Splat!
Sasuke spat blood and was blasted away like a kite with its string cut, crashing heavily among the shattered rocks. Agony wracked his entire body, and his injuries worsened once again.
Itachi's gaze never wavered. He controlled the towering Susanoo, advancing step by step and slowly bearing down on him.
Its mountainlike shadow loomed over Sasuke, cutting off every escape route.
Exhausted, his chakra depleted and his body gravely wounded, Sasuke no longer had any strength to resist.
He rolled backward across the ground in a desperate scramble, his limbs weak and his heart gripped by panic. All he wanted was to escape that suffocating pressure.
But he had nothing left. He could only collapse helplessly among the rubble and dust, his eyes filled with utter terror and despair.
Watching his younger brother reduced to this wretched, utterly defeated state, Itachi's voice suddenly turned bone-chillingly cold. Every word was a blade piercing Sasuke's dignity.
"Sasuke, what a pathetic sight."
"You're exactly as you were on the night of the massacre."
"Back then, you trembled just like this, begging pathetically for me not to kill you."
"After all these years, you still haven't improved at all."
Those words shattered Sasuke's last line of defense!
The terror of his past, the shadows of his childhood, his present despair, and the collapse of years of obsession all erupted at once!
"Shut up! Just shut up!!"
Sasuke roared wildly, his eyes blood-red and his chest heaving. Overwhelming fury drowned out his fear!
He refused to admit he was weak. He refused to accept that years of effort had been nothing but a joke!
Gritting his teeth, he squeezed every last shred of strength from deep within his body. Ignoring the agony and his worsening wounds, he forced his battered body upright again and again, charging madly at that invincible crimson god-demon!
Once, twice, three times...
He charged again and again, was blasted back again and again, and fell into the dust again and again.
Covered in blood and wounds, he was a pitiful sight.
Yet he never stopped for even a moment.
Even with no chance of victory, even with an unbridgeable gulf between them, even with nothing but death ahead.
Driven by the pride and stubbornness in his bones, he fought to the death without retreating.
Outside the Sky Screen, everyone across the Shinobi World watched Sasuke struggle desperately in that hopeless situation, rising to fight after every defeat. Shock filled their faces, and conflicting emotions stirred in their hearts.
"What a reversal! I thought Sasuke had gotten his revenge just now, but now he's completely screwed!"
"Unbelievable! Even in a situation this hopeless, Sasuke still won't admit defeat!"
"The gap between them is already like heaven and earth, but his obsession alone keeps dragging him back to his feet!"
"Susanoo... so this is the Uchiha's true divine power! It's practically invincible!"
"No wonder the Uchiha were targeted! With a Kekkei Genkai this terrifying, weaklings like them were bound to feel threatened and afraid!"
Just as the entire Shinobi World once again accepted that the outcome was settled and Sasuke's defeat was certain-
Another earth-shattering upheaval erupted on the battlefield within the Sky Screen!
At the center of the ruins, Sasuke, gravely wounded and utterly spent after his repeated failed charges, suddenly clutched his arm and threw back his head with a scream of excruciating pain!
His bones cracked, his chakra pathways churned, and his chakra ran wildly out of control!
His entire body suddenly contorted in an unnatural, grotesque way!
Opposite him, Uchiha Itachi abruptly stopped walking. There was not a trace of surprise in his eyes. Calm and indifferent, as though he had anticipated this all along, he simply stood there and watched coldly.
The next second!
Boom!
Sasuke's flesh tore open, and an enormous serpent burst from his body!
Its body expanded wildly, splitting into eight huge, hideous snake heads in an instant!
Eight Branches Technique!
The colossal serpent blotted out the sky, coiling across the wilderness with a towering aura of malice.
Within the Eight-Headed Serpent's central head, a figure slowly emerged, wearing a sinister, mocking smile. It was none other than Orochimaru-who should have long since been devoured and destroyed by Sasuke!
Orochimaru's face brimmed with wild excitement and smug delight. He cackled loudly, his voice both sinister and jubilant.
"Uchiha Itachi! I really ought to thank you!"
"You personally drained every last bit of Sasuke's chakra and stamina!"
"If you hadn't gone all out to push Sasuke to the brink of death, my consciousness, devoured and imprisoned inside him, would never have found a chance to break free!"
Itachi's eyes were icy, his voice utterly level as he delivered his verdict. "Orochimaru, your road ends here."
"Does it? Heh heh heh..."
Orochimaru laughed brazenly, his eyes filled with the confidence of someone who had everything under control. "Since you helped me escape, I'll repay you properly!"
"I'll send you to your grave and put an end to your miserable life!"
As his words fell, all eight heads of the Eight-Headed Serpent opened their fanged jaws wide and lunged at Itachi and Susanoo with world-destroying ferocity!
The two supreme titans collided with a thunderous crash!
The crimson god-demon's spectral form faced the Primordial Eight-Headed Serpent!
Heaven and earth shook. Rocks and soil exploded into the air. The serpent's tails swept across the wilderness, and its fangs tore at the armor formed from eye power. The battle raged with savage intensity!
Itachi calmly controlled Susanoo to meet the assault, severing several snake heads in swift succession!
But the Eight Branches Technique could regenerate severed heads. In an instant, the heads he had cut off grew back.
Looking down from above, Orochimaru sneered coldly. "What a pathetic sight, Itachi."
"Your body is already spent and broken, yet you're still forcing yourself to use the Mangekyō Sharingan."
"In that condition, how much longer can you hold out?"
But the moment his taunt ended!
A blade suddenly emerged from a gourd in Susanoo's palm.
Moving with astonishing speed, it pierced through the layers of serpentine silhouettes and impaled Orochimaru's body in an instant!
Splat-!
It ran straight through Orochimaru!
"It's useless... you think you can kill me like this..."
Caught completely off guard, Orochimaru broke off mid-sentence.
An irresistible binding force surged from the depths of his soul and locked him in place!
An overwhelming threat of death swept through him, leaving his entire body rigid and his heart filled with terror.
"What is this power... Itachi, what have you done?!"
His expression indifferent, Itachi slowly revealed the ultimate secret of the divine weapon.
"The Totsuka Blade."
"Anything pierced by its tip will have its flesh and soul forcibly stripped away and sealed forever."
"They fall into an endless genjutsu world, their souls imprisoned, never to escape and never to pass on."
His words fell.
A bizarre scene suddenly unfolded.
Like melting sludge, Orochimaru's body was continuously dragged, drawn in, and devoured by the sealing power upon the blade.
No matter how he struggled or thrashed, it was all futile.
The enormous eight-headed serpent's body, his uncanny flesh, and every last remnant of his chakra were pulled together and drawn little by little into the Sealing Gourd held by Susanoo.
At the final moment before his death, Orochimaru used all his remaining strength to split off a tiny white snake, hoping to slip away, preserve a fallback, and await a chance to be reborn.
But Itachi's perception was extraordinary. He left no opening whatsoever!
The black flames of Amaterasu drifted down instantly, covering the little white snake with perfect precision and burning the last remnant of his body to nothing!
"No!"
Before you continue