Chapter 40: Sasuke vs Itachi
Sasuke arrived at the Uchiha Hideout, and confronted Itachi. The battle began with both of them seemingly using taijutsu, soon ending with Sasuke cornering Itachi and deciding to ask him one last question before killing him off. Sasuke asked, "Who is he?" Sasuke recalled when Itachi had said that three of the Uchiha clan would have the ability to use the Mangekyō Sharingan, including himself, if Sasuke would be able to awaken his. Itachi explained that the person who had assisted him when he murdered the entire clan was none other than Madara Uchiha, one of the founders of Konoha, and revealed that one of the purposes of the Mangekyō Sharingan was to control the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox which he had done 16 years ago when it attacked Konoha. He also revealed that, once the Mangekyō Sharingan was activated, it would progressively lead to blindness. Itachi referred to Madara is the founder of Akatsuki and his mentor. It then turned out that Sasuke and Itachi's battle so far had been pure genjutsu. Itachi then finally activated his Mangekyō Sharingan, and revealed that the only way to stop the blindness was to take the eyes of another Sharingan user; he stated that this was the reason he had left Sasuke alive, and why he had pushed him to become stronger. After a flashback of his childhood, Sasuke stated, "Finally... it all ends here." During their talk, Zetsu watched hidden from the ceiling, and his halves began to comment on the battle.
After securing him in place with a shadow clone, Itachi then proceeded to rip out Sasuke's eyes. It was revealed that the whole fight so far had been a genjutsu, namely Itachi's Tsukuyomi, which Sasuke had overcome.
Sasuke shortly lectured Itachi about the tools of the ninja, and how a tool was only as powerful as the ninja who used it. Itachi told Sasuke that he would make his dream, of ripping out his eyes, a reality, and readied the Amaterasu. Itachi and Sasuke both used the Great Fireball Technique, and Sasuke held a slight advantage until Itachi used Amaterasu, which burnt out Sasuke's fireball immediately, and melted through his remaining cursed seal level 2 wing, as well as scorching his body. Itachi prepared to rip the eyes out of the half-burned Sasuke, but the corpse was shown to be an empty shell left behind, and the real Sasuke had dropped into the floor below. He used a new ninjutsu, named Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique, from down below. Itachi dodged, but it still burnt his arm. Soon it began to rain, and Sasuke said that this new technique was unavoidable. Zetsu continued watching the fight, narrating their movements and adding background to mysterious moves.
Sasuke charged his final technique, Kirin. A huge creature made of lightning appeared, fuelled by the Great Dragon Fire Technique which had dumped a huge amount of residual heat into the upper atmosphere, and Sasuke's chakra remained suspended in a usable form, changing with the atmosphere from simply fire chakra into a bolt of lightning characterised in the same form as the earlier Great Dragon Fire Technique, but cast instead from lightning. Sasuke hit Itachi, who appeared to be dead.
Itachi was then shown to be alive somehow, and revealed a third Mangekyō technique: Susanoo, which pulled out the legendary Sword of Totsuka. Giant snakes suddenly appeared out of Sasuke. One of them revealed Orochimaru inside its mouth. Sasuke, having used up nearly all of his chakra fighting Itachi, could no longer suppress Orochimaru, who had been inside of Sasuke since his failed attempt at taking over his body. The snakes were all killed, and Orochimaru was stabbed by the Sword of Totsuka, sealing him in an eternal dream state, and the remains were subsequently sucked into the Sake jar that the Sword of Totsuka was sheathed in.
Itachi then asked Sasuke if that was all he had. Sasuke then proceeded to attack Itachi, again ending in a futile attempt as all his attacks were reflected by another effect of Susanoo, the Yata Mirror, which reflected all attacks directed at Itachi. Sasuke was knocked back by his own attacks, and laid on the ground. Itachi seemed to be invincible, when Susanoo began to fade. Itachi walked towards his brother, seeking his eyes. When Itachi reached Sasuke, he poked Sasuke's forehead, saying, "I'm sorry, Sasuke. There won't be a next time", a reference to his constant unfulfilled promises to train with Sasuke in their youth. Itachi then died of exhaustion. Zetsu figured that Itachi must have been injured before the battle started, also noting that Itachi was unable to dodge attacks he would normally be able to. Sasuke then smiled and closed his eyes before collapsing himself, as Itachi's Amaterasu continued to burn around them.
Erza was sitting next to Gray across an arguing Natsu and Lucy. Natsu challenges Gray on a fight and when he stood up he accidentally bumped into Erza's shoulder making her cake fall into the floor. But unlike the her usual self instead of raging hammock towards everyone she remain silent lips slightly parted and tears slowly swelling in the corner of her eyes clinched fist rested on her chest. Untold, before Itachi died he cast a genjutsu towards Erza. There he stood thanking her "If I had met you earlier, it could have changed my life, I could have married you and became happy. For once in my life you came and for the first time in like forever I smiled and laughed with you, a thing that I thought I have already forgotten." He poked her forehead with two of his fingers "Sorry Erza, there will be no next time" he said slowly vanishing into a raven and flew away. She knew that at that very moment Sasuke have beaten Itachi since he sent her back to fairy tail so Sasuke couldn't use her against him. "Goodbye Itachi" she whispered.
Gray saw her face and the cake on the floor which made him was terrified. "I'm sorry Erza, I'll get you a new one" he stammered. Much to their surprise She just stood up glanced at him and walked out, her heart is full of sadness of loosing a friend and not able to save Sasuke from this event. Gray saw tears on her eyes and followed her to the riverbank, he maintained a decent distance to give her space. She sat on the spot where she always would have been during times like this. "Yo Erza, what's up?" it was Mystogan.
"I thought you're someone I knew"
"Did I bother you?"
"Not really, It's just I wanna be alone for a while"
"I saw you walking so fast, I called you but it seemed that you didn't hear me"
"Sorry"
"Uhm, Is something bothering you? I wanna hang out with you, hope you don't mind"
"Maybe I can use some company"
He sat beside her quietly as they watch the sunset. He can't help but notice the sadness in her eyes which caused a pain to strike his chest. Gray who is watching from afar once again was eaten by his jealousy and went towards them sitting in between the two.
"I told you to never cry alone, didn't I?"
nods
"Then why are you here crying all by yourself making me feel useless"
"I'm sorry"
"It's getting late, I'll walk you home"
"I'm fine, you two go home, I need some time alone, no buts, just do it" (death glare)
"Yes ma'am" unison
"What do you think is wrong with Erza?" Mystogan asked "I don't know she started acting weird today, usually if something happened to her cake people die but today she is different: Gray explained the two walked home silently, they parted ways. As soon as Gray disappeared Mystogan (Kakashi) went back to Erza, he can't let her be without him on her side or maybe it's just how he loves her.
"Yo, I got lost on my way home and ended up here"
"Dummy"
"Wanna grab some beer?"
"Hell yeah, I could use some drink"
So they went into a bar, he was shocked to see how strong is her tolerance to alcohol practically gulping up a barrel like cana.
"wanna talk about it?"
She moved next to him, looked at him, she is now drunk and lost control of herself, starting sobbing and crying burying her face to his chest. He gently stroked her hair as he let her cry her heart out.
"I'm okay now"
"Why do you wear mask? It reminds me of my boyfriend"
"Oh, you have a boyfriend?"
"yeah, so let me see your face, it's not that you're a wanted criminal like my ex Jellal, right?"
"He pulled his mask down, you see the reason I cover my face is because I look exactly like him, I am his Edolas counterpart, Prince Mystogan Fernandez" Kakashi narrated trying to be in character
"I don't want to remind you of him and the pain plus you said I sounded like your boyfriend so to avoid complications I decided to cover my face so the council won't bother me too" pulling his mask back up
"Thank you. Today I got a message from a good friend. He just died, his younger brother killed him. His life was so sad and the only escape was to die in the hands of his brother leaving him the sole survivor on their clan, so only three of us has this sharingan now, me, my boyfriend and my little brother" she explained in a drunk way. Kakshi was lost for words on her calling him consistently her boyfriend, Itachi being killed by Sasuke- the burden should be his because he is his teacher- he failed to protect someone important to him again and Itachi was his friend back in the Anbu days.
"Come on, we're done here, I'll walk you home"
"I can manage to go home" she fell and Kakashi was able to catch her
"She's already sleeping" and he carried at his back towards fairy hills. He met Mira Jane on the way.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone