To Be Myself

His recollections of childhood finished, Kabuto tells the two brothers that once he absorbed Orochimaru's DNA he never stopped grafting new traits onto himself. His resurrected pawns are proof of that power, and he refuses to let Itachi stand in his way. Itachi dismisses his reasoning, but Kabuto only presses the attack. Sakon rises from the snake at Kabuto's navel and uses Attack of the Twin Demons to become Jirōbō, who parts the ring of fire the Uchiha had raised around themselves with Earth Release: Earth Shore Return.

Allowing no pause, Kabuto summons Kidōmaru, whose Spider Web Unrolling snares the brothers until they burn the uncuttable strands away with Amaterasu. Kimimaro comes next, sealing off their rear with Dance of the Seedling Fern while a fresh web blocks the front, boxing them in. Once they slip free, Kabuto calls on Tayuya, whose Demonic Flute: Phantom Sound Chains wraps them in an auditory genjutsu that leaves them helpless. Finally he raises Orochimaru, who shifts into his white serpent form and lunges at them. The brothers break the illusion by casting genjutsu on one another and drive the snake back, only for Kabuto to burst from its mouth in a surprise strike, cutting Itachi in two with a chakra scalpel and declaring that a gifted man who has always had everything could never grasp his search for his true self.

Kabuto sends his reanimated Sound Four against Itachi and Sasuke in sequence, using Jirōbō, Kidōmaru, Kimimaro, and Tayuya to trap and disable them. He then summons Orochimaru in serpent form, and the brothers escape by casting genjutsu on each other. Kabuto ambushes them from the snake's mouth and bisects Itachi.

The chapter is part of the Fourth Shinobi World War: Climax arc and was collected in the sixty-first volume. Its Viz title is I am Me, and it went on sale in Japan on May 28, 2012.