Time slipped away quietly as we waited.
Three months later, Aoki Tsuki received another invitation from Orochimaru to visit the Land of Land of Wind's base to discuss important matters.
This snake digs holes everywhere, and no one knows exactly how many bases Orochimaru has, but the location of each encounter is different.
In short, don't expect to see Orochimaru twice in the same snake den.
After preparing, Aoki Tsuki left the village and set off, making no special effort to conceal his tracks along the way, heading straight for the Land of Wind.
Orochimaru gave the location as a desert, where scattered boulders, eroded and deformed by wind and sand, stood on the desolate ground.
As soon as we entered the Gobi Desert, we saw a weasel emerge from behind a rock.
"Itachi, what are you doing here?"
Aoki Tsuki asked the question knowingly, revealing dangerous thoughts during the gathering, even though he wasn't entirely confident he could lure Itachi out.
"That's what I wanted to say to you too," Itachi countered.
"I received intelligence that Orochimaru's secret base might be nearby, so I came here specifically to investigate. It's my duty."
"I've also received intelligence that someone has betrayed the organization and colluded with Orochimaru. Eliminating traitors is every member's duty."
Orochimaru launched a sneak attack, and Itachi retaliated in self-defense, which is why Pain sided with him.
Taking action against Aoki Tsuki is a completely different matter and requires a reasonable justification; otherwise, if it fails, he won't be able to stay in the organization.
Are you doubting me?
No, I just wanted to double-check.
"So how do you plan to confirm... with your Sharingan?!"
At this point, Aoki Tsuki grinned and said, "Itachi, you remind me of someone who is also very skilled in Genjutsu."
As fellow Uchiha, I'm curious about whose eye power is superior.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh...
Aoki Tsuki responded with Shuriken.
Itachi is a decisive person; once he decides to act, he doesn't hesitate. Besides, this is a desert, where his opponent's Water Release are ineffective.
Shuriken flew from all directions, coming from all sorts of tricky angles, making them impossible to defend against.
Ding ding ding...
The blade flashed as if a lotus flower were blooming before him, forming an impenetrable defense. Aoki Tsuki knew in his heart that this was nothing but an illusion.
Itachi's methods always rely on Genjutsu to deliver a decisive blow, making them fast and efficient.
This is the only way to avoid a protracted war, conserve energy, and deal with potential enemies.
This was precisely Aoki Tsuki's goal: to directly break Itachi's Genjutsu and demonstrate the practical value of Secret Mind Technique to Orochimaru.
The enemy's base is nearby, so it's impossible that they're not monitoring the area. They might be hiding in the shadows right now, observing.
Tsukuyomi
Without hesitation, Itachi used his trump card during the instant their eyes met. According to intelligence, Aoki Tsuki had a high resistance to Genjutsu, so ordinary techniques would not be effective.
The three Tomoe in his left eye converged at the center of his pupil, and his spiritual energy radiated out instantly.
"Oh? A psychological attack."
Unlike before, with the improvement in mental sensitivity, this time Aoki Tsuki clearly felt her spiritual body being pulled into a special space.
This is a control ability even more advanced than his Telepathy, awakened through Kekkei Genkai and cannot be learned or mastered.
Splash...
On the cross, Aoki Tsuki was tightly bound by chains. "The solidity of this space is even stronger than that of Shisui."
Itachi appeared before them, brandishing a sword, and said, "For the next seventy-two hours, I will control time, space, and mass."
puff!
"Ouch... that really hurts." Aoki Tsuki grimaced.
Itachi didn't stop, stabbing Aoki Tsuki hundreds of times at high speed, leaving him covered in penetrating wounds.
"This is...?"
Buzz...!
Instead of blood, golden light emanated from the wounds on Aoki Tsuki's body, countless rays of light emanated from within his body through the wounds.
Click... click...
Cracks spread across its surface, then exploded, replaced by a gigantic Thousand-Armed Kannon, whose large hand grabbed Itachi's body.
"This level of skill is no match for me."
"No wonder you have such high resistance to Genjutsu; I didn't realize your mental energy cultivation had reached such a level."
Itachi remained calm. Although he didn't know Aoki Tsuki's trump card, it didn't stop him from making some preparations.
Bang!
Aoki Tsuki crushed Itachi's spiritual body, which then transformed into a flock of crows and scattered away.
Quack... Quack... Quack
"Such petty tricks won't fool me."
Itachi's mastery of Genjutsu magic is very profound, and it's highly likely that this is setting up scene anchors for him to be repeatedly demonstrated later.
"I told you, everything here is under my control."
The crow reformed into the shape of a weasel in mid-air. With a gentle wave of his hand, the red moon hanging overhead crashed down like a meteorite.
The air currents and powerful vibrations created made it hard to believe it was real!
An attack formed from pure spiritual energy requires an equal amount of power to counter it.
Aoki Tsuki immediately manipulated the Thousand-Armed Kannon to compress spiritual energy in a more violent way, condensing it into a sphere.
Void Realm - Greedy Wolf!
roar...
The giant black wolf, evolved purely from spiritual energy, opened its massive jaws and swallowed the red moon that was falling from the sky.
"That move used against Kisame?! It can actually be performed using Yin Release."
Itachi's expression grew increasingly grim. His opponent was more formidable than he had anticipated; normally, an enemy would collapse before enduring the torture on the cross.
This is the first person who can engage in a mental contest with him in his spiritual world.
Aoki Tsuki's spiritual energy was not only exceptionally condensed but also extremely vast, and he was very skilled in using Yin Release techniques.
Rumble...
After the violent collision, space trembled, and a massive shockwave swept across the entire mental space world.
"It's not over yet?!"
Aoki Tsuki roared, and all the arms of the Thousand-Armed Kannon simultaneously Hand Seals.
"The cycle of reincarnation ends, the illusion dissipates"
As a manifestation of spiritual essence, it mobilized the power of Yin Release, amplified it five hundred times, and forcibly tore apart this spiritual space.
The world that Itachi had built was shattered and could no longer be maintained.
"Ah...!!"
The backlash spilled into the real world; Itachi screamed, his right eye filled with red veins, and blood gushed from its socket.
"Huff... Huff..."
Aoki Tsuki was also in bad shape, panting heavily, her body swaying precariously as if she might collapse at any moment.
A magnification of 500 times means a consumption of 500 times. Mental energy is instantly drained. Unlike life energy, the result of excessive use of mental energy is exhaustion at the soul level.
I want to sleep, to sleep for three days and three nights.
However, the battle had only just begun, and spiritual energy, one of the elements of Chakra, was nearly exhausted, meaning that once the Chakra in the existing meridians was used up, it could not be replenished.
Who knows if the enemy lurking nearby might seize the opportunity to strike?
Fortunately, I wasn't completely unprepared.
The Uzumaki patterns on his palms had already been activated, and the accumulated Natural Energy had been quietly transformed into Senjutsu Chakra in his body.
" Sage Mode - Activated"
Senjutsu Chakra can temporarily boost a person's basic attributes, which allowed Aoki Tsuki to barely recover a bit of his energy.
Sizzle... Sizzle...
The leaping lightning coalesced into a spear in his hand.
thunderbolt!
" Lightning Leap: Lightning Fang "
The lightning spear pierced through the void and projected towards him, but was blocked by the massive ribs, turning into a streak of lightning and dissipating.
A red, skeletal giant enveloped Itachi, protecting him firmly.
"Hehe... Susanoo, it has appeared as expected."
Beside a rock in the distance, Black and White Zetsu, Obito warriors silently observed the duel, showing no surprise at the abilities Itachi displayed.
"Itachi didn't seem to gain the upper hand in that Genjutsu duel just now," White Zetsu said, puzzled.
Black Zetsu replied, "It should be a draw. Aoki Tsuki's resistance to Genjutsu is stronger than expected; even Itachi couldn't do anything to him."
"I feel like I'm seeing a different ability every time, what's wrong with this guy?!"
"This suggests he's hiding something; we need to continue observing him."
Obito spoke up, "Itachi has many secrets too, and this will be a good opportunity to see their true colors."
"Hmph, Orochimaru must be here too."
"Ignore him..."
On a small sand dune not far away, a small lizard was foraging for food.
Suddenly, the sand beside it exploded, and a white snake darted out, biting and coiling around the lizard until it suffocated to death, before finally opening its mouth and swallowing it whole.
After letting out a burp, the little white snake burrowed back into the sand, waiting for its next prey.
The power of Susanoo is undeniable, but its drawback is that it consumes a great deal of Chakra, and Itachi's Chakra wouldn't last long.
His strategy was determined to be a swift victory; as Chakra surged, muscles, skin, and armor covered the illusory skeleton.
Clang!
Susanoo opened the gourd in his right hand, and a red longsword emerged from it, piercing straight towards Aoki Tsuki.
Totsuka Blade.
clang...
The golden lotus platform blocked the attack, Aoki Tsuki unleashed the Thousand-Armed Kannon without hesitation, unleashing a thousand palms simultaneously.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM...
Countless palm strikes rained down relentlessly, but Itachi gripped the Yata Mirror tightly, defending fiercely, his heart filled with horror.
"What kind of technique is this? Could it be...?"
Itachi suddenly remembered the Iwagakure strike Aoki Tsuki, and felt a shadow loom over him. He hurriedly raised the Yata Mirror to shield his head.
Rumble...
Senju united Buddha's Divine Palm.
A violent force poured down, the ground collapsed and shattered, and the shockwave stirred up a cloud of dust, obscuring the view inside.
"It's here! This is Aoki Tsuki's trump card!" White Zetsu exclaimed.
"As expected, and the Greedy Wolf Technique, we already had that information. What surprised me even more was that Itachi actually obtained the Totsuka Blade."
Black Zetsu was shocked; Itachi had clearly been under Kisame's surveillance the whole time.
Obito fell silent upon hearing this. Kisame hadn't done his job properly; how could he not have noticed something so important?
As the dust settled, Itachi stood in the deep pit, staggering and looking somewhat disheveled. His Susanoo had already dissipated.
"Cough cough cough..."
He coughed violently for a while, covering his mouth, before jumping out of the pit.
"Your strength is greater than I expected, but can you withstand this attack?"
Its left eye suddenly widened, and as the pattern rotated, it launched a visual attack—that is, anything seen through the pupil would be attacked, and it was difficult to dodge.
" Amaterasu!"
Aoki Tsuki had already put away the Thousand-Armed Kannon to conserve his Chakra, as he had his own way of dealing with this attack.
His long hair transformed into a blue curtain that blocked his path. It was flexible and could be extended and retracted at high speed, requiring no Hand Seals, to intercept him.
The black flames instantly ignited the hair and were impossible to extinguish.
Click...
A flash of light, and his hair was severed.
"Very good ability, but it's wasted a lot of my hair." Aoki Tsuki deliberately undermined Itachi's confidence.
"It was blocked as expected."
Itachi was mentally prepared for this; he knew that Aoki Tsuki's hair was a weapon, but even if he knew, it wouldn't matter.
Genjutsu can't handle it, if Ninjutsu can't handle it, Taijutsu?
His opponent, being a master swordsman, is undoubtedly stronger in close combat than him; this is not a good strategy.
Just as Itachi was pondering a countermeasure, Aoki Tsuki activated Sky Realm: Greedy Wolf once again, and a silver disc suddenly appeared on the Gobi Desert.
This time it's an air bomb, not Yin Release.
Rumble...
The terrifying high-pressure shockwave completely flattened this Gobi Desert, whipping up a sky full of sand that flew everywhere. At the center of the storm, a red wall made of flames stood firm like the gnarled roots of an old tree.
Uchiha Flame Formation!
Itachi placed one hand on the ground, and fire-attribute Chakra burst forth from his five fingers, using the earth as a medium to create a fire barrier.
"A defensive barrier? The Uchiha Clan certainly has a lot of good stuff."
The Uchiha legacy that Kikuno Momo received was limited and did not include some core secrets, such as Kinjutsu and information related to the Mangekyo.
Itachi's understanding of the Uchiha far surpassed that of anyone else in the clan; he was the man who stood at the pinnacle of the Uchiha in this era.