**Chapter 15: 50/50: What? Only One Second Has Passed?**
Even Hatake Kakashi himself closed his ordinary eye, keeping only the Sharingan open.
"Absolutely do not open your eyes. If you look into his eyes now, it's over. Probably only someone who also possesses the Sharingan can contend with him," Hatake Kakashi said with great vigilance, though even he didn't quite trust his own judgment.
In response, Uchiha Itachi simply said indifferently, "If you possess the Sharingan, you can indeed resist my Mangekyo Sharingan to some extent. However, you cannot break this Dojutsu unique to these eyes, the Genjutsu—Tsukuyomi."
"The only one who can defeat me is a Sharingan user with the same Kekkei Genkai as me."
In an instant, Hatake Kakashi thought of the only remaining Uchiha clansman, Uchiha Sasuke.
"Me?" Outside the screen, Uchiha Sasuke spoke in disbelief.
He knew exactly how wide the gap in strength was between him and Uchiha Itachi. Currently, he couldn't see any hope at all. But he still had hope; he was the sole remaining clansman of the Uchiha clan.
No, there was one more. That Reo.
Uchiha Sasuke instantly thought of the other bloodline suspected to be an Uchiha lost to the outside world. Reo might be the person with the closest bloodline to him right now, aside from Uchiha Itachi.
However, he didn't know that although Reo possessed the Uchiha clan's bloodline, he wasn't technically a member of the Uchiha clan.
In the video, Hatake Kakashi had only just shouted "Sasuke" when he felt himself being pulled into a black and white spiritual world.
He found himself tied to a cross. Opposite him, Uchiha Itachi was staring dead at him, holding a long sword.
"Without a Kekkei Genkai, how long can you last?"
Saying this, he stabbed the sword into Hatake Kakashi's body. Hatake Kakashi fainted directly. When he woke up again, he found himself back on the cross, unharmed.
Just when he thought he had encountered a Genjutsu and it was merely an illusion...
Opposite him, Uchiha Itachi attacked again without mercy, stabbing him once more.
"In the world of Tsukuyomi, space, time, and even mass are all under my control. For the next seventy-two hours, I will attack you with the sword, again and again."
Unknown how long the torture lasted, Hatake Kakashi opened his eyes, finding himself awake and tied to the cross again.
"In the world of Tsukuyomi, space, time, and even mass are all under my control. For the next seventy-two hours, I will attack you with the sword, again and again."
Uchiha Itachi repeated himself, torturing Hatake Kakashi to the brink of collapse.
"Calm down, this is just a Genjutsu."
It had to be said, Hatake Kakashi was indeed an experienced veteran Jonin. However, he judged wrong this time. Uchiha Itachi's Genjutsu was no ordinary Genjutsu.
"Don't think that just because it's an illusion, you can disregard it. This pain is not an illusion. This suffering is no different from reality. How much longer can your spirit hold out?" Uchiha Itachi stabbed him again without mercy.
What was even more terrifying was that under the illumination of the blood-red moon in the sky, countless Hatake Kakashis appeared in the Tsukuyomi space, and then, similarly, countless Uchiha Itachis appeared.
"There are still 71 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds remaining," Uchiha Itachi said coldly.
"Only... only one second has passed?" Hatake Kakashi was pierced by the countless swords.
The terrifying torture stunned both Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke outside the screen.
"This Tsukuyomi, this Genjutsu..." Hatake Kakashi was shocked. This Tsukuyomi was simply foul play.
He had worked with Uchiha Itachi before. Back then, Uchiha Itachi was just his subordinate. He knew then that Uchiha Itachi's Genjutsu level was quite extraordinary.
But he never imagined it could be strong to this degree.
Among his colleagues, Yuhi Kurenai was also a Jonin known for Genjutsu, and her family was a clan of Genjutsu specialists. Yet, in front of Uchiha Itachi's Genjutsu, she was like a child.
This was no longer ordinary Genjutsu. Was this the enhancement the Mangekyo Sharingan provided to Genjutsu?
Some information regarding the Mangekyo Sharingan flashed through his mind. With his status and the Hatake clan's accumulated knowledge, he knew a little about the Uchiha clan. He knew that above the conventional Three-Tomoe Sharingan, there was a type called the Mangekyo Sharingan, rumored to be extraordinary.
However, he didn't know much more than that, especially since the Uchiha clan was later exterminated, leaving even fewer people to research it.
He never imagined that the Uchiha clan's Mangekyo Sharingan could be powerful to this extent.
He also possessed a Sharingan. Even if it was an outsider's Sharingan, it was real. Yet, he was pulled into the Genjutsu space by the opponent in an instant.
The resistance to ordinary Genjutsu he usually took pride in was useless at this moment.
Uchiha Sasuke was even more shocked. He saw the cruel torture Hatake Kakashi suffered in the video just now. But after so much time had passed, Uchiha Itachi said that only one second had passed in reality.
And there were still 72 hours of continuous torture to follow.
If it were him, he would probably collapse instantly.
Was this Uchiha Itachi's current strength?
To be this terrifying?
He suddenly thought of what Reo wrote in the diary: *There is also a gap between Sharingan and Sharingan.*
This seemed to be talking about the gap between Hatake Kakashi's and Uchiha Itachi's Sharingan, but wasn't it also talking about the gap between himself and Uchiha Itachi?
Did he really need to have the same eyes to possibly match him?
And was Uchiha Itachi's strength related to those eyes?
At this moment, Uchiha Sasuke recalled the discussions he occasionally heard from clansmen when he was a child. When Uchiha clan members awakened the Sharingan, or when the Sharingan evolved, it was always accompanied by a massive increase in strength.
This was why, although both were famous Dojutsu Kekkei Genkai clans, the Uchiha clan was considered more powerful.
Although they couldn't compare to the Hyuga clan, who practiced internal marriage to ensure bloodline purity—resulting in every Hyuga being able to activate the Byakugan—precisely because the difficulty of opening the Sharingan was much higher, every Uchiha clansman who could open the Sharingan was an elite among elites.
"Must I have those eyes to compare to you? Uchiha Itachi, I will not do as you wish. Even without those eyes, I will kill you and avenge the entire clan!"
Uchiha Sasuke muttered to himself.