Itachi faced the unmoving Kabuto. "Now, I will stop the Endo Tensei."

Before he could cast the genjutsu to do the trick, though, Sasuke interrupted by settling on hand on his shoulder. "Wait, before you do that, can we back up a bit?"

Itachi looked at his brother, face ever expressionless. "Sasuke, I need to end the jutsu that is responsible for swarming the shinobi world with the ilk of the dead and turn the tide of the war. Preferably before it's too late."

Sasuke nodded, but didn't take his hand away. "I know that. I also know that if you end the jutsu your soul would go back to wherever it went after you died, and while I don't want that to happen, this won't be the first time you've decided to ignore my wishes."

Itachi closed his eyes. "I'm sorry, Sasuke. But I am a dead man walking. Nothing will ever change that fact."

Sasuke gritted his teeth. "I don't like it, and I don't think I'll get over your death any better than I got over the death of the rest our clan. But that's not what I wanted to talk about. I had questions about Izanagi and Izanami I hope you could answer for me."

Itachi almost looked curious for a moment. "I believe I explained all of that to you just minutes ago. I thought you were a genius, Sasuke."

Sasuke huffed. "You may say you're not perfect, even though you are, but I'm definitely a genius. I'm as smart as Naruto is dumb."

Itachi almost sighed. "For the last time, Sasuke, I'm not perfect. I'm as flawed as any man or jutsu. Now what did you want to ask about Izanagi and Izanami?"

"Well," Sasuke began, "I've fought Danzo head on and witnessed the effects of Izanagi firsthand. I can definitely see why it's boasted as the strongest eye technique of the Uchiha clan, with its ability to blur the boundaries between reality and illusions, but I don't see how that would lead to an abuse of the technique that will require the invention of Izanami."

Itachi blinked. "How could you not? Izanagi allows the caster to rewrite reality. If left unchecked, the whole concept of reality will be thrown into chaos. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Sasuke nodded. "I get that. What I don't get is how any one person could do so. Bring chaos to reality and whatnot. From what I've seen from Danzo, he used Izanagi to avoid fatal wounds in battle until he ran out of Sharingan. The effect was also localized to himself, the caster. And all he really did was just that, avoiding fatal attacks. Izanagi just doesn't sound that useful if you can only use it to avoid being severely injured."

"Shouldn't the ability to avoid death blows be considered useful?" Itachi asked.

"Maybe if you're an incompetent moron," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes. "I never had to reset because I always had a brilliant way out any dicey situations and you apparently never needed to resort to it either since none of your eyes were blind."

Itachi nodded. "I suppose that's true."

"So setting aside Izanagi's questionable effectiveness, unless the Uchiha clan in the past did something similar to what Danzo did and grafted dozens of Sharingan into their clansmen's arms as spares, the average Uchiha could only use Izanagi twice at the most. Unless there were mutant Uchihas born with three eyes or something."

Itachi shook his head. "I don't think the clan history mentioned anything like that."

"About the Sharingan grafting or the three eyes?"

Itachi seemed to be in thought for a long moment. "Both, I think. I could be wrong, though. It would just be like the clan to bury that kind of potentially scandalous information."

Sasuke blinked. "Why? For an Uchiha, having three Sharingan would be very convenient, wouldn't it?"

"I was talking of the implanting of Sharingan," Itachi said, deciding to stop the tangent.

"Again, why? Danzo couldn't have been the first person in history to have thought up that tactic. Didn't they already have the practice of transferring kekkei genkai? And if like you said there were Uchihas who incessantly used Izanagi then there must've been someone who had stockpiles of Sharingan collections at their disposal."

"Then perhaps that was what happened," Itachi said neutrally, hoping to end the conversation so he could get back to his task.

"But wouldn't a serial Sharingan-napper be hunted down quickly? Or was it a collaborated effort? Did the Uchiha clan actually have a program where they kept every clansmen's Sharingan like ammunition?"

"As I've said, it's definitely possible. But the truths of these matters are likely eternally lost to history," Itachi said.

Sasuke frowned. "You're not even trying to answer properly."

"I'm answering to the best of my knowledge, Sasuke," Itachi replied. "But you're now speculating on 'perhaps' and 'what if's' that have no discernible way to be proven or disproven."

"I suppose," Sasuke conceded.

Itachi turned around, thinking it was over, and almost sighed when Sasuke spoke up again.

"But how is Izanami the counter to Izanagi? It doesn't seem be tailored specifically on someone using Izanagi."

Itachi almost sighed. "And why is that, Sasuke?"

"I can see that Izanami is a powerful genjutsu," Sasuke began, nodding. "With its use of all of the opponent's body senses instead of just sight as the casting target, like with Kabuto, it can render ridiculously creepy and strong enemies useless. Be that as it may, though, having the intention of leaving an out for the victim doesn't seem like a good idea."

"That's because the intention is not to seal away the targets forever but to make them accept their fate. To remind them to accept the truths of themselves and the consequences of their own actions instead of cowering behind a jutsu," Itachi explained.

"So, basically," Sasuke began slowly, "Izanami solves existential crisis at the cost of the caster's eyesight. That hardly sounds sensible."

"I think the loss of an eye was an unintended side effect of the jutsu rather than an intentional development," Itachi replied flatly.

"That's just it," Sasuke groused, "it's still just a genjutsu, and arguably weaker than Tsukinomi. I know that since doujutsu doesn't work on someone who also uses eye genjutsu, Izanami can become necessary, but how does the jutsu mechanically alter the victim's mindset? How do you go about setting the fate that the opponent is supposed to accept? Do you have to understand their background, hopes, fears and dreams? Or does the jutsu somehow determine that by itself?"

"Izanami is still a genjutsu," Itachi replied, "and the illusion is determined by the caster by creating the loop through the body senses as I explained earlier. But understanding the opponent helps."

"How would you know?" Sasuke asked, curious. "You couldn't have used this technique before, since you still had use of both your eyes when we fought. This has to be your first time using Izanami."

Itachi shrugged. "You were the one who said I'm perfect."

"Yeah, but…" Sasuke trailed off, looking dizzy. "I feel like I'm going through a loop somehow."

Itachi placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "That's because you're thinking in circles. It's similar to the intention behind Izanami itself. You can only move forward if you accept what you know and see before you," he explained sagely, but secretly hoped Sasuke had thought himself into a headache and was finally willing to drop the questions.

Sasuke nodded slowly, seemingly to grudgingly agree. "At least I can see why Madara saw no point in bringing up either Izanagi or Izanami because of the drawbacks."

Itachi blinked. "I believe Madara is dead, Sasuke. You must be speaking of the masked imposter."

Sasuke frowned. "You're still keeping information from me. If he's not Madara, then who is he?"

"Even I don't know that man's true identity. The only thing I know for certain is that he is a threat veiled by lies."

Sasuke scoffed. "A man who started a war with multiple nations? Perish the thought."

"His entire existence is built on lies, Sasuke," Itachi said. "Whatever he has told you should be critically suspect."

"Like you're any better," Sasuke countered. "You've lied to me your whole life. And mine."

Itachi nodded. "So you can see how a life built on lies can break down and still continue to hurt those important to you, even long after the consequences of death. I only managed to break from that loop in death, don't make the same mistakes I have. I also hope you're not constantly asking questions just to delay me from ending the jutsu."

"I'm not," Sasuke countered, but his expression said otherwise. Despite his often aloofness, the Uchiha had always been rather easy to read when emotional.

Itachi let his hand drop from Sasuke's shoulder, the hint of a smile on his face. "If you say so, little brother."

Sasuke remained silent at that for a long moment. "Hey, Nii-san, can you teach me how to use Izanami?"

Itachi's brow furrowed at about a thousandth of a millimeter. "Ignoring the fact that we don't have time, why would you want to learn Izanami? You yourself argued that it's a kinjutsu that is only marginally useful in very selective situations with barely any practical battle applications because of the drawbacks."

Sasuke crossed his arms. "I was hoping to be able to use it on Naruto."

Itachi stared. "I would really prefer it if you don't do something as foolish as losing an eye for nothing."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "What does that mean?"

"I mean knowing Naruto-kun, even peripherally, he would likely be able to break out of the loop with not much difficulty."

Sasuke snorted. "Misplaced faith much?"

Itachi shook his head. "Well placed."

"Whatever," Sasuke dismissed, frowning. "I'm actually counting on Naruto to break out of the loop from Izanami. As I see it, Izanami is basically the Uchiha version of Naruto's powers of friendship, which makes it much more effective and impressive. When I trap that idiot in Izanami, I'll make it so that the only way he'd be free of the time loop is by accepting the fact that I detest his presence and no longer want him dogging after my every step. I would be free of that dunce and his stupid friendship speeches forever."

"And that's worth being half-blind?" Itachi asked flatly.

There wasn't even a sign of hesitation. "Yes."

Itachi shook his head. "Sasuke. Just because I've decided to let you choose your own path and not treat you like a child and poke you on the forehead anymore, doesn't mean I'm going to help you lose the last vestige of your connections to someone who is still alive any more than I will help you destroy Konoha."

Sasuke crossed his arms. "Fine. Not that I'm deterred in the slightest. I'm still going to defeat Naruto and destroy Konoha for my own reasons."

Itachi decided to remain silent. It wasn't what he wanted to hear at all but there were more pressing matters that required his immediate attention.

Sasuke stepped back, expression sullen.

Itachi faced the unmoving Kabuto. "Now, I will stop the Endo Tensei."

Aaaand read again from the top. Get it?

Written in an admittedly poor imitation to the style of Sarah1281, who, sadly, hasn't written any quirky Naruto fics lately.

I feel like Neji would particularly dislike Izanami.

What really gets me is that it's very weird Itachi would know how to use Izanami. By that I mean it's obvious he's never used the technique once at all before chapter 587, as none of his eyes were blind before that, but he's still able to use a jutsu he obviously never practiced on. I mean, it could just be because he's an awesome genius but still.

Feel free to leave a review, or reproachfully correct me on the subject of Izanagi or Izanami or something. Because I really don't get it. I'd like to see those two Sharinhax techniques be made sense of. Then again, it's probably not that important.