"A bit interesting. Even I couldn't see through this substitution technique."
Watching the falling wooden log, Pain remarked with a trace of curiosity.
Itachi silently observed the smug Pain, showing no intention of responding.
"Do you understand the difference between us now, Blood Moon?"
Looking down at Itachi below, Pain seemed to sense the solemn expression beneath Itachi's mask. His voice carried a faint chill.
...
Itachi, initially reluctant to make a move, suddenly felt his mood sour.
With a wave of his arm, an endless stream of snakes surged from his sleeve, flooding toward Pain in overwhelming numbers.
The sheer magnitude of the serpent swarm made Pain glance sideways in slight surprise.
A black rod appeared in his hand, which he swung toward the snakes. The rod began to extend rapidly.
Pain's black rods possessed the ability to suppress chakra. Generally, anyone pierced by a few of them would be rendered powerless.
He assumed these summoned snakes would meet a similar fate.
However, as the black rod made contact with the serpents, Pain was taken aback. The rod, typically unstoppable, seemed to encounter resistance akin to a swamp. It failed to dissolve the serpent swarm on contact.
A powerful repulsive force began to emanate rapidly from Pain's body as the snakes closed in.
Pain quickly gauged the distances between himself, Konan, and Blood Moon, formulating a decisive plan.
...
As the snake swarm approached, a surge of repulsive force exploded from Pain.
Centered on Deva Path Pain, the force radiated outward, indiscriminately repelling everything in its vicinity.
The intensity of the repulsion shattered the ground into fragments, lowering the terrain by several meters.
The shadowy snake swarm was obliterated, disintegrating into dust and vanishing completely.
The repulsion force struck Itachi directly.
"Squawk, squawk, squawk..."
Itachi's body disintegrated into a flurry of crows, scattering in all directions.
However, a few drops of crimson blood were left behind on the ground.
Faced with such an indiscriminate area attack, even Itachi's crow clone technique couldn't entirely avoid the repulsion's force.
This technique lacked the instantaneous evasive capability of a substitution jutsu.
...
Itachi reappeared on a tree trunk, his mask fractured, exposing his pale forehead and a pair of complex silver, black, and red eyes.
He had activated the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
"What is this?"
Seeing Itachi's eyes and sensing the outburst of ocular power, Pain was slightly puzzled, unable to immediately identify the nature of the eyes.
Obito, sensing the power from Itachi's eyes, paled instantly. When had the shinobi world birthed such an existence?
Those eyes were even more advanced than his Mangekyō Sharingan...
Zetsu, meanwhile, was utterly astonished. He immediately recognized the nature of Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan.
He recalled that he had played a role in Izuna's death, a plan to help Madara unlock the Eternal Mangekyō and gain the potential to awaken the Rinnegan.
When had another pair of brothers awakened the Mangekyō and reached such heights? This generation's reincarnations of Indra and Asura were still just children! Zetsu was completely dumbfounded.
For the first time, he felt his mind buzzing. Itachi's existence had transcended his understanding of reality.
After all, among the Uchiha, those capable of awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan were rare geniuses.
The process required exceptional talent, specific circumstances, and significant emotional upheaval. Talent and luck were both indispensable.
...
While others were overwhelmed with chaotic thoughts, Itachi remained expressionless.
He adjusted his damaged mask, drew a kunai, and, without a word, threw it at Pain.
"A kunai?"
"Heh, you're certainly unique..."
As the kunai left Itachi's hand, Pain focused on it and chuckled.
In a battle of this caliber, Blood Moon had resorted to throwing a kunai.
Was this supposed to be funny?
"Very well. If this is your level, leave your eyes behind and die..."
Pain extended his right arm toward Itachi.
He couldn't help but feel intrigued by Itachi's eyes. The immense ocular power within them surprised him greatly.
For the first time, he found himself genuinely interested in another's eyes. He wanted to study them.
...
Under Itachi's gaze, the kunai flew toward Pain.
Pain, intending to mock Itachi, slightly tilted his head, allowing the kunai to graze past his ear.
No matter how precise the aim, what could a simple kunai achieve?
In the presence of these eyes, everything appeared to move in slow motion.
Able to see through all attacks.
"Universal Pull!"
After dodging, Pain targeted Itachi, unleashing a gravitational explosion.
In his other hand, he extended a black rod.
"Bang!"
...
"A shadow clone? When? Could it be that everything I've been fighting was just a shadow clone?"
Pain looked at the smoke and heat bursting from Itachi's body as it was pulled in, and asked with some confusion.
"That's an A-rank ninjutsu: Shadow Clone Great Explosion. An ordinary shadow clone might not fool you. But a shadow clone infused with the powerful chakra of Sage Art: Fire Release deceived even your eyes..."
Itachi's figure appeared behind Pain. His right hand was clenched into a fist, radiating overwhelming sage energy and power.
This technique bore a striking resemblance to the move he once used against Kakashi.
It was a similar type of superhuman-strength attack.
Without hesitation, Itachi's punch smashed directly into Pain's face as he was turning around.
But it didn't end there. Itachi's right eye, his Mangekyō Sharingan, spun rapidly, conjuring black flames out of thin air that quickly engulfed Pain's body.
...
"Almighty Push..."
Pain's distorted voice shouted as he was sent flying, his body wrapped in the black flames of Amaterasu.
A burst of repulsive force followed.
"He's still not down? This is ridiculous..."
Itachi's figure vanished from his original spot; he had no intention of confronting that force head-on.
The area where Pain landed was flattened for several kilometers. The ground compressed further, becoming even harder, almost like solid stone.
Pain stood motionless, his intentions unclear, but no one dared underestimate him.
Itachi's figure reappeared on the battlefield.
...
Pain's Rinnegan dimmed, and the chakra within his body began to go berserk.
The eternal flames of Amaterasu, no longer sustained by Itachi, gradually dissipated.
At that moment, Itachi wasn't sure what had just happened.
Until a few moments later.
Pain's eyes began to regain their light.
His chakra stabilized, and his body slowly lifted off the ground.
"Such terrifying flames... To think they can burn mental energy as fuel, rapidly consuming it..."
Pain looked at Itachi with a somewhat inexplicable expression.
It was clear that he had suffered greatly just now—or rather, Nagato had.
"Burning mental energy? Or perhaps even the soul? Such an intriguing variation of Amaterasu..."
Hearing Pain's words, Itachi fell into deep thought, finally understanding the mutation of his right-eye Amaterasu.
The last time he used it, he hadn't noticed much of a difference, assuming it was just a minor enhancement, so he hadn't relied on it in battle.
After all, the so-called strongest Fire Release, Amaterasu, often underwhelmed in actual combat.
...
With Pain as an opponent, Itachi now understood the new ability of his Amaterasu.
But on second thought, it wasn't all that groundbreaking.
After all, the mutated abilities of Kotoamatsukami and Amaterasu couldn't transcend their fundamental principles.
At best, they had evolved in a specific direction.
Possessing two distinct properties was already remarkable enough.
Itachi felt a deep sense of satisfaction.
...