Kai was stunned.
Mikoto's slap was genuinely divine intervention.
Even Fugaku jerked in shock and hurriedly set the teacup down as he stood.
He moved too fast, spilling tea all over himself—but he didn't even dare wipe it.
He forced a cheerful laugh and rushed to explain.
"Ahem… they're sparring. Just sparring."
"Sparring?" Mikoto looked suspicious.
But before she could press further, Fugaku practically escorted her back to her room.
"Hah…"
He wiped sweat off his forehead and turned to Itachi.
"Your mother doesn't know anything. Can you…?"
Clatter—
Right then, the door creaked open again.
"Onii-chan… hug."
Little Sasuke, rubbing sleepy eyes, hopped in and reached for Itachi without the slightest hesitation.
Then, still in Itachi's arms, he snorted disdainfully at Kai.
Inside the ancestral shrine—already thick with bitterness—the mood turned even weirder.
"Ahem. Looks like you can't really kill anyone properly now," Kai said after a brief pause, then offered sincerely, "How about you come back in a couple days and try again?"
Itachi: "..."
Itachi hesitated for a heartbeat.
Then—
He swung the hilt down.
Thud!
In Sasuke's disbelieving stare, he knocked Sasuke out cold.
After laying him down carefully, Itachi shook his head.
"There won't be another chance."
The moment those words fell, his entire presence shifted.
Hummm—
Orange-red chakra spread across his body like heat haze.
He looked toward Kai, his voice unusually solemn.
"Kai. I have reasons I must do this, so—"
"So eat an Eight Trigrams: Air Palm!"
BOOM!
Before Itachi could finish—
His body was slammed backwards.
BAM!
He crashed into the courtyard wall.
RUMBLE!
The wall collapsed.
Itachi was buried beneath the rubble.
"Man, you talk too much. I'm honestly sick of the 'one against seven' thing," Kai said with a shrug as he stepped outside and took a deep breath.
Air Cannon really was convenient.
Even a high-IQ combat monster like Itachi couldn't take it head-on.
"Caw—caw!"
But the rubble didn't trap Itachi.
Instead, several black crows burst out and flapped skyward.
Flap-flap.
In the blink of an eye, they gathered—
And turned back into a human figure.
Uchiha Itachi.
He looked down at his younger brother and, for the first time, felt true unfamiliarity.
After a short silence, he smiled faintly.
"That palm just now… was it your dōjutsu?"
"And yet you chose taijutsu. Wrong path."
"Ninjas value ninjutsu above all."
"Now then—enjoy this feast of ninjutsu."
"Amaterasu!"
Fwoosh!
His right eye snapped wide.
Black flames erupted out of nowhere—cold and vicious, yet scorching enough to eat the world.
At the doorway, Fugaku's pupils shrank sharply.
"So fast… black flames that burn everything to ash."
"So this is the power of Itachi's other eye?"
Fast.
Too fast.
Even though Itachi called it out, even though Fugaku had activated his Mangekyō—
He still hadn't tracked the flames in time.
By the time he saw them, the black fire had already appeared beneath Kai's feet.
When he realized Kai wasn't moving at all, Fugaku's face changed.
"Kai—move! Get out of the way!"
He even stepped forward to help—
Then froze.
The black flames passed straight through Kai's body.
As if they'd struck empty air.
Only when they hit the cherry tree outside the wall did they finally cling and roar upward.
"…Just like that man who calls himself Madara," Itachi murmured, narrowing his eyes. His heart sank.
"A phasing ability… like space-time intangibility."
That man's intangibility couldn't last longer than five minutes…
If that was the case—
Fine.
Then he'd burn until Kai was forced to reappear.
Itachi covered his left eye and spoke again, voice hoarse.
"Amaterasu!"
Fwoosh!
This time it was faster.
More black flame bloomed beneath Kai—like a furnace trying to swallow him whole.
But—
A soft halo drifted.
A pale wash of moonlight rested on Kai's body.
His form turned to light, like a golden statue—untouchable.
"What a ridiculous trait…"
Kai tilted his head and glanced up at the moon.
Sunlight was light.
Moonlight was light.
Even streetlamps were light.
And if it came down to it—he could cast Fire Release himself. Firelight wasn't light now?
In other words—
This "golden body" was far stronger than he'd expected.
Second by second, time crawled by.
"Cough…!"
Itachi suddenly felt his throat tear.
A violent cough seized him.
"Cough…! Cough…—pfft."
Blood splattered into his palm.
"So soon…?" Itachi lowered his eyes to the crimson stain, expression dimming.
Orange-red chakra surged again—
Crack. Crack.
It formed ribs—armor plating itself around him.
Then two enormous armored arms took shape, burning with red chakra flame.
"Susanoo?" Kai raised his brows. "That's… honestly unexpected."
"In just over a year he not only mastered both eyes' techniques—he even developed something this ancient."
At the door, Fugaku's eyes widened so much they looked ready to pop.
He'd already accepted the truth.
He could face death calmly.
And yet he was still shaken by his eldest son's genius.
"If Itachi stood with the clan… could we really restore the glory of our ancestors?"
The thought appeared—then he strangled it immediately.
What mattered now was Kai.
"This child is young. He's never read the clan records. He can't be allowed to suffer for ignorance."
Fugaku inhaled sharply and began to warn him.
"Kai, this is Susanoo, a Mangekyō-only technique. Its defense—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
The words jammed in his throat.
Because what he saw next…
Made no sense.
Across from them, Kai showed zero change in expression.
He simply raised a hand again.
"Eight Trigrams: Air Palm."
BOOM!
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Air Palms fired like bullets, hammering the skeletal ribs of Susanoo with crisp impacts.
But it didn't break.
Itachi wiped the blood from his lips and sneered.
"How laughable."
"This is the greatest defense in the shinobi world."
"And you think you can break it with bare hands?"
"Kai—you really are naïve."
"So what?" Kai shot back, utterly unimpressed. "You know someone once stabbed it with shuriken, right?"
Then he lifted his right hand high.
Slowly—
Brought it down.
Eight Trigrams: Air Palm.
But this time, it wasn't an invisible air blast.
It was a massive crimson chakra shell—
A cannonball.
Nine-Tails Power — Two-Tenths.
Containing two-ninths of the beast's might.
Itachi exhaled softly, voice almost resigned.
"Oh? You infused it with chakra nature? A good idea, but—pfft!"
CRACK!
In the next instant, the crimson blast tore a rib off Susanoo's skeleton like snapping a twig.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The breaking echoed without end.
The light in Itachi's eyes faded rapidly.
His face turned bloodless.
His body overloaded—
And Susanoo naturally collapsed.
He toppled forward—
But before he hit the ground, a crimson chakra hand appeared and caught him.
Then—
It clenched.
"Pretty pathetic, 'one against seven,'" Kai murmured, lifting his right hand slightly, dragging Itachi closer.
"You didn't actually think I asked you the same question so many times because I wanted to redeem you, did you?"
"Honestly…"
"I was just giving you chances."
And then—
Kai's fingers tightened.
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