"The fate of the Uchiha is not for an outsider like you to judge," Itachi said coldly, while his right hand formed a seal with extreme subtlety.
"Outsider?" Menma tilted his head slightly, the three eyes on his mask seeming to stare at Itachi. "When your vision is limited to just one clan, one village, of course everyone else seems like an outsider."
"How narrow your capacity is."
But the moment Menma's words fell, Itachi moved!
He didn't charge directly at Menma, but instead shot rapidly sideways to the left without any warning, simultaneously opening his mouth to exhale: "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Though just an ordinary C-Rank Ninjutsu, under Itachi's use, a massive fireball like a small sun roared forth with scorching heat waves, instantly charring the surrounding grass and trees, heading straight for Menma.
Yet Menma didn't even move. He merely raised his right hand, palm facing the surging flames.
An invisible force field spread out from the center of his palm.
"Shinra Tensei!"
In a soft whisper, the enormous fireball seemed to crash into an invisible, absolutely insurmountable wall.
After a moment of intense distortion and compression, it roared back, rushing towards Itachi instead!
Itachi's pupils contracted sharply!
'What kind of technique was that?'
'Definitely not any known Ninjutsu or Kekkei Genkai!'
He pushed his Body Flicker Technique to the limit, leaving behind a lifelike afterimage that was swallowed by the flames.
His true body appeared behind and to the side of Menma. Several shuriken, held in his hand at some point, were thrown in an extremely tricky angle, sealing off all space above, below, left, and right.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"
The flying shuriken instantly multiplied mid-air, one becoming two, two becoming four, transforming in an instant into a sky full of cold glints, enveloping Menma completely like a sudden storm.
Facing this attack sufficient to turn any Jonin into a sieve, Menma remained standing in place, merely stamping his foot lightly.
Hum-
An even more bizarre scene occurred.
All the shuriken about to touch his body seemed to suddenly fall into an invisible quagmire, their speed drastically reduced, until they completely halted in the air half a foot around him, like insects frozen in amber!
Nine Mask Svāhā: Nanto Sennin's Forbidding Power!
Itachi's Sharingan spun wildly, trying to analyze this unbelievable phenomenon, but he could only sense a vast and strange energy field distorting the space around him.
This wasn't a change in Chakra Shape or Nature… it was more like a crude interference with the rules themselves!
"Is this all you have, Uchiha Itachi?" Menma's voice remained flat. He slowly raised his hand, his fingertip lightly tapping one of the suspended shuriken.
"Then, I return them to you."
"Shinra Tensei!"
Repulsive force erupted again!
All the halted shuriken shot back along their original paths with greater speed and ferocity than before!
The sound of them cutting through the air was shrill and piercing!
Itachi's figure transformed into countless swirling crows, scattering in all directions, skillfully evading all the attacks.
The crows regrouped into his main body not far away. His expression was even more grave as he put more distance between himself and Menma.
'Physical attacks ineffective?'
'Couldn't even get close?'
His hands flew through hand seals, so fast only a blur could be seen.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Nail Crimson!"
He used Fire Release again for another probe!
Clusters of blazing fireballs spewed forth, each core containing a spinning shuriken. Their trajectories were erratic, enveloping Menma from all directions.
This was not only the power of an A-Rank Ninjutsu but also contained the exquisite combination of Fire Release and Shurikenjutsu.
Menma raised his right hand, fingers slightly spread, and pressed lightly towards the sky full of fireballs.
"Bansho Ten'in."
A powerful gravitational force instantly acted upon all the fireballs and the shuriken within them.
The originally erratic trajectories abruptly changed. All attacks uncontrollably veered off course, colliding with and detonating each other in empty air several feet in front of Menma!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions rang out consecutively. The firelight dyed the river surface red, and scorching waves of air rolled out, yet they failed to even stir the hem of Menma's clothes.
Before the flames died down, Itachi's figure pierced through the fire screen like a ghost!
The kunai in his hand was wrapped with sharp Wind Attribute Chakra, stabbing directly at Menma's throat.
His Sharingan spun wildly, capturing all possible blocking or evading routes.
Menma seemed to have nowhere to dodge.
However, the moment the kunai was about to touch his skin, his body slid back half a foot in a manner that defied physics, just enough to avoid the sharp point.
It wasn't a Body Flicker… it was more like being pulled by an invisible string.
Itachi's offensive was relentless like tidal waves… swift kunai thrusts, shuriken harassment, Taijutsu combos, all coordinated with the Sharingan's insight, forming a fierce assault.
But Menma only moved within a small range, seemingly narrowly dodging, sometimes using gravitational pull to slightly deflect attacks, sometimes using repulsion to knock away unavoidable weapons. His composure was unnerving.
Within a few seconds, they had exchanged dozens of moves.
Every one of Itachi's attacks landed on empty air or was deflected by the bizarre force.
He was appalled.
His Sharingan actually couldn't see through the other's evasion methods at all. It was as if the other could foresee the future, or as if physical laws ceased to function before him.
Itachi used the force to leap back, his hands again flying through hand seals, so fast only afterimages remained. "Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
The water of the Naka River surged up, coalescing into a ferocious water dragon that roared as it charged at Menma.
Menma simply raised his hand again.
Boom!
The massive water dragon shattered against the invisible repulsive wall, transforming into a sky full of spray that fell like a heavy rain.
In the instant the water screen blurred vision, Itachi's true body pierced through it like a ghost, launching another attack!
The kunai in his hand stabbed straight for the back of Menma's heart!
This time, Menma didn't use repulsion. Instead, as if he had eyes on his back, he made an impossibly slight sidestep, perfectly avoiding the lightning-tipped point of the kunai.
Simultaneously, the index and middle fingers of his left hand pressed together, accurately aiming for the Tenketsu on Itachi's wrist.
The movement was fluid, as if he had predicted all of Itachi's actions.
Alarm bells screamed in Itachi's mind. He forcibly twisted his body, changing the thrust into a sweep, the kunai aiming for Menma's neck.
Menma didn't dodge or evade. His right hand met the kunai, and in his palm, a thumb-sized, pitch-black energy sphere instantly materialized.
The moment the kunai's blade touched the small black sphere, Itachi felt an extremely terrifying, all-devouring destructive energy emanating from it!
He had no doubt that if he were touched by this black sphere, even just grazed, the consequences would be unthinkable!
He immediately abandoned the attack, pushed off with the balls of his feet, rapidly retreating to put distance between himself and Menma.
A trace of cold sweat finally seeped from his temple.
Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and the Genjutsu interference and tactical coordination from his earlier crow clones-
All probing attacks were completely ineffective!
The other party hadn't even moved more than a few steps, as if merely indulging him in a boring game.
Those bizarre abilities, both offensive and defensive, were almost unsolvable.
'What Kekkei Genkai was this?'
'Or some unknown secret technique?'
Itachi breathed heavily, his Sharingan fixed intently on the white three-eyed fox mask.
'Direct assault wasn't working. I had to find another way.'
'Genjutsu!'
'The other party's abilities seemed primarily targeted the physical layer...'
The Uchiha's Genjutsu was their strongest weapon!
Itachi hesitated no longer. Taking advantage of the moment he landed from his retreat, the instant their gazes crossed and his own reflection was captured in the other's eyes, he unleashed the Uchiha Clan's supreme Genjutsu!
"Tsukuyomi!"
The world seemed to have its colors drained away.
However, the moment Itachi's spiritual power was about to pull the other's consciousness into the Tsukuyomi Space he constructed, he encountered an indescribable, vast spiritual power, immense as a sea of stars!
Crack-
The dark red, crucifix-bound torture chamber space he had constructed had just begun to manifest when it shattered like fragile glass!
It simply couldn't contain the other party's consciousness!
Immediately after, an enormous, ominously glowing red moon occupied his entire field of vision.
On that red moon, a Mangekyo Sharingan he had never seen before slowly opened.
The three tomoes weren't static, but spun and churned in a dizzying manner, eventually forming a deep vortex!
"This… this is?!" Itachi's spiritual body felt unprecedented shock and pressure!
'Mangekyo Sharingan?!'
'The other party also had the Mangekyo Sharingan?'
'Was he a member of the Uchiha Clan?'
Before he could figure it out, within the vortex-like Mangekyo pattern, the phantom of an ancient, wordless bamboo scroll flashed by, emitting a stable aura that seemed to immunize against all spiritual erosion.
The scene before him changed again.
The red moon receded, replaced by a sensation of coldness and desolation.
He found himself standing on a vast, charred, barren, hellish battlefield.
The sky was a depressing dark red. The air was thick with the smell of blood and scorched earth.
The ground was covered in spiderweb-like cracks. At the center was a bottomless crater, as if created by an unimaginably huge explosion that vaporized everything instantly. He stood within this deep pit.
As far as the eye could see, there were mutilated corpses. The forehead protectors they wore came from all over… not only from the great Ninja Villages but also many rare, small village symbols, as if the entire Ninja World's Ninjas had gathered here and met their end.
And at the very center of the battlefield, atop a terrifying mountain of corpses piled from countless shinobi, lay a massive, dark red Nine-Tailed Demon Fox!
It radiated overwhelming resentment and killing intent, like a throne symbolizing death and destruction.
Upon this throne sat a young man wearing a black robe with red clouds, his figure slightly slender, yet perfectly merging with the aura of the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, as if he were the master of this land of death.
He tilted his head slightly, seemingly leaning against the Black Nine-Tails' head.
The next moment, the young man slowly turned his head.
Itachi saw a young face, black hair, with a faint, familiar quality that gave Itachi a sense of illusion. Then he saw his eyes.
What empty, weary eyes they were! As if bearing all the pain and despair of the world, yet so cold they held not a shred of warmth, just a void of indifference.
As if he had seen through all the world's falsehoods, or as if he simply didn't care about anything.
The moment their gazes were about to meet-
"Argh!" In reality, Itachi let out a sharp cry. A tearing pain shot through his eyes, and two streams of blood flowed out like tears.
His spirit felt as if struck hard by a heavy hammer. He staggered back several steps before barely managing to stand steady. Clutching his bleeding eyes, he gasped for breath, his face filled with horror and disbelief.
His Tsukuyomi had been forcibly broken!
He had even suffered a fierce backlash!
Not only did the other possess those bizarre repulsion and attraction abilities, he actually also had a powerful Mangekyo Sharingan that surpassed Itachi's understanding.
'That battlefield of corpses, that dark red Nine-Tails, that young man… what were they?!'
When he finally managed to suppress the intense pain in his eyes and the shock to his spirit, and refocused his gaze, Itachi's heart almost stopped.
Shura had, at some point, silently appeared on the grass, standing right beside the unconscious Sasuke!
He was looking down, his gaze seemingly fixed on Sasuke's pale face.
"Stay away from him!" Itachi roared hoarsely, his voice distorted by shock and anger.
His voice was filled with alarm, fury, apprehension, and a trace of fear he himself hadn't even noticed.
The strength of the man before him was unfathomable. His Ocular Power was not only powerful and bizarre, they even surpassed Itachi's scope of understanding!
Especially that fleeting glimpse of the Genjutsu scene at the end-
That apocalyptic battlefield, that dark red Nine-Tails, that mysterious young man...
It was all branded into Itachi's mind like a nightmare.
Itachi wanted to charge over, but the recent spiritual trauma had disrupted his Chakra, and his body was temporarily unable to muster strength.
Menma slowly raised his head, the mask turning towards Itachi. He did nothing to Sasuke.
"You… just who are you?" Itachi's voice held a barely perceptible tremor. He stared fixedly at the mask, a terrible suspicion rising in his heart.
"You and that Uchiha Hikari, and Uchiha Madara… what is your relationship?!"
He suspected that this man who called himself Shura might be the descendant of some unknown Uchiha survivor who had followed Madara when he defected from the village!
Otherwise, there was no way to explain why he possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan and that godly, unfathomable power!
Menma stood there quietly, the river wind stirring the hem of his black robe. He neither admitted nor denied.
After a long silence, just as Itachi was almost unable to resist launching another attack, Menma finally spoke. His voice, coming through the mask, seemed even more remote and mysterious.
"Uchiha Madara?" he repeated the name softly, his tone unreadable, perhaps mocking, perhaps something else. "He was merely a pawn himself."
"What he saw was, after all, only the 'truth' that others wanted him to see."
"And you," Menma's gaze seemed to pierce through the mask, landing on Itachi's still-bleeding eyes. "The 'correctness' you believe in and have sacrificed everything for... is it truly your own choice?"
"Your so-called capacity... how narrow it is."
These final words struck Itachi's heart like a hammer.
The masked man said no more. His figure seemed to melt into the shadows as he slowly receded, eventually disappearing completely into the darkness of the forest. He left behind only a deeply disturbed Itachi, his heart roiling with towering waves of doubt, and his younger brother, still struggling in his nightmares beside him.
The river flowed on, carrying unsolved secrets and the weight of destiny towards an unknown distance.