Deep purple Yin Style chakra erupted wildly from Sasuke's body.
Under the influence of the terrifying large-scale Genjutsu, Itachi Uchiha stood in place, struggling continuously. Despite the mental assault, the Susanoo surrounding him did not dissipate.
Furthermore, under Itachi's constant resistance, the Genjutsu was being broken bit by bit.
Seeing this, Sasuke launched his attack without hesitation.
The massive amount of chakra lingering around him instantly converted into terrifying lightning. With a flap of his wings, he crashed down like a giant eagle wreathed in thunder.
The roaring lightning vented all the hatred and rage of the Uchiha Clan.
Itachi managed to break free from the Genjutsu's shackles just in time. Terrifying bolts of lightning danced before his face, and the numbing sensation spreading through his body let him know exactly how powerful this strike was.
Without a moment's delay, Itachi manipulated the massive samurai giant to cross its arms in front of its chest.
The lightning war eagle shrieked as it descended, with violent thunder coiled around its feet. It slammed heavily onto the crossed arms of the crimson samurai giant.
Boom!
The surging lightning exploded from Sasuke's feet and spread wildly in all directions, looking as if thousands of thunder snakes were writhing in the air.
The sheer force poured out. Even the massive Susanoo was forced back several meters under this terrifying power, its giant feet carving long furrows into the ground.
However, Itachi was not the type of person to stand still and take a beating. The moment Sasuke's momentum slowed, the samurai giant swung its arm violently to swat him away, while the other hand snatched out like lightning to grab the enemy.
But with the support of hundreds of Sharingan, Sasuke's reactions were incredibly fast. The moment the Susanoo moved, he retreated into the air at top speed to open up the distance.
To think he has obtained such horrifying power.
After pulling away from Sasuke, Itachi stared in disbelief at the tiny cracks appearing on the Susanoo's arm guards.
Although these cracks were minuscule, they were proof of the terrifying power behind Sasuke's previous blow.
It was hard to imagine that such an attack was released by a child who had just finished his first year at the Ninja Academy.
Sasuke seemed to hear Itachi's murmur and replied, "This isn't my power. This is the power of the entire Uchiha Clan."
He slowly raised his palm, and the surging lightning instantly formed a terrifying blade in his hand.
"By the same token, what I carry on my back is not just my own hatred, but the hatred of the entire Uchiha."
With that, his figure dove downward once again.
This time, Itachi did not dare to be careless. He hurried the Susanoo to manifest a ninja blade and swung it heavily toward the falling Sasuke.
The chakra blade and the lightning sword clashed in mid-air, instantly erupting with a thunderous roar. The resulting vibrations caused the ground beneath Itachi's feet to shatter!
Fortunately, Itachi was protected by the Susanoo. Otherwise, the stray electricity leaking from Sasuke's body alone would have been enough to paralyze him completely.
At this moment, the Sasuke in Itachi's eyes had become a total stranger, his eyes filled with a dense darkness.
Rather than his brother, Sasuke Uchiha, he seemed more like a tool for the entire Uchiha Clan to seek revenge against him, the Leaf, and the entire world!
He was the manifestation of Uchiha hatred!
Sasuke was merely the weapon and puppet they were using to release that hatred!
This was the complete opposite of what Itachi had originally intended.
In his plan, Sasuke was supposed to remain in the Leaf as the lone survivor of the Uchiha, while he himself bore all the pain. The hatred for him would become the greatest motivation for Sasuke's growth.
Eventually, he would die at Sasuke's hands. This would not only help Sasuke awaken the Mangekyo, but also allow Sasuke to take his eyes and fuse them, solving the side effects of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Itachi had arranged everything for Sasuke.
As long as Sasuke followed the path he had planned, he would become one of the strongest ninjas in the world and continue the Uchiha glory!
He would be the hero of the Leaf and the savior of the Uchiha.
But all these hopes had been shattered by the damned Jashin Religion, and they were even trying to turn his brother into a vessel for the descent of Jashin.
Thinking of this, Itachi's face turned incredibly grim.
"I will never let you fall into darkness, Sasuke!"
This statement was met with Sasuke's sneer. "You, a traitor to the Uchiha, have no right to say such things!"
Sasuke's offensive was far from over. His wings vibrated as he took a step back, and then he swung the lightning sword again. A storm of dense, surging slashes instantly covered the entire Susanoo.
The speed of the strikes was so fast that even Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan had trouble keeping up.
Even when he could track the movements, the body of the Susanoo was too massive and clumsy to defend in time. He could only let Sasuke's attacks land, leaving charred marks on the chakra armor.
As he continued to swing his blade, Sasuke's condition seemed to improve. The frequency of his strikes increased, and he used his high mobility as a flyer to launch attacks from every direction.
By comparison, Itachi looked quite battered.
Due to the Susanoo's lack of agility, he was forced into a passive defense.
Furthermore, after multiple battles, the chakra in his body was nearly exhausted. If this continued, he wouldn't be able to hold out for long.
Under the onslaught of lightning, the surrounding ground began to crumble, and cracks started appearing on the Susanoo's armor.
It won't last much longer.
Itachi knew this well, but he continued to observe Sasuke's attacks carefully. As long as he found an opening, he could use Amaterasu to see if he could force Sasuke back to his original state.
But Sasuke was too fast. Itachi simply couldn't lock onto him with his vision.
Even when he occasionally caught a glimpse of Sasuke's figure, he couldn't trigger Amaterasu fast enough to hit him.
"If that's the case, I have no choice."
Itachi looked at his nearly shattered Susanoo, his pupils shrinking as another trail of blood flowed down.
Amaterasu!
Black flames suddenly erupted from the void.
While he couldn't accurately capture Sasuke's figure, Itachi could shroud his own Susanoo in Amaterasu to prevent Sasuke from attacking!
The ominous black flames suddenly enveloped the entire Susanoo. Although Sasuke stopped his attack the moment he saw the black flames, the chakra sword he used to strike the Susanoo was inevitably tainted.
Consequently, he used his flight to pull away instantly, discarding the chakra sword on the ground and manifesting a new one.
Compared to Itachi, Sasuke, who had condensed the power of the entire Uchiha, still had plenty of chakra!
On the other hand, Itachi stood in the middle of the surging black flames. His Susanoo had vanished, and two lines of blood tears slid from his eyes, making him look truly desolate.
A slight curve appeared at the corner of Sasuke's mouth. At this moment, the ice on his face finally cracked, replaced by mockery and playfulness.
Just then, Itachi suddenly looked up and used the last shred of his strength to launch Tsukuyomi at Sasuke.
"I will never let you be lost in this, Sasuke!"
A terrifying amount of ocular power was injected into Sasuke's mind all at once.
It was like a heavy hammer smashing into a room full of souls.
In an instant, all the souls bound within Sasuke's body began to boil.
He clutched his head in agony, his eyes wide as his expression began to flicker with overlapping images. He seemed to be laughing, then crying, sometimes angry, sometimes sad...
At the same time, thousands of twisted souls emerged on the giant wings on his back, which were covered in Sharingan.
They wailed, hissed, and roared with resentment at the Itachi Uchiha before them.
"Itachi Uchiha, you traitor!"
"Die!"
"Just die already!"
"I can't wait to tear you into pieces!"
"Sasuke, why haven't you killed this guy yet?"
"Kill him now!"
"Kill this traitor!"
"Aaaaaah!!!"
But because of the violent fluctuation of the souls, Sasuke's original body was in extreme pain. He fell to the ground, clutching his head and howling in agony. "Stop it! All of you, stop talking!"
At this moment, Sasuke finally displayed a level of pain beyond his years, rather than being as calm as a cold weapon.
His mental world was like a boiling hell, with countless souls mourning, nearly tearing his head apart!
Seeing this, Itachi could only hiss weakly, "Sasuke, wake up!"
Suddenly, an incredibly cold aura spread out from Sasuke's body.
"Shut up."
In an instant, both Itachi Uchiha and all the boiling souls in Sasuke's mind fell into a deathly silence.
Furthermore, the wings on Sasuke's back, the eyes, and the gray-white keratinized skin caused by the natural energy all retracted into flame-like black patterns. They finally converged into a Cursed Seal that settled quietly on his neck.
That fleeting aura was filled with arrogance and coldness, like a high-and-mighty god. Though it looked upon the mortal world with disdain, it possessed absolute majesty that no one dared to challenge!
Everything before it could only bow in submission.
Fortunately, this aura only lasted for a fleeting moment.
Like a bolt of lightning streaking across the sky, it lasted only a second, but it was enough to make one's blood run cold.
Sasuke gave Itachi one last look before his body lost all strength and he collapsed to the ground.
Simu stood in the distance observing this scene, a thoughtful look on his face.
To create a suitable vessel for an Apostle, he had secretly put a lot of work into Sasuke. Therefore, the moment that aura appeared, he had sensed it through the biological sensors he had left on Sasuke.
What surprised him was that the source of this aura was not external, but Sasuke himself.
To be precise, it came from inside Sasuke's body. As for where exactly it was, Simu did not have a definitive answer.
Besides Simu, Obito, who was hiding nearby, was also startled.
Because the terrifying aura that radiated from Sasuke just now reminded him of that man.
The legendary man who had personally groomed him—Madara Uchiha.
As for Black Zetsu, he seemed to remember something, and for a moment, he actually broke into a cold sweat.
However, all of this was temporarily interrupted by the arrival of another person.
"Summoning: Food Cart Destroyer Technique!"
A massive shadow suddenly fell from the sky, crashing heavily toward Sasuke and Itachi's position, seemingly intended to take them both out!
Obito acted first, using space-time ninjutsu to appear instantly in front of Itachi. Without a word, he sucked the exhausted Itachi into his pocket dimension.
"Sasuke..."
Although Itachi wanted to take Sasuke with him, there was no time left.
Fortunately, the moment he disappeared, Simu's figure appeared in front of Sasuke. At the same time, two giant tentacles sprouted from his back, firmly propping up the massive black shadow falling from the sky!
The immense pressure caused the ground beneath Simu's feet to crack instantly, with countless fissures spreading out.
Simu picked up Sasuke with one hand and adjusted his glasses with the other. "Lord Jiraiya, we meet again."
But the response he got was not a greeting, but a violent and surging gust of wind from a punch.
A strong sense of crisis instantly enveloped Simu's entire body.
A three-headed Evil-Faced Ghost Snake burst from the ground, blocking the path between Simu and the attacker.
However, in just one second, this ghost snake, which was powerful enough to rival a Jonin, was smashed into a spray of meat and blood!
But that brief moment it took the attacker to crush the snake was enough for Simu to pull away with Sasuke and move to a safe distance. He even had the leisure to tease them.
"Truly terrifying strength. As expected of the Legendary Sannin."
Simu held Sasuke and looked at the two people and one toad before him.
The massive shadow from before was none other than the famous Gamabunta of Mount Myoboku.
Simu's acquaintance, the white-haired Jiraiya, stood atop Gamabunta's head with a giant scroll on his back, looking down from above.
As for the person who had smashed the ghost snake with a single punch, it was a blonde woman whose face was currently covered in a terrifying frost, radiating murderous intent.
If Simu wasn't mistaken, this was the other Sannin alongside Jiraiya—the Slug Princess, Tsunade.
"To have two of the Sannin move against me at the same time, I really am quite honored."
Simu adjusted his glasses, seemingly unconcerned about his predicament.
Upon hearing Simu's voice, Jiraiya immediately connected him to the masked man he had encountered in the Hidden Steam Village.
"The Jashin Religion... you really are plotting something horrible."
Jiraiya spoke through gritted teeth, his voice full of hatred.
If he could treat the enemy with a calm attitude last time, this time, he had to carry the resolve for revenge!
Tsunade felt the same.