Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
August 12, x790.
"Itachi Uchiha!"
Before the other members of Fairy Tail arrived, Itachi heard his name being shouted from the distance. Immediately, he turned towards the shout. And when he saw who it was, he was thoroughly surprised. Yet, he did not show any of the shock he was feeling on his face.
'Is that really Sasuke?' Itachi asked himself in disbelief. 'How did he get so powerful so early? I calculated that he wouldn't be able to put up a fight against me for at least another year. And that's with the degradation of my body after another year, as well. But from what I can tell, he would be able to fight on equal grounds with the me from a year ago.'
After having that thought, Itachi glanced at Alfonzo, who was covered in arcs of violet lightning. Then, he turned back to see Sasuke, who was charging forward at high-speed with a [Chidori] crackling in his left hand.
'I see.' Itachi mused. 'I suppose Sasuke's joining Fairy Tail was a good thing for his growth, after all. But I wonder just how they trained him.'
Naturally, Itachi had heard of the power of Fairy Tail's strongest members. Hell, he had seen them in action at the Grand Magic Games. Still, He never expected Sasuke to grow so much in only two years after leaving the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
However, Itachi was forced to change his train of thought when Sasuke appeared in front of him with his left hand drawn back and ready to strike Itachi with his [Chidori].
'Hmm?' Itachi hummed internally after leaning to the left to dodge Sasuke's strike. 'He wasn't aiming to kill me. That shouldn't be right. Especially after everything I did and forced him to see all those years ago.'
"Not aiming for the killing blow, Sasuke?" Itachi asked as he drew a kunai and slashed at Sasuke's arm. "It seems you don't have enough hate yet. What a shame."
"Shut up, Brother." Sasuke said coldly. "Just fight. Everything will be settled by the time we're finished here."
In the next instant, Sasuke's Sharingan started spinning at high speed. However, instead of trying to put Itachi into a [Genjutsu], which was common when making eye contact with the members of the Uchiha Clan, Sasuke only focused on seeing Itachi's magic power usage and predicting his actions in battle.
At the same time, Sasuke, with his hand still glowing with [Lightning Magic], swept his arm, avoiding Itachi's kunai while simultaneously jumping back to create a bit of distance.
"[Chidori Senbon]." Sasuke chanted as he flew backwards, once again sweeping his left arm in Itachi's direction.
With his motion, a volley of needles formed from [Lightning Magic] was ejected from Sasuke's hand, flying towards Itachi, each needle aimed at a spot that would immobilize Itachi were they to land.
Unsurprisingly, nearly every needle struck its intended target. However, Sasuke showed no joy in his expression. Because, a moment after the needles sunk into Itachi's body, his body broke down into a murder of crows, each with a pair of Mangekyo Sharingan, before they flew away.
At the same time, Sasuke turned his attention towards the distance where Itachi reappeared, completely unharmed. Not even his Akatsuki robes were damaged in the slightest.
Deciding that he would rather not get caught up in whatever Alfonzo was going to do to the remaining Paths of Pain, Sasuke quickly followed after his brother. All the while, he flung copious amounts of shuriken at him.
*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*
Despite the fact that Itachi was running in the opposite direction, he only had to glance over his shoulder to see through the trajectories of all of Sasuke's shuriken. Then, with a brief motion, he threw a number of shuriken of his own, cancelling out Sasuke's attack with ease.
Yet, that small action slowed Itachi down by just enough for Sasuke to close the distance with his next attack.
"[Flying Heaven's Sword-Style: Sōryūsen]." Sasuke said, naming his technique.
At the same time, Sasuke gripped the sheath of the sword hanging on his left hip with his left hand while he gripped the sword's hilt with his right.
*Chirp~~~~~~~~~~!*
On top of that, the sound of a thousand birds chirping rang out over the area while sparks of electricity could be seen escaping from the mouth of the sheath. At the same time, Sasuke's speed increased dramatically, as well.
Then, before Itachi knew it, Sasuke had reappeared right behind him in a sword drawing stance.
*Zap!*
Then, when Sasuke drew his sword, the blade of the katana that Alfonzo had crafted for him was covered in arcs of [Lightning Magic] and flying straight for Itachi's back.
*Clang!*
Reacting quickly, Itachi spun around, raising a pair of kunai in across just in time to block Sasuke's slash. Unfortunately, thanks to the [Lightning Magic] coating Sasuke's blade, Itachi's body stiffened for a moment. Meaning, he was unable to react fast enough to stop the attack from the sheath in Sasuke's left hand.
*Bang!*
And with a solid, high-speed impact to the abdomen, Itachi's body was bent around the sheath before shooting off, slamming into the ground. However, thanks to his years of training, Itachi was able to right himself quickly after rolling across the ground a few times. Still, he was forced to react as soon as his footing was stable once again.
"[Flying Heaven's Sword-Style: Ryūshōsen]." Sasuke said, naming another technique as he appeared in front of Itachi again with a burst of speed.
*Clang!*
With that, Itachi once again raised his kunai to defend himself. However, his eyes widened slightly when the force behind his younger brother's attack threw him back and upwards.
Luckily, because his Mangekyo Sharingan was active, Itachi was able to anticipate the effect of Sasuke's strike. So, to mitigate some of the force, he leapt backwards. Though, it was still surprising how far and how fast he was sent flying.
Immediately, Sasuke bent his knees once again. Yet, before he could leap forward to follow his brother, his instincts flared. He then quickly sheathed his katana and ran through a series of hand signs at high speed.
At the same time, Itachi closed his right eye briefly. During that time, Sasuke, with the use of his Sharingan, was able to see Itachi's magic power flowing towards the closed eye. Then, just before Itachi opened his eyes once again, Sasuke made the last of his hand signs.
"[Fire-Style: Great Dragon Flame Jutsu]." Sasuke chanted as he took a deep breath and drew his upper body back in tandem.
In the next instant, Sasuke spewed a stream of flames from his mouth that took the shape of a dragon's head. An instant after that, Itachi opened his right eye.
"[Amaterasu]." Itachi said, naming his technique.
At the same time, Sasuke's [Great Dragon Flame Jutsu] was stopped in place, engulfed by black flames. And from what Sasuke could see, the red and orange flames he spewed were being burned away by these black flames. Yet, he did not have too much time to think about such a thing.
Instead of watching to see the flames being burned by the other flames, Sasuke used his already impressive speed to dart away from where he stood. And that turned out to be the right decision. Because just after he moved, the ground where he stood was engulfed in black flames just after his Jutsu was completely consumed by Itachi's black flames.
And while Sasuke turned to run, Itachi tried his best to keep his eye focused on Sasuke. All the while, Sasuke continued to spew dragon shaped flames in Itachi's direction, even after Itachi eventually fell back to the ground.
'Those flames aren't traveling through the air to reach me.' Sasuke thought to himself while doing his best to stay out of Itachi's direct line of sight. 'Instead, they are simply appearing wherever Big Brother looks. But how long can he keep this up? It looks like this Jutsu is taking a serious toll on him.'
And just as Sasuke said, Itachi was bleeding from his right eye. At the same time, it looked like he was struggling to keep his eye open. Despite that, the black flames were covering more and more of the surrounding area the longer he was able to do so.
'Damn it, if this continues, I won't have anywhere left to move around.' Sasuke muttered to himself while circling around Itachi at high speed with the use of the speed cultivated through the use of the [ Flying Heavens Sword-Style.].
However, Itachi did eventually close his eye, clearly exhausted from the effort. At the same time, he also raised his right hand to cover his eye, which was throbbing with pain.
'Good, he stopped.' Sasuke muttered to himself while continuing to run. 'But if something isn't done about these flames, they'll probably keep burning and spreading until they reach Magnolia. Oh well, I guess now is as good a time as ever to try this in live combat.'
With that thought, Sasuke closed both his eyes for a moment. However, when he opened them, his three tomoe Sharingan was no longer there. Instead, they were replaced with a black iris with an eight-pointed, red pinwheel pattern surrounding his black pupil.
"What?" Itachi, after seeing Sasuke unlock a Mangekyo Sharingan, balked in surprise. "How is this possible?"
Itachi's surprise was not unwarranted. Because as far as he was aware, only trauma on the level of losing someone important to the wielder could a Sharingan be evolved from three tomoe to the Mangekyo Sharingan.
In fact, that would have been completely true only a few months ago. However, Alfonzo was able to get his hands on a fully evolved Mangekyo Sharingan almost two years ago. However, instead of implanting it into one of his eye sockets, like most would do were they to get their hands on a Sharingan, he did the sensible thing and handed it over to the best doctor on Ishgar, Porlyusica.
And that turned out to be the best choice he could have made. For Sasuke, at least. Because Porlyusica found the eye he handed her absolutely fascinating. And if you add that to the one he took out of Danzō's head before capturing him, Porlyusica had more than enough material to make a breakthrough in figuring out how the Uchiha's eyes work, and what it took to make them evolve.
And as it turned out, what made them evolve was the influx of negative magic power, or as the shinobi called it, [Yin-Style Magic Power] that was produced when an Uchiha lost someone precious to them.
So, with Alfonzo's help, Porlyusica was able to create a magic item that temporarily turned all the magic power in one's body into [Yin-Style Magic Power] temporarily. Then, they had Sasuke use said magic item to evolve his three-tomoe Sharingan into a pair of Mangekyo.
Yet, there was still the issue of over using the Mangekyo leading to blindness. However, that was an even easier issue for Porlyusica to fix than the first. In fact, Erza's artificial eye was the basis for that change, as some of the components naturally strengthened all the nerves in and around the eye, making it much stronger than it would normally be.
And as an added bonus, Sasuke also gained almost full immunity to illusions or [Genjutsu] that targeted one's sight.
Though, Itachi had no way of knowing all this.
"[Flame Control]." Sasuke chanted, bringing Itachi back to the here and now.
In the next instant, all the black flames in Sasuke's line of sight began to float before they were condensed into the shape of an arrow. Then, just as Itachi was able to react, Sasuke fired the arrow in his direction.
Just as Sasuke expected, Itachi used the [Body Flicker Jutsu] to evade the black flame arrow. And with his Mangekyo tracking Itachi's every move, Sasuke knew exactly where he would reappear.
At the same time, when he was certain that Itachi was no longer able to keep an eye on the arrow, Sasuke used his Mangekyō's ability to control the flames to extinguish them while he prepared for his next attack.
"[Flying Heaven's Sword Style: Kuzuryūsen]." Sasuke said, naming his next technique as he once again unsheathed his katana.
Meanwhile, Itachi focused on Sasuke as he approached. And when he saw the paths of Sasuke's technique, he could not help once again widening his left eye, as the right was still closed due to the pain of overusing [Amaterasu].
'His sword is actually aimed at nine vital spots simultaneously?' Itachi asked himself in dumbfounded amazement. 'How is this possible? No, more importantly, who could have taught him something like this? I know that Alfonzo Marcus was asked to train him when he left the Leaf, but Alfonzo is not a swordsman of this level.'
Though his thoughts were racing, Itachi's honed battle instincts kicked in, causing him to react without conscious thought. As a result, Itachi briefly closed his left eye, as well. And when he opened it…
"[Tsukuyomi]." Itachi called out.
[Tsukuyomi], one of the most powerful [Genjutsu] known to the world of shinobi. It allowed Itachi to put its victims into such an elaborate illusion that they cannot tell the difference between it and reality. It is even said that he allowed someone to live out the rest of their life within the illusion and die a peaceful death, which resulted in the victim dying in real life, as well. And that only took a few seconds of time in the real world.
However, thanks to the modifications Porlyusica made to Sasuke's eyes, he shrugged off the [Tsukuyomi] with no issue, leaving Itachi completely taken aback. And by the time he regained his senses, which was only a split-second later, it was too late to dodge the nine simultaneous strikes of the [Kuzuryūsen].
'No, it's too late!' Itachi exclaimed when he realized just what situation he was in. 'Even so, he's not aiming for my vitals directly. Instead, he's aiming to incapacitate me. Does he want to bring me back for interrogation? No, I can think about that later. For now, I have to make things go the way I've been planning for years. I'll have to use that…'
"[Susanoo]." Itachi said as both of his Mangekyo Sharingan began to spin wildly.
*Clang!*
In the next instant, the tip of Sasuke's sword struck. However, instead of piercing Itachi's skin and leaving him unable to move, Sasuke, along with his sword were repelled violently as Itachi was covered in a fiery orange glow.
At the same time, the fiery orange glow surrounding Itachi expanded into the upper body of a humanoid creature with four arms, two on each side. And each arm held a different weapon or item.
In the figure's upper right arm, or primary right arm, it held a short, single-edged blade reminiscent of a tanto. In the secondary right arm, it held what appeared to be a wine gourd. In its left primary arm, it held a shield with a reflective surface like a mirror. And a set of prayer beads was wrapped around the wrist of the secondary left arm.
Not only those items, however, but the large, fiery upper body was covered in armor similar to those of samurai with a long, tengu-like nose, and a fake beard like those that could be seen on pharaohs.
"So, you finally used it, huh?" Sasuke muttered while examining his brother's new form. "I guess I'm not surprised that you have not unsheathed the Sword of Totsuka, though. I mean, you don't want to seal me away in that 'world of drunken dreams,' after all.'
Though he was surprised that Sasuke knew about the Sword of Totsuka, Itachi did not let it show on his face. In fact, he was even starting to realize that Sasuke knew more than he was supposed to, as evidenced by the fact that not once had Sasuke actually tried to kill him so far. And Sasuke's next words proved those thoughts to be true.
"Alright, Big Brother." Sasuke said as he sheathed his sword once again. "I think we've played around long enough. I already know why you did what you did. And though I can't say that I agree with it, I understand why. So, let's just stop this and talk about it like adults. And if we're lucky, we might even be able to heal your eyes. I can tell from here just how little you can see me."
Although Itachi did not show any reaction when Sasuke named his primary weapon when using his [Susanoo], when he heard Sasuke speak to him calmly after fighting for this long, his eyes widened and the form of his [Susanoo] flickered due to his momentary loss of control. On top of that, all the tension left his body. So, it did not take long for his [Susanoo], despite his efforts to keep it up, to crumble, leaving Itachi staring at his brother with a blank expression.
Not long after that, Itachi fell to his knees with tears in his eyes before collapsing onto his butt, his body too weak to support himself any longer.
*Cough!* *Cough!*
A moment later, Itachi coughed violently. Though, he was too weak to cover his mouth. As a result, Sasuke saw the blood that splattered from his mouth and dribbled down his chin, causing the younger Uchiha to frown deeply.
Then, without hesitation, Sasuke approached Itachi, picked him up, carried him on his back, and sprinted towards the forest east of Magnolia.
"What *Cough!* are you doing, *Cough!* Sasuke?" Itachi asked, not sure what was going on any more.
"I'm taking you to get looked at." Sasuke said in an irritated tone. "What does it look like? There's definitely something wrong with you. I mean, I never hit you hard enough for you to be coughing up blood like that. Now, just shut up and let me take you to Porlyusica. And if you try anything, you'll have to deal with Alfonzo. He told me you were there for the Grand Magic Games. So, I'm sure you know what he can do if you make him angry."
While Sasuke ran towards Porlyusica's treehouse, he felt Itachi shudder on his back. The fear he could feel radiating from his brother was something he would have thought unthinkable several years ago. But after getting to know Alfonzo and the other members of Fairy Tail, he could only smile at just how human his brother felt at the moment.