[Third Kazekage]: Something's off about this plot…
[Boruto]: No way Sasuke-sensei and his brother lose, right?
[Itachi]: We'll win.
[Sasuke]: Hmph. As long as I feel like it…
Seizing the opening, Itachi yanked Kabuto forward like a hooked fish.
"Sasuke!"
"On it—flip the hood, right?"
Sasuke blurred past like a thrown kunai and flicked Kabuto's hood up—
only for the "body" beneath to vanish.
From the empty cloak, three pythons geysered out, fangs first.
Steel flashed. Sasuke's blade whistled through the dim, pinning a tail to stone.
The serpent twisted, slackened like wet rope, and slipped free.
Sasuke's eyes cooled. "What a coward—skulking, squirming… squeaking."
The chat swallowed hard.
[Zabuza]: …Really hoping nothing goes sideways.
[Deidara]: Still waiting for the Madara highlight reel.
[Raikage A]: When it's his turn, I'm challenging him.
[Rasa]: I'll solo 'the God of Shinobi' while we're at it.
[Hashirama]: Hard pass. Not my type.
[Tobirama]: Brother, what are you even saying.
[Hanzō]: Hashirama and Madara? Not worth mentioning.
[Madara]: …Which grain of sand yapped?
Madara ignored the barking. Let them talk.
When Perfect Susanoo rises, even the echo of their voices won't remain.
[Hashirama]: They're roasting you, Madara. No comeback?
[Madara]: Dogs that don't bite bark loudest.
[Izuna]: Exactly—like Tobirama, that mad dog.
[Tobirama]: Who's the mad dog now?
Kabuto's voice slid through the cavern, smooth as a scalpel.
"You underestimate me, Sasuke. Understandable. My bounty's lower than yours. And compared to Lord Orochimaru, I used to be… insignificant."
Sasuke's Mangekyō flared—
Itachi's hand rose in quiet warning. "Not yet."
The air prickled—chakra signatures everywhere.
Even the "snake" Itachi was holding softened to slime in his grip.
Kabuto's lecture began. With each new ability he recited, his glasses caught the light—pride sharpening to mania.
[Neji]: Can a caged bird ever break fate?
[Kabuto]: Absolutely.
[Naruto]: Neji, you're too gloomy—be more like Uncle Obito!
[Neji]: (stares at Obito's avatar) …Why does my chest hurt?
[Naruto]: Bro, when I look at him I feel warm.
(Obito coughs violently in the chat.)
[Kakashi]: Obito, you okay? Caught a cold?
[Obito]: Deep one. Bring medicine… to the Pure Land?
[Danzō]: The Uchiha power is too dangerous. Giving those eyes to Sasuke is a waste.
[Izuna]: And who let the stray dog in?
[Madara]: Easy, Izuna.
[Tobirama]: Danzō, you are the last person qualified to talk.
Stone dust drifted. Kabuto's wounds sealed over instantly.
He'd stolen too many bodies, too many gifts—now he was a patchwork apex.
"Ryūchi Cave's Sage Arts," Itachi murmured, pupils tightening.
Kabuto's smile widened. "Exactly. Alongside Mount Myōboku and Shikkotsu Forest—
I reached the third holy land. I didn't merely follow Orochimaru—I surpassed him."
Serpents braided, weaving Kabuto's new body as he stepped from their coils.
Sasuke's Susanoo loosed an arrow—
Kabuto slid past with preternatural calm.
"My perception is beyond anything I had before. Nature energy stands with me."
The soundtrack kicked hard—drums like thunder in a ribcage.
[Hashirama]: He really mastered Dragon Sage Mode…
[Tobirama]: Brother, can you beat that Kabuto?
[Hashirama]: Hard to say—his field performance is limited, but the kit's terrifying.
[Deidara]: Talkative guy.
[Obito]:cough
[Kakashi]: That's not how you use a cough emote, Obito.
[Kaguya]:bubble bubble
[Boruto]: Dad's era had cracked enemies…
[Jiraiya]: You kids grew up without war. Be grateful.
Kabuto's chakra spiked. His skin whitened, hair bleached, horns budding—
scales rippled like musical notes across flesh. Eyes slit.
When he breathed, the cave itself seemed to expand and contract.
"I have sloughed the snake, and ascended as a dragon," he intoned.
His voice doubled, one human, one something older.
Sasuke and Itachi moved together.
Susanoo palms clapped—shockwaves folding the snakes back.
Chidori-current laced Sasuke's blade; black flame licked Itachi's ribs like a living cloak.
Kabuto dropped low, hands on stone—sage sound screamed from the walls.
The air howled; for a moment even gravity forgot its job.
Sasuke staggered, ears bleeding—
Itachi's Yata Mirror angled, sound shattering like glass on the divine shield.
In its wake, Itachi's eyes narrowed. So that's one of your win conditions.
Kabuto answered with white geysers—liquid serpents erupting from stalactites,
each one a sensor node, each one a trap.
"Genjutsu won't work on me," Kabuto lectured over the din.
"My eyes, nose, tongue, skin—every sense perceives.
Your illusions can't blind a man with five truths."
Itachi's expression didn't change. "Then one more truth should suffice."
He cut a glance to Sasuke. "Watch. This jutsu has a risk. I am the risk."
"Stop talking in riddles," Sasuke snapped, stance tightening.
Kabuto flicked a kunai into the dark.
Itachi's shadow caught it—then fractured into a dozen crow-clones.
Feathers swarmed; the cave became a storm.
Between heartbeats, Kabuto's clawed hand found Itachi's throat—
and passed through, pinning only feathers to the wall.
Itachi reappeared at Kabuto's flank, fingertips a hair from his temple—
Kabuto's tail whipped, carving a canyon through Susanoo's plating.
Sasuke lunged, blade screaming lightning—Kabuto's horn parried with a shower of sparks.
"Give it up," Kabuto hissed. "You can't catch what can't be deceived."
Itachi's Mangekyō rotated—slow, deliberate, inevitable.
The crows stilled. The cave felt like a held breath.
"Izanami."
The word fell like a sealing tag.
Sasuke frowned. "Izanagi's twin…? You're going to bet your eye?"
Kabuto laughed. "Spare me. I learned everything Orochimaru valued.
Your myths won't bind a dragon."
The brothers exchanged no words. They didn't need them.
A pattern began—strike, turn, scrape of horn, fall of feather, the bite of stone.
Kabuto struck.
Itachi sidestepped.
Sasuke cut down.
Kabuto twisted.
Blood flicked the wall—was it Kabuto's? Itachi's? Time swallowed the answer.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Sasuke's pupils narrowed. "Nii-san… didn't we just—?"
Itachi's voice was quiet. "Keep watching."
Kabuto's smile faltered for the first time.
His hand moved to push glasses he wasn't wearing.
The same water drop broke on the same rock.
The same feather drifted to the same crack.
"Impossible," Kabuto breathed, pupils tightening to pins. "My senses—"
"Are trapped," Itachi said. "Not your eyes. Your choices."
Feather. Step. Strike. Echo.
A loop closed like a jawbone.
Kabuto screamed, pouring sage sound into the stone until it sang back at him—
but the note returned to the beginning every time.
[Hashirama]: He started it… Izanami!
[Tobirama]: A self-binding fate loop. Once you enter, you can't escape until you accept yourself.
[Izuna]: Elegant. Cruel. Very Uchiha.
[Deidara]: Art.
Kabuto's breath hitched. "No… I've evolved beyond Orochimaru—beyond anyone!"
The cave answered with the same falling feather.
Itachi stepped through the circle of sound and shadow, calm as rain.
"Then prove it. Change. Accept the self you keep running from."
Sasuke raised his sword, lightning crawling the edge.
Kabuto bared fangs, every scale flaring with nature light—
—and the screen froze on Itachi's unblinking eyes.
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