Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-26636534-20180830184727/@comment-34194151-20180911044706

@Ninja of War

Yeah I know what you mean. When I say barrage, I of course mean that itachi will do it meticulously and carefully. He is always using misdirection/feints when he fights, he isn't a spammer, each attack optimizes the next attack. He quickly weaved the signs for two ninjutsu in his robe but he uses shuriken to cover his tracks, and an inexperienced enemy would just focus on the shuriken. But he knew kakashi wasn't inexperienced, so he waited to see how kakashi would defend himself. Kakashi being smart, chose a 360 degree wall to cover all angles, since he didn't know exactly was coming, but even that was a diversion, to lead kakashi into exploding shadow clone. If kakashi wasn't an expert clone feinter himself, and wasn't smart enough to try to steal back control of the fight by sneaking his real self under water and distracting itachi with a water clone, he would have died there. But that plan failed due to itachi's continued assault, and he was tipped off that the real kakashi was underwater. he then chained a substiution jutsu it seems. and then detonated the clone. But my other point here is that notice that while itachi was strictly fighting kakashi "1v1 here", itachi didn't ignore kurenai, he had things setup so that if she interfered, she would die as well or be injured by his attack. And he didn't worry about asuma because kisame had him covered. so even with multiple opponents, he is always scheming and using creativity to lure them into traps, and he seems to utilize clones/subsitution to that effect pretty well

So in a 3v1 fight, I think itachi's best course of action, if we were to restrict genjutsu for a second, would be to line up orochimaru and his edo tensei summons like the planets, as that's his quickest way to win without wasting stamina. He would meticulously try to overlay his attacks such that they are forced to line up in a straight line, then run them through with the totsuka blade. He likes to end the fight before it begins, no doubt, but even he realizes that that ins't always possible. Genjutsu is typically how he does it, but in this case genjutsu is not as effective. Plus, this is a fair battle and itachi's opponents should be smart enough to not willingly look in his eyes, so there is that lol. His best tactic with the genjutsu though could be tsukuyomi though, because he is smart enough to know that regular genjutsu would just be released by partner method, and he would have to use that as a feint. He can use 3 tsuykuyomi as per canon before experiencing significant eye effects to the point that he should deactivate his sharingan. He could easily achieve this with the grand fireball technique, and when used by his 30 percent version, it caused a fairly big smokescreen. Once the smoke screen clears, he is probably clever enough to catch one of them off guard with it, since I don't think any of them are sensor types. I personally think he would aim for orochimaru, because i don't know how tsyukyomi interacts with edo tensei. He can also use the cheaper crow clones as diversions, as even those clones were capable of casting genjutsu and ninjutsu, and when they dissipate they further distract the enemy by turning into a flock of crows.

So once the smokescreen comes up, I see him making two crow clones plus himself and using strategic positioning and manuevers to gain the advantage, trying to catch oro in tsyukyomi, crow clones divert kimiaro and konan's attention while he flanks them. susano'o can block any last ditch effort attack they try to use as well. If he is successful his crow clones should buy enough time for him to blitz them with totsuka blade. those same crow clones/crow subsitutions were capable of distracting a perfect sage in kabuto yakushi. If anything he could probably use amaterasu on one of them, because idk that konan or kimimaro has the speed feats to avoid it and while one is distracted by that, use totsuka on the other, then come back to finish the job. I think this is doable, because itachi should be faster than each of these shinobi individually too. Let me know what you think. I currently feel like itachi simply has better speed, reflexes, hax, and combat intelligence then these 3, though the victory will be very chakra taxing for him, so i say it's a high difficulty fight.

Edit: forgot to include how orochimaru would react. I think he would keep his distance. to minimize the chance of seeing itachi's eyes. the edo tensei would keep themselves close to him, in order to user partner method more effectively and they would play mid-range to stop. Kimimiaro can do this with his bone attacks, as they are ranged and also can exploit the weakness of susano'o by attacking from underground. Konan could follow up this attack with her own paper shurikens. Orochimaru could use his own elemental ninjutsu and snake ninjutsu as well, all effective LOS blockers to avoid eye contact. I think it's their best option to stay close and move as a group if they need to. Their best chance is to use their techniques in unison, and pressure itachi to move around and maintain susano'o and outlast him basically. If orochimaru can use everything Sage mode kabuto could, then itachi would simply focus more on his ninjutsu tactics, which I think people sleep on. Itachi only struggled with SM kabuto because he couldn't go for the kill, so the only jutsu he could use was izanami. Orochimaru has intel on izanami, so he would realize it when itachi is baiting him into using the same moves over and over, but it doesn't mean he has an answer to itachi's combo's + totuska blade.