The End

Zetsu recognizes that the storm clouds gathering overhead were born from the combined heat of Sasuke's Great Dragon Fire and Itachi's undying Amaterasu. Channeling the lightning above through his chakra, Sasuke calls down Kirin to end Itachi and utterly flattens the Uchiha Hideout. Certain he has won, Sasuke instead watches Itachi rise unharmed, shielded by Susanoo, the immense chakra guardian granted only to those with the Mangekyo Sharingan in both eyes. As Itachi advances on the drained Sasuke, the buried remnant of Orochimaru that Sasuke once absorbed seizes control, and the Eight Branches Technique sends eight white snakes bursting from the cursed seal. Orochimaru slides out of one snake's mouth, thanking Itachi for weakening Sasuke enough to let him break loose and relishing another chance to claim his body.

Itachi answers with his Susanoo's Sword of Totsuka, a blade that seals any soul in an eternal genjutsu, beheading seven snakes and trapping Orochimaru for good while stripping away Sasuke's cursed seal. The effort drains him, collapsing his Susanoo to its barest form. Coughing blood, Itachi staggers toward his brother, who cannot move, and after whispering his final words he presses two fingers to Sasuke's forehead before falling dead. Left alone, Sasuke turns his brother's parting words over in his mind, stares at the corpse, and slumps beside it, spent.

Sasuke summons Kirin and destroys the Uchiha Hideout in a bid to kill Itachi. Itachi survives by manifesting his complete Susanoo. The absorbed remnant of Orochimaru breaks free through Sasuke's cursed seal using the Eight Branches Technique. Itachi seals Orochimaru away with the Sword of Totsuka, removing Sasuke's cursed seal but exhausting himself. Itachi pokes Sasuke's forehead, whispers his last words, and dies, leaving Sasuke to collapse beside him.

The episode adapts the manga's 391st through 393rd chapters within the Fated Battle Between Brothers arc. It resolves the long-running duel between the two Uchiha brothers and permanently removes Orochimaru from Sasuke through Itachi's sealing. Itachi's forehead poke echoes a gesture from their childhood, lending his death a quiet weight that lingers over Sasuke.