Shukaku smashed a punch onto the Yata Mirror. The force of rage pushed Susanoo backward for dozens of meters.
Large areas of buildings collapsed, and the ground between the streets was plowed into deep trenches.
Rasa stared blankly at this scene, his mind completely blank.
He couldn't connect the huge monster in front of him with Gaara, who had always been timid and cowardly since he was young. There must be something wrong here.
"Dad!"
Gaara's shout from inside Shukaku startled Rasa out of his daze.
"We have to leave the city, we can't keep fighting here!"
Just one simple clash between Shukaku and Susanoo destroyed two street blocks. If they kept fighting, before Ryosuke arrived, more than half the city would be turned into ruins.
Rasa returned to his senses and nodded hard.
Shukaku slapped both hands on the ground. Gravel condensed beneath its feet and formed a gigantic stone pillar that propelled it up into the sky.
Rasa followed closely behind, using Magnet Release. A cloud of sand-gold formed beneath his feet, and he flew shoulder-to-shoulder with Shukaku toward the outskirts of the city.
Uchiha Itachi followed closely.
The three of them kept leaping, occasionally clashing mid-air, and in a few quick flashes, they disappeared from the city.
Iwamine simply couldn't keep up with their speed. She could only chase from far behind.
After they flew more than ten kilometers from the city, Rasa and Shukaku were already covered in wounds of various sizes, and even had two fatal injuries.
Rasa had no choice but to use the healing potion Ryosuke had mailed to him earlier. Only then did he save his life.
Uchiha Itachi's ocular techniques were too terrifying.
Every countermeasure they had, every tactic they tried, was already within Itachi's control. Other than taking hits passively, there was almost no chance to fight back.
Uchiha Itachi suddenly accelerated, and the Totsuka Blade in Susanoo's hand thrust straight toward Shukaku.
The strike came too fast and too suddenly. Shukaku tried to dodge, but it felt like Itachi had already predicted its movements. It simply couldn't avoid it.
So Shukaku directly used one hand to meet the Totsuka Blade and swung a punch with the other at Susanoo.
Chi~
Shukaku's left hand was pierced through. The pierced palm melted under the flames of the Totsuka Blade and was gradually sucked into the gourd that served as the blade hilt.
Shukaku screamed in pain, gritted its teeth, and swung its right fist.
Bang!
The massive fist was blocked by the Yata Mirror.
But that wasn't the end.
Shukaku grabbed the edge of the Yata Mirror with its remaining hand and forcefully lifted it aside, pressing its entire body down on Susanoo. A Tailed Beast Bomb had already formed in its mouth.
The Tailed Beast Bomb was pressed right up to Susanoo's face.
With a loud boom, the Tailed Beast Bomb fired and exploded in a huge flash of fire hundreds of meters away.
'A miss?!'
At the instant the Tailed Beast Bomb launched, Uchiha Itachi dispelled Susanoo and his body turned into countless crows, scattering into the air.
Susanoo was always a spiritual manifestation. Its release and dispersal happened in a single thought.
However...
Rasa had already completed his hand seals.
He flew out from behind Shukaku, his hands spread open and raised slightly.
Instantly, countless waves of sand-gold surged like a flood, rushing toward Uchiha Itachi, who had just reformed his physical body, and buried him deep into the earth.
This was the strategy Rasa and Gaara figured out during their retreat as they fought.
Since Itachi could predict their next moves, they couldn't use clever tactics or tricky ninjutsu. They could only rely on the most direct, most exhausting, wide-area attacks.
Just like a swordsman blinded, he could still swing wildly. Even if the enemy could see, they wouldn't have a solution right away.
Of course, the price was rapid depletion of stamina and chakra.
But two or three minutes was fine, Rasa could afford that.
Gaara, with a tailed beast's chakra, didn't need to worry about chakra at all.
The ocean-like sand-gold buried Uchiha Itachi deep underground.
Rasa clenched his raised hands tightly.
Magnet Release Gold Dust Great Burial.
The ocean of sand-gold collapsed downward violently, then exploded upward from underground.
Gaara's cheers came from within Shukaku, and a smile curled on Rasa's lips.
With an attack of this magnitude, even if Uchiha Itachi managed to form Susanoo in time, he wouldn't be escaping the earth any time soon, a single crow flew past behind Rasa.
The very next second, as the crow disappeared behind him, Uchiha Itachi stepped out.
Chi!
A kunai stabbed through Rasa's heart.
Gaara's cheers turned into a scream.
The one buried by Gold Dust Great Burial had only been a clone.
Itachi drove the kunai deep into Rasa's heart, twisted it half a turn right before Gaara's eyes, then slowly pulled it out and whispered into Rasa's ear
"Die. But do not fear, do not grieve."
"Your death now… will allow you to be reborn in the 'past.'"
With a gentle push, the cloud of sand-gold beneath Rasa's feet dispersed.
He fell from the sky, slammed into the desert with a dull thud.
The fiery red flesh reformed, and Uchiha Itachi stood within Susanoo once more, drawing the Totsuka Blade and pointing it at Shukaku, whose eyes were red with rage.
"You're next, Gaara."
"Bastard!"
Shukaku roared in fury and dropped both fists while opening its mouth to form a Tailed Beast Bomb.
But with no one to restrain Itachi, the Totsuka Blade slashed down. Two loud booms followed as Shukaku's two arms were chopped off.
The Yata Mirror heavily smashed Shukaku's face, scattering the unformed Tailed Beast Bomb.
Yes, Itachi in his normal state could already capture tailed beasts with ease.
Let alone now, with dual Mangekyō, seeing through everything, and with White Zetsu cells providing immense chakra.
The Yata Mirror smashed Shukaku's head again. Susanoo pinned Shukaku's body, and Itachi raised the Totsuka Blade high, aiming at Shukaku's chest.
"It's over."
The moment he swung the blade, Itachi caught a glint of golden flames in his peripheral vision.
His heart almost stopped.
Itachi backed away instantly, scanning all around, searching for that terrifying man's presence.
But there was none.
Only then did he notice, the golden flames swirling around Susanoo were not Ryosuke's ripples, but sand-gold that ignited from constant friction and rotation like comets.
Itachi fixed his gaze on Rasa, disbelief in his eyes.
"You're still alive?!"
"I came back from hell."
Rasa tore off his clothes, and with them, the flesh of his chest. The heart Itachi had shredded was being wrapped by countless tiny particles of sand-gold.
The sand-gold blocked every blood vessel. Under Rasa's control, they rhythmically squeezed and released the heart muscle, this crude, artificial method forcibly kept blood circulating.
Once he ran out of chakra, he would die.
But before that…
"You're not hurting Gaara!"
Hundreds of thousands of rotating, spiraling, burning sand-gold comets accelerated, forming a hundred-meter-tall tornado that trapped Susanoo inside.
The comets were like countless sharpened blades, like carnivorous fish in the deep sea, tearing large chunks off Susanoo's armor.
Continuous impacts cracked Susanoo's armor bit by bit.
Itachi tried to swing the Totsuka Blade to cut away and seal the sand-gold comets.
But for every ten sealed, a hundred reappeared.
As for the Yata Mirror, yes, it was nearly invincible defensively, but it could only block in one direction. Under endless attacks, even its shine dimmed.
Susanoo's spine was torn open, exposing the orange-red backbone.
If this continued, it would be ripped apart completely.
Suddenly, Amaterasu's black flames erupted.
The flames didn't land on the flying sand-gold. That would be pointless. Even if a batch burned, Rasa could simply replace them.
Instead, Itachi ignited Susanoo.
Black fire clung to its flesh-armor. Before the sand-gold comets struck, a layer would already be burned off, reducing their force.
Uchiha Itachi seized the moment and charged outward, trying to escape the sand-gold tornado.
But just as he took half a step...
BOOM!
A Tailed Beast Bomb slammed into Susanoo's armor.
Gaara growled, "Get back in there!"
Itachi was slammed back into the sand-gold storm.
Rasa's vision darkened. He gritted his teeth, using every last bit of strength to maintain the tornado.
How long had the battle lasted now?
One minute?
Two?
He couldn't remember.
His heartbeats grew irregular inside his chest.
That was because he no longer had spare chakra to control the sand-gold precisely. Some tiny particles flowed along with his blood into his body.
He didn't care anymore.
This was the only chance to kill Itachi.
If Itachi escaped the tornado, with what little stamina and chakra Rasa had left, there wouldn't be a second chance.
Rasa's eyes locked with Itachi's through the gaps in the swirling sand-gold.
He didn't see a trace of fear in Itachi's eyes.
Uchiha Itachi indeed felt none.
Itachi had underestimated Rasa.
After personally destroying Rasa's heart, Itachi dispelled the Ten-Tai Yu-no-Mikoto's predictive lock on Rasa.
Because the predictive range at any one moment was limited.
He allotted that prediction capacity to Ryosuke instead.
Because of that, he knew early that Shirakawa Castle's lord used the "snack express line" for communication, which meant Ryosuke would arrive one minute earlier than planned.
If he didn't know that, still fighting under the assumption of a three-minute safety window, he could have died today.
So Itachi did not regret the decision.
"Time's almost up."
Uchiha Itachi stood in the eye of the storm and raised a hand. The next second, the Totsuka Blade thrust forward, piercing through the wall of the sand-gold storm.
But it wasn't enough.
Susanoo's armor vanished. Its flesh vanished. Even the Yata Mirror vanished.
Itachi poured all his ocular power into the Totsuka Blade.
The blade shot forward at unimaginable speed, like a beam of laser light, and instantly pierced through Shukaku's body.
Shukaku melted like ice cream, and in a blink, more than half its body flowed along the Totsuka Blade into the gourd.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The last layer of Susanoo shattered.
Rasa stared at Uchiha Itachi.
He could do it.
He could kill Itachi before Shukaku was fully sealed.
But just then, black flames erupted once more.
This time, they weren't burning Susanoo.
They burned Itachi's own body.
Amaterasu flames scorched Itachi's flesh, becoming the final thin barrier resisting the storm of sand-gold.
He seemed to feel no pain, his entire body consumed by black fire.
Only a pair of eyes quietly gazed at Rasa.
Rasa looked at Itachi, just one second, one second was enough to kill him.
Then he looked at Shukaku.
Also one second, and Shukaku would be sealed into the gourd.
Perhaps Shukaku could escape after some time, tailed beasts were immortal, after all.
But…
Gaara would definitely die.
Rasa's vision blurred. In that instant, every memory of Gaara's life flashed before him.
"When you were born, you were just a little thing I could hold in one hand… now you've already become a dependable ninja…"
Rasa raised his arm. The swirling sand-gold formed a ring of rotating steel blades, and he slashed down, cutting the Totsuka Blade.
He made a father's choice, to save his child.
At the same time, the sand-gold tornado exploded apart.
Uchiha Itachi brushed dust off himself and walked out from the collapse.
His body was burned horribly, his once-handsome face now like charcoal. But he didn't care, Susanoo gathered around him once more.
RUMBLE!
A thunderclap sounded dozens of kilometers away in Gorin City.
The Heavenly Transmission Technique.
Ryosuke had arrived.
Another Fire Release jutsu flew in, landing at Itachi's feet.
Iwamine, who had chased all the way here, finally made it just in time.
Itachi glanced at the gourd. Half of Shukaku's chakra sealed inside, more than enough.
He looked at Rasa still standing straight where he was, then turned into hundreds of crows and flew south to escape.
After Itachi left, Rasa collapsed to his knees.
Tiny pieces of sand-gold poured out of his chest wound, followed by bright blood.
His heart, long since shredded, lost its final support and stopped working.
Gaara ran over with large strides. Tears dripped rapidly from his eyes, blurring his vision.
Rasa reached out and gently patted his head, smiling as he said, "Sorry, Gaara… Dad… can't go with you to Konoha to see the Chunin Exams… all these years…"
He wanted to apologize.
He wanted to finally say he loved his child.
Thud!
Rasa's hand fell. His entire body leaned forward, resting lightly against Gaara. His eyes turned gray-white, losing focus.
Fourth Kazekage, Rasa: dead.