A torrent of lightning sprang forth from Sasuke's sword.
"You bastard!" Sasuke growled as he rushed down Itachi in the blink of an eye, forcing him to release Sakura's limp body. "I knew you were going to try something like this, and yet…!"
"It's her own fault for lowering her guard," Itachi replied impassively, easily parrying Sasuke's rapid sword swipes with a small kunai. "Those eyes are wasted on her, I'll put them to much better use than she ever could…"
How could he have possibly fallen for the old genjutsu within a genjutsu within a genjutsu trick!?
"Tch!" Itachi hissed as Sasuke's sword beam sliced clean through his kunai.
"You're getting slow, Itachi!" Sasuke laughed as he continued his assault, driving his brother against a wall. "What's the use of having the Mangekyō Sharingan if it makes you blind, eh?"
Itachi grunted in pain as the lightning chakra pouring out of Sasuke's sword hilt suddenly extended, drawing an arc of blood from his inner thigh as the blade bit into his flesh. The electrical arcs zapping out of Sasuke's blade and licking at their clothes instantly vaporised the blood spray, leaving a metallic aftertaste on their tongues.
Slice, thrust, parry, feint, cut, stab!
In a flurry of motion, Sasuke sliced off his brother's dominant hand and plunged his chakra blade into his heart before he could even blink… but Itachi's eyes betrayed no pain. With visible effort, he turned his head and gestured towards the spot where Sakura had fallen, and despite himself, Sasuke followed his brother's gaze.
Sakura's body was gone.
"Sasuke, why…?"
With a sinking feeling of emptiness building in the pit of his stomach, Sasuke looked down at his blood-drenched forearm, buried up to the elbow in Sakura's cavernous cleavage.
"I… just… wanted to help…" Sakura croaked.
Twin streams of blood dribbled out from the corners of her mouth. Her remaining eye was filled with fear and incomprehension; where the other had once been, there was nothing but a bloody, pulsating void.
"I told you to stay out of my way," Sasuke said hoarsely. "I told you, so why…?"
With effort, Sakura drew Sasuke closer and pressed her lips lightly to his. She managed a faint smile, even as the light faded from her eyes, and poked his forehead with two bloody fingers, leaving a wet smudge on his brow. With one last sigh, she slumped forwards, and he reflexively caught her limp body as she fell.
"Much better… I can see far more clearly now, with this eye," came Itachi's voice from behind him. "And now, to claim the second…"
Sasuke ignored him and gently lowered Sakura's still-warm body onto the cold floor.
"How foolish of her," Itachi went on. "Her eyes had the power to break my genjutsu's hold on you, but for the sake of love, she held back for your meaningless revenge…"
Sasuke's fingers closed around Sakura's throat, and he squeezed.
"What are you doing?" Itachi said, before letting out a strangled cry. "…Ghhk!"
The world lurched, and Sasuke found himself pressed against a wall, both hands clamped around Itachi's throat, choking the life from him. Sasuke's pupils widened; his brother's fingers were hovering perilously close to his left eye.
"Did you seriously just kiss me?" Sasuke growled as he tightened his hold. "Pretending to be Sakura, you mad bastard…!"
Just as Itachi's face was beginning to turn blue, Sasuke noticed fissures rapidly spider-webbing across the walls. The cracks began to propagate beyond the walls, spreading to Itachi, Sakura and himself, even through the air itself…
A high-pitched scream pierced his ears…
…and with the sound of shattering glass, the illusion fell apart.
The world hadn't turned into a broken vase, nor were Sasuke's hands wrapped around Itachi's throat any longer. Sakura was completely fine. His brother was on his knees a few metres away, blood spurting from his eyes and streaming down his face, holding a hand to his mouth as he coughed up yet more blood.
"Oh, you're back!" Sakura said brightly. "It's been three seconds; I was beginning to get bored."
Sasuke sighed. Now, he was certain that he was truly out.
"Impossible," Itachi groaned, his chest wracked by a fit of hollow coughs. "How could a mere three-tomoe Sharingan overpower my Tsukuyomi?"
Now that Sasuke had broken free of the Tsukuyomi, the most powerful genjutsu in existence, there was no point in continuing a battle of illusions.
However, within Itachi's illusion, Sasuke had repeatedly channelled the Chidori through his Thunder Deity's Sword Hilt, and while he hadn't landed a single strike on Itachi in the waking world, the effort had drained his chakra all the same. Itachi, meanwhile, was in the opposite position: his chakra reserves were mostly intact, having only used two genjutsu since the beginning of the fight, but he was sick and dying, and the strain his eyes were putting on his body wasn't helping.
Without warning, Sasuke hurled a pocketful of shuriken at his brother.
Ox! Dog! Dragon! Rat! Dog! Boar! Snake! Tiger!
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
The shuriken flying towards Itachi seemed to flicker as they tripled in number. In Itachi's eyes, the storm of razor blades looked like one giant, indistinct, grey blur, but their whistling was unmistakeable. Itachi threw himself to the side to avoid the bladed stars zipping towards him, but Sasuke pulled at the razor wire he'd attached to the originals.
A storm of metallic clangs filled the air as real shuriken struck their shadow counterparts in a shower of sparks, scattering the fakes outwards in a wide, shotgun-like burst. Several blades found their mark in Itachi's body, which promptly dissolved into a swirling murder of cawing crows.
"Heh," Sasuke sniggered, a grim smile gracing his lips. "Didn't see that one coming, did you? What's the matter, brother? Having trouble seeing?"
Sasuke couldn't help but gloat at the sight of his brother in such a poor state. Despite having avoided the brunt of the attack, Itachi's left arm hung limply to his side, blood dripping down his sleeve.
"What? How!?" Sakura shocked voice suddenly rang out behind him. "No, it can't be! Where did he go!?"
Naruto's chakra signature had just vanished without a trace from her senjutsu-enhanced senses. Panic shot through her as she sprang to her feet, tearing her gaze away from Sasuke and Itachi's duel towards the exit, where Kakashi's and Kisame's presences alone could still be felt…
The colour drained from Sasuke's face as Madara's words of warning flared in his mind unbidden:
"But at the last moment, just when you think the battle is won, Itachi will abruptly shift his focus and strike down Miss Sakura before your eyes, giving you the perfect opening you need to end his life at last…"
"ITACHIII!" Sasuke roared, as his brother flickered past him towards Sakura's defenceless back…