In less than ten seconds, Itachi's complexion had clearly gone a shade paler.
While blocking the relentless flurry of claw strikes, he wracked his mind for a way to break the stalemate.
Kisame wasn't idle either. He unleashed various Water Release techniques to relieve some pressure off Itachi.
"Itachi-san, looks like we're in real trouble this time. This Jinchuriki is ridiculously strong. He hasn't even tapped into the Nine-Tails' power and he's already forced us into this sorry state."
Naruto kept swinging his blade while pushing the Transparent World to its limit, his full attention locked on those Mangekyō Sharingan.
Suddenly, Naruto saw a wave of sinister Yin Release chakra condense toward Itachi's left eye.
[It's coming…]
A line of blood-tears slid from Itachi's left eye socket.
"Tsukuyomi!"
Maintaining Susanoo to block the claws while casting the Tsukuyomi strained Itachi's left eye like a blade had pierced it. The pain was searing, and he was forced to clutch his eye.
Still, he was confident. That Tsukuyomi should have trapped Naruto.
But his brows quickly furrowed.
There was no trace of Naruto inside the Tsukuyomi's realm!
The genjutsu had failed!
Itachi—who could usually stay calm no matter the situation—was clearly shaken.
He struggled to lift his head, trying to see how Naruto had avoided the technique.
What he saw was that Naruto's real body had vanished.
Only a dozen Shadow Clones remained on the other side, still clashing fiercely with the second-stage claw strikes.
Just as Itachi stood there in confusion, Naruto's form flickered—he reappeared out of thin air atop the giant shark's back.
There, a Flying Thunder God seal was etched.
It was only now that Itachi noticed it.
"So it was Flying Thunder God… how troublesome..."
Naruto had indeed used the Flying Thunder God to escape Tsukuyomi.
But this wasn't as easy as it seemed—it required several strict conditions.
First, Naruto had already been wary of Itachi's Tsukuyomi.
Second, he had to possess the microscopic perception of the Transparent World, along with the instantaneous movement of the Flying Thunder God.
Only with all of that could he teleport away at the very moment Tsukuyomi was triggered.
"Itachi-san, this isn't looking good—we should retreat!" Kisame gritted his teeth as he fended off another wave of claw strikes, retreat in his heart.
He bit his thumb and slammed his palm into the sea.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Boom! A massive shark materialized beneath them in the water.
Its streamlined body screamed elite swimmer.
The moment it appeared, it swallowed both Kisame and Itachi in one gulp.
Then, without hesitation, it dove rapidly into the ocean depths.
Kisame didn't even have time to retrieve Samehada from Naruto's hands.
Without Itachi's support, Susanoo soon dissipated.
"Trying to run?"
Fight when you want to, flee when you lose? It wasn't going to be that easy.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains!"
Golden chains shot out in a flash, piercing into the sea and chasing after the shark.
But this shark was exceptionally agile in the water, twisting around and dodging the chains as it continued its dive.
With just a glance from Naruto, over a dozen Shadow Clones also unleashed Adamantine Sealing Chains.
Hundreds of golden chains sealed off every possible escape path.
Even at full strength, the shark couldn't shake them off.
Once entangled, the chains slowly began to reel the shark back.
To prevent Itachi and Kisame from escaping through its mouth, Naruto wrapped extra chains around its jaws. It couldn't open them at all.
But midway through the retraction, a loud crack rang out as the shark's lower jaw was forcefully blown open.
A thick mist of blood erupted as Kisame and Itachi burst from its mouth.
Once out, Kisame grabbed Itachi's right hand and darted away from Naruto in the opposite direction.
In water, Kisame's writhing speed wasn't much slower than that of the shark.
Naruto gave chase atop the same giant shark he'd tamed earlier.
Ten minutes later, on the beach of a small island—
Kisame and Itachi dragged their soaked, battered bodies ashore, both visibly injured.
Their signature red-cloud cloaks of the Akatsuki were tattered.
And facing them was Naruto, calm as ever.
The three stood in tense silence before combat resumed once more.
Already exhausted, Itachi and Kisame were beginning to falter against Naruto.
Their wounds piled up.
After all this time—
Kisame, still laughing, stared at Naruto's composed expression and sighed.
"Hahaha! The new always overtakes the old… Who would've thought that I, Kisame Hoshigaki, would be cornered like this by a mere kid."
"Itachi-san! I'll stall him—you escape. Your dear little brother is still waiting for you, isn't he?"
But Itachi, knowing Naruto had the Flying Thunder God, simply shook his head. "There's no escape."
He endured the searing pain in his eyes and once again activated his Mangekyō Sharingan, summoning Susanoo.
This time, he directly invoked Susanoo's third form.
The skeletal giant was now clad in thick layers of chakra armor—like a samurai warrior.
Already drained, Itachi forced himself to summon this ultimate form.
This was the last of his strength.
No longer holding back, he revealed his trump card.
In Susanoo's hand appeared a crimson gourd.
From the gourd's mouth spewed a fiery serpent, forming the shape of a blade.
Naruto's eyes lit up at the sight.
That gourd—was one of the reasons he was so dead set on defeating Itachi.
The legendary artifact, one of the Kusanagi Blades:
Totsuka Blade!
A weapon that could adjust its size to suit the wielder, even something as massive as Susanoo.
Its true power: anyone it cuts would be sealed into the gourd's realm, trapped in an eternal drunken dream.
Even Orochimaru had been sealed by this sword in the original timeline.
Itachi, gritting his teeth, swung the Totsuka Blade at Naruto with all his might.
Faced with this divine weapon, Naruto didn't dare to take it head-on.
He wasn't sure what the conditions were for triggering the sealing, so he had no intention of risking it.
He instantly used Flying Thunder God to teleport to the seal placed on the giant shark near the shore.
But Itachi had predicted that!
A long-charged Amaterasu surged toward Naruto the moment he reappeared on the shark's back.
Amaterasu—the black flames said to never extinguish, capable of incinerating anything.
But Naruto had already spotted the buildup of Amaterasu in Itachi's eyes using the Transparent World.
So the moment he landed, he used First Form of the Deep Sea Azure Sky Spiral Velocity Shark to dodge.
Still, the black flames followed his path, trailing through the air in a burning horizontal arc.
Sensing the danger, the shark dove underwater in panic, narrowly avoiding being burned.
However, Naruto's speed in Sage Mode with First Form was even faster than Body Flicker Technique—Amaterasu simply couldn't keep up.
Another stream of blood-tears leaked from Itachi's right eye. He clutched it in pain, while Susanoo's aura dimmed, on the verge of collapse.