Yamato's eyes immediately shut as he sensed the world through the yang nature chakra of the forest around him. Making full use of the chakra he had already pumped into the trees around them to paint a full picture even with his eyes closed.
And while he wasn't as proficient in observing the world this way since anyone not touching any plants would be outside his radar, he trusted himself to be able to extrapolate such things.
And so, without even waiting for Darui to launch an offensive, Yamato began his attack. And his attack had remained the same as in the genjutsu since it was the most efficient means of weaponising this situation.
He released Killer B while managing to seal his conscious self temporarily inside himself using the wood in the Castle Of Gluttony that had been prescribed with seals to forcibly throw the Eight Tails out on a rampage.
Darui, caught between a rock and a hard place, trying to figure out if he should save Killer B first and run away or just join Yamato in attacking their intruders, stayed in the background for a few seconds longer.
'Who even are they? That guy is using a Sharingan and yet Konoha is treating him like an enemy? And that other guy, that's one of the seven swords of the Mist, Samehada, is it not?'
'Rogue shinobi?'
As the pieces fell in together, Darui's mind picked up on an old but buried piece of intel that he had brushed over in the Raikage's office a while back.
'Akatsuki?'
'Itachi Uchiha and Hoshigaki Kisame?'
'What are they doing here?'
'What's their purpose?'
'Are they here to pick off bounties for the Underground market? Or perhaps to act on a special hit order?'
While Darui was thinking things through and leaving Yamato to take the lead, Sasuke had broken out of his shock.
He'd fallen into one when he'd spotted Itachi arrive on the battlefield along with Kisame. His three tomoe sharingan flashed with pain, transforming into something deeper for a second before Sasuke snapped out of his suppressed memories that surfaced and began to drown out everything else.
Sasuke's grip on the kunai in his pouch tightened as he gazed intensely at Itachi. His ferocious gaze, filled to the brim with hatred felt almost powerful enough to distort the world around it, causing Sakura who was right beside him to feel worried.
Sakura raised her hand to reach out, but before she could speak, Sasuke rushed over. His legs moved with a burst of chakra, flying over as he used the body flicker jutsu to rush towards his one single target.
Sasuke's mind blended with the edge of instinct his body provided, flickering soundlessly across branches that he could see Itachi from while remaining fully camouflaged. Completely blending into his surroundings like a predator watching its prey.
His breathing lightened, matching the rhythm of his heart beating as his eyes widened in glaring focus. Several battle plans flashed through his mind, the tomoe of his eyes spinning as he took the final step undercover before settling on a single plan that was going to help him get to his target.
Taking a final deep breath in, Sasuke exhaled forcefully before exploding towards Itachi in a flash of light that tore in from the part of the canopy exposing the sky, flying through the air as he dashed towards the conduit of his hatred.
A kunai rushed from top as Sasuke swung his hand downwards, aiming directly at Itachi's head.
There seemed absolutely no way Itachi was going to dodge it. He hadn't detected Sasuke yet and he still seemed to be focused on Yamato and the Eight Tailed Jinchuriki that had just been unleashed. After all, not even Itachi was above death, and handling what were possibly two kage level threats wasn't easy for him.
Plus Sasuke had improved a ton since Tachibana had joined his team. Although he'd lost one of his sharingan, and gotten Kakashi's as a replacement, it only further proved of the difficulties and hardships he had been through this time round that he had never braved when he was under Kakashi.
The world had changed.
And it seemed Itachi had been caught off guard.
Except, things weren't so simple.
Without even looking, Itachi's hands moved to block Sasuke's first strike. Sasuke already had a plan if that happened however so he shifted to a head kick, aiming to at least disfigure Itachi with a heel slam into his nose, but Itachi blocked that too, rather easily by simply catching his shin, all without looking.
Sasuke tried a hundred more strikes that all took place in only a few seconds, each holding the full force of his frustration, his hatred, his skill and merit that he had accumulated through all his life risking missions.
Yet none of it seemed to work.
Not even Kisame paid any attention to Sasuke.
Having had enough of the distraction as the tailed beast looked to be gearing up to produce a tailed beast bomb, Itachi finally grabbed Sasuke by his neck, holding him in the air with a single hand as he studied the rest of the battlefield.
His eyes shifted from the tailed beast and Yamato to Shizune and Sakura that had just appeared before shifting once again to Darui who too seemed to have come up with a plan of his own.
Everyone seemed to have frozen in place as they looked at Sasuke who was hanging in Itachi's grasp.
Itachi too finally turned to address the fly that had been annoying him for a while now. He turned to look at Sasuke.
Itachi's calm, rational and simple three tomoe sharingan turned to meet Sasuke's frantic, hopeless, and hatred filled three tomoe sharingan.
They stared at each other for a few seconds before Itachi spat out, "Pathetic."
Not everyone knew the relation between Itachi and Sasuke, for example Shizune and Sakura, but both at this moment more or less guessed the truth, with Sakura suddenly remembering what Sasuke had told them all during his team introduction on the rooftop long ago while they were under Kakashi.
And so everyone expected Sasuke to feel broken. To feel absolutely defeated in that moment. To feel shattered beyond doubt, beyond repair and beyond hope.
However, with his back to them as he hung from Itachi's hands, they only heard a strange sound.
"Ke~ Ke~ Ke~."
"Huh?" Sakura shivered, goosebumps appearing on her arm as she found herself realising something strange.
'....that's not Sasuke-kun, is it?'
Itachi and Kisame who were facing Sasuke, got the full view of his madness.
In Itachi's hands was a crazy man. His grin was so wide it nearly split his head. His teeth were so sharp and jagged that they seemed more like a demon's. His eyes so curved in madness that they seemed more like arches than eyes. His sharp forked tongue slipped out of his mouth as it opened loosely before the transformed man began to cackle.
Kisame's hands found Samehada while Itachi involuntarily shuddered as a terrible sense of danger and worry for Sasuke filled his heart.
Yet, the person in Itachi's hands continued to cackle.
Each glottal utterance only increased in pitch and harshness as by the end Sasuke's entire body was shuddering in what felt like fanatic high joy.
"KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKKEKEKEKEK~~~!!!!!!!!"
Itachi's grip on Sasuke's neck tightened involuntarily but Sasuke didn't stop, instead the sounds only intensified as if Itachi wasn't even choking him.
"KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKKEKEKEKEKEKEKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Who…are you?" Itachi finally managed to speak, not having any hope to be able to communicate with whatever was in his grasp, but the shaking stopped, the cackling stopped and the madness in Sasuke's eyes receded, temporarily.
Only an evilly serene expression remained on his face as if he were up to no good.
There was a soft, uncomfortable pause before Sasuke spoke once again in a cracked, broken and deeper voice than usual.
"Me? I'm just a wandering trader…"
"Trader?" Itachi questioned back, surprised partly at having received a response, and partly because of the man's rather random and strange profession.
Sasuke nodded before speaking calmly.
"I'm here to trade for your eyes."
Itachi's eyes widened for only a moment before transforming into a three pointed pinwheel. Immediately after, Itachi activated his Mangekyo ability, "Tsukuyomi"
Itachi's left eye spun rapidly for a second before it slowed, however instead of a gaze of triumph, Itachi only felt terror.
His Tsukuyomi had failed!!!
The instant he had activated his Tsukuyomi, Itachi had been transported to his genjutsu world where a single second was three whole days, a place where he could physically and mentally torture his target for the whole time while they were tied to a stake and unable to fight back, completely helpless and bound before him by chains that they could never even hope to break.
But tied to the stake this time was not his opponent. No it wasn't even Sasuke. It was a human sized paper figurine.
Seeing Itachi fail for possibly the first time ever, Kisame reacted, albeit a little slower than normal, but the boy in Itachi's hand wasn't going anywhere either way, so it was just fine when Kisame completed a couple of hand seals to use the-
"Water Release : Water Prison Technique"
Itachi released Sasuke and took a step backwards on the branch he was standing on while water rushed out of Kisame's open palms and engulfed Sasuke.
However, for some strange reason, Sasuke's crazed grin only widened further since it seemed he had absolutely no difficulty breathing under water.
Then for some inconceivable reason, Sasuke raised his hand at Kisame's head with his index and thumb open like a finger gun. And then inside the water Sasuke spoke clearly, "Bang!"
The water prison blew apart before a seemingly invisible projectile rushed through the air and smashed into Kisame, causing him to fly off into the distance as Sasuke dropped from the air.
The Eight tails attacked at this moment too, throwing a tailed beast bomb right in Itachi's direction as Sasuke dropped.
Once on the ground, Sasuke turned to look at everyone, showing them all his crazed grin as he slowly turned around and walked away after giving Itachi one last crazed look. His shoulders trembling as he walked away, as if trying to control his cackling and keep it in check.
And within only a few steps, even before the tailed beast bomb landed, Sasuke's figure completely vanished from view as if it were an illusion all along.
BBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!
The eight tails went bombastic once its Tailed Beast bomb closed on Itachi, lashing out with its thick, large and fleshy appendages but no one reacted for a moment or so, even as the Tail Beast Bomb gained ground.
The thing they'd just witnessed was just so bizarre.
No one except Yamato. Having Tachibana in his group he'd already gotten used to the 'supernatural' and while this took the cake among the creepiest moments of his life, he could still recover faster than everyone else because he could sense that Sasuke was safe and sound along with the rest of Team Seven.
And so, Yamato acted on his earlier plan, rushing underground before sending clones out in everyone's direction to take them all with him, all in different directions, but all to Konoha nonetheless.