A Life in the Hidden Leaf
Chapter 9 - Part 3
"I'm not afraid of you!" Sasuke roared, his pride overriding his caution. He drew Kusanagi again, the blade gleaming in the dim light. He channeled every ounce of lightning chakra he had left into the steel. The blade screamed with energy, the light blinding.
He lunged, a desperate, all-out attack. He didn't aim for a cut. He aimed for a kill. He swung Kusanagi in a wide arc, intending to sever Itachi's head.
Itachi didn't dodge. He didn't block.
He just looked.
Sasuke froze. In the split second before his blade connected, he found himself trapped. The world turned upside down, the colors inverted, the sound of battle replaced by a high-pitched ringing.
*Tsukuyomi.*
He was no longer in the stone fortress. He was hanging from a cross, impaled through his hands and feet by swords. It was dark, a red moon hanging in a blood-red sky. In front of him, standing on a podium of corpses, was Itachi.
"You are weak," Itachi said. His voice was everywhere. "You lack hatred."
Sasuke tried to scream, but he had no mouth. He tried to move, but his body was pinned. He watched, helpless, as Itachi raised a hand.
The torture began. It wasn't physical pain, though that was part of it. It was the sensation of being stabbed, over and over again, thousands of times a second. But it was the psychological weight that crushed him. He saw his clan die again and again. He saw his parents' throats slit. He saw himself, alone in the world, crying out for a brother who didn't care.
He lost track of time. It could have been seconds. It could have been years. He was dying. He was already dead.
Then, he snapped back.
He was on his knees in the fortress, gasping for air, sweat pouring down his face. His nose was bleeding, his eyes stinging. Kusanagi lay on the ground beside him, his nerveless fingers having dropped it.
Itachi stood over him, looking down with those red eyes. "Seventy-two hours," he said. "That is how long you lasted. An improvement, perhaps. But still not enough."
Sasuke panted, his vision swimming. He couldn't breathe. The sheer drain on his chakra was catastrophic. He was exhausted, his muscles trembling. But underneath the exhaustion, something else was boiling.
Itachi was holding back. Even in the Tsukuyomi, even with the Amaterasu, he was treating this like a test. He was an arrogant monster who thought he could decide when Sasuke broke.
Sasuke's hand gripped the hilt of Kusanagi. His knuckles turned white.
"You talk too much, brother," Sasuke rasped, his voice harsh and broken.
He forced himself to stand. His legs were shaking, but he locked his knees. He lifted the sword. He wasn't going to win with speed. He wasn't going to win with power. He had to be smarter.
Itachi's eyes narrowed. "Still standing?"
"I told you," Sasuke said, wiping the blood from his lip. "I'm here to end you."
He charged again. But this time, he didn't aim at Itachi. He aimed at the floor.
*Chidori.*
He drove the lightning-covered blade into the stone, pouring every bit of his remaining chakra into the attack. The stone didn't just crack; it exploded. A massive cloud of dust and debris erupted between them, blinding Itachi.
It was a crude trick. A desperado's tactic. But it bought him a second.
Sasuke spun through the dust, his Sharingan locking onto Itachi's chakra signature. It was faint, distorted by the dust, but it was there. He was raising his hand to blow the dust away.
Sasuke threw Kusanagi. He put everything into the throw, the blade spinning through the air like a silver buzzsaw.
Itachi caught it. He snatched the blade out of the air by the hilt, stopping it inches from his chest. He looked at the sword, then at Sasuke.
"Is this your plan?" Itachi asked, dropping the sword. It clattered to the floor. "Throwing away your weapon?"
Sasuke didn't answer. He landed on a pillar, his chest heaving. He had no weapon. He was nearly out of chakra. He was blind in one eye, the strain of the Sharingan starting to blur his vision.
He was dying.
And then, he felt it.
A surge of power. Cold, dark, and immense. It wasn't coming from him. It was coming from inside him.
The curse mark had gone dormant, but the soul sealed within it—Orochimaru's soul—was waking up. Sasuke had walled it off, trapped it in a cage of his own will. But the mortal danger, the proximity to death, was rattling the bars.
*Release me,* a voice hissed in his mind. *Let me handle this. I can kill him. I can save you.*
Sasuke's vision blurred, black spots dancing at the edges of his sight. He could feel the white snake trying to push through his skin, trying to force a transformation. He fought it, pushing it back down with sheer hatred. He would rather die than let the snake take over.
"I don't need your help," Sasuke growled, clutching his head. "Get back in your cage!"
The struggle lasted only a moment, but it felt like an eternity. Sasuke gasped, falling to one knee. He had suppressed it, but the effort had cost him. He was empty. He had nothing left.
Itachi watched him struggle, his expression unreadable. For a moment, a flicker of something—regret, maybe—crossed his face. But it was gone as quickly as it appeared.
"It is over, Sasuke," Itachi said. He walked forward, his hand reaching into his cloak again. He pulled out a kunai. "Surrender."
Sasuke looked up. He was on his knees, weaponless, powerless. This was the end. This was what Itachi had wanted. To see him broken.
But as Sasuke looked into those red eyes, he saw something else. He saw the strain. He saw the sweat on Itachi's brow. He saw the subtle tremor in Itachi's hand.
He wasn't invincible.
And he was getting closer.
Sasuke's hand moved to his wrist, to the summoning scroll wrapped there. It was a last resort. A desperate gamble. He bit his thumb, drawing blood, and slammed his hand onto the floor.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
There was a puff of smoke. When it cleared, a massive, white snake with a large, sickle-like blade on its tail appeared, filling the center of the hall.
"Manda?" Sasuke said, confused. He hadn't tried to summon the snake king. He didn't have a contract with him.
Then he realized. It wasn't Manda. It was one of the smaller snakes, a specialized summon he had seen Orochimaru use once or twice. A stealth snake.
The snake looked at Sasuke, its tongue flickering. Then it looked at Itachi and hissed, recoiling in fear.
"Use him," Sasuke commanded, his voice harsh. He didn't care how, he just needed a distraction.
The snake lunged, not at Itachi, but at the ceiling. It burrowed into the stone, disappearing from sight.
Itachi watched the snake go, his brow furrowed slightly. "A snake?"
He looked back at Sasuke. "Is this your distraction? You think a hiding serpent will save you?"
Sasuke didn't answer. He was gathering chakra. Not lightning. Not fire. Something he had been practicing in secret, something he had learned from Orochimaru's notes but never dared to use.
*Kirin.*
But he didn't have the time. He couldn't manipulate the weather. He didn't have the chakra.
He had to improvise.
He looked up at the hole in the ceiling where the snake had gone. A single drop of water fell from the cracks in the stone. It hit Sasuke's cheek.
A storm was brewing outside. The sky was dark, heavy with rain. He had felt it when he entered the fortress.
Sasuke grinned, a feral, desperate expression. He didn't need to make the storm. He just needed to use it.
He jumped, aiming for the hole in the roof.
"Running away?" Itachi asked, not following. "There is nowhere to go."
"I'm not running," Sasuke shouted as he soared out of the fortress and into the open air. "I'm coming for you!"
He landed on the roof of the crumbling stone structure. The wind was howling, rain lashing against his face. The air was thick with static electricity. The perfect stage.
He formed the hand seals, pouring the very last dregs of his chakra into the jutsu. He felt the pull of the lightning in the clouds, the massive potential energy hanging over his head.
"It's over, Itachi!" Sasuke screamed, his voice drowned out by the rolling thunder. "This is the end!"
He pointed his hand down at the roof, aiming for the hole he had just jumped through.
*Kirin.*
The sky answered.
A bolt of lightning, brighter than a thousand suns, descended from the heavens. It wasn't just a discharge of electricity; it was a concentrated spear of pure destruction. It hit the roof of the fortress, and the stone didn't just melt; it vaporized.
The blast tore through the building, blasting the ceiling apart and collapsing the walls in a massive explosion of dust, debris, and lightning.
Sasuke was thrown back by the shockwave, tumbling across the wet stone roof. He lay there, gasping, his body smoking, his nerves fried from the proximity to the blast.
He tried to stand, but he couldn't. He was completely drained. He had nothing left.
He crawled to the edge of the roof and looked down into the ruined crater that used to be the main hall.
In the center of the devastation, standing amidst the falling rain, was a single figure.
Itachi was still standing.
He was hurt. His cloak was shredded, his skin burned, blood running down his face. But he was on his feet. He looked up at Sasuke, his Mangekyo Sharingan still spinning, undimmed.
"Kirin," Itachi said, his voice barely audible over the rain. "A powerful technique. But it lacks control."
He coughed, blood splattering the ground. "And it leaves you vulnerable."
Sasuke stared down at him, his heart sinking. He had thrown everything he had at him. The ultimate lightning technique. And Itachi was still standing.
He had failed.
Then, Itachi collapsed. He fell to his knees, coughing violently. His body was giving out. The damage from the Kirin, combined with the strain of using his eyes, was finally taking its toll.
Sasuke saw his chance.
He forced his battered body to move. He slid down the slope of the rubble, his muscles screaming in protest. He landed at the bottom of the crater, stumbling, but he didn't fall.
He walked toward Itachi, his hand gripping a jagged piece of stone he had picked up on the way down. It wasn't a sword. It wasn't a chidori. It was a rock.
But it would be enough.
Itachi looked up as Sasuke approached. There was no fear in his eyes. No arrogance. Just a strange, quiet resignation.
"Sasuke," he whispered.
Sasuke raised the rock. "This is for our clan."
He brought it down.
But he never made contact.
A hand caught his wrist. It wasn't Itachi's. It was cold, clammy, and impossibly strong.
Sasuke looked down to see white snakes bursting from the ground, wrapping around Itachi's body, lifting him up. They were coming from Sasuke's own shadow.
Orochimaru.
The snake Sannin had been waiting for this moment. Sasuke's weakness, his total depletion of chakra, was the key to the lock. Orochimaru burst from Sasuke's shoulder, his serpentine body massive and grotesque. He laughed, a sound of pure triumph.
"At last!" Orochimaru hissed, his white scales glistening in the rain. "The Uchiha brothers, weakened, brought low! Your bodies are mine! Your eyes are mine!"
He lunged at Itachi, his fangs bared.
Itachi looked up, his eyes flashing. He didn't have the strength to fight Orochimaru. But he had one last trick.
*Susanoo.*
A spectral ribcage erupted around Itachi, glowing with ethereal orange light. Orochimaru collided with it, his fangs scraping uselessly against the spiritual chakra.
"What is this?" Orochimaru screamed, his eyes wide with shock.
"The power of the Mangekyo," Itachi said, his voice gaining strength. "The ultimate defense."
The ribcage expanded, forming a skeletal warrior, then layering on muscle and skin. The Susanoo was complete—a towering, orange demon, clad in samurai armor, wielding a shield and a sword.
Itachi floated inside the construct, his exhaustion masked by the power of the avatar.
"You are a fool, Orochimaru," Itachi said.
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