Izanami's Activation

As his body knits itself back together, Itachi calls to Sasuke just as Kabuto reaches to plant a talisman meant to seize control of Itachi's thoughts. Sasuke answers by flinging his blade, which Kabuto snags with the serpent at his midsection while twisting away from Susanoo's reaching hand.

Sasuke follows with a fireball, and Kabuto answers with a surging wall of water that knocks him off balance. Amid the resulting mist, Kabuto realizes the Itachi he had run through has scattered into a swarm of crows, and the real one strikes at him with the very sword he had stolen. Kabuto mocks the repeated tactic, the same trick that once cost him his horn, yet Itachi calmly insists that nothing can wound him and that the genjutsu Kabuto denies is already in effect.

The whole clash then plays out again, and again, no matter how Kabuto alters his choices. A creeping sense of having lived the moment before takes hold. Only then does it become clear that the fight never left Kabuto's own mind, for he has been ensnared the entire time within the Izanami.

Itachi survives Kabuto's attempt to rewrite his mind and turns the confrontation into a looping illusion. He denies that he can be harmed and confirms the genjutsu has already taken hold.

The repeating cycle produces a growing feeling of deja vu in Kabuto, and the chapter closes by disclosing that he is trapped inside the Izanami.

The chapter belongs to the Fourth Shinobi World War: Climax arc and was collected in volume 61. Its title names the counterpart technique to Izanagi, one designed to force acceptance of fate rather than deny it.