Meanwhile, Obito had completed his portion of the bloody harvest. A deathly silence fell over the Uchiha quarter, a silence he had created himself. Now all that remained was to wait for Itachi.
But he didn't appear. Instead, Obito heard a roar that shook the very earth. He raised his head.
"Is this...? Susanoo? Impossible."
His single eye widened in surprise. Where the carnage should have ended, a clash of titans was unfolding.
"Besides Itachi, no one in the clan has awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan. Who is this?"
Seeing the two giants locked in mortal combat under the cold moon, he froze for a moment, then rushed forward without hesitation.
The Uchiha clan quarter resembled a meteorite crater. The battle had reached an unimaginable ferocity.
ROAR!
A concussive shockwave rolled through the ruins, and a crushing blow of incredible force crashed down on the scarlet chakra warrior.
Itachi's Susanoo instantly became covered in a web of deep cracks.
Before the shocked eyes of the Uchiha genius, his opponent was transformed. The ghostly blue giant became flesh and blood, and over it, as if from the very earth, an indestructible dark armor, covered in ominous patterns, grew.
"Die!" roared Uchiha Yue, and the next moment a barrage of crushing blows rained down on the scarlet god.
The air around him contracted, ready to collapse into a vacuum. Each blow was heavier than the last, each new wave of power more furious and destructive. Chakra swirled in a frenzied whirlwind, transforming the blue demon's fists into hammers capable of splitting mountains.
CRUNCH!
— How... how is this possible...
Time seemed to stand still. Countless shards rained down from the orange-red Susanoo. The crimson god seemed about to shatter into glass.
"No!" Itachi screamed in his mind. "I've endured unimaginable pain! The hopes of my father and mother rest upon me! I did this for the village... for the clan... for Sasuke! I can't die here!"
Itachi's face distorted. Looking at his crumbling Susanoo, he seemed to see again the faces of the clansmen he'd just sacrificed; his father and mother, who had died at his hand; Sasuke's face, distorted with horror and hatred; the village he had sworn to protect.
He had shouldered this burden to stop the war, to save his brother. How could he fall at the hands of some degenerate he should have killed with a single swing of his sword?
"Father, mother, Sasuke, the village... give me strength!"
"ARGH!!!"
Itachi roared, pouring all his will, all his pain, and all his determination into the cry. His willpower had reached its limit.
ROAR!
A colossal stream of dōjutsu poured from his eyes, instantly rebuilding the crumbling giant and raising him to a new level. Susanoo flared with a dark red, almost bloody flame, preparing to fight back...
"DIE, ITACHI!" thundered a furious voice, and all the monstrous power seething within Yue's body concentrated into one final blow.
A seething, spiraling force pierced the giant fist and crashed into Itachi's newly recreated Susanoo.
In an instant, a dense web of cracks spread across the colossus once again.
"How... this..."
THUNDER!"
The next instant, the scarlet figure exploded in a fountain of energy. The residual force of the blow washed over Itachi himself in an inexorable wave.
"Cough... phooey!.."
He froze. Half the bones in his body were broken. Blood gushed from his mouth, and he was thrown into the distant ruins like a cannonball.
"How can he be so strong... This... is impossible... Aaaah!!!"
Itachi writhed on the ground, his face a mask of rage and disbelief. He couldn't understand why this Uchiha's power was so boundless. He... he'd squeezed everything out of himself, every last drop, but the difference in power was insurmountable.
"Move! Move, body! Come on, move!" he roared in his mind.
He must complete the mission! For the village, for the clan, for his father and mother, for his ideals, for the great Will of Fire, for Sasuke...
"Your pain is but a moment, mine is eternity. So why don't you... why don't you just die for my ideal, for the village's great cause, for the clan?!"
He strained his bloodshot eyes, mustering the last of his chakra to rise again. But his body wouldn't obey. That blow had shattered half his skeleton. He was paralyzed.
BOOM!
A shadow loomed over him. The blue demon's fist, shrouded in an aura of death, was already descending to crush him. Uchiha Yue was here to finish the job.
"Stop!"
At that very moment, Obito arrived. Seeing Yue about to finish Itachi with a single blow, he immediately attacked.
"Mokuton: Sprouting Tree Technique!"
Giant, thorny trunks erupted from the ground, spiraling around Yue's Susanoo, attempting to bind him.
Yue, however, didn't even glance at them. With monstrous strength, he tore the tree's bonds apart and aimed his blow at Itachi again.
"Damn it!" Obito cursed. The power of this unknown Uchiha was beyond measure.
But even that brief moment was enough for Itachi.
He jerked his head up and pierced Yue's eyes with his Mangekyo Sharingan.
"Tsukuyomi!"
The giant blue demon froze. His master was trapped in a world of eternal torture.
"Now!" Itachi cried out with the last of his strength.
At that very moment, Obito's shadow clone appeared next to him.