"Have you memorized all the intelligence regarding the Sharingan?"
At the designated location, Kabuto and Amane were already on standby. Yakushi Kabuto was meticulously repeating known information about the Sharingan to Amane.
Although Amane really wanted to say, "If there's anything you don't know, just ask me," she still had to keep up appearances.
The plan was very simple: Orochimaru and Itachi were supposed to meet here as a team.
Then Orochimaru would directly move to capture him.
It was just that simple and unadorned, without any tricks.
As the saying goes, the more you do, the more mistakes you make. Against an opponent like Itachi, playing petty tricks was useless.
Furthermore, aside from this intentional arrangement by the Akatsuki Organization, Orochimaru usually couldn't even find Itachi, let alone set a trap.
Soon, Amane sensed a familiar Chakra. The Ninja, whose temperament far exceeded his youthful appearance, finally arrived.
"He's here! Prepare Sage Mode, White Snake."
Before Amane's voice could fade, White Snake's slender body had already coiled around her neck. The person and snake immediately became still, quietly accumulating Natural Energy within their bodies.
At the same time, on the stairs, Orochimaru and Itachi were slowly walking toward each other, just like in the original work.
But Itachi seemed to have noticed something early; Orochimaru's Chakra instantly became turbulent!
"Get ready, Snake Aunt has fallen into a Genjutsu," Amane warned in a low voice.
Yakushi Kabuto's first reaction was disbelief. Lord Orochimaru's mastery of Genjutsu was at the level of a top-tier master!
But after seeing Orochimaru unable to move with his own eyes and hearing him express shock at being caught in a Genjutsu, Kabuto's gaze couldn't help but turn toward Amane, whose purple eye shadow had already surfaced.
[Between these two monster-like geniuses of Konoha, who will win and who will lose later?]
Yakushi Kabuto was also very much looking forward to this result.
"Truly... impressive."
Although Orochimaru was restrained by the Genjutsu, his golden vertical pupils were still fixed on those blood-red eyes, his heat difficult to hide. "I also pride myself on being a Genjutsu expert, yet I am so vulnerable before your Sharingan..."
"No matter what kind of Ninjutsu you use, it is meaningless before these eyes."
Itachi held a Kunai with a cold posture, as if he were about to finish Orochimaru instantly, but his movements suddenly paused, and his gaze slowly shifted toward a certain direction.
As he said, everything was laid bare under the Sharingan.
Even though it didn't have the 360° wide-range X-ray vision of the Byakugan, the Sharingan could also see Chakra and possessed a certain degree of penetration.
He saw it; so that girl suspected of being from the Uzumaki Clan earlier was Orochimaru's subordinate.
The moment this thought flashed through his mind, a thick water mist suddenly obscured Itachi's vision!
[Hiding in Mist Technique? Trying to block my vision...]
Itachi understood, but he didn't take this level of interference seriously!
Just an instant before the mist completely enveloped him, Itachi's Hand Seals were already complete.
Wind Release: Great Typhoon!
A violent gale rose out of thin air, vowing to blow away this eyesore of a water screen. This was exactly the technique Yagura had used back when he followed Biwa Jūzō to capture the Three-Tails Jinchuriki.
However, after the strong wind passed, the pervasive water mist didn't move an inch! Only the muffled sound of trees breaking came from the distance.
[The sound of trees breaking in the wind... this isn't an ordinary Hiding in Mist Technique?]
The Wind Release was clearly effective, yet it couldn't shake the water mist in the slightest! Itachi's heartstrings instantly tightened, and his vigilance rose to the peak.
Suddenly!
The Sharingan captured it: within the water mist composed of Chakra, a flow appeared!
Itachi almost instinctively slid to the right to dodge, throwing the Kunai in his hand as he went, his sharp gaze locking onto the point of impact. But that place of fluctuation was actually empty, with no sign of an attack!
Without hesitation, Itachi leaped back and retreated rapidly, while his hands quickly formed Hand Seals!
Boom!
Right where he had been standing, a huge ball of scorching fire exploded violently, with several thick snake shadows faintly visible within. If he hadn't dodged in time, he would have surely been tightly coiled.
More importantly, until this moment, he had failed to capture any premonition of an attack from the flow of the water mist!
The conclusion was self-evident.
The controller of this water mist could not only manipulate the flow of Chakra at will but could also do so with such precision that it could fool the Sharingan!
[Stronger than the conventional Hiding in Mist Technique... Chakra flow can be precisely controlled manually... Wind Release is ineffective...]
Uchiha Itachi's thoughts moved like lightning, and a countermeasure had already formed in his mind.
Swish, swish, swish—
In the next instant, countless shuriken and Kunai turned into a rain of cold stars, shooting indiscriminately toward the depths of the surrounding mist! Accompanied by an almost imperceptible Hand Seal.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
The violent sound of explosions was deafening, and flames swept through the surroundings. However, even with such a wild explosive impact, that eerie thick fog remained unmoved, not even stirring a single ripple.
After all, this was the Hiding in Mist Technique driven by Sage Chakra!
It not only perfectly inherited all the characteristics of the original technique but also, with the addition of Amane's powerful sensory abilities and Sage Mode, this patch of water mist was almost equivalent to an extension of Amane's will! Any subtle movement within the mist could not escape her insight.
For example, just now, Itachi seemed to be blindly scattering exploding tags, but in reality, he had already manipulated crows to quietly fly toward the blind spot of the explosion.
At this moment, Orochimaru's position was exposed!
"I see," Itachi's cold voice pierced through the mist, "it seems that controlling this patch of water mist... requires the caster to concentrate intensely?"
Otherwise, why had he already caught Orochimaru, yet Amane hadn't made a move yet?
Before his voice could fade, scorching flames roared within the sea of mist once again!
Uchiha Itachi was Uchiha Itachi after all! In such a brief exchange, he had already seen through the most critical weakness of the "Sage Art: Hiding in Mist Technique."
However, this wasn't important to Amane. The main purpose of this thick fog was originally to seal the Sharingan.
As long as this was achieved and it wasn't easily dispersed, the core strategic objective of the technique was already realized.
[It's time to make a move.]
The technique had been seen through, and Itachi had also caught Orochimaru. Now was no longer the time when just disrupting the Sharingan's observation could lead to victory.
"White Snake, absolutely do not look into his eyes," Amane reminded solemnly once again.
"Don't worry! I'll be like Amane, using the snake's cornea to shield my vision the whole time!"
White Snake said full of energy, without the slightest sense of urgency in facing a powerful enemy.
A world of thermal imaging unfolded before her eyes. The familiar sights were replaced by another form, losing color while revealing temperature contours difficult for the naked eye to capture.
Locking onto two humanoid heat sources, Amane's figure suddenly disappeared!
[The flow of the water mist has returned to normal... that child... finally moved?]
Itachi keenly sensed the movement! The Sharingan's ocular power instantly captured several sharp Wind Blades breaking through the air from deep within the mist!
The speed and range were both slightly insufficient, making them not difficult to dodge. Itachi easily avoided the attack trajectory of the Wind Blades... but this in itself implied another possibility!
Great Fireball Technique!
[Completely predicted?!]
Facing the massive fireball coming at her, Amane's heart skipped a beat.
She wasn't surprised by encountering a counterattack, but rather marveled at the precision of Itachi's counterattack!
Even with the water mist's Chakra flow returning to normal, her Wind Blade feint, which also served to distract the enemy, was actually completely seen through!
Itachi's combat intuition and talent were indeed not to be underestimated.
But this was only a small problem.
The seals were already prepared. A chain entwined with fine Chakra runes and flowing with a dim golden light shot out from behind Amane!
The moment the scorching fireball hit the chain!
Sizzle!
That huge fireball actually seemed like a clay ox entering the sea, instantly swallowed whole by the chain! The runes engraved on it then lit up with a fierce fire-red color, and the entire chain seemed reborn in fire, entwined with raging flames, its power increasing rather than decreasing as it lunged straight for Itachi!
[Engraving the Fire Sealing Seal onto the Adamantine Sealing Chains... any Fire Release it touches will be absorbed and converted into the power of this technique... not only that!]
Amane formed a new seal with her hands.
Hum—
A second rune-entwined golden chain broke through the mist! Unlike the first one, the jumping runes on it flickered with a completely different water-blue luster.
Water Sealing Technique!
The concept from her time in the Land of Water had now been turned into a practical weapon.
When Uchiha Itachi habitually tried to deal with this deadly chain with Water Release, the Adamantine Sealing Chains engraved with the Water Sealing Technique instantly coiled around it, Sealing and absorbing it!
The two chains, possessing absolute counters, closed in from left and right in an instant, tightly locking Itachi's figure in a narrow space!
At the same time, Orochimaru's venomous snakes also seemed to sense the chance for victory, their cold fangs stabbing toward Itachi's neck like lightning!
Did it work?
Bang!
It seems not.
However, even though a Shadow Clone is hard to distinguish from the real thing before being destroyed, Amane, currently in the thermal imaging view, saw clearly.
Itachi's true body, that clear humanoid heat source point, was clearly still in its original place!
But just then!
Outside the world of thermal imaging, a black crow appeared before Amane's eyes.
The cold Three-Tomoe Sharingan was staring intently at her!
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