"Welcome to my world..." In a place surrounded by white emptiness, Itachi's voice rang out ethereally.
Before Itachi stood Sasaki, bound to a cross.
"In this world, I am god."
"Is this a genjutsu world? This is your Mangekyou ability? To be able to create such a world is truly miraculous, Itachi." Bound to the cross with an expressionless face, not even showing a trace of surprise, Sasaki instead looked around at his surroundings.
He didn't seem worried at all about being the one restrained.
This place was truly empty and void to the extreme. Indeed, the infinite genjutsu world was treatment only Sasuke enjoyed. People like Kakashi and Sasaki could only be bound to crosses and stabbed infinitely.
"You don't seem worried about your situation at all? I told you, here I am god. Accept judgment, Sasaki." Countless Itachi figures appeared out of thin air in this empty, boundless world. Each of them wore that ANBU black uniform and held the same katana Itachi had been wielding.
"You're god? Hehe." Sasaki let out a contemptuous laugh toward Itachi. Although the Tsukuyomi space was impressive, and time in the Tsukuyomi space was completely controlled by Uchiha Itachi.
Unfortunately, this level of technique was far inferior to Yoma's. Having experienced the baptism of the Yoma incident, Meruem didn't care about Itachi's techniques at all.
The Tsukuyomi space could torture the victim for 72 hours, where every second of those 72 hours could give the victim the sensation of 72 hours in the real world.
It was indeed a very powerful ability, but even so, it had time limits.
Yoma's ability would continue indefinitely if he didn't want to release his control over time.
In the side story of Aries in the original work, that pitiful village had been cursed by him for hundreds of years until his clone was eliminated. Casually toying with human time and life - this was the true face of these despicable gods.
"You think something like this can confine me?" Sasaki pointed to the shackles on his hands and feet, then in front of Itachi's eyes, gently pulled his arms outward, and those shackles broke apart like paper.
Itachi saw Sasaki's actions but didn't speak, only frowning as the lines on his face deepened.
Sasaki, having freed himself, gazed calmly at Itachi.
Those shackles weren't ordinary - normal people couldn't possibly unlock them, let alone break them. Unless the opponent's mental power was stronger than Itachi's, it would be absolutely impossible to break free. Even if the opponent also possessed Mangekyou Sharingan, they couldn't do it so easily.
At minimum, they should be mentally exhausted, but the Sasaki before him was completely unaffected. This gave Itachi an ominous premonition.
"You're not Sasaki. Who exactly are you?" Roars erupted from Itachi's mouth - why roars plural? Because there were thousands of Itachi figures present.
From the beginning, Itachi had felt something was wrong with Sasaki, but couldn't pinpoint what was off - just a vague sense of discord.
Only now did Itachi realize that this guy wasn't Uchiha Sasaki at all, not even a member of the Uchiha clan.
"Hmph, you finally noticed?" A completely different voice emerged from Sasaki's mouth, and his figure began to fade.
What finally appeared before Itachi was a handsome young man with somewhat greenish skin - the adult version of Meruem.
Since this was a mental world, what Meruem manifested was his adult form.
Itachi widened his eyes and glared angrily at the person before him. So many mysterious observers had inexplicably appeared within the Uchiha family - he couldn't help but take this seriously.
Although he didn't care about the family or the Uchiha name, he did care about his brother Sasuke.
"Who are you? What's your purpose... What happened to Sasaki?"
The stream of questions expressed Uchiha Itachi's confusion. Who was this person who could use a Mangekyou Sharingan-wielding Sasaki as a puppet?
If he felt he had some chance of victory against that man who claimed to be Uchiha Madara, when facing this man, he actually felt a trace of fear?
"As for who I am, that's not important. My purpose? Of course, it's to control part of the Uchiha clan members. You don't care about this family anyway, right? As for Sasaki? He's dead, of course."
Meruem explained to Itachi like a great villain. When facing Itachi, who held multiple spy identities, he didn't need to worry about the other party revealing his identity, because Uchiha Itachi had a fatal weakness - Sasuke.
Meruem controlling Sasaki to face Itachi had two reasons. First was to stop an opponent who was a Kage-level high-end combat force. Otherwise, with Itachi's participation, those three-tomoe Uchiha clan members would instantly be cut to pieces.
Meruem had no intention of letting others see his true body alive, except for Ruiko.
So wherever his true body went, whether Uchiha clan members or Konoha people, all were eliminated and became food for Taotie, becoming nutrients for his strength growth.
The second reason was wanting to experience the legendary Mangekyou Sharingan's genjutsu.
Meruem considered himself very perfect, with very powerful mental perception. Although he knew the Naruto world's genjutsu was related to the mind, whether he could resist genjutsu was still a noteworthy question.
Now it seemed that with his abilities, he should be able to ignore most genjutsu.
But when facing Mangekyou Sharingan-level genjutsu, there was some impact. When Meruem broke those shackles, it wasn't as easy as Itachi imagined.
When facing genjutsu at the level of Infinite Tsukuyomi or Kotoamatsukami, Meruem still needed to be more careful. Capsizing in shallow waters wasn't a good thing.
"You just need to know I have no intention of being your enemy. But one thing - if you dare leak half a word about me, I will personally kill your brother Sasuke in front of you, then kill you."
"I doubt you can do it!" Upon hearing that Meruem might harm Sasuke, Itachi's pupils contracted sharply, and countless Itachi figures around them attacked Meruem.
It seemed Itachi planned to severely injure Meruem in the Tsukuyomi space.
"Itachi, your Tsukuyomi is indeed a remarkable genjutsu, but this technique has two fatal flaws." Meruem completely ignored the katanas only a few meters from his body, speaking like instructing a junior.
"First point: if the person you pull into Tsukuyomi space has strength or mental power above yours, then you're the only one who suffers. Although I admit many things in this space are controlled by you, doing so consumes a lot of ocular power, right?"
"Let me show you what the ultimate of power means!"
"Hundred-Type Guanyin!" A massive thousand-armed Guanyin statue suddenly appeared behind Meruem.
"Slap slap slap" - like swatting flies, it knocked away all the surrounding Itachi figures one by one, so fast that even Itachi's real body couldn't react.
Although Meruem's true body was limited in strength and couldn't display full power, there was no such limitation in the Tsukuyomi space.
"Hundred-Type Guanyin - Twenty-Third Style!" The Twenty-Third Style of Hundred-Type Guanyin was one of the most powerful forms, known as the most fierce attack.
When Meruem used this technique, even Itachi's Tsukuyomi space shook and trembled.
Now only one Itachi remained before Meruem, with all the other illusions completely destroyed.
"Truly a remarkable technique..." Itachi stared coldly at Meruem, not refuting him, essentially acknowledging it. He knew Meruem was right. Although the Tsukuyomi space was very powerful, it had limitations. Not only did it consume large amounts of ocular power, but if the opponent's mental power was much higher than his, Itachi could hardly cause any mental damage to them. Because Tsukuyomi's essence was actually mental attack on the opponent - it wouldn't cause physical harm.
Moreover, Meruem's previous technique proved to him that Meruem had the ability to violently break the Tsukuyomi space.
"Then what's the second fatal flaw you mentioned?" Itachi also wanted to know what else the opponent could find wrong with his Mangekyou dojutsu in such a short time.
"No matter how long time passes here, it only equals one second in the real world, right?"
"Correct." This wasn't a secret that needed hiding, so Itachi answered decisively.
"Although for many people, one second is really too short... but you should know that for some people, one second is enough to do many things. Am I right, Itachi?"
Looking at Meruem's mocking expression, Itachi suddenly had an ominous premonition. One second?
"Drip..." "Drip..." Blood suddenly began flowing from the corner of Itachi's mouth for no apparent reason.
"Damn... you can actually..."
"That's right... If I can't deal with you within this space... but what about the real world? One second might be short for others, but for me, one second is enough to do many things."
Itachi instantly released "Tsukuyomi," and both their minds returned to the real world. The situation upon return had become somewhat delicate.
Sasaki's katana was deeply embedded in Itachi's abdomen. Although not fatal, Itachi had suffered considerable damage.
Tsukuyomi pulled both the opponent's and one's own mind into the Tsukuyomi space. Due to the space's special nature, one second in the real world equaled 72 hours in the Tsukuyomi world, and each second of those 72 hours felt like 72 hours in the real world to the victim.
Simply put, 72 hours equaled 259,200 seconds, with each second feeling as long as 72 hours to the victim.
For ordinary people, it was a technique that would torture them to mental collapse, but that was only against ordinary people.
As Meruem said, one second was enough for him to do many things. Meruem's mind was indeed drawn into Itachi's Tsukuyomi space, but the Golden Silkworm Gu still existed in Sasaki's head. Sasaki's body could also be controlled by the Golden Silkworm Gu - Nen beasts were quite miraculous things.
Moreover, Meruem had been guarding against Itachi's move, so Itachi's defeat wasn't unjust.
At this moment, Meruem's true body had also attracted someone's attention due to his actions bringing death wherever he went.
A masked man stood before him, facing him.
(End of Chapter)
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