I don't mind Sakura and Kakashi having the spotlight as much as I minded Sasuke having the spotlight.

 

the only reason i hate Sasuke is that every damn important thing in the Narutoverse is somehow connect to him and his retarded clan. to me, it just seems like a lack of creativity.

 

I'd honestly prefer it if he'd just do a Pein gaiden arc, like what he did with Kakashi. Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi are boring as all hell, the Amegakure civil war on the other hand actually sounds very interesting....and Pein needs more characterization than the uber wtf ownage guy. Somehow Pein reminds me a bit of Kane of C&C with the whole peace through power thing going on

Either that or you know...actually trying to make Naruto an interesting character. (He aint) Just a bit of trivia, spellcheck wanted me to change Amegakure into Megabucks, Sakura's into Sera's and Tsunade into Seranade's

 

...I think I just died a little bit inside.

 

I think the idea of a heart attack comes from the image of Itachi clutching his chest (or heart) on page 4. There is no mention of a heart attack but he does seem to collapse just shortly after, which I suppose might have been a result of his heart giving out.

The issue with Itachi's failing eyes seems to be more than just the mere lose of his sight but also an immense level of strain on his body. In the flashback of Madara, his affliction also seemed to be more than just the lose of his sight, he appeared to be in pain and bedridden when he took his brothers eyes. My guess is that attempting to use the Mangekyou as the eyes grow weaker causes an incredible amount of strain on the body. To me, this fight made that fairly obvious, Itachi was not just loosing his sight, each time he used a new eye power he started to bleed, a symptom that grew increasingly worse with each use. I would assume that had his eyes been in their prime there would be little to no after effects but as his eyes began to grow weaker with continued use the after affects went from slight fatigue to profuse bleeding.

I was disappointed by Itachi's side of the fight, I share the general complaint that basically all he used was the sharingan but I do think that his weakened state may have had a lot to do with that. This is my interpretation of what prompted the fight to take the direction it did. Early on Itachi seemed to be toying with or testing Sasuke, until he activated the Mangekyou he didn't seem to be taking the fight seriously at all. When he did activate it he seemed totally confident that the Mangekyou would end the battle quickly. It almost seemed like he used it largely to drive home the point of just how powerful it was, almost just to show that with the Mangekyou alone he could win easily. Itachi probably intended to end the fight with Tsukiyomi but after Sasuke broke it the adverse affects were perhaps worse than what he had anticipated and Sasuke made good use of that lapse by attacking full force allowing him to wound Itachi. His attack also served to force Itachi to use Amaterasu twice when he probably only intended to use it once. This seems to be made evident when Sasuke comments that the second Amaterasu took a lot out of him. Sasuke's sudden attack also brought the fight to the roof, which seems to have been key in allowing Sasuke to avoid Amaterasu. Still Itachi had seen that Sasuke's chakra was low and thus while hurt still remained confident in victory, still having a fair amount of power left to use his ultimate technique if needed. At the same time he likely guessed he wouldn't even need it considering Sasuke's lack of chakra. Then came Kirin, half the brilliance of Kirin was not so much its power or indirectness but the fact that it fooled Itachi into believing Sasuke was out of power. Thus Itachi was forced to use Susanoo, a move he probably guessed he wouldn't need, depleting his eye sight. Yet still it offered him the power to end the battle easily. He acknowledges Sasuke's power here, seemingly surprised that he needed to use his final technique. When Orochimaru appeared Itachi was able to defeat him with ease but with his eyes depleted that level of exertion took full effect on his body.

In short, my guess is that Itachi only used the Mangekyou, not because that was all he had but because it is all he thought he would need. He was correct in this deduction, even with all Sasuke's clever tactics, the surprise attack Kirin, and Orochimaru's appearance, Itachi had the battle wrapped up. His mistake was underestimating the toll the Mangekyou would have on his body. The fight could have certainly been more interesting but I feel there are still loose ends but this is the closest I can get to justifying why it went down the way it did.

 

^TL;DR: Kishi couldn't think of a way for Sasuke to win. (I like the theory, it's probably the most thought that's been put into this fight by anyone so far. Just wanted to say that. )

 

Good theory, but I am still holding out hope that there is something more going on that we don't know about. It would be beyond disappointing if this is how the fight ends.

 

Yeah, great theory. And I agree with you Mr. Spanker. I think more's going to happen with Sasuke and Itachi.

 

Guess: And suddenly, everything fades and it's revealed it was all Genjutsu!

 

That thought also occured to me! I was thinking how fucked up it would be if this whole time Itachi is still sitting in his chair and Sasuke has been fighting one of those 30% clones that Pain can make.

 

damn, Itachi must have alot of chakra if that's a 30% clone.

anyway, liked the theory. seems sound and valid. we'll just have to wait till Kakashi starts showing those symptoms to confirm your theory.

 

::sigh:: just looked at the raw.

Spoiler

Looks like the fight is done. It's bullshit, Kishi dropped the ball big time in this one. I seriously think this is the second worst fight in the manga, right behind Naruto vs Kakuzu.

So...Sasuke can't beat Itachi so let's just have Itachi die from heart failure!? Would it have been so hard to just have Sasuke win the old fashion way? At least we would have gotten a decent ending to the fight. Instead it looks like we are getting the cheesy "last loving brotherly words before I die" speech

 

looks like Kishi is pandering to his inner Uchiha by trying to redeem Itachi. man, i'm so disappointed...

Edit: where's PI at? i wanna tell him "I told you so".

 

Where the hell did you even get that idea?

 

Spanker's spoiler: "last loving brotherly words before I die"

 

My spoiler was pure conjecture. I was only looking at the pictures of the raw, but from what it looks like Itachi gives some kind of speech and then Sasuke smiles and falls over exhausted.

 

even if it is pure speculation, i can imagine Kishi trying to end Itachi's life on a good note.

 

Itachi is beyond redemption.

 

He may be, but like i said, Kishi will pander to his inner Uchiha.

 

I'm still wondering what was with the snake that keeps moving around from last chapter. I am hoping that is Orochimaru or something connected to him.