A Growing Affection

Chapter 25: The Brothers' War Part II

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Itachi's eyes showed surprised, and maybe a little fear, as his Genjutsu shattered, then reformed around him. The zombies attacking Sasuke turned, and began to advance on their killer. More of his victims excised themselves from the ground.

Mikoto Uchiha reached her son first. Though she was not originally from the Uchiha clan, that fact had not spared her. With the soft tissue stripped from her distal phalanges, her finger bones tore into his skin and muscle like dull knives. She ripped chunks of flesh from his left arm, discarding them like offal. His body regenerated as quickly as it was wounded, giving the betrayed matriarch the ability to continue tormenting her offspring.

Though he knew the zombies were illusions, Itachi could not deny the pain. He attempted to break free of the Tsukiyomi, but found he could not. Sasuke's hate-fueled vision was too strong.

Only a handful of seconds passed in the real world, but Itachi felt as if he had been flayed alive continuously for two full days. He was breathing hard, and could not stand up straight. He even had some minor cuts and bruises.

"How did you do that? How did you reverse the Tsukiyomi?" the elder traitor panted, "How did you stop me from breaking free?"

"Research, and bit of luck," the younger Uchiha answered glibly. His color had drained, and he had a drop of blood in the corner of his left eye. But he was not breathing hard, and was moving almost normally. He was waiting for his brother to collapse, but despite his sore health, Itachi did not appear to be ready to become comatose.

"I won't be fainting like you or Kakashi," Itachi exhaled roughly, "You may have found an interesting variation of the Tsukiyomi, but have not sufficiently mastered the technique to do serious mental damage to the target."

"It doesn't matter," Sasuke dropped into a stance, "You are in no shape to fight me."

"Not yet..." Itachi's mouth twitched ever so slightly upwards. The Mangekyo Sharingan began to rotate, and Itachi steadied. Beginning on his hands and feet, all of his injuries began to move up his body. When they met his eyes, the bites, cuts and bruises vanished, as if sucked down a drain. In the brief second it Sasuke to recover from his surprise, his brother was fully healed. The Akatsuki ninja stretched, cracking his elbows.

His chakra nearly exhausted, Sasuke physically attacked again. This time his attacks were more precise, and Itachi was forced to actively block instead of simply dodging. Orochimaru's student aimed a double snap kick, stabbing his right foot at his enemy's stomach and then neck. The adult shinobi deflected the first shot with his hand, and leaned back to avoid the second. Sasuke threw his body back into a side aerial, and his left foot connected with Itachi's chin. But the weak attack did not deter the former ANBU leader, and while his brother was still upside-down, Itachi's right fist struck the teen's left temple. His head ringing and his acrobatics disrupted, Sasuke barely managed to land on his feet. The first-born sibling stepped in, slamming his elbow into his opponent's solar plexus. His hand snapped up, and the back of his knuckles struck Sasuke's nose, nearly breaking it. Sasuke attempted to grab his brother's wrist, to flip him into the wall. But Itachi turned grip around, using the pressure point on the back of Sasuke's hand to immobilize the youth long enough to land a hard side thrust kick to the younger man's lower spine. The avenger felt his legs going numb, but managed to score a moderate blow to Itachi's retreating knee.

Forced to admit his brother's reach and strength gave him an edge in Taijutsu, Sasuke spent a small amount of his remaining chakra, and summoned a very specific serpent. The python wrapped around his arm, and opened its mouth wide. It disgorged a familiar long sword into Sasuke's waiting hand.