a serious expression, seemingly thinking of some way to deal with the enemy.

Looking at the enemies surrounding them, Anko panted, "Damn it, why haven't the captain and Tobitake Tonbo finished over there yet?"

"Can't be helped. A Jōnin should be harder to deal with than the enemies here," Itachi Uchiha said softly.

His body had also reached its limit.

With an eight-year-old body and frequent use of the Sharingan, his chakra could no longer hold out.

Even Anko was exhausted by now.

Of course,

the enemies were not doing much better either.

After the traps the two had set, their numbers had fallen from eleven to only six.

But they were still in far better condition than the two of them.

"Are we going to die here?" Anko muttered.

After carefully observing them, the Kumogakure ninja realized that these two little ones were at the end of their strength.

They exchanged glances.

Then they all began forming seals.