Facing Itachi's challenge, a storm of fire suddenly swirled around Uchiha Kaede before he materialized directly in front of Itachi. Both had their Three-Tomoe Sharingan active, their crimson gazes locked.
"I didn't expect you to challenge me here, of all places," Kaede said.
"This battle was bound to happen sooner or later," Itachi replied calmly. "Better to have it witnessed by the clan."
Itachi wasted no more words. Suddenly, a murder of crows erupted from around him, their eyes gleaming with a dangerous, dark-red light. They dove with lethal intent, swarming toward Kaede.
Nearby Uchiha clansmen also activated their Sharingan, yet they struggled to discern the truth. "Where did these crows come from?" "Is it a Genjutsu, a Body Replacement, or something else?"
Kaede didn't panic. The flames surrounding him coalesced into a towering pillar of fire. The high-speed rotation generated a searing heat that forcibly repelled the crows. In the next breath, he launched dozens of flaming blades in a fierce counterattack.
The crows evaded with fluid grace, only to reform into the physical shape of Uchiha Itachi. To the observers, Itachi suddenly felt "real" again, losing the ephemeral quality he had just a moment before.
Even Fugaku's brow furrowed; he hadn't fully tracked the mechanics of Itachi's Genjutsu. For a second, even he thought those crows were living biological entities.
Suddenly, a glint flashed in Itachi's dark red eyes. He snapped his fingers—a signal, a trigger.
Darkness fell.
Kaede felt the world vanish. The light, the sound, the warmth of the overhead sun, and the figure of his enemy were all swallowed by a void.
This seamless transition into an illusion showcased Itachi's mastery—he had reached a level no less than the late Shisui, though his style leaned more toward lethal precision.
With his senses stripped, Kaede's perception was compressed to a mere meter around his body. To the crowd, the two men stood perfectly still, staring at each other.
But internally, Kaede's Ace cells surged. A brilliant white orb of fire erupted from his chest, shooting outward.
Itachi narrowed his eyes and countered with a Great Fireball. As the two massive flames collided, Kaede suddenly dropped low and slammed his fist into the earth.
Boom!
The ground shattered like glass under the impact. A crack ten centimeters wide tore through the earth, extending nearly a hundred meters. In the air above the fissure, the currents split, transforming into a torrential wave of wrathful flames.
This was pure Fire Style. Kaede's fist was cloaked in a "Fire Punch," integrated with his powerful Nin-Taijutsu.
He looked like a living sun, terrifying and magnificent. The shockwaves and projected flames scorched the earth dry in an instant.
Even Itachi's refined fire techniques couldn't match the sheer scale of this "Super Fire" state. Hundreds of fire "bullets" streaked forward, carrying high-frequency vibrations as they swarmed toward Itachi.
Facing a battlefield that had turned into a literal furnace, Itachi found the situation troublesome.
Kaede has become this strong? The moment their eyes met again, Itachi triggered his Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique (Kasegui no Jutsu)!
In this mental world, the victim feels as though their limbs are being driven through by massive stakes, stripping them of all freedom of movement while inflicting a vivid, agonizing illusion of physical pain.
It was the same technique Itachi would one day use to neutralize Orochimaru in a single glance.
"They've stopped moving again..." "Itachi must have used a Genjutsu," some clansmen whispered, uncertain, for they hadn't seen him weave a single sign.
In the mental realm, however, Kaede began to burn with a strange, high-temperature power. A cold, icy fire began to tear through the darkness.
Fire that contains the properties of ice? Itachi thought. It's similar to the Kazekage's Blue Flame...
During the Five Kage Summit, Shiraishi's "Extreme Cold Flame" had been noted by the high command. Shisui had witnessed it and shared the details with Itachi.
"This flame..." Itachi muttered.
"Shisui couldn't replicate this flame because his Sharingan lacked the compatibility," Kaede said with undisguised pride. "But I can command it."
In reality, Kaede was leveraging the unique nature of his modified cells to simulate the destructive, illusion-breaking properties of Shiraishi's cold fire. Suddenly, silver-white flames erupted in the mental world, turning from white to a deep, chilling blue, swallowing the void whole.
The illusion shattered. Returning to reality, the flames on the ground flowed back into Kaede, forming a crimson lotus of swirling fire. He unleashed a Sunlight Beam, a column of destructive energy that blasted directly toward Itachi!
Itachi seemed frozen, as if the ice from the mental world had carried over into his physical nerves. Fireballs rained down around him like artillery fire, exploding in rapid succession.
Just as Kaede moved in for a final, bone-crushing punch, Itachi's body suddenly exploded into a massive wave of energy.
A clone that explodes without hand signs?
As the smoke and heat blurred his vision, Kaede's eyes shifted. His pupils transformed into a complex, fuma-shuriken design—the Mangekyo Sharingan. Across the field, Itachi's own Mangekyo flared to life.
"Mangekyo Sharingan! They both have it!"
The Uchiha clansmen were in awe, but Fugaku's face turned pale. These two were fighting without restraint.
Did they not realize how much the Leaf would fear the sudden appearance of two new Mangekyo users? The fragile peace they had just negotiated was about to be burned to ashes.
On the battlefield, the two pairs of eyes locked once more.
"Tsukuyomi!""End of Days!"
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