Chapter 86: Itachi! I'll Keep Your Eyes for You!
Akira looked down at Uchiha Itachi lying at his feet. The Uchiha genius, once so high and mighty, now had only a faint breath left.
"Since you like to sacrifice yourself for the village so much," Akira said. "Then, these Mangekyō Sharingan of yours, which betrayed your clansmen and the Uchiha... I will keep them for you. You are not worthy of these eyes; your existence is a desecration of these Mangekyō!"
These eyes contained powerful ocular power and were invaluable, rare materials. For a traitor like Itachi, making the most of him was his last value.
"No..." Itachi, lying on the ground, let out a hoarse, unmodulated sound. These eyes were his last glory. Fear of having his limbs crippled and his arms torn off was far less than the despair of losing his eyes. For the Uchiha, eyes were everything.
Akira's fingers had already touched Itachi's moist eyelids. Itachi's body convulsed violently.
On the other side, at Uchiha Obito's location, he clutched his arm, letting out a painful groan. His body trembled uncontrollably from the intense pain.
"Uchiha Akira! Damn it! I want you dead!" he screamed.
"Obito, your condition is very bad," Black Zetsu's chilling voice came from the shadows. "However, now is not the time for you to be afraid."
Obito suddenly looked up. "What happened again?"
"Obito, Itachi is about to die," Zetsu replied. "Just now, Itachi had his limbs broken and one arm torn off by Uchiha Akira, and now... Akira is digging out Itachi's eyes. Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan are crucial to our Tailed Beast capture plan. We cannot lose him."
Obito's breathing became heavy. In his mind, Akira's image reappeared, and a deep fear once again enveloped his heart.
"I... going there would be useless!" he said, trembling. "That monster completely countered my abilities."
Black Zetsu seemed to have anticipated his reaction. "I'm not telling you to fight him. You just need to activate Kamui from a distance and bring Itachi back; that's all. The entire process won't take more than a second. Your Kamui is a Space-Time Ninjutsu; as long as there's no direct contact, he won't have time to react at all. You don't even need to appear in his line of sight. Save Itachi, and we'll leave immediately."
Black Zetsu's words made some sense. Just saving someone. Not fighting. Activating Kamui from afar, grabbing Itachi, and leaving. No matter how strong that monster was, he couldn't possibly cross such a long distance in an instant to stop him. As long as his body didn't enter the attack range, he would be safe.
The scales in Obito's heart began to swing violently. Giving up Itachi meant the Eye of the Moon Plan would suffer a severe blow. Saving Itachi, however, meant facing the man who brought him endless fear once again.
"Think about it, Obito," Black Zetsu emphasized. "That world with Rin. For this goal, what is a small risk?"
Rin. This name, like a flash of lightning, struck the softest and most obsessive part of Obito's heart. Yes. For Rin. For that perfect world. He could not retreat. The fear in Obito's eyes gradually was replaced by a crazy obsession. He struggled to his feet.
"Okay," he said. "I'll go."
Akira's finger was about to pierce Itachi's eye socket when a system notification sounded:
(System Notification: Detecting high-intensity space-time energy fluctuations, coordinates locked, target: Uchiha Itachi. Space-Time Ninjutsu: Kamui. Initiator: Uchiha Obito.)
Akira shook his head helplessly. "He really isn't afraid of death! Uchiha Obito, that mouse, truly had a persistent thieving heart."
The next second, the space not far from Itachi began to twist in a spiral shape. A dark swirl formed rapidly, and a powerful suction instantly enveloped the dying Itachi.
"Trying to snatch someone from right in front of me?" Akira scoffed. "Obito, who gave you the courage?"
The Mangekyō Sharingan in Akira's eyes suddenly accelerated its rotation.
(Dōjutsu: Time Reversal! Target: Uchiha Obito.)
The spatial swirl that was about to completely engulf Itachi was directly rewound. It rapidly rolled back and contracted in a way that completely defied physical laws, until it completely returned to nothingness. Meanwhile, dozens of meters away, Obito, hiding behind a broken wall, was completely frozen. His single eye was filled with incomprehensible horror.
Failed? Again! My Kamui failed again! Why? What kind of Dōjutsu is this?
Just as Obito's mind was greatly shaken, Akira's voice rang in his ear. "The same trick won't work on me."
Obito suddenly woke up, a fatal sense of crisis surging frantically from his heart. He instinctively tried to activate Kamui to transfer himself, but it was too late. Akira had already appeared in front of him. In his palm, a rapidly spinning sphere containing two violent energies, lightning and fire, hummed.
"Lightning Fire Spiraling Sphere! Your second big gift," Akira announced.
Boom—! Violent energy erupted in Obito's chest. His body was instantly sent flying, his chest completely caved in.
"Ugh ah ah ah—!" Injury on top of injury! A strong will to live squeezed out the last bit of strength from Obito's body. He didn't care about saving Itachi, or anything else. He just needed to escape from this devil.
Around Obito's shattered body, space twisted once again. The dark swirl completely swallowed his dying body, and he fled directly. Akira's gaze returned to Itachi.
"Alright," Akira said. "Now, no one will disturb us. Tsukuyomi, a good Dōjutsu. Unfortunately, the one who uses it always thinks about foolish things like sacrifice."
Akira stopped wasting words.
Pfft. A slight sound of flesh being pierced rang out. Itachi's body tensed suddenly as excruciating pain swept through him. One of his Mangekyō Sharingan was forcibly peeled from his body. Warm blood gushed from the empty socket. Akira placed the eye into a glass bottle filled with medicinal liquid. His gaze returned to Itachi's only remaining eye.
"Don't rush," Akira said, squatting down and patting Itachi's cheek. "Soon, it will be symmetrical."