"That seal... isn't Kabuto's!"
As soon as Itachi spoke, black runes spread across his chest, and another force forcibly covered the markings that had originally belonged to Impure World Reincarnation.
Sasuke did not look at Itachi's face. He stared only at the intersecting chakra threads.
"Kabuto Yakushi, whose mark have you been hiding?"
"I don't know!"
Kabuto raised his hands to form hand seals, trying to pull Itachi back to his side, but the black runes constricted his wrists first. That power came from deep within the stone coffin, and even he could not fully suppress it.
Itachi's body was dragged toward the stone coffin. The rock beneath his feet cracked, and rubble kept falling.
"Sasuke, get back!"
"Worry about yourself first."
Sasuke swung his sword at the black threads beneath Itachi's feet. Chidori surged along the Kusanagi Sword, and as the blade fell, the black threads immediately snapped in two.
The severed threads did not dissipate.
The two lengths of black chakra writhed in the air, then coiled around Itachi's waist and abdomen.
Kabuto braced himself against the Array Disc, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
"Don't waste your effort. That's Impure World Reincarnation's Guiding Seal. Unless you scatter Itachi's soul along with it, you can't cut through it."
"Are you teaching me how to save someone?"
"I'm telling you that Itachi is no longer useful."
"I decide whether he's useful."
Sasuke raised his left eye, and Amaterasu landed on the black threads.
Black Fire burned along the Guiding Seal and into the stone coffin. A sharp scraping sound came from inside, as though something were struggling at the bottom.
Kabuto's expression changed.
"Stop!"
He lunged at Sasuke, his hand transforming into a snake's claw, all five fingers thrusting forward with white scales covering them.
Sasuke sidestepped