A little earlier, in the green corridor.
The moment Dreamweaver's dazzling yet deadly mote of starlight sank into Karin's brow, Sasuke knew the worst had happened.
He knew all too well how troublesome attacks aimed directly at the mind could be. He had experienced Sharingan genjutsu and the torment of Tsukuyomi. But Dreamweaver's methods were stranger, more insidious. She did not merely create illusions. She directly stirred, wove, and amplified the "dreams" her targets most desired or feared deep within, making them sink into blissful dreams or nightmares until they unraveled themselves.
"Karin!" Sasuke's heart sank as he watched her eyes go blank and her body collapse with a smile on her face. But he had no time to help her. More motes of starlight, their colors shifting hazily, had already surrounded him from every direction like a swarm of dreamlike fireflies. Each mote reflected a different fragment of illusion-the slaughter of his clansmen, Itachi's complicated gaze, Naruto falling, Lin Ye fighting drenched in blood, Sakura's tear-streaked face, and even... himself standing alone in the Valley of the End, countless enemy corpses beneath his feet and no one at his side.
Reality and illusion intertwined. Hope and despair surged. A powerful mental assault crashed over him like a tide, seeking to drown his reason and drag him into a carefully woven abyss of dreams tailored to his subconscious.
"Get out!"
Sasuke roared, pushing his White Jōgan to its limit! Silver-white light burst from his eyes, forming a resilient mental barrier before him. The dreamlike motes hissed against it, melting like snow and ice. But the motes were endless, while the barrier steadily drained his eye power and mental strength.
"It's no use." Dreamweaver's ethereal voice drifted through the corridor, tinged with laughter. Her figure flickered like a ghost, now on